Justice Jottings 2021-10: Called to Respect Life

JUSTICE JOTTINGS

October 2021

RESPECT LIFE MONTH

October is the month each year when the Catholic Church asks us to focus on our call to respect life. We, therefore, have asked several people who are involved in MSJC issues and activities to reflect about this call and how they hear and respond to the call in their lives. We hope what they share will challenge the rest of us to think more deeply about how each of us might be called to respect life and that we will respond more generously.

Your Voice Matters

– Frank O’Donnell SM

Bro. Frank O’Donnell, former chair of MSJC and current Board member of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, reflects about the call to each of us to let our voices be heard in defense of life.

---October is Respect Life Month in the US Catholic

---Church. The Church calls us to consider the

---sanctity of life and to oppose systems that violate

---human dignity… While we say we are building a

-- culture of life, we continue to put people to death. ---The death penalty is only one example of how our

---Church calls us to work to support human dignity

---and respect for life.

---Some other examples that invite our advocacy

---everyday are:

rights of the unborn
immigrants at our southern border
refugees in transition around the world.

---The common good, an invitation from the Gospel,

---impels us to respect life in all of these ways.

---(Read more…)

Respecting Trans Lives

– A Pollicino (they/them)

A Pollicino, a member of the LGBTQ+ Initiative Team, shares their perspective on how the call to respect life applies to trans persons.

---This month we contemplate the Church’s designation of

---October as Respect Life Month. In a time when many of

---us are rethinking our attitudes around how people’s lives

---matter, a group that is often forgotten or left out are trans people. Being

---raised Catholic and very pro-life (on picket lines before I was out of a

---stroller, attending pro-life marches as a teen, and regularly praying the

---rosary for the unborn as a family), the idea of respecting life from

---conception to natural death is something I’ve grown up with and thought

---about quite a bit… Now as a trans adult, I continue to challenge myself to

---expand and deepen the ways we can conceptualize what it means to be

---pro-life in this moment.

---Within the church, and our broader society, the most detrimental attitude

---affecting trans lives today is skepticism. If we think about the attitude of

---people in the church along a spectrum, we currently have

a small group of well-meaning allies,
a middle majority who are not well informed and unsure about gender identity,
and a small yet vocal opposition that deny our right to even describe our existence without condemnation.

---In each of these groups, there is a level of skepticism about trans people

---actually being who they say they are. If we are to give trans people the

---quality of life and dignity we afford others, we must unequivocally combat

---misguided perceptions that often come in the form of rhetoric describing

---trans identity as a phase, trend, theory, ideology, agenda, or form of

---indoctrination. We cannot, as pro-life people, afford to continue using that

---language or allowing others to do so. (Read more…)

Connecting Respect Life with Integral Ecology

– Susan Vogt

Susan Vogt is a member of the recently formed MEEC/MSJC Integral Ecology Team. She reflects on how the call to respect all life connects with concern for the health of our environment.

---In our Catholic tradition October is Respect Life Month.

---This is good. At the core of our Catholic Marianist

---spirituality is a belief that life is precious, to be honored,

---preserved, and protected – just as Mary carried and cared for Jesus

---throughout her own life. So what does this all have to do with the

---environmental movement? Of course, we want to save trees and reduce

---pollution, but isn’t protecting human life even a higher goal? Perhaps if we

---look only with our human eyes, one could say, Yes.

---BUT, if we look with the eyes of God, the Creator, and run that through the

---eyes of our heart, the answer I get is – Everything is connected.

---To protect human lives we must protect the ground, the air, the water, the

---animals, the plants on which human life depends. Without clean water,

---human life cannot survive. Without food we cannot survive. Without

--- ______________ (fill in the blank with your favorite thing or activity) my

---life would be meaningless – or at least less joyful. (Read more…)

REMINDER

Applications for MSJC Director Position Due Oct. 22

The Marianist Family Council of North America (MFC-NA) is searching for a Director for the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative. The current director, Jim Vogt, is retiring and a full-time director will be hired to begin in January. The complete position description and information on how to apply may be found her e.

Applications should include:

a cover letter
an updated resume
three references
a writing or presentation sample

Questions – MSJCsearch@gmail.com

IMMIGRANT JUSTICE

Support Afghan Refugees

Afghan refugees need our help. Please consider how you, your Marianist community, your parish or other group can support these people in need. As a beginning step, read this brief message from Church World Services .

Here is a list of agencies that are active in Afghan refugee resettlement.

Check them out to see how you can get involved and support Afghan refugees.

Justice for Immigrants (USCCB)
International Rescue Committee
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
World Relief
Church World Service (special emphasis on community sponsorship of refugees)
Episcopal Migration Ministries
HIAS

DEATH PENALTY & RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

World Day Against the Death Penalty – Oct. 10

The World Day Against the Death Penalty is observed every October 10. It is a day that unifies the global abolitionist movement and mobilizes civil society, political leaders, lawyers, public opinion and more to support the call for universal abolition of capital punishment.

The day encourages and consolidates the political and general awareness of the world-wide movement against the death penalty. This year, the World Day was dedicated to women who risk being sentenced to death, who have received a death sentence, who have been executed, or who have had their death sentences commuted, exonerated, or pardoned. (Read more…)

Floridians (and Others) – Sign This Petition

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a group with whom MSJC has been partnering, has created a petition to the governor and legislature to exempt people with severe mental illness from the death penalty. Especially if you live in Florida, but even if you don’t, please sign this petition (https://www.fadp.org/) to help move the death penalty abolition effort forward in Florida.

ENVIRONMENT

Join in the 40-day prayer campaign leading up to the November 14th World Day of the Poor launch of the Laudato Si' Action Platform.

Prayers based on the 7 Laudato Si' Goals are available here.

LGBTQ+ INITIATIVE

It’s Now LGBTQ+

The LGBT Initiative Team is happy to announce that we’ve changed our team’s name to the LGBTQ+ Initiative. The latter term is more widely used in today’s world and is seen as more inclusive. The Q in the acronym is for Queer or Questioning.

Queer has been reclaimed and has become an umbrella term to describe the myriad ways people reject binary categories of gender (male and female) and sexual orientation.
Questioning is the process of exploration by people who may be unsure and are still exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
The + includes the many other ways people may identify themselves, among which are intersex, pansexual, asexual, and aromantic.

Although these terms may seem to be confusing or unnecessary, by embracing them we on the team choose to remember and emulate our Marianist principles of inclusivity and hospitality. Let us open ourselves more fully to marginalized and ostracized persons and recall Christ’s teaching to heed the cry of the poor and suffering. In this spirit, we are pleased to have a more broadly inclusive name.

A THOUGHT TO PONDER

I experience God as the source of life calling me to live fully and thus to respect life in every form as embodying the holy.

- Bishop John Shelby Spong

Questions, comments, or feedback for Justice Jottings can be sent to Jim Vogt