Ethical Banks Offer Alternative: “Amidst the news of global market collapse, 11 of the world’s leading ethical banks met for the first time in March to form the Global Alliance for Banking on Values and to develop new strategies for economic cooperation.  The alliance of  ‘ethical investment’ banks, which has assets of more than $10 billion and serves customers in 20 countries, wants to offer a positive alternative to the current crisis in the global financial system. ‘Unlike their enormous mainstream contemporaries,’ said alliance cofounder and Triodos Bank CEO Peter Blom at the launch, ‘these banks are profitable, growing, and crisis resistant.  When it was unfashionable to do so, they stuck to simple, core banking services that balance people, planet, and profit.’”

“Beyond financial security, the alliance is committed to sustainable banking to promote responsible finance that benefits traditionally underserved communities.  Mary Houghton, alliance cofounder and president of ShoreBank Corporation, recently brokered a $68 million loan fund that will help Bangladesh’s BRAC Bank – the world’s largest microfinance institution – make thousands of loans to the poor in Tanzania, Uganda, and southern Sudan.  ‘We will lead the debate on the banking models we think could inspire profound changes in the mainstream financial industry,’ said Houghton at the alliance launch.  ‘We won’t just talk about change, we will work together to deliver it.’”

(From Sojourners, June 2009)

Immigrants Help the Economy: “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that $66 billion in new revenue over 10 years would have been generated if the 2006 immigration reform bill, which would have legalized most of our undocumented population, had passed. New legal immigrants to the U.S. would provide a net benefit of $407 billion to the Social Security system over 50 years, according to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy….Undocumented workers who were legalized in 1986 paid more in taxes and spent more because their wages increased by roughly 15% over five years. Even though spending on immigration enforcement has skyrocketed, the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. tripled to 12 million between 1990 and 2008. ...Trying to deport 10 million undocumented immigrants would cost at least $106 billion over five years, according to a study by the Center for American Progress. The White House Council of Economic Advisors concluded that immigration increases the U.S. Gross Domestic Product by $37 billion each year.  9 in 10 native-born workers experience wage gains because of immigration, according to a Giovanni Peri study. …”

(From Houston Catholic Worker, May-June, 2009)

Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia: “They were once enduring symbols of timelessness, celebrated in a rich tradition of folklore and song, but today the mountains of Appalachia are, quite literally, disappearing. Call it what it is: mountaintop removal. Eager coal companies, emboldened by years of business-friendly deregulation, are leveling forests and blasting tops off mountains to get at the thin seams of coal inside.  So far, more than 470 summits across the region have been reduced to rubble. ‘It’s almost incomprehensible that a company can destroy an entire mountain,’ says Rob Perks, director of NRDC’s Center for Advocacy Campaigns.  ‘But the destruction doesn’t stop there.’” 

“Lush, biologically diverse valleys are transformed into giant landfills where mining companies dump millions of tons of waste, obliterating wildlife habitat and burying once-clear mountain streams.  At least 380,000 acres of forest alone have already been lost, with nearly 500,000 more acres expected to disappear by 2012….The explosive blasts damage homes and leave whole towns covered in a layer of filthy coal dust, while huge slurry ponds pose an ever-present threat of bursting their dams.  All this so that coal companies can extract a fuel source that is one of the dirtiest and most polluting.  Burning coal in the United States contributes more than two billion tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere each year.”

(From Nature’s Voice, Natural Resources Defense Council, May/June 2009)

Alternative Energy in U.S. Grows: “Since 2007, San Francisco has been converting ‘yellow grease’ from restaurant fryers into fuel.  Now the city is building a plant next to its wastewater treatment facility that will also convert ‘brown grease’ – the noxious, smelly scrapings typically caught in restaurant grease traps – into biodiesel.  This is the first time a city has gone after the nasty stuff, which is usually treated as sewage.  The recycled grease will also help fuel the city’s sewage plant.  Nationally, sewage treatment accounts for 3 percent of total electricity use.

“The United States has elbowed ahead of Germany to become the world’s largest producer of wind power, and we’re poised to take the solar crown as well.  American wind capacity increased by half last year to 25 gigawatts, and the number is expected to grow with help from the stimulus package.  President Barack Obama plans to double the amount of power produced by renewables over the next three years.”

