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EMERGENCY RESPONSE FOR HAITI

As many of you have heard, on Tuesday, January 12, there was a massive earthquake that hit the island nation of Haiti, about 10 miles southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It is difficult to get much information about the tragedy at this time, as many communication lines are down; however, we know that there is a great amount of destruction and numerous deaths. Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, was among the dead.

Archbishop Dennis Schnurr has requested that all parishes take up a second collection this weekend, Jan. 16-17, to support the humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts that will be taking place in Haiti. This collection will go to address as many aspects of this crisis as possible, including responses from the U.S. bishops and the Church in Latin America, and the work of Catholic Relief Services.

To keep updated about the Church's relief efforts during this crisis, please visit Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops websites at www.crs.org and www.usccb.org. Archdiocesan offices have also heard back from a couple of our missionaries living in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic away from the epicenter of the earthquake, and they are okay.

CRS has also prepared resources for Catholic educators and youth ministers, which you can access at http://education.crs.org/. Thank you for keeping the people of Haiti in your ongoing prayers.

Annual Archdiocesan Catholic Relief Services’ Conference

crsHolding the Earth Lightly: A Call to Care for People and the Planet is the theme of the fourth annual Catholic Relief Services Conference Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 at Kennedy Union at the University of Dayton.

Dr. Shaun Ferris, Senior Technical Advisor of Agriculture and Environment for Catholic Relief Services, will be the keynote speaker at the conference. Dr. Ferris is a food aid expert, who provides technical assistance to CRS programs overseas with an emphasis on agro-enterprise development. This includes developing best practices that enable poor farming communities to engage with markets more successfully. As a result, new methods are now being implemented in more than 35 countries that provide better incomes for farmers.

Download printable flyer

Register for conference!

Our breakout sessions are:

First Session of Workshops (Choose One)

Just Environmental Spirituality
Sister Leanne Jablonski, Director of the Marianist Environmental Education Center, will answer the question, can we learn from nature’s rhythms and balance to act in greater care for our earth? Be refreshed through a guided reflection on nature’s beauty, scripture, saints, contemporary sages, and church social teaching. Explore your environmental ethics and spirituality and sustainable ways to simplify. Receive resources for prayer, spiritual growth and group educational programs.

Co-creating a Sustainable Future
Sister Paula Gonzalez S.C., a lecturer, facilitator and consultant in the area of ecospirituality, notes the Vatican Council called us to 'read the signs of the times'. Current ecological and social challenges on our planet are sobering. What might happen if we humans recognize these realities as a call to energizing creativity and respond by accepting our role as co-creators of a future of harmony and balance? It can be exciting!

Everyday Environmental Choices
Kelly Bohrer and Mary Niebler , both from UD’s Center for Social Concern, will explore the easy, everyday changes you can make to lighten your environmental footprint while still living a happy and healthy life.

Second Session of Workshops (Choose One)

The Church’s Growing Environmental Tradition
Tony Stieritz, the director of the Archdiocesan Catholic Social Action Office, will discuss the growing environmental tradition of the Church as proclaimed by our recent popes and the bishops, especially Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate and his messages regarding climate change.

Human Doings by Human Beings
Ralph Dull, a lifetime farmer, world traveler, author of Nonviolence is Not for Wimps, a conscientious objector to war, and a Co-Founder of the Dayton International Peace Museum, will discuss the energy initiatives taking place at his family farm in Brookville, Ohio. Mr. Dull established the Green Energy Information Center on his farm.

Called to be Stewards of Creation: Forming a Green Team in Your Congregation
Marilyn Baumer, Louise Snyder and David Sullivan, parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi, will discuss the Catholic call to environmental stewardship and the steps involved in beginning a green team ministry. All members of the parish’s Precious Planet Ministry they will share practical ideas from their own experience and invite participants to do the same. Participants will be able to obtain resources to use in their own parish and discuss steps to implement ideas in a parish setting.

