National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Reminder: From January 11-20, we are asked to participate in 10 days of prayer in a countdown to end torture. Click here to access all the information you'll need to make these 10 days prayerfully meaningful, including bulletin inserts, worship materials, and prayers. We'll post another reminder next week.

Action Alert on Gaza

According to the "End the Occupation" website, the December 27 Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip killed over 200 people using F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by the taxpayers of the United States. Visit the website by clicking here to find out what you can do to make your voice heard.

An Interview Worth Hearing

On December 26, NPR aired an interview with two Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, the first Roman Catholic community in America to accept Black women as Sisters. Should you be interested, click here to listen (about 12 minutes of audio).

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Here's a version of the song by the Choirboys:

Convention for the Common Good Follow-Up

Seeing the tangible results of a convention I attended is kind of nice. NCR Online has the story of the representatives of 15 Catholic organizations who met with the Obama transition team last week. It's worth the minute it will take you to read it!

Prayers and Wishes for Bethlehem

Pax Christi/World Council of Churches' appeal: Prayers and Wishes for Advent and Christmas in Bethlehem 2008
For the 9th consecutive year, Christmas celebrations will take place in a difficult climate for people in the Holy Land. Pax Christi and the World Council of Churches invite you to email Advent and Christmas 2008 wishes and prayers for justice and peace to their partners in Bethlehem.
Please e-mail your Christmas messages and prayers for peace before the 25th of December 2008 (Western Christmas) and/or the 7th of January 2009 (Eastern Christmas). Messages can be emailed to the Arab Educational Institute at the following address: aei@p-ol.com. Read all messages at http://www.aeicenter.org/. More languages at: http://www.paxchristi.net/international/xmas/eng.htm (in English, French and Spanish).

"Thirty Years of Speaking Peace to Power"

Click here for the NCR article on Dominican Sisters Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, who were "incorrectly identified as involved in terrorism during . . . [a] Maryland state police surveillance in 2005 and 2006."

Fighting Poverty to Build Peace

Click here for the Holy Father's World Day of Peace Message for January 1, 2009, "Fighting Poverty to Build Peace."

What's On Your Heart?

JUBILEE USA'S "WHAT'S ON YOUR HEART?" CAMPAIGN: Now that President-elect Obama has chosen his Treasury Secretary, Jubilee USA wants to welcome him to his new position and put Jubilee's issues on his radar screen. The campaign is designed to remind Secretary Geithner that "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jubilee offers three easy ways for people to participate:

• DO IT YOURSELF: Make a heart telling Secretary Geithner "what'son your heart" with your own message (e.g. "drop the debt," "stop vulture funds," "debt cancellation for Haiti," etc.) Sign it with your name, address, and e-mail address and mail your heart to Jubilee USA Network/212 E. Capitol St. NE/Washington, DC 20003.
• ORDER postcards to sign and send. Order from carly@jubileeusa.org or 202-546-4470.
• SEND a message online. Go to www.jubileeusa.org.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN.

Ban the Cluster Bomb

BAN THE CLUSTER BOMB: As you may be aware, more than 120 nations met in Oslo last week to sign a global treaty banning cluster bombs. While nearly all US NATO allies signed the treaty, the United States, China, Russia, and India did not. The Bush administration claims that cluster bombs are needed to protect American soldiers. The reality is that cluster bombs have killed and injured U.S. soldiers and that most of the victims are children. To sign a petition to Secretary of Defense Gates, go to http://action.fcnl.org/petitions/cluster-petition.

Sad News from Mosul

From the LCWR:
This week the Dominican Motherhouse in Mosul, Iraq was hit by a e-car, TNT laden bomb which badly damaged the entire streetside of the building. The sisters were not injured, but, sadly, 27 people died in the shops across the street, which seem to have been the actual target. Please keep in prayer the Dominican sisters and those tragically affected by this latest bombing.

Sign for Peace

American Christian leaders and congregants of the Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions are joining together to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and urge President-elect Obama to make Israeli-Palestinian peace an immediate priority of his Administration.

If you would like to add your name to the Christian Call for Holy Land Peace today and join your fellow American Christians in supporting vigorous diplomatic efforts to secure a just and lasting two-state solution, go to the Churches for Middle East Peace website. There you will see a letter which was signed by national Christian leaders -- including the President of the LCWR -- and sent to key members of the Obama transition team and his national security team on December 1, 2008.

The final letter, signed by Christian leaders and congregants from across the nation (including you, if you so choose), will be delivered to President Obama during the time of inauguration. The last day to add your name is January 16, 2009.

Zimbabwe

Let's keep an eye on the situation in Zimbabwe, where -- according to AllAfrica.com -- the annual rate of inflation is 231,000,000% and the hospitals lack personnel to handle basic medical care, let alone the projected 60,000 people who may contract cholera, if projections can be trusted.

