Can Financial Institutions Value the Common Good?: “Returning to Rome from Davos, Switzerland, and the 2010 World Economic Forum on Feb. 1, the secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, Lesley-Anne Knight, confessed to ‘mixed feelings’ about the forum’s outcomes. The Davos event each year brings together international business, political, academic and social leaders to discuss the pressing economic and social problems of the capitalist world.  This year’s discussions were distracted by events in Haiti, but there was still plenty of time to review the structural challenges within the world’s economic system.  ‘The World Economic Forum is good at responding to crises,’ Knight wrote on the Caritas blog, ‘at identifying innovative solutions, at tackling new challenges – in the words of this year’s theme, at ‘rethinking, redesigning and rebuilding.’  But what concerns me is that the old, chronic problems of the world – like poverty, for instance – should not be neglected.’

“Knight observed that at a forum she hosted on bringing values into global economics, ‘The discussions made clear that international institutions are underperforming on core objectives such as poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth, human security, conflict avoidance and many more.’ … Knight brought Caritas Internationalis’s unique perspective on development to the forum.  ‘Finance has been focused on financial mechanisms, profits, and bonuses,’ she said.  ‘Human beings were left out, with dire consequences for us all, especially the poor.   For humanitarian organizations such as Caritas, the human person must be at the heart of everything we do.  But this should equally be applied to economic systems, which are ultimately at the service of humanity.’...Knight wonders, ‘Can our financial institutions now put these [ideals] into practice? Can they be motivated not solely by profit, but also genuinely serve the common good? Will development aid be targeted at meeting the needs of the poor rather than the national interests of donors?  As Caritas people, as the sign and action of God’s love for all humanity, this must remain our hope.”

(From America, Feb. 15, 2010)

Shareholders Seek Input on Executive Pay: “The effort to give stockholders a ‘say on pay’ – determining the compensation packages of companies’ top executives – gained traction in 2009 as 38 publicly traded companies said they would address compensation issues.  While some companies saw the writing on the wall regarding executive pay in the slumping economy of 2009 and pledged to adjust pay packages, others still resisted.  At Cisco Systems, the technology corporation, shareholders forced a vote on the issue for the second year in a row in 2009.  They prevailed this time, garnering 51.4 percent of all shares voted.  The issue has also picked up steam in Washington, where government officials rescued financial firms through its Troubled Assets Relief Program and joined the outcry when some bailed-out firms still awarded hefty bonuses to top executives.”

(From America, Jan. 18-25, 2010)

Faith Leaders Need to Address Climate Change: “Leading evangelicals and climate scientists met on Capitol Hill in November to urge policymakers to tackle the issue of climate change.  The briefing, which opened with a prayer to the ‘God of the bible and the genome,’ was the latest effort by the Scientists and Evangelicals Initiative, a program of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.  The alliance offered a model of cooperation on a subject that sometimes stymies politicians.  ‘The threat of climate change has become a weapon in a political and partisan battle in Congress,’ Center founder Eric Chivian said at the press briefing.  ‘We are squandering the possibility of our being a responsible leader among nations.’  By fusing facts with faith, the group aims to strengthen the case for swift environmental action.  Renowned marine biologist Nancy Knowlton from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography told Sojourners that ‘the science on climate change is in,’ but stressed the need for faith leaders to translate scientific truths into moral imperatives. Deborah Fikes, executive adviser to the World Evangelical Alliance, is one such leader.  ‘It’s not popular for me to be on this side of the issue,’ she said at the briefing.  ‘But as a matter of conscience, I don’t have a choice.’”

(From Sojourners, Feb. 2010)

Climate Change: Far-reaching Consequences in Arctic: “A new WWF study reveals how human-induced climate change in the Arctic will likely result in more serious global implications than previously thought.  In Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications, our scientists conclude that a marked increase in greenhouse gases and sizeable shifts in weather patterns in the Arctic could disrupt the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.  Our report came into play at the U.N. climate meetings in Copenhagen last month.  The impact of shrinking Arctic sea ice, among other trends we studied, was a part of discussions as government representatives worked on a global agreement on climate change. …

“Building upon previous research by WWF scientists and partner organizations, the August 2009 study describes the most recent findings on declining sea ice, glacier retreat, ocean temperatures and permafrost thaws.  Among the findings: Arctic air temperatures have climbed at almost twice the global average rate over the past decades, and melting Greenland – which is happening faster than expected – may have contributed almost 25 percent of the global sea level rise of the past 13 years. The report also shows how these changes and the feedback effect – where indirect changes are triggered by direct changes – will cause global ocean circulation to shift, sea levels to continue to rise, and large stores of carbon and methane  to be released into the atmosphere. ‘Recent observations strongly suggest that climate change may soon push some systems past tipping points, with global implications,’ the study concluded.”

