What is in my power, in a country racked with both social unrest and a pandemic? Am I superfluous to what is happening? Believing that God has given the world exactly the right persons for this moment in history, I ask God, myself, and my friends: what is my role in the world-changing activity of this time? How can I contribute to the life of a Beloved Community?
Each of us has a role: some to protest, some to write, some to teach, some to register voters, some to propose referenda, some to Zoom, all to learn, and all to pray for transformation. Each day God gives us an opportunity, a unique divine mission that God’s people need that day. Working with God, we channel healing to some small slice of the world. Oh, that we may have ears for God’s whispers and a willing spirit every day!
Mary Krolikowski
Visit us at www.catholicsforpeaceandjustice.org and the Catholics for Peace and Justice Facebook page
Visit Collars on the Corner on Facebook
Looking for more social justice resources?
Visit the Social Justice Resource Center
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EVENTS | EDUCATION
Recurring Events
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GENERAL
 Pope Francis Quote
"We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life."
Pope Francis
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Sign up here - www.tinyurl.com/healracism - to receive a monthly prayer guide with the intention of reconciling and healing racism in our city. Monthly gatherings have been postponed due to Covid, but may resume in the fall. Brought to you by:Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Three Holy Women, Our Lady of Divine Providence, Old St. Mary's, Saints Peter and Paul Human Concerns/Social Justice Commissions, Franciscan Peacemakers. For more information, please contact: Shelly Roder, shelly.roder@franciscanpeacemakers.com
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ACTIONS AND ISSUES
Faces of Migration
 WISDOM’s Summer of Solidarity presentations were wildly successful, with topics from criminal justice to the environment to murdered and missing indigenous women! Recordings of the Trainings are available on the WISDOM website: https://wisdomwisconsin.org/summer-of-solidarity-training-series/.
The EXPO, EX-incarcerated People Organizing, statement on the shooting of Jacob Blake is here: Standing with Jacob Blake. Aug 26 2020
Be sure to vote! But, not just to vote:
- Make a list of people you know and commit to remind them to vote;
- Reach out to them now and encourage them to go to www.myvote.wi.gov and request an absentee ballot;
- Encourage them to send it in right away when they receive it.
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Living Gospel Values in These Fraught Times
How do we do it? Where do we begin? The year 2020 will go down in the history books as one of the most tumultuous, traumatic, troubling years in U.S. history. And we still have a long way to go.
From the pandemic and the economic crisis it has brought about for millions of families, to the social upheavals that began with the police killing of George Floyd, reopening the fissures of racism, often called our country’s “original sin,” to the unraveling of our political institutions, to the deep divides among us that appear impervious to healing or even understanding – we are a nation reeling under the pressures of a world undergoing swift and unnerving change.
Meanwhile, climate change, which barely gets a nod these days in the media or the culture, is accelerating. Extremes of heat, drought, floods, and more are wreaking havoc in many parts of the world, among them much of the U.S. West, the raging wildfires of California merely among the more dramatic of these extremes.
And more and more of us are feeling overwhelmed. Read Margaret Swedish's full article here.
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 Catholic Coalition for Migrants and Refugees
To be part of CCMR, sign up here. Visit the CCMR facebook page here.
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EVENTS AND EDUCATION
Black Lives are Sacred
Public Witness Events; Thursday Evening, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
September 3 |St. Robert Parish, Shorewood | Capitol Drive and Oakland Ave, Milwaukee
September 10 | Brookfield | Bluemound and Moorland Rd., Brookfield
September 17 | St. Hedwig Church | Humboldt and Brady, Milwaukee
Siena Retreat Center
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Peace Action Wisconsin
- End the Wars Coalition meetings: 3rd Wednesday of the month, 7 p.m. Peace Action Center, 1001 E Keefe Ave, Milwaukee 414-269-9525, info@peaceactionwi.org
- Stand for Peace: Every Saturday, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Learn more here. Updates on Facebook.