Lesley-Anne Knight, Caritas secretary-general, calls the situation in Zimbabwe "poverty at its most dehumanizing." Knight further states, "The international community must maintain the pressure on Zimbabwe for an end to this crisis. We must also prepare ourselves for the implosion of the country and the catastrophe that will mean in terms of human suffering across the region. Zimbabwe's neighbors must address the xenophobia directed at Zimbabwean refugees in their own countries." For more information, and for ways to help Caritas help Zimbabwe, go to the Caritas website.

Human Rights Day

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For more information, a calendar of events, and additional resources, click here.

40th Anniversary of the Death of Thomas Merton

On November 21 the PBS show, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, profiled Thomas Merton in anticpation of the 40th anniversary of his death tomorrow. How fitting that it occurs on the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights!

Click here to access the PBS show from 11/21, and here to link with the website of the Thomas Merton Center.

Slideshow of SOA 2008

Thanks to Sister Mary Irene for sharing her pictures from the SOA for this slideshow. Thanks to all the Sisters for representing us at Fort Benning this year! [Subscribers: If you cannot view the slideshow from your Inbox, click here to go to the blog to view it. ]

Christian Ecology Link

Thanks to Sister DeSales for alerting us to this:
The "Christian Ecology Link" has a daily prayer guide for December focusing on the Integrity of Creation. Click here to access the prayer guide, which can be downloaded in Word or pdf format.

Sister Dorothy Stang to be Honored at the UN

Sister Dorothy Stang, SND-N, will be among the seven who will be awarded the 2008 UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights on December 10, 2008. The date marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The award will be received posthumously by her brother David Stang.

In the words of the UN,
The honorary award is given to individuals or organizations once every five years for "outstanding achievements in the field of human rights." It represents an opportunity to give public recognition to the achievements of the awardees themselves, as well as to send a clear message to human rights' defenders the world over that the international community is grateful for, and supports, their efforts to promote human rights for all. The responsibility for the selection of the awardees is entrusted to a special committee composed of the President of the UN General Assembly, the president of the UN Economic and Social Council, the President of the Human Rights Council, the Chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Chairman of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.

With Jon Sobrino at the SOA Protest

Click here to Read John Dear's article, "With Jon Sobrino at the SOA Protest." Father Sobrino is the sole surviving member of the Jesuit community massacred in El Salvador in 1989.

Also, check out the interview that Pax Christi International Co-President Marie Dennis conducted with Father Sobrino. You can click here to view the video on the Pax Christi web site, or click on the video below (if the video is visible to you -- not sure if it will show up in subscribers' Inboxes). This is Part I; the second part will follow.

Advent Resources

Go to the Pax Christi USA homepage to access its numerous Advent resources. Just click on "Advent 2008 Preparation and Witness" from the homepage.

In Remembrance of the Four U.S. Churchwomen

From Pax Christi USA:

In remembrance of Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan (martyred December 2, 1980 for working for the liberation of the impoverished of El Salvador):

Loving God, we ask for mercy for the hardness of our hearts, as we encounter the truth of injustice, social violence, poverty and the death of your martyrs for the cause of your truth. We ask that our hearts may be changed from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. Creator God, we ask for mercy for the fear and denial that shields our souls from the encounter with truth, especially when it means that we must change our lives, our preconceptions and assumptions, our understanding of the world and the place of the United States in that world. We ask for the courage to open ourselves to truth and its consequences in our lives. Tender God who cries out in the hearts of the persecuted and the suffering, we ask for mercy for the times we close our hearts to our own liberation, when we refuse your loving offer of redemption, freedom and joy because we cherish security built on our own terms more than yours. We pray that we may be healed from our fear, hear the cries of your people, and allow ourselves to be set free. O God, in this Advent season make us instruments of liberation and witnesses to truth. This we ask in the names of our four sisters who gave their lives for the truth that sets free. Amen.

World AIDS Day Prayer

Thanks to Sister Mary Joan for sharing this prayer for World AIDS Day:

God of all compassion, comfort Your sons and daughters who live with AIDS. Spread over us all Your quilt of mercy, love and peace. Open our eyes to Your presence reflected in their faces. Open our ears to Your Truth echoing in their hearts. Give us the strength to weep with the grieving, to walk with the lonely, and to stand with the depressed. May our love mirror Your love for those who live in fear, who live under stress and who suffer rejection.

Mothering, Fathering God, grant rest to those who have died and hope to all who live with HIV. Give them encouragement to begin each day anew, and may every person with HIV throughout the world soon gain access to life-giving medications. Bless all doctors and nurses who devote themselves to caring for people with HIV.

God of life, help us find the cure now and help us build a world in which no one dies alone and where everyone lives accepted, wanted and loved. Amen.

(Adapted from a prayer by the Maryknoll AIDS Task Force.)