The CRC has written to the Honourable CRC Beverly J. Oda to express its growing concern about the continuing funding shortfall at the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace and to request the restoration of crucial funding to this vital organisation.
The religious orders of Canada have supported the mission of Development and Peace from its very beginnings, both financially and through the active engagement of our members. We have never had any reason whatsoever to doubt that its projects in collaboration with trusted partners in the South are among the most carefully chosen and adapted to local needs.
It is most unfortunate that this work is now seriously threatened because of the CIDA cuts to Development and Peace over the next five years.
Toronto: The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute invites you to hear Susan Morgan, Community Chaplain with Saint Elizabeth Health Care, speak about “Living Life’s End.” This is a free lecture and all are welcome. It will take place at Carr Hall, 100 St Joseph Street (at Queen’s Park Circle E.) on April 26, 2012, 7 pm.
As one of two Community Chaplains, Susan supports clients, their families and field staff in the Central Service Delivery Centre, York Region. Susan’s formative educational experiences include bereavement education and grief counselling, mindfulness stress reduction training as inspired by the ground-breaking work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, completion of the Contemplative End of Life Care program at the Institute of Traditional Medicine, and a Master’s degree in Divinity.
Susan has had a long-time association with Jean Vanier and L’Arche, an international organization of faith-based communities creating homes and day programs with people who have developmental disabilities. She worked with Jean to create two television series for the Vision television network on the body of his work and the spirituality of L’Arche.
Notre Dame, Ind. — Holy Cross' JusticeCraft, an intensive, weeklong seminar sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Holy Cross International Justice Office, is seeking religious and lay participants who want to develop skills and strategies that enable them to lead and coordinate justice ministries in congregations, in parishes and on college campuses.
Reservations will be accepted through May 11 for this year’s program which runs June 3-10. JusticeCraft hosts participants from around the world, as well as an internationally recognized faculty, at Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame, Ind. To make a reservation, contact Dana Taylor at dtaylor@cscsisters.org.
"Ever since they found out how much the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) agreed to contribute to Development and Peace over the next five years, the members of this international cooperation organization have mobilized to carry out a number of initiatives and activities to express their disappointment."
The One Dollar for One World initiative is one important way for you to add your voice to that of others across the country calling attention to the grave injustice that is being perpetrated against Development and Peace’s partners. An injustice, which is the direct result of changes in CIDA priorities and processes that are premised on the oxymoronic notion that competition is the new road to international cooperation, and about which the Canadian public was never advised or consulted.
You are invited to send a symbolic 1$ to your local MP with a request that the MP assist in having your dollar matched by CIDA and then forwarded to Development and Peace. For a detailed presentation of this initiative with a sample letter and a report form, open this Word document. The material is also available on the Development and Peace blog at: http://devpeacemembers.wordpress.com/take-action/one-dollar-for-one-world/
"The reduction of two-thirds of CIDA's subsidiary will have serious consequences for the poor and marginalized in many countries that we reach through our more than one hundred partners," said Michael Casey, Executive Director of Development and Peace.
Brussels/Toronto, April 2, 2012 (WACC/SIGNIS) - The SIGNIS-WACC Human Rights Award 2011 has been given to VERDADES VERDADERAS (TRUE TRUTHS) a feature film by Argentinean filmmaker Nicolás Gil Lavedra on the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Verdades verdaderas tells the personal story of Estela de Carlotto, whose daughter Laura, arrested by the dictatorship when she was three months pregnant, was murdered after giving birth to her son in prison. The film lets us follow the experience lived by the leading character as she was transformed from a simple mother and housewife into a tireless fighter, the leader of a crusade for the recovery of the children stolen by the military dictatorship.
The Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Canada) has prepared a Payer Model for Lent 2012. The theme of this prayer is: Oppressors and the oppressed… that freedom may finally come! You may download it from the ACAT website at: www.acatcanada.org/prayer_models.htm.
Bishop David Motiuk, left, head of the Edmonton Eparchy, was elected president of the Assembly of Western Catholic BIshops of Canada at its annual meeting in Victoria Feb. 28 - March 2. He replaces Archbishop Daniel Bohan of Regina.
During the meeting a workshop was held on the Permanent Diaconate, and the Committee for Aboriginals held a meeting with Aboriginal elders.
Across the Divide takes viewers to Bethlehem University, the first university established in the West Bank, to meet students, faculty and religious administrators caught in the crossfire of an enduring Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary will premiere this spring. For further information, see press release: http://saltandlighttv.org/press/
The Board of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is pleased to announce that Jennifer Henry has been appointed to be the new Executive Director of KAIROS, effective March 12, 2012. Ms. Henry has worked for KAIROS and its predecessor coalitions for almost 20 years, and currently serves on the staff of KAIROS as the Manager for the Dignity and Rights and Fundraising Teams.
During the seven weeks of Lent 2012, the Ecumenical Water Network invites us to reflect and pray on the Economy of Water. In these times of economic and environmental crisis, there is a fresh urgency for Christians to engage in reflection and action on the “economy of water”. TheSeven Weeks for Water Campaign starts February 20. Biblical reflections on different themes will be published every week on the Ecumenical Water Network website : www.oikoumene.org/activities/ewn-home/resources-and-links/seven-weeks-for-water.html
In a letter to the Minister of Natural Resources, the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC) expresses its express opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline project and to an expansion of the tar sands.
