Advocacy

International Day of Forests

image: unsplash/Geran de Klerk

Spring has arrived! On Tuesday, March 22nd we will celebrate World Water Day! And in between, you might want to nestle into the breathing lungs of our planet: trees!

The International Day of Forests, celebrated every year on March 21st raises awareness about the values, significance, and contributions of the forests in balancing the lifecycle of the earth.

Nalini Nadkarni shares her love of the forests, the trees that drew her into a career in forest ecology. By researching religious texts of many faith communities, she celebrates with profound awareness, the gift of trees.  Her energy and insight are brought to us in conversation on Tapestry: Connecting to our Roots: the Spirituality of Trees. I found this a joy to listen to. Why not join me in wonder and delight.

Earlier this month Nalini spoke with the CBC, and asked us to reimagine our relationship with trees. Read & listen here.

 -Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

UN Women – Women Voices Growing Stronger

UN Women – Women Voices Growing Stronger

The United Nations on the Status of Women will soon hold their Commission on the Status of Women in 2022.  It will likely be online meetings, but it allows me to pause to better understand the work that has been accomplished by women around the world and how much has yet to be done.  No one person is responsible for the progress that has been made, but the work of so many women, along with men is needed to close the gaps that exist for women’s equality and human rights. 

The United Nations Under-Secretary and Executive Director of the Women, Phumizile Alanbo Ngcuka has stated so well:

“The Commission has recognized the importance of removing structural barriers to women’s empowerment, including ending all forms of violence against women; and harassment of women and girls everywhere, be it in the public or private space.  We have recognized that violence against women is an impediment to full equality, as well as to women’s economic empowerment.  We also recognized the importance of ensuring that all the structural impediments to women’s economic empowerment are addressed…  We have to start at home, by ensuring that there is an enabling environment for women’s economic justice and women’s empowerment.”

During this pandemic time, the curtain has been pulled back on how much more is needed to fully achieve equality and the many goals of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.  We cannot wait until… We each must do what we can to right the wrongs of the past.  If “no one is to be left behind” in this recovery or rebuilding, then we each must do something.  What can you do?

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice

Ten Years of Advocacy

Amnesty International’s “Write for Rights” is an activity during Advent that the Sisters of St. Joseph have embraced for ten years - 10 years!!

Each December 10th we join with global citizens to write letters to plead with leaders of countries to free people unjustly incarcerated for working on behalf of social justice and peace. We come together as a group of women armed with pen and paper as well as the names and stories of people around the world who have been apprehended on false and unjust premises.

Sisters Ann & Kitty pens ready!

This year our letters include calls for freedom and justice for a Chinese citizen journalist jailed in 2020 for reporting on the unfolding of the COVID-19 outbreaks in Wuhan. We also advocate for a Guatemalan man jailed seven years now for being a courageous defender of the rights of his people. Another case involves a young woman who was arrested at the Sudan border in 2012 and has never been heard from since that time.

Our letters of advocacy, joined to thousands of others around the world do make a difference. The diligent workers and volunteers of Amnesty International keep us abreast of people who have been freed from their unjust situations. Regardless of age or circumstance, one letter written with love and compassion can make a huge difference - it changes the life of one who we will never meet.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Pictured above, the Sisters hard at work, letter-writing.

We wrote 100 letters so far this year! #W4R21

Generous Listening

Finally, attention to the almost-lost art of listening! September 26th being the National day of Listening, I thought it might be appropriate to focus on how we are called to listening to what Indigenous voices are saying to us these days as Canadians.  To what are we listening and what are we really hearing about Residential Schools, about murdered and missing women, men, girls and boys?

What are we really hearing and believing from Indigenous Elders who are survivors of Residential Schools? What is heard? What is heart-felt? What is the message in the revealing of hundreds of graves found on the grounds of former residential Schools? Are we brave and sufficiently honest to acknowledge this dark history of Canada that was one form of cultural genocide?

Krista Tippett says of listening: “Generous Listening is an everyday art and virtue, but it’s an art we have lost and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while others have their say. It is about presence as much as receiving; it is about connection more than observing. Real listening is powered by curiosity. It involves vulnerability — a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. It is never in “gotcha” mode. The generous listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own most generous words and questions.”

In being present to  Indigenous Knowledge Keepers who have committed themselves to truth telling, I have found from my own experience that it requires of me, the listener, to be open minded, eager to learn the truth, respectful, and have the ability to create an atmosphere of hospitality and to provide a safe environment.  When that happens, relationships begin to develop, because of the mutual respect that grows.

If one has already made up one’s mind about Aboriginal people, true respectful listening cannot happen. One is simply unable to move the shared intellectual truths from the head to the heart. For any steps toward reconciliation to happen, the heart must be affected. 

The Doctrine of Discovery, promulgated in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, has done incredible harm to the valuing and appreciation of the First Peoples of any land, and especially, in this case, of Canada.

Thankfully, THAT doctrine has been definitively denounced.

The scar tissue left from this doctrine has left a deep wound that is in need of healing. We, non-Indigenous people, need to be healed from our ignorance and arrogance, our shame and shock.  Indigenous peoples need to healed from the belief that they are inferior, less than, and hence are not worthy to be in relationship with all creation and to share the resources of the earth equitably.

If one opens one’s heart in this listening process, one discovers that the First Peoples of Canada have a deep respect for the land, for all creation.  “All my relations” is not just an idle phrase.

For us non-Indigenous people especially, but not totally, there is a useful resource available for further assistance in developing relationships between First Nations peoples and us non-Indigenous people.  It is the guidebook put out by the Jesuit social forum: A Guide to Listening to Indigenous Voices .

Ideally, it is very workable with an Indigenous person or more, to be in these Sharing Circles.

The time is now. The place is here.  Let’s move forward together in creating a more just and sustainable world.

 - Sister Kathleen Lichti, csj

Images provided from Unsplash: Jonathan J. Castellon | Lee Campbell

Listening Loudly

Unsplash photo/Nick Fewings

To borrow the invitation from a hearing aid company, is it time for Canada to “Listen”?

To what are we called to listen in light of the hundreds of unmarked graves discovered on the grounds of former residential schools? The unmasking of this reality suggests that the general public has been deafened and deliberately prevented from hearing the voices of the Indigenous peoples of this land. This needs to stop.

It is interesting to note how “listening” seems to be a theme that is emerging on several fronts:

Pope Francis leads a meeting with representatives of bishops' conferences from around the world at the Vatican Oct. 9, 2021. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

““Those of us who have benefited from colonization have a responsibility to address the system that has enriched us by stealing the land and lives of Indigenous Peoples. The first steps in this process are to listen deeply to what Indigenous Peoples are saying to us, to open ourselves to be transformed by their words, and to act based on what they are telling us to address injustices.” ”
— These are the words of Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice Deborah McGregor, an Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario.

From just these few examples, we can appreciate that listening is absolutely necessary for a nation, for a Church, to move toward reconciliation and transformation.

So, let’s listen up with open minds and hearts and see if what we hear moves us to genuine action for a better Canada, a reformed Church, and a personal transformation.

-Sister Kathleen Lichti