Peace Action of Wisconsin is carefully restarting the Stand for Peace with directives advised by the Milwaukee Health Commissioner.We will take all precautions and if any stay-at-home orders change, we will suspend the Stand for Peace again.Stand for Peace participants will obey social distancing guidelines, and we will wear masks.Shared signs and flags will be sanitized after each Stand.
- August 29: Howell/Layton
- September 5: Lincoln Memorial/Michigan
- September 12: 43rd/Forest Home
- September 19: 76th/North
- September 26: N. Lake Drive/Silver Spring
A Conversation about Sex Trafficking with Our Front-Line Allies - Sept 3
Lacey's Hope Project & Franciscan Peacemakers
Thur, September 3 | 6:30-7:30 pm. A series of conversations with front-line organizations working with victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Representatives will provide an update on their activities and what groups/individuals can do to assist their efforts followed by a Q&A conversation. More info and registration here
Redistributing or "Defunding" the Milwaukee Police Department Budget - Sep 12
Virtual Zoom presentation on Redistributing or "Defunding" the Milwaukee Police Department Budget: What is being asked by community groups and why? This event is "free and open to the public" and is sponsored by the United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee on Saturday | September 12 | 10:00-11:00 am. Learn more.
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Gift, Gratitude and Joy: A Virtual Retreat - Oct 2-4
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Waukesha County Creation Care Network invite you to Gift, Gratitude, and Joy: Finding Our Sacred Roots in God’s Creation an "At-Home" Retreat on the Feast of St. Francis.
This online ecumenical retreat begins Friday October 2, 2020 in the evening and continues through Sunday October 4, 2020. This retreat would be great for people searching for a deeper understanding of Franciscan spirituality, a Christian foundation for Caring for Creation, and/or a prayerful moment in these challenging times.
Truth Be Told: Discipleship in the Gospel of Luke - Begins Oct 12
Firstfruits is excited to announce our new scripture study entitled Truth Be Told. In this series of three 6-week sessions, we will study the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. We will focus on the person of Jesus and our invitation to be his disciples, and what it means to follow Christ in our fractured world. This is a perfect Catholic bible study for beginners as well as more seasoned bible readers.
This series is offered on Mondays from 10:30-12:00pm in three 6-week series (Fall, Winter, and Spring). Each six week series stands on its own so you don’t have to register for all three at once.
More info and registration here
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PRAY
Divine Communion—The Grandeur of Justice
Holy Wise Divine Communion of Energies,
Evolutionary God,
what are you to us?
You are more than the ground of our being;
you are the ground of what should be
and what we trust will be.
You are the ground of justice and of hope.
Thus we discover your graciousness in our hearts,
supporting our instinct for the unselfish, the fair,
and the harmonious.
Could it be
that by growing close to our passionate desires
for justice and abundant life
we grow close to you in your essence?
Thank you, Ocean of Mystery,
for all your surreptitious inspiration.
Amen.
William Cleary, Prayers to an Evolutionary God
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The plain truth is that if it were up to people of color, racism would have been resolved, over and done, a long time ago. The only reason for racism's persistence is that white people continue to benefit from it.
Repeat that last sentence. Make it your mantra. Because until the country accepts that truth, we will never move beyond superficial words and ineffective half-measures. Systemic racism benefits white people. That's the truth that Amy Cooper knew and that we all know. . . . But avoiding and sugarcoating this truth is killing people of color. Silence for the sake of making white people comfortable is a luxury we can no longer afford.
What to do next? Nothing. Sit in the discomfort this hard truth brings. Let it become agonizing. Let it move you to tears, to anger, to guilt, to shame, to embarrassment. Over what? Over your ignorance. Over the times you went along with something you knew was wrong. … Most of all, feel the guilt, the pain, the embarrassment over doing nothing and saying nothing when you witnessed obvious racism.
Stay in the discomfort, the anxiety, the guilt, the shame, the anger. Because only when a critical mass of white folks are outraged, grieved and pained over the status quo — only when white people become upset enough to declare, "This cannot and will not be!" — only then will real change begin to become a possibility.
Bryan N. Massingale, "The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it," National Catholic Reporter, June 1, 2020
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