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the

Common Good

 

Secular Franciscan JPIC Monthly Newsletter
for Franciscan Voice Canada

 


Issue No 33,  March 2020
A Time for Reconciliation
 
Land and People
The confusion:
Confrontations over Wet’suet’en
and Coastal GasLink pipeline
by Andrew Conradi, ofs (OFS JPIC and GCCM Laudato Si’Animator)
Are you confused? Not sure what’s going on? Fed up with blockades? Want to know a bit of background to better understand it all? Wonder what questions are raised by this conflict? Is this related to climate change and hearing the cry of the earth and cry of the poor? If there is a Canadian Catholic position on this, what is it?

Franciscan Voice Canada & the Common Good will try to help clarify these issues!
Photo ​https://twitter.com/jwints     
      
At first sight, actions by and in support of the Wet'suwet'en land defenders are about a pipeline and natural gas. However, the problems are much broader and deeper than that...

Three major questions come to mind:
1. Sovereignty. Since these lands are unconquered and unceded by treaty who has sovereignty and whose law prevails?
2. Delay in the resolution of aboriginal title and rights. Why have these questions not been answered before?
(N.B: The answers are complicated but we have tried to simplified the answers here)
3. What is the Church’s position?

       ....UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT THIS DIFFICULT CANADIAN ISSUE 
 
From Gospel to Life
 
"Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them."     
Ps 111. 2 (NRSV)

Which might have been why Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ said:
"Research is the highest form of adoration." 



Personal Discernment for Justice Peace &
Integrity of Creation

See the installment in Margaret's Blog where she explores taking the personal step to JPIC making it a part of her Spiritual and active life.

I live in the beautiful province of British Columbia. I thank God every day for this precious land and especially for my home on this land overlooking the mighty Fraser River and the magnificent Coast Mountain Range.   


Filled with gratitude, I am still aware and do understand that my choices, in my comfortable home, in my thriving city, in the beautiful province of British Columbia can affect the lives of those around the world. We are all part of God’s creation and are so intricately connected...                        Read her latest Blog
     The Rule and GC
 
Following the example of Francis, patron of ecologists, they should actively put forward initiatives that care for creation and should work with others in efforts that both put a stop to polluting and degrading nature and also establish circumstances of living and environment which would not be a threat to the human person. - GC18.4

   
   

National JPIC Communiqué JPIC
Calling Canadian Secular Franciscans to help
Your National JPIC Committee is calling on all Secular Franciscans across Canada to join in on this life-saving initiative, "Well4Africa", that saves lives in African communities who can only dream of having clean water the essential gift of creation.
To get a sense of the appreciation and importance of having access to safe drinkable water for a community who never have this basic human right, watch this video.
                Read 3 Stories That Will Forever Change the Way You Look at Water
 
Learn more about "Well4Africa"

Learn more Download the February National JPIC Communique (pdf)

and expect more information in the near future

Laudato Si'

165. We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay.
Pope Francis: “I believe that the central issue is how to reconcile the right to development, both social and cultural, with the protection of the particular characteristics of indigenous peoples and their territories.
  This is especially clear when planning economic activities which may interfere with indigenous cultures and their ancestral relationship to the earth. In this regard, the right to prior and informed consent should always prevail, as foreseen in Article 32 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only then is it possible to guarantee peaceful cooperation between governing authorities and indigenous peoples, overcoming confrontation and conflict.”

       - (Third Forum,  International Fund for Agricultural Development, 15 Feb 2017)
Laudato Si' Week 16-24 May 2020
A message from Global Catholic Climate Movement
Pope Francis invites you to celebrate the #LaudatoSi5 Anniversary! Join thousands of Catholics around the world and unite to protect our common home. Together, through action and faith, we can solve the ecological crisis. Learn more at www.laudatosiweek.org

In the five years since the encyclical was published, thousands of parishes, schools, universities, and religious communities have been illuminated by prayerful action for our common home.

While we celebrate the actions of the past five years, it’s also important to accelerate our actions for the years ahead. Seas are rising, lands are burning, and the next generation looks to us for hope.

