Peace and Justice Actions

From June 17-20, 2004, twenty-one representatives of Secular Franciscan Regions were together at the Peace and Justice Commission workshop of the All Commissions Conference. We were united in our desire to turn up the flame for the Peace and Justice Commission and to keep it burning after the conference was over. The participants were asked: What are you doing in your region?

The answer to that question is posted here. Regional Peace and Justice Chairs from sixteen regions wrote about what is being done in their regions. For each region a contact person is listed. They are willing to offer advice and answer questions for others who are interested in getting started. Please use this valuable source of information.

You will find additional descriptions of actions in fraternities under the icon Newsletter. For the September 2005 issue of our newsletter we feature descriptions of actions sent to us by Secular Franciscans. Go to the Newsletter section of this webpage to find out more.

Peace,
National Peace and Justice Commission
Carolyn Colburn, Chair colburn@sonic.net

St. Katharine Drexel Region

Terri Leone, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Terri at skdpj@yahoo.com

We of St. Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity are trying to understand how the Commissions "fit in" with our vocations.  A very large number of our members, like yours, are involved in:

• Anti-abortion activities such as praying the rosary in front of abortion centers.
• Prison ministry by writing or visiting individual prisoners - a couple do bible study at prisons.  
• Donate time at soup kitchens or "thrift" stores which are Franciscan outreaches.  A couple of fraternities work together at the same "soup kitchen" each taking a different Sunday. 
• A very large percentage of our members are elderly and in poor health, so they are our "prayer warriors" for those engaged actively.  Because of advanced age and poor health many do not get engaged or understand the larger "global" issues. This is understandable because of the complexity of many of these issues and who is providing the most accurate picture/information.  We are trying!

Love, Peace, Joy,

Terri Leone, SFO

St. Katharine Drexel Regional Fraternity

(Eastern PA, Southern NJ & DE)

Troubadours of Peace Region

Joseph Keppler, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Joseph at josephkeppler@yahoo.com

Troubadours of Peace Region in the Pacific Northwest is very active in peace and justice ministry.  We support:

• Food, housing and clothing programs
• Prison ministries
• Parish liturgy
• Fair trade   (Don’t buy pounds of ground coffee. Try at least buying whole beans and grinding them yourself in a small coffee grinder.)
• Legislative letter writing
• Pro-life activities

We try to be creative in our endeavors.  I’ve printed a small number of visual-poetry posters.  In one the word abortion transforms into the word children.  Another slimmer one bids goodbye to the innocents.  Also, we are actively trying to discern the degree of our personal concurrence in going to war in Iraq and examining our Franciscan consciences about this most serious matter.  Please let me know if anyone has any questions about our region.  We look forward to hearing from everyone!

All good wishes,

Joseph Keppler

Ohana O Ke Anuenue Region

Anne Herrick, sfo   Alternate Representative from Hawaii Region

Contact Anne at avher@tiki.net

Our Maui Fraternity’s mission for peace and justice is two fold:

• To help needy Maui families
• Helping young families prevent drug problems from occurring.  In spite of drug prevention programs, drug use is a wide scale problem

Mahalo

St. Clare Region

Fran Thetford, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Fran at fthe78@aol.com

PEACE AND ALL GOOD

St Clare Region, located in Eastern Missouri, Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky, has been working on peace and justice issues mainly in individual ministries.  I have been working in

• Prison Ministry -  I correspond with a few people on death row and lifers.  In that exchange I found that prisoners in Michigan were denied fresh water for many days after the blackout last summer.  I took up a petition among our Regional Fraternities and sent it to the Governor of Michigan.  I wrote to the Bishop of Detroit, Michigan, to Cardinal Regali of Philadelphia, and then Bishop Naumann of St. Louis informing them of this injustice.  Governor Gradville responded stating that she would look into the situation. Since our area is not really Michigan, it would be nice if the regions and fraternities would come together and help each other on grave matters such as this.  There is power in numbers!

Our region supports:

• Our Lady’s Inn, which is a home for homeless mothers
• The Franciscan Connection, which is a service to help pay utility bills for the poor
• Several food pantries
• A casserole program at a homeless shelter
• Birthright
• The Archdiocese Pro-Life program
• Some of us have marched in Washington, DC for Pro-life

July 17th, our region is sponsoring an All Commission Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri.  The purpose of the workshop is to "turn up the flame" in the Midwest, organize our efforts on P&J, and share the many valuable suggestions we brought home with us from Denver.