In the twentieth century, aging was considered a footnote in society. In the twenty-first century, aging is the main theme: we are both aging and old, our numbers greater than live births. Most congregations, both monastic and apostolic, with an average age of about 75 years, are part of these demographics.
The buzz anticipating Super Bowl XLVI is already astir, and the commercial sex industry is already poised to import a generous supply of victim-prostitutes to be at the pleasure of countless game-goers in town. Local and federal officials acknowledge that organized prostitution always accompanies major sports events such as the Olympics, the World Cup and the Super Bowl. That's where the big money is.
Canadian religious leaders and interfaith coalitions banded together before the Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, to urge Ottawa to take substantial steps toward a new international agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocols. Almost alone among Canada’s major church and faith bodies, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops refused to sign the “Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change.”
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- The rocky road to Milagros Echevarria's flimsy wooden house is lined with plastic barrels. Several times a week, when a bright blue tank truck rumbles up the hill to fill the barrels, she and her neighbors must lug buckets of water up the steep slope to their homes.
Echevarria has worked since she was 13, mostly cleaning other people's homes. She finished high school and hoped to study accounting, but the birth of her daughter, Lucero, put her plans on hold.
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- The year 2011 was not good for women such as Joan Ochieng. Just about everything was a struggle.
"We were not treated fairly," the Nairobi resident and single mother said of life in 2011, noting the many pressures, including spiraling food prices that caused her and her family of four children and one grandchild to often go to bed hungry. Read the complete story on the Catholic News Service website.
OTTAWA - After a solidarity mission to Haiti Dec. 15-21, Archbishop Richard Smith came away with a deep appreciation of the work Canadian Catholics are funding to help the poor through a range of Caritas partners.
The Catholic Register newspaper honours the 400th anniversary of the Jesuits arrival in Canada with an 18 part special feature. Read the tribute on the Catholic Register website.
The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace believes Canadians may be eating the planet to death, so they’re going to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to nudge the world into a whole new food system.
Next June the United Nations Development Program will host Rio+20, a conference aimed at evaluating progress since the landmark Rio Earth Summit of 1992. Development and Peace is one of several Catholic organizations planning on attending.
OTTAWA - Hundreds of people from across Canada joined indigenous and church leaders June 20 in a colourful march through downtown Ottawa, displaying hand-painted banners urging Ottawa to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Organized by KAIROS, an ecumenical, church-based social justice organization, the marchers called for concrete action to address the poverty and inequality faced by indigenous peoples.
TORONTO (CCN)--Canadian bishops are welcome to advise Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) about overseas partnerships but CCODP members are asserting their right to make final decisions about which organizations are funded. CCODP’s national council passed a unanimous resolution at a June 10 to 12 meeting that essentially reaffirms that funding decisions will be made by the council and its 12,000 strong predominantly lay members.
During their April 26-27 Atlantic JPIC Network meeting, Sister representatives from all four provinces took part in a very helpful and practical workshop on advocacy offered by Olga Gladkikh of the Coady International Institute.
The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, the only religious congregation founded in Kingston, is marking 150 years of service to the poor with a year-long series of events celebrating the congregation’s history.
The CRC Bulletin, Volume 9, no. 2, precedes the upcoming 2012 General Assembly. This issue presents a brief overview of the CRC’s major projects, those that have already been accomplished and others to consider for the future. As Yvon Pomerleau, OP, says in his editorial, “from the articles in this issue, it looks like there are several areas of reflection and action for religious life in our Church at the heart of today’s society, in which the CRC is present”.
The Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Canada) has prepared a Payer Model for Lent 2012. The theme of this prayer is: Oppressors and the oppressed… that freedom may finally come! You may download it from the ACAT website at: .jpg)
Bishop David Motiuk, left, head of the Edmonton Eparchy, was elected president of the Assembly of Western Catholic BIshops of Canada at its annual meeting in Victoria Feb. 28 - March 2. He replaces Archbishop Daniel Bohan of Regina.
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The Catholic Register newspaper honours the 400th anniversary of the Jesuits arrival in Canada with an 18 part special feature. Read the tribute on the
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OTTAWA - Hundreds of people from across Canada joined indigenous and church leaders June 20 in a colourful march through downtown Ottawa, displaying hand-painted banners urging Ottawa to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Organized by KAIROS, an ecumenical, church-based social justice organization, the marchers called for concrete action to address the poverty and inequality faced by indigenous peoples.
TORONTO (CCN)--Canadian bishops are welcome to advise Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) about overseas partnerships but CCODP members are asserting their right to make final decisions about which organizations are funded. CCODP’s national council passed a unanimous resolution at a June 10 to 12 meeting that essentially reaffirms that funding decisions will be made by the council and its 12,000 strong predominantly lay members.
During their April 26-27 Atlantic JPIC Network meeting, Sister representatives from all four provinces took part in a very helpful and practical workshop on advocacy offered by Olga Gladkikh of the Coady International Institute.
The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, the only religious congregation founded in Kingston, is marking 150 years of service to the poor with a year-long series of events celebrating the congregation’s history.