Your community offers hope to the world. Respond to the call of Pope Francis. Choose the Laudato Si’ Week action that’s best for you. We’ll be in touch with next steps.

Laudato Si’ Week takes place 16-24 May. Your community is warmly encouraged to start planning now to complete your action in May.      CHOOSE AN ACTION


Become a Laudato Si' Animator, online classes starting Mar 23 to Apr 13 

NASA images show a decrease in China's pollution

             The satellite images have detected significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide over China.

(CNN)Satellite images released by NASA and the European Space Agency reveal that air pollution over China has gone down since the coronavirus outbreak.

Production in many factories has been halted and transportation has been restricted to prevent spreading the virus....READ MORE
 
This is an amazing change showing that there is hope! 
Mother Earth will help us if we only give her a chanceFVC
 
Way of the Cross 
for Lent
The Way of the Cross invites us to reflect on the crisis in the Amazon in the light of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, and to hear the cry of the forest and of the Indigenous and traditional communities protecting it.                DOWNLOAD PowerPoint File
 
 Book Suggestion
of the month
 
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal

            

Undoing the familiar notion of the Middle Ages as a period of religious persecution and intellectual stagnation, María Menocal now brings us a portrait of a medieval culture where literature, science, and tolerance flourished for 500 years. The story begins as a young prince in exile—the last heir to an Islamic dynasty—founds a new kingdom on the Iberian peninsula: al-Andalus. Combining the best of what Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures had to offer, al-Andalus and its successors influenced the rest of Europe in dramatic ways, from the death of liturgical Latin and the spread of secular poetry to remarkable feats in architecture, science, and technology. The glory of the Andalusian kingdoms endured until the Renaissance, when Christian monarchs forcibly converted, executed, or expelled non-Catholics from Spain. In this wonderful book, we can finally explore the lost history whose legacy is still with us in countless ways.

Muslims had come, in the shape of Arabs and Berbers in 711 when they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar. Quickly they established control over much of the Iberian peninsula. By 719, they had attacked as far north as Toulouse. They were only turned back from central France in 732 at the battle variously associated with Tours or Poitiers, a battle which was seen by Christian Europe as halting the Muslim advance, but was perceived by Arab sources as a minor skirmish.
Click on photo to see video and learn more
Pope's Prayer for March
 
Catholics in China
We pray that the Church in China may persevere in its faithfulness to the Gospel and grow in unity.
We pray that the Church in China may persevere in its faithfulness to the Gospel
and grow in unity.
Reflection: China is the largest country by population in the world with 1.4 billion people. The percentage of Catholics is less than 0.1%. Living under strict restriction with little religious freedom, however, the Catholic community has shown incredible perseverance and vitality, who tried their best to keep communion with the universal Church by suffering all difficulties and persecutions. During the Easter of 2018, there were about 4,800 baptized. Young Catholics in China seek all means to deepen their faith and are actively present in the Church.
Important dates on the JPIC calendar:
+ March 22 - World Water Day (Water and climate change)
+ March 28International Earth Hour  

+ April 10, Good Friday - Way of the Cross
+ April 12 - Easter - Meditations for Easter Time
May 16-24 Laudato Si’ week
Thank you for being a subscriber to the Common Good newsletter. We work hard to select newsworthy issues that most relate to Secular Franciscans and JPIC. Recognizing that the newsletter has more content than can be read in a typical setting, we encourage you to save the newsletter on your device and take the time over the month to read articles that interest you most; just like you would with a magazine. The more we learn about the many issues we are faced within our world the better prepared we can be to influence change needed to "care for our common home". - a message from the editors
Editors: Andrew Conradi, ofs, Laudato Si' Animator, Global Catholic Climate Movement; George Guimond, ofs, RFEC Dir of JPIC & Margaret Ross, ofs, Minister, St Agnes Fraternity, Coquitlam, BC & Laudato Si' Animator

 

Related Links

About OFS
About JPIC
FI & OFM JPIC 
Development & Peace
CIOFS
National Fraternity of Canada
LAUDATO SI’
Joy of the Gospel
Understanding JPIC - a Primer
The Franciscan Journey           - JPIC Supplements
Prayers


“Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society.
    - 187. The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis 

 

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