Yours in Jesus, Francis, and Clare,

Fran Thetford, P&J Chair

St. Clare Region

fthe78@aol.com

 Lady Poverty Region

Patricia Mulligan, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission, Chair

Contact Pat at cpmsfo@hotmail.com

Lady Poverty Region actions for the poor, ill, aged, children, and unborn include:

• Providing food and serving the men at a homeless shelter
• Raising funds for food pantries
• A Thanksgiving food drive
• Cooking and serving at a soup kitchen
• Contributing money for a local community food warehouse
• Helping chronically needy families
• Labor given to Habitat for Humanity
• Aiding disaster victims
• Authored and promote anti-drug program
• Visiting the hospitalized and shut-ins and providing knitted booties
• Conducting a sing-along at a nursing home and sponsoring and running Bingo games
• Food provided for aged Seculars who have difficulty getting out
• Donating baby gifts to Right-to-Life Centers
• Raise money for Pro-Life Actions
• Participate in Pro-Life vigils, life chains and marches
• Picket abortion clinics

Lady Poverty Region works in Prison Ministry

• Coordinating retreats in prisons
• Instructing prisoners in “Faith-Based Life-Skills Program.”
• Supporting prison ministry through witness and prayer

Lady Poverty Region actions for peace

• Promoting peace through conciliation programs
• Promoting peace in Catholic schools and religious education classes
• Giving a Peace Award in four Catholic schools
• Conduction of anti-discrimination workshops

Lady Poverty Region actions for and with other Catholic groups

• Supporting a person in Franciscan Mission Service and donations to Missions
• Donating money to SFO Amazon Relief and Franciscans International
• Donation of money and food to Discalced Carmelite Nuns
• Evangelization with in-house and export programs

Five Franciscan Martyrs Region

Warren Long, sfo   Peace and Justice Regional Chair

Contact Warren at sfowgl@mindspring.com

Five Franciscan Martyrs Region has many active peace and justice apostolates in their fraternities. In addition to peace and justice, there are apostolates in the Ecology, Family, Work, and Youth Commissions, as well as apostolates to the diocese, parishes, the priesthood and religious life.

Many fraternities have an outreach to the poor:

• Food is collected for the poor and meals are served to them
• Immigrant workers are assisted with food and blankets
• Prison ministry
• Ministry to the homeless
• Ministry to the aged
• Catholic Charities and the St. Vincent de Paul Society are supported
• Donations are made to an HIV/AIDS day care facility

Fraternities support:

• The Amazon Relief Project
• The Sudan Relief Project
• The African apostolate of a Franciscan friar 
• One fraternity sponsored an International Day of Peace for local parishes. 
• Another fraternity supports a priest in a ministry in Honduras.
• Legislative advocacy is included with letters written to legislators in support of peace and justice issues. 

St. Thomas More Region

Madeline Sample, sfo   Peace and Justice Regional Chair

Contact Madeline at mmsample@earthlink.com

Peace and Justice Commission works of the St. Thomas More Region fraternities include:

• Monthly prayer vigils at Planned Parenthood.
•  St. Anthony Fraternity in Tucson ministers to the poor in conjunction with St. Vincent de Paul Society.
• St. Margaret of Cortona Fraternity assists “Poverello House,” a homeless shelter. 
• San Damiano Fraternity aids “Our Lady of the Streets,” a ministry to the homeless in Phoenix.
• Franciscans from our region participated in “Encuentro II, dialoguing with groups and individuals who minister to migrants at the border.

We try to keep current on social justice issues by writing to our congressmen about:

• Life issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and the death penalty
• We urge our senators to approve pro-life judges.

St Francis Region

Ray Hardwick, sfo   Peace and Justice Regional Chair

Contact Ray at rayhardwick@juno.com

St. Francis Region has a very active peace and justice ministry:

• Participation in Death Penalty vigils and writing and speaking out against the death penalty.
• Participation in voter registration in two parishes.
• Participation in demonstrations and rallies against Star Wars at Vandenberg AFB.
• Participation in the feeding of the homeless and poor indigents.
• Participation in the La Posadas Sin Fronteras every December at the San Ysidro/Tijuana, Mexico border.
• Participation in anti-war demonstrations and rallies in support of bringing our soldiers home.
• Participation in immigration reform actions.
• Writing and speaking with our legislative representatives, both state and federal, about issues of importance in CST.

La Verna Region

Kathy Sutliff, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Kathy at ksut517@charter.net

Peace and justice activities in La Verna Region include:

• Soup kitchens and food pantries
• Right to life
• Franciscan Family Apostolate.  We help families in India
• Rummage sale to get money to help the poor.  Our fraternity earns about $1000-$1500 a year with our rummage sale.
• Pax Christi
• Prison and jail ministry
• Prayer

Peace,

Kathy Sutliff, SFO

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Region

Mary M. Smith, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Mary at smithmarym@yahoo.com

Members of St. John the Baptist Fraternity have an active peace and justice ministry:

• Buying groceries, preparing, cooking and serving a meal once a month to low-income, homeless, unemployed and lonely people in the Elmira, New York region.  About 165 people attend this 5-day-a-week meal with numbers expecting to rise because of school vacations.