(From focus, World Wildlife Fund, January/February 2010)

U.S. Congress Members Urge Easing Gaza Blockade: “Fifty-four members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter asking President Obama to press Israel to ease the blockade of the Gaza Strip.  The letter was initiated by Representatives Jim McDermott of Washington and Keith Ellison of Minnesota.  McDermott and Ellison, both Democrats, wrote that they understand the threats facing Israel from the ongoing Hamas terror activities against Israeli citizens but that ‘this concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip … We ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts.’  They added that the blockade has hampered the ability of aid agencies to do their work in Gaza.”

(From America, Feb. 15, 2010)

Amazon Rainforest Dam Approved by Brazil: “Brazil has approved the controversial construction of a giant hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon, defying a 20-year protest by indigenous and environmental campaigners who say that the project will devastate the surrounding rainforest and threaten the survival of local tribes….The $17 billion dam in the northern state of Para will be  the world’s third-largest and could provide electricity to 23 million homes, a supply that the Government says is vital to the country’s economic growth.  Critics argue that the flooding of 500 sq km of rainforest will damage fish stocks and wildlife and force the displacement of indigenous peoples.  Carlos Minc, the Environment Minister, said on Monday that the land flooded would be a fraction of the 5,000 sq km originally planned.  ‘The environmental impact exists but it has been weighed up, calculated and reduced,’ he said.  ‘Not one Indian on indigenous land will be displaced.’ 

“However, groups on land not demarcated as tribal territory – a distinction often labeled a get-out clause by indigenous campaigners – still stand to lose their homes.  Mr. Minc said that they would be compensated.  Indigenous groups complain that they were not properly consulted over the project, which Megaron Tuxucumarrae, a chief of the Kayapo tribe, said would destroy the environment that his people had taken care of for millennia. ‘We are opposed to dams on the Xingu, and will fight to protect our river,’ he said.”

(From The Times, Feb. 2, 2010)

Slavery in Our Time: “As the Obama administration is helping to improve the United States’ international reputation on human rights, more people are traveling to developing countries to meet the most vulnerable people and see the world from their perspective.  One of the worst realities is that thousands of human beings are trafficked every year and forced to become sex slaves, domestic workers, child soldiers, or agricultural laborers.  The statistics are shocking: 27 million enslaved people worldwide; a $12-billion industry growing faster than drugs or arms; 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year; and 80 percent are women and children.”

(From Global Exchange, Winter 2010)

Immigration Detention: A System in Crisis: “This year, the United States estimates that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, the Department of Homeland Security agency which oversees immigrant detention and deportation) will detain nearly half a million men, women, and children.  This is more than six times the number of people held in detention just a decade ago.  Immigrants in detention – including families, lawful permanent residents, survivors of torture, asylum seekers, children, pregnant women, and the infirm – languish in a detention system so massive and mismanaged that it has led to rampant human rights abuses. … People held in immigration detention are awaiting a decision on their immigration claims, or are awaiting deportation.  They are not serving criminal sentences.   Despite this fact, nearly the entire detention population is held in prisons or local jails.  It is not uncommon for torture survivors, victims of human trafficking, and other vulnerable groups to be detained in these settings for months or even years, further aggravating their isolation, depression, and other mental health problems associated with their past trauma. Immigrant families, many with small children, are being kept in jail-like conditions, despite the well documented detrimental effect detention has on the development and physical well-being of children. …

Many detainees report lack of proper medical care. Some have died as a result, often from the lack of simple treatments like antibiotics. Mothers are often separated from their children. “The rapid growth in the detention system has led to neglect and poor conditions inside facilities, such as grossly inadequate health care, physical and sexual abuse, overcrowding, and discrimination….More than eighty percent of immigrants in detention have no legal representation, leaving them at a severe disadvantage in making a case for release or asserting their right to remain in the United States. …A more nuanced approach to detention that prioritizes release and requires humane detention conditions that have the force of law is long overdue.”

(From Fellowship, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Winter 2010)

Hungry Americans: “While some U.S. households are cutting out entertainment to make ends meet during the economic recession, others are going hungry.  In 2008, the U.S. recorded the highest percentage of hungry households – or those with ‘low food security’ – since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) started tracking food security trends in 1995, according to a USDA study released in November.  Adults in 17 million households experienced disruptions to their normal eating patterns, or were forced to fall back on coping mechanisms such as community food pantries, due to the lack of funds.  Additionally, the number of children in food-insecure U.S. households has reached 22.5 percent – that’s 4.2 million more hungry kids than in 2007.

“10.4 million: Number of households in the U.S. with low food security.  Further, 6.7 million households report very low food security – in which meals are skipped because they cannot afford food.  42%: The percentage of U.S. households with incomes below the poverty line that were food insecure.  3.7 million: The number of African-American households that reported food insecurity.  Rates of food insecurity were substantially higher in African-American (25.7%) and Hispanic (26.9%) households than in white non-Hispanic homes (10.7%).  37.2%: The percentage of U.S. households with single mothers that experienced low food security in 2008.”