(From Sierra, May/June 2009)

Banned Arms Cause High Casualties in Sri Lanka: “Sri Lankan government forces killed or injured 25,000 to 30,000 civilians in the span of just a few days during its final offensive against Tamil militants, say humanitarian workers.  One worker said that the high number of casualties was caused by ‘a generous use’ of weapons, such as cluster and chemical bombs, which are banned by international treaties.  Today the conflict zone of Vanni ‘is like a burial ground, nothing left behind, no buildings, no churches, utter destruction,’ he said.  The aid worker said he could speak only on condition of anonymity because he was an eyewitness to numerous atrocities carried out against civilians in the battle zone.  He worked for an international humanitarian organization and had been serving in Sri Lanka’s Vanni district for more than a decade until he fled in mid-May at the height of the Sri Lankan military assault against the last Tamil-held areas in northeastern Sri Lanka.”

(From America, June 8-15, 2009)

Global Weapons Spending Hits Record Levels: “Worldwide spending on weapons has reached record levels amounting to well over $1tn last year, a leading research organization reported today.  Global military expenditure has risen by 45% over the past decade to $1.46tn, according to the latest annual Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).  Though the U.S. accounts for more than half the total increase, China and Russia nearly tripled their military expenditure over the decade, with China now second only to the U.S. in the military expenditure league table.  ‘China had both the largest absolute and the largest relative increase,’ says the Sipri report.  The increase ‘has roughly paralleled its economic growth and is also linked to its major power aspirations,’ it adds. …

“Sipri’s yearbook also lists the top 100 arms producing companies, excluding Chinese ones, for which figures were unavailable.  Boeing remained the top arms producer in 2007 – the most recent year for which reliable data is available – with arms sales worth $30.5bn.  All the top 20 companies are American or European. …Sipri estimates that in total there are about 8,400 operational nuclear warheads in the world, of which almost 2,000 are kept on high alert and capable of being launched in minutes. Counting spare warheads, those in storage and those due to be dismantled, there are 23,300 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of eight states – the U.S., Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan and Israel, according to the yearbook.”

(From guardian.co.uk, June 8, 2009)

Drug Violence Spurs Immigration: “Mexican immigration to the United States has been almost entirely an economic issue for the past few decades.  Politicians have fine-tuned their positions around what to do about illegal immigrants who supposedly take jobs from Americans.  Now, however, as violence on the border continues to increase, a new kind of immigrant to the United States is appearing: people seeking asylum to escape the drug-fueled brutality in Mexico.  More than 5,400 people were killed in the violence last year, and more than 8,000 in the two years since President Felipe Calderon sent thousands of troops into the drug war zones…. Already, there have been two celebrated cases of asylum-seekers: a journalist who fled the northern state of Chihuahua after drug cartels threatened him, and the mayor of Ciudad Juarez, a major border city opposite El Paso, Texas, who pulled out when drug traffickers threatened his family….

“The increase in violence, experts said, has replaced immigration as the major source of friction in U.S.-Mexican relations. In March, Mexicans ranging from Calderon to local editorial writers were outraged when a U.S. official suggested that the government had lost control of some parts of the country to drug lords.  The incident wasn’t smoothed over until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama visited Mexico and acknowledged that the U.S. bore a share of responsibility for Mexico’s drug wars, not only from the billions of dollars sent south to purchase illegal drugs but also because of the high-powered weapons that are purchased legally in U.S. border towns and sold to Mexican gangs….”

(From The Miami Herald, June 7, 2009)

Weak Gun Laws Add to Mexican Violence: “On March 23, 2009, the Brady Center issued Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws Arm Criminals in Mexico and America, a report chronicling the role of the U.S.’s inadequate gun laws in fueling the violence plaguing our southern neighbor. While the media and Washington have paid much attention recently to Mexico’s unprecedented levels of gun violence due to its crackdown on drug cartels, Exporting Gun Violence offers unique insight into the issues, explaining how the violence is fueled by weak U.S. gun laws and would be unsustainable without the flood of U.S. weapons entering Mexico.