These are the things that I do:

• Volunteer at both local hospitals as well as at the Samaritan Center, Elmira Correctional Facility Hospitality Center and Catholic Charities of the Southern Tier
• Pax Christi Upstate New York Treasurer
• Regent of Court St. Joseph #139 Catholic Daughters of the Americas
• President of the Past Regents Club of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas of the Diocese of Rochester, NY
• Serve on the Samaritan Center’s Advisory Council
• Serve on the Diocesan Board of the Public Policy Commission
• Serve on the Consistent Life Ethics Committee

Our Lady of the Rockies Region

Jane Tremper, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Jane at janesfo@montana.com

Many of the SFO members are quite elderly.  They do Marian devotions.  They work in prayer to support me in my actions.  I do the following things:

• A ministry to the mentally ill and the homeless mentally ill.  They are remarkable individuals striving to recover from brain diseases that are not their fault.
• Work as a psychiatric rehabilitation worker at the Western Montana Mental Health Center at Missoula, Montana.  We treat the persons with dignity and respect. My job is at a day treatment center where I teach skills classes and self-help groups.
• I volunteer at the Poverello Center, founded by the local SFO 30 years ago to help feed and house and clothe the homeless.  The SFO in Our Lady of the Rockies Region also started Council Grove Apartments 36 years ago.  It was Missoula’s first low-income housing.
• I have attended spiritual meetings of peace and how to wage it at the Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center.  Every month I have participated in, rather on the edge, peace marches in Missoula.

 Love and joy,

Jane Tremper

Juan De Padilla Region

Deacon Bill Dunbar, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Deacon Bill at deaconbill@cox.net

The members of Juan De Padilla Region are involved in many different peace and justice activities.

Pro-Life actions:

• Many SFO members silently protest while praying the rosary in front of abortion clinics
• One member is an organizer of the Life Chain Sunday movement.  This movement strives to have members from all Christian denominations make a continuous chain of people praying for an hour on one of the major thoroughfares in town to end abortion. We have done this on Pro-Life Sunday each year for the last eight years.

Death penalty actions:

• I head up a group that travels to our state prison to silently protest the death penalty during each of the executions in which our state participates.  I have been doing this for the last ten years and have traveled there approximately 40 times.  I try to get other parishioners as well as college students to accompany me on the vigils. 
• I am a frequent speaker proving why there should be a moratorium on the death penalty in Okalahoma.

Prison ministry:

• I am the Director of Prison Ministry of the Diocese of Tulsa.  I am developing a program called “Beyond the Walls.”  This program will match at least one parish with each of the state’s prisons.  The parish will provide RCA, Bible study and counseling.  The priest will provide Mass and confession on a weekly basis. I will be implementing a training program for all individuals involved in volunteering for the “Beyond the Walls”  program.
• I am involved in our state’s Interfaith Council that works closely with the Department of Corrections and legislators on advocacy issues concerning the incarcerated.
• We are in the planning stages on providing a housing unit for inmates who are recently released to aid them in their reentry into the “real world.”
• I am heavily involved in Kairos Prison Ministry that provides an intensive four-day introduction to Christianity within the prison walls.  Many conversions are made during these weekends that are very similar to Cursillo weekends. 

Feeding the needy:

• Many in our group are twice-monthly volunteers in Love Feast.  Love Feast provides meals to the needy in our area on a daily basis.  My wife and I have been doing this for about eight years.

Habitat for Humanity:

• I have been taking our college students on alternative Spring break trips for the last few years.  They have been providing their services through Habitat for Humanity to help to provide housing for the unfortunate.  These students not only volunteer their time during Spring break, but they pay their own way to do it.

As you can see, our Secular Franciscans are very involved in peace and justice issues.  We see ourselves as the hands and feet of our brother Francis, living out the gospel in the way that he would . . . . to those that have no other advocate but us. 

PAX

Deacon Bill Dunbar

St Margaret of Cortona Region

Teri Egan, sfo   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

Contact Teri at ctyankee77@earthlink.net

In spite of the fact that many of our members are elderly, our region does many individual works:

• Work at the Franciscan Center
• Donate food and clothing to the Center
• Communicate with excused members who are too frail to attend meetings
• Support a Palestinian girl with a donation for her school tuition
• Donate to Amazon Relief
• Make sandwiches and go and feed the homeless
• Communicate with our troops
• Write letters to government officials
• Support St. John of Montecorvino organization to strengthen the Catholic Church in China

Divine Mercy Region

Jim Flickinger, sfo, Regional Peace and Justice Chair

Contact Jim at jimlois67-1456blythe@yahoo.com

Peace and Justice Apostolates of the Divine Mercy Region include:

• Operating soup kitchens
• Assisting in pregnancy crisis centers
• Working with pro-life organizations
• Supporting and working with Amazon Relief
• Assisting parishes and missionaries in foreign countries
• Assisting Palestinian Christians
• Prison ministry
• Taking communion to the homebound
• Assisting in nursing homes
• Making rosaries for the missions
• Sponsoring families through the Franciscan Family Apostolate
• Providing social programs for the poor and homeless
• Providing free legal services to the poor

Holy Trinity Region

Marvin Dickman, SFO   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

contact Marvin at dickmanma@aol.com

The Holy Trinity Region, located in southern Ohio, nearly all of Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana, includes the metropolitan areas of Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Louisville, and Lexington; and, many medium-size and small cities, villages, towns, and rural areas.