(From Sojourners, Feb. 2010)

Responding to Rising Hunger: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported that in 2008, one in seven U.S. households (14.6 percent) had trouble putting food on the table, up from 11.1 percent in 2007.  The 3.5 percentage point jump is the largest one-year increase since USDA began publishing this data.  There is every reason to believe that hunger has continued to increase through 2009.  As of September 2009, more than 37 million people – about one in eight Americans – were receiving SNAP benefits.  This is the tenth straight month of record highs, and participation continues to rise.  Children are faring worst.  USDA reported that 22.5 percent of children live in families that are struggling to get enough to eat.  ‘What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger,’ said Bread for the World President David Beckman.  Childhood hunger is not just a phenomenon of the current recession.  Since the beginning of the recession, 4 million additional children are living in families struggling to put food on the table – but well over 12 million children lived in such families before the recession began.”

(From bread, Bread for the World, Jan. 2010)

Bishops Urge Non-Partisan Work on Health Reform: “Three leading U.S. bishops called on members of Congress Jan. 26 to ‘set aside partisan divisions and special-interest pressures’ to achieve genuine health reform.  ‘The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available to all,’ said a letter signed by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Bishops William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and John C. Wester of Salt Lake City.  The three chair the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees on Pro-Life Activities, on Domestic Justice and Human Development and on Migration, respectively.  Although the letter did not refer specifically to the Jan. 19 election of Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts to the U.S. Senate, the bishops said, ‘Although political contexts have changed, the moral and policy failure that leaves tens of millions of our sisters and brothers without access to health care still remains.’”

(From The Catholic Telegraph, Feb. 5, 2010)

Pope Challenges Nations to Address Climate Change: “Lamenting ‘economic and political resistance’ to dealing with climate change, Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 11 called on the world’s nations to reach an agreement on the matter by the end of 2010. The pope’s statement was delivered as part of his annual address to foreign ambassadors.  Referring to last month’s United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where political leaders failed to negotiate a way to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, Benedict said the summit offered evidence of ‘economic and political resistance to combating the degradation of the environment. I trust that in the course of this year … it will be possible to reach an agreement for effectively dealing with [climate change],’ Benedict said. ‘The issue is all the more important in that the very future of some nations is at stake, particularly some island states.’  Many scientists say that man-made global warming is responsible for a dramatic rise in sea levels over recent years….

“Benedict also repeated previous calls for nuclear disarmament; an end to terrorism; safety for Christians in the Middle East; a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and the ‘protection of human life, including the life of the unborn.’ … Benedict expressed hope that talks scheduled for May in New York on nuclear nonproliferation would succeed because ‘enormous resources are being consumed’ to maintain and develop nuclear arsenals.  The arms trade, in general, is a scourge, he said, and helps to perpetuate conflicts and violence as in Darfur, in Somalia or in the Democratic Republic of Congo.’”

(From National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 22, 2010)

U.S., Russia Agree to Nuclear-Arms Accord: “U.S. and Russian arms-control negotiators have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ on the first nuclear-arms-reduction treaty in nearly two decades, administration and arms-control officials said Tuesday.  The deal, which was widely expected, would bring down deployed nuclear warheads and sharply limit the number of missiles and bombers that can deliver them. Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama administration’s lead negotiator, flew to Geneva Monday to help draft the final text and begin what could still be an arduous process of translating the agreement into treaty language, an administration official said. ‘There may be finessing and fine-tuning, but the issues, from our perspective, are all addressed,’ the official added.  The deal would bring the ceiling for deployed nuclear weapons down to between 1,500 and 1,675 per side, from the 2,200 agreed to in 1991, but nuclear-delivery systems would fall more sharply, to between 700 and 800 each from the current limit of 1,600.  In fact, both sides have already reduced their nuclear-armed bombers, submarines and missiles to below 1,000. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the agreement is a milestone, the first arms-control treaty to not only set goals on warhead deployments but also to establish strict limits, with verification measures to hold each side to those limits.”

(From The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2010)

SJB Friars Commit to Refugees, Migrants and Victims of Human Trafficking: The Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province based in Cincinnati, Ohio, held their 2008 Chapter at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana May 19-23. Of the many proposals passed, the Chapter delegates affirmed a resolution to learn more about the issues of migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking in order to better be able to respond to their needs. The resolution says:
 “We, the Franciscans of St. John the Baptist Province, commit ourselves to increase our awareness of issues surrounding refugees, migrants and victims of human trafficking in order to develop more proactive Franciscan responses on the provincial, friary and personal level.”

SJB Friars Commit to Non-violence: The Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province based in Cincinnati, Ohio, held their 2005 Chapter at the University of Dayton, May 23-27. Among the many proposals that were passed, the Chapter delegates affirmed a resolution introduced by their JPIC Office in which they committed themselves to “continued conversion to a life of Franciscan non-violence in support of a consistent ethic of life.” The complete resolution follows.

“As Franciscans, we affirm the sacredness of all human life and the inherent value of all creation. In a world where violence is rampant, we wish to be a sign of hope, actively promoting the preservation of life, peace among people and nations, justice for all and reconciliation. We commit ourselves to continued conversion to a life of Franciscan non-violence in support of a consistent ethic of life.”