Third Session of Workshops (Choose One)

Changing Our Lives in Response to Global Climate Change
Sister Leanne Jablonski, Director of the Marianist Environmental Education Center , will teach us about the impacts of climate change from our region to the globe, and how inequities are predicted to increase. You will discover the best choices for lightening your carbon footprint. through programs of www.catholicsandclimatechange.org and Interfaith Power and Light www.ohipl.org Receive resources for individual, home, workplace and congregation education, prayer and action.

Addressing the Food, Fuel and Financial Crisis in Africa
Shaun Ferris, the Senior Technical Advisor for Agriculture and the Environment at Catholic Relief Services, will offer views from the field on the food, fuel and financial crisis experienced in Africa.

Urban Pollution
Mary Johnson and Willa Bronston, members of St. Benedict Parish, Dayton, Ohio, and Laura Rench will look at their successful opposition to a plan to reprocess hazardous military materials in their Jefferson Township neighborhood. Their efforts drew national attention.

Gifts that you buy for your family can also give the gift of a better life for families around the globe. Shop the Fair Trade Sale

You’ll enjoy...

The Catholics Confront Global Poverty Initiative, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, is inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 World Day of Peace Message: Fight Poverty to Build Peace. Our Holy Father declares: "Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world's poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights." To learn more about the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative download the flyers:

Operation Rice Bowl (ORB) is the official Lenten program of CRS.

Rice Bowls remind us of families sitting at tables all around the globe.

All across the Archdiocese rice bowls are appearing on tables, not for serving food, but to help Catholics observe Lent. There are 75 parishes, schools and a university participating in Operation Rice Bowl throughout the Archdiocese. CRS officials report the global food crisis and the worldwide financial downturn are impacting people in every developing country, as well as people here in the United States . Many families in developing countries are spending 75 percent of their income on food, leaving little else for other necessities. The rice bowl and its included Home Calendar Guide offer daily spiritual reflections during Lent along with a snapshot of people assisted by Operation Rice Bowl in the featured countries of Egypt, the Phillipines, Tanzania, the Honduras, Ghana and the United States. Also on the guide are recipes from each of the featured counties.

Operation Rice Bowl also benefits the people in our Archdiocese

Twenty-five percent of the Operation Rice Bowl gifts remain in the archdiocese and support local hunger and poverty alleviation efforts. In the past small grants have been given to The Other Place in Dayton, Interfaith Hospitality Network in Greater Cincinnati and in Springfield, the Caring Kitchen in Urbana, Catholic Social Services in Dayton, St. Vincent de Paul Society and the St. Vincent Stores.

Your parish's participation in Operation Rice Bowl could help Social Justice efforts

For the second year in a row the Catholic Social Action Office encouraged archdiocesan participants in Operation Rice Bowl to submit an application for two $500 grants. One grant is given for the best new participating parish or school and a second grant is for the most improved previous participant. The grants are designed to help further the social justice work in parishes or schools.

For more information about Operation Rice Bowl call Pam Long, Diocesan Director for Catholic Relief Services, at 937-224-3026.

2009 ORB Challenge Grant Winners

Congratulations to the 2009 ORB Challenge Grant winners!.

All three parishes were recognized for their enhanced efforts to promote Operation Rice Bowl. The grants support projects that promote Catholic Social Teaching, Justice and Global Solidarity at the parish/school.

 

CRS Fair Trade Learn about CRS' Fair Trade Program. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports Fair Trade programs through which disadvantaged artisans, farmers and farmworkers receive fair compensation for the goods they produce.

 

Take ActionJoin CRS' Legislative Network and advocate for issues that will help our sisters and brothers around the world.

 

For resources on human trafficking and immigration visit our resource page....

About Catholic Relief Services

CRS is the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. Working through local offices and an extensive network of partners, CRS operates on five continents and in 99 countries. CRS aids the poor by first providing direct assistance where needed, then encouraging people to help with their own development. Together, these approaches foster secure, productive, just communities that enable people to realize their potential.

CRS is also committed to educating the people of the United States to fulfill their moral responsibilities toward our global brothers and sisters by helping the poor, working to remove the causes of poverty, and promoting social justice.