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This week we update on Pope Francis' visit to Fatima, USDA restructuring, St. Isidore feast day celebrations, and more. Visit our website for more.
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Words of Wisdom
"Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing."
--John 15:4-5
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Ford Family (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
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CRL's Jim Ennis Interviewed
Comments on Family Farm Challenges
CRL Executive Director, Jim Ennis, was interviewed for a Catholic News Service article featuring the current challenges facing family farmers in the US. The article, entitled "
Family farmers facing worst financial stretch since the 1980's", has been syndicated and featured in many publications and websites across the country.
Many family farmers in the United States are facing the worst combination of events since the "farm crisis" of the mid-1980s.(...)
The toughening times aren't restricted to crop farmers. "A lot of our dairy farmers have called us and said you've got to do something about this milk pricing structure," said James Ennis.(...)
Ennis has visited eight U.S. dioceses this year, making nine presentations on Catholic Rural Life's new document, "The Vocation of the Agricultural Leader," which was presented in December to Pope Francis at the Vatican. On those visits, Ennis has been getting an earful from farmers and ranchers.
"Farming is a unique vocation because of our dependence upon food for life," he told CNS. "Therefore, I think we do need to see farming and that culture as a unique industry. It's not simply another industry that we let market forces control everything: 'If we can't be competitive, we just import from somebody else.' That creates all sorts of food insecurity issues."
Read the full article here or here. See more about what CRL is doing to support family farms and the vocation of farming here.
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Pope Francis Visits Fatima
Two Rural Children Proclaimed Saints
One hundred years ago in the Portuguese farm town of Fatima, two shepherd children and their cousin reported their visions of the Virgin Mary.
On Saturday, May 13, during the canonization Mass of those children, Pope Francis addressed those gathered at Fatima, in particular the sick and suffering. He told them to follow the example of the newly canonized saints,
Francisco and Jacinta
, offering their lives--both joy and suffering--as a gift for God.
Even though very young, the children remained pious in the face of those who doubted them. Going further in piety during adversity, they were both faced with illness, and died of influenza at a young age. The now saints stand as a source of encouragement and inspiration for those who are ill or afflicted in rural areas, thus making a connection between the saintly events of Fatima a century ago and rural America today.
Pope Francis said: "I invite those of you who are sick to live your lives as a gift. Like the shepherd children, tell Our Lady that you want to offer yourselves to God with all your heart."
Read the CNA article about this event
here. See the Fatima Prayers
here.
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The Simple Saint
Celebrating the feast of St. Isidore
The life of Isidore was one of a simple laborer, yet he achieved sainthood. His life of physical labor was also one of dignity. That is why the Church is concerned about farmers, fieldworkers, ranchers--all those involved in agriculture. As many others have reflected, the simple life is conducive to holiness and happiness. This truth emerges: If you have your spiritual self in order, your earthly commitments will fall into order also.
The May 15 feast day of St. Isidore the Farmer is our annual springtime reminder that our human relationship to the land is a deeply religious one.
Last week, we asked you what you were doing to celebrate the feast day.
We had reports both of individual and community celebrations from around the country! One person celebrated by beginning a rosary garden, and another by installing a new package of bees.
In Woonsocket, SD, the community celebrated a Farm Mass that included the Litany of St. Isidore with a blessing of the fields and livestock.
Holy Cross Church, in East Bernard, TX, began the Novena to St. Isidore on May 7
and closed on his feast day
. In addition, o
n Saturday, May 13, the farming families in the area drove their tractors and other farming equipment
to Mass, bringing along
tools, seeds
, plants and
anything related to farming or g
ardening for a special blessing.
At the St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm, in
Cuba City, WI, they held
an Isidore Day celebration including prayer, potluck, farm tours, barn dance, and bonfire.
Thank you for sharing your St. Isidore celebrations with us!
If you, your parish, or your diocese want to celebrate rural life, or the Feast of St. Isidore next year, click
here
to see CRL's
Rural Life Celebration Handbook
for ideas on how to host.
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Rural Advocacy Groups Concerned
In its first reorganization in over two decades, the USDA stands to lose one of its core mission areas, Rural Development,
according to a plan released last Friday by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue
.
Various groups,
including the National Farmers Union and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, outlined their concerns in a letter to members of Congress earlier this week. The letter follows a proposed reorganization of the USDA by the Trump Administration, which would eliminate Rural Development as a core mission area.
As NFU noted
, rural families, businesses and cooperatives need efficient transportation infrastructure, high-speed broadband, affordable water, quality schools and public safety for rural communities to prosper.
The group letter sent to members of Congress concluded by saying: "Rural America should not have to choose between production agriculture and critical economic development investments. We need core services and programs aimed directly at addressing the unique and diverse needs of rural communities."
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