“The report offers comprehensive solutions to the bloodshed that will effectively reduce Mexican drug gangs’ ready access to U.S. guns, while reducing the tragic toll of gun violence in this country as well.  The report explains that just as U.S. criminals in states with stronger gun laws are forced to obtain guns from states with weak laws, Mexico’s highly restrictive gun laws lead Mexican criminals to take advantage of America’s weak gun laws to arm themselves.  Over 90% of traced crime guns recovered in Mexico are from the U.S., mostly from border-states with especially weak gun laws, like Texas and Arizona.”

(From Legal Action, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Spring/Summer 2009)

Displaced Pakistanis Face Crisis: “A Catholic Church relief worker who recently returned from Pakistan’s troubled Swat Valley said the 1.5 million civilians displaced by a government crackdown on militants are facing ‘horrible conditions.’  ‘They are without proper shelter and cannot stand the extreme heat,’ Eric Dayal, national coordinator for disaster management of Caritas Pakistan, told Catholic News Service in a  telephone interview from his office in Lahore, Pakistan, May 20.  ‘Most of the refugees are coming down from mountain areas where the climate is always very cool,’ he said.  ‘Now, they are struggling in temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius,’ about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“Dayal said that in most of the relief camps in remote areas like Mardan and Swabi the displaced civilians lack proper sanitation and water supplies.  He said the displaced people suffer from health problems, including diarrhea.  Dayal said while displaced Pakistanis with more money have managed to reach cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi, where the conditions in camps are much better, the poor are left in camps in remote areas like Mardan after fleeing about 125 miles from the mountains.”

(From The Catholic Telegraph, May 29, 2009)

Economic Crisis Increases Hunger and Poverty: “Over the past two years, rapidly rising food prices have forced millions of additional families around the world into hunger and poverty.  Their situation has worsened as the economic crisis in the United States, Europe, and Japan is causing economic downturns in developing countries. The World Bank reports that 94 of 116 developing countries have been hit by economic slowdowns. Only one quarter of vulnerable developing countries have the ability to independently finance recovery efforts like job-creation and safety-net programs.  Yet such initiatives are needed more than ever throughout the world.”

Nana Poakwah, a government official in Ghana, coordinates food programs in his country. “ ‘Almost every average family in Ghana has been affected by higher food prices,’ Poakwah says.  Schoolchildren, for example, are getting smaller portions of lower-quality food for lunch because the 40 U.S. cents that the national school feeding program budgeted for each meal now buys a lot less. …” In the United States, food banks report that demand is increasing. “A truck driver for the Food Bank of Central and eastern North Carolina described what he experienced recently: ‘I just delivered up to Warrenton and I could hardly get out of the parking lot.  The people knew when my truck was coming.  They were lined up all the way up the entrance driveway and down the exit lane. Lots of kids…Lots of seniors…it blew me away!’”

(From bread, Bread for the World, April-May 2009)

Governor Richardson Honored in Rome: “After making what he described as ‘the most difficult decision in my political life,’ Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was given a front-row sweat at a papal audience and saw Rome’s Colosseum lit up in honor of his state.  Governor Richardson signed a bill on March 18 abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico.  Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe said he introduced the governor to Pope Benedict, saying, ‘Holy Father, this is our governor and he has just repealed the death penalty.’  The archbishop added, ‘And the pope nodded very happily in agreement.’  Richardson, a Democrat and a Catholic, had been a supporter of the death penalty; he also supports legalized abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, which the church opposes.  Archbishop Sheehan said, ‘We were able to help him understand our opposition to the death penalty and he did indeed change his view and signed the law. One thing at a time.’  The archbishop pointed out that it was not the Vatican or the Catholic Church that was officially honoring Richardson, but the Catholic lay community of Sant’Egidio.”

(From America, May 4, 2009)

USCCB Opposes Embryonic Stem Cell Research: “As the National Institutes of Health continues to gather comments on the draft guidelines that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a new campaign urging support for ethical cures and treatments ‘we can all live with.’  The ‘Oppose Destructive Stem Cell Research’ campaign, hosted by the bishops’ Web site, encourages viewers to contact federal officials to express opposition to the draft guidelines.  May 26, 2009, is the N.I.H. deadline for public comment on the draft guidelines, which would allow the use of federal funds for stem cell research on embryos created at in vitro fertilization clinics but not used for that purpose that would otherwise be discarded later.”