The areas of focus for our regional Peace and Justice activities include the issues of hunger, homelessness, violence, poverty, war, refugees, immigration, coffee fair trade agreements, the death penalty, drug trafficking, nuclear safety, healthcare, HIV/AIDS, education, prejudice, land reform, living wages, the right to work, the right to organize and conduct union activities, corporate accountability, sweat shops, aging, disabilities, discrimination, prison ministry, prison reform, police and community relations, militarism, and disarmament.

The region's Peace and Justice Commission:

• Conducts Peace Prayer Services and prayer activities
• Distributes food and provides other services to the hungry and homeless
• Sponsors the Holy Trinity Peace and Justice Institute Workshops, that provides workshops regarding Franciscanism and gospel roots of peace and justice; Faithful Citizenship; corporate accountability; peace education; conflict resolution; and, various national, international, regional, and local Franciscan peace and justice issues.  The workshops serve Franciscans, educators, clergy persons, social workers, civic leaders, corporate leaders, labor leaders, and other interested persons.
• Provides the region's fraternities' members and others with peace and justice program materials, prayers, educational materials, alerts, and event announcements, through personal visits, mailings, the Internet, articles, newsletters, and regional programs.  This is done to affirm and challenge the region's Secular individuals in their efforts to re-explore and think the basics of the Rule from the perspective of peace and justice, to help with the ongoing identification of systems that deny human dignity and freedom, encourage our Secular Franciscans to collaborate fully in the peace and justice mission of their local church, to integrate and coordinate the peace and justice efforts of the Seculars with other branches of the Franciscan family, and to allow individuals to participate in advocacy of legislative action to promote Franciscan peace and justice.
 

Peace and justice work done by individual members of our region include:

• Providing food and other services to the hungry and the homeless
• Performing volunteer work in soup kitchens
• Performing services to Habitat for Humanity
• Visiting and providing spiritual and recreational activities to residents at long term care facilities, the hospitalized, and the shut-ins; and performing their errands, and providing transportation
• Providing services through local and regional prison and jail ministries; and, through the Kairos Prison Ministry
• Investigating ethnic educational discrimination complaints for the NAACP
• Providing ESL instruction
• Providing services for local parish health ministries
• Participation in organized labor rallies, vigils, and activities
• Participate in fair trade rallies regarding coffee
• Participate in rallies and vigils regarding the death penalty and some executions
• Some attend marches, rallies, and vigils protesting some local police shootings and beatings
• Some attend various anti-war rallies
• Some participate in anti-abortion demonstrations, such as praying the rosary outside abortion centers

Donations are made by the region's fraternities to the Amazon Relief Project; Franciscan International; the Sudan Relief Project; various Franciscan Apostolates, missions, and projects; and many other Roman Catholic organizations.

Peace,

Marvin Dickman, SFO

Queen of Peace Region

Dick Weithoner, SFO   Regional Peace and Justice Commission Chair

contact Dick at dickwomaha@aol.com

Nebraska

ST. CLARE FRATERNITY, OMAHA

• Assist at Francis/Sienna House (homeless shelter)
• Assist at Stephen Center (homeless shelter/transitional living)
• Assistance to family from India
• Fundraising for Catholic Radio in Columbia

ST JOSEPH FRATERNITY, LINCOLN (Vietnamese)

• Fundraising for Franciscan Charities www.franciscancharity.com (helping the Vietnamese people still in Viet Nam)

PATER NOSTER FRATERNITY, OMAHA

• Collecting used glasses and stamps for Franciscan Missionaries
• Providing dry goods for St Peters Church Lunches for the Needy Program
• Saving tabs from pop cans for Ronald McDonald House
• Assisting at Special Olympics

ST BONAVENTURE FRATERNITY, COLUMBUS

• Visit sick and homebound
• St Vincent de Paul Society
• Help with Simon House (apostolate to the poor and needy)

ST ANTHONY FRATERNITY, LINCOLN

• Stamps for missions

North Dakota

IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY FRATERNITY, GRAND FORKS

• Prison Ministry
• Visits to the homebound
• Visits to nursing homes