Greetings friars and friends,

May the Lord give you peace! You are aware of the Franciscan Action Network (FAN) which was inaugurated in March of this year. It's an effort to bring together Franciscans in the U.S. to be a collective Franciscan voice calling our government to act in ways consistent with Franciscan values. SJB Friars are already members because the province is a member. Some of you may be members through your own religious community or your SFO fraternity. Those of you with a Franciscan heart but no formal connection are welcome to join, also.

Regardless of how you are members, we encourage you to sign up to be an individual member and to receive periodic e-mail alerts regarding action that you can take. You can do so by going to franciscanaction.org and filling out the information in the upper right hand corner.

You know of the efforts many are making to decrease their use of plastic bags. For those of you still using them, I have both a PDF document and a PowerPoint presentation that may provide some motivation. It describes in pictures the problems associated with plastic bags, especially those which are not recycled. We're also saving oil by not using/manufacturing plastic bags. I will send either to you if you request it.

There are many places where you can purchase cloth bags. I've seen them at Target, Macy's and Kroger and I imagine they are in other stores, too. Many environmental groups also sell them.

One option is something called a Green Bag. While not perfect in that it is made out of polypropylene, a byproduct of the oil refining process, it is itself non-toxic, recyclable, washable, and the standard bag is very roomy and sturdy. Also, these can be sold for fundraising.

Greetings friars and friends,

May the Lord give you peace! With the bulk of state primaries still ahead, you may find these resources helpful. Peace Action has published a guide that gives the positions of both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on a number of peace related issues.

In the January issue of Washington Newsletter from the Friends Committee on National Legislation, you will find a review of Senate and House votes this past year and the way in which your Congresspersons voted on them. NETWORK has a similar list on their website, though with some different issues.

The Center of Concern has a number of resources online, including position papers, bulletin inserts, explanations of Catholic Social Teaching, etc.

Also, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good once again offer a Voting Guide based on Catholic Social Teaching which can be purchased or downloaded.

And finally, you may be interested in the Zenit article about our U.S. Bishops' letter to the President and Congress urging them to make the needs of the poor their priority in the economic stimulus package currently before the Senate.

 

There are several environmental organizations that make it easy to write to Congress in support of legislation that protects the environment. Some recommended ones are:

Earthjustice, www.earthjustice.org/action;

Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsaction.org;

Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp;

Sierra Club, whistler.sierraclub.org/action/actionindex.jsp.

NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, has an easy way to stay updated on the issues in Congress and let your Congresspersons know how you want them to vote.You can go to the NETWORK web site, www.networklobby.org, click on Legislative Action Center and get information about bills and issues and also NETWORK’s position on each.You can then directly write your senator or representative, even if you’re not sure who they are. All you need is your zip code. You can go directly to the letter-writing site at capwiz.com/networklobby.

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has a similar site at capwiz.com/fconl/home/.