(From America, May 25-June1, 2009)

Sri Lankan Diocese Destroyed: “The Bishop of Jaffna is reporting that his diocese is torn apart and many parishes are destroyed after the recent fighting between government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers.  Aid to the Church in Need reported today the words of Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, who wrote a letter describing the situation of his people.  The prelate stated that his priests stayed with the people ‘to the last,’ till the fighting ended on May 19th, and one of them, Father Mariampillai Sarathjeevan, died of exhaustion while ministering to the refugees.

“The bishop, who went undercover to deliver aid to the people trapped in the ‘safe zone,’ said that 20,000 people died and 40,000 were injured as the conflict moved into that ‘small space of land.’…The bishop stated that 18 parishes in the heart of the conflict zone are now ‘totally kaput’. ‘I saw parishes falling one after the other,’ he added. ‘I have no access to those places now – no people, no parishes, no priests, no churches.’  The prelate continued: ‘Some of my priests were staying till the last with the people and were rescued by the army.  They are still in refugee camps.’  He explained that the priests are working to assist the refugees in Vavuniya, organizing Mass in the camps, visiting families and providing food supplies. The bishop admitted that he is ‘sad and grieved,’ but that they will be ‘OK.’”

(From Zenit, June 1, 2009)

Peruvian Bishops: Protect the Indigenous: “Nine Peruvian bishops from the Amazon region issued a statement urging the government to overturn a series of laws that they say jeopardize indigenous peoples’ rights and the environment in the Amazon River basin. The laws and the government’s development policy in the tropical lowlands are ‘cruel and inhuman efforts to seize the lands of people living along the rivers and in Amazonia because, in their own country, they lack the legal backing necessary to defend their just demands,’ the bishops wrote in the May 5 statement.  Indigenous communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon have been protesting since April 9, calling on the government to overturn the laws and set up a task force to address their grievances.  On May 7, they gave the government 48 hours to respond.  Congress met that day to discuss whether to overturn the laws, as a congressional commission and the government Ombudsman’s Office have recommended.  Forty indigenous leaders threatened to go on a hunger strike if their demands were not met.”

(From The Catholic Telegraph, May 22, 2009)

Shift in U.S. Policy on Nuclear Weapons: “President Barack Obama has begun a dramatic shift in U.S. nuclear weapons policy.  Speaking on April 5 in Prague, Czech Republic, Obama said, ‘Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st.  And as a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used nuclear weapons – the United States has a moral responsibility to act.  We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it.  So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.’”

“Four days earlier President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. In a joint statement they acknowledged their obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) to work towards nuclear disarmament and engage the other nuclear weapons states in arms control efforts.  As a first step they directed negotiators to begin talks on a bi-lateral strategic arms control treaty to be concluded by the end of the year.  The new agreement would replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II (START II) which expires in December 2009. Prior to START I, Russia and the United States each deployed over 10,000 nuclear warheads.  Today each country deploys 2,000-3,000.  A new agreement would reduce these numbers and maintain the verification procedures which are necessary for each party to have confidence that the other is complying with the treaty.”

(From NewsNotes, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, May/June 2009)

Vatican Reaffirms Support for Nuclear Treaty: “The Vatican’s chief representative to the United Nations has set forth a series of steps that will move the world toward the goal of eventual nuclear disarmament.  Speaking at the UN May 5, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, papal nuncio to the world body, reaffirmed the Vatican’s support for the nuclear nonproliferation treaty in offering five ‘concrete, transparent and convincing’ steps that could be achieved in ‘a short period of time’ to demonstrate the world’s willingness to end the threat that nuclear weapons pose.  He called for: adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; the immediate opening of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty that would prohibit the further production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium; an end to reliance on nuclear weapons as a part of military policy among nuclear states; giving oversight of the peaceful use of nuclear energy to the International Atomic Energy Agency and expanding its role to include the nonproliferation side of the treaty; and developing an agreement on the production of nuclear fuel to meet growing energy needs.”

(From The Catholic Telegraph, May 15, 2009)

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.”