October is a month to give thanks for prayer efforts, words and actions for justice, peace and integrity of creation. While the first JPIC Committee was created more than 20 years ago and the JPIC Office was started six years ago, "social justice education" has been and continues to be part of our DNA as Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Saturday, October 2, 2021
International Day of Nonviolence
The International Day of Nonviolence is celebrated each year on October 2, the birth date of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence. According to the United Nations General Assembly, in 2007 this commemoration was established to "ensure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and nonviolence."
This year's the Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action 2021 has had as its theme "Nonviolence as a way of life in the web of creation." The days began on September 21, International Day of Peace, and ended today, October 2, International Day of Nonviolence and Gandhi's birthday. The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (CNI) believes that nonviolence offers an approach and tools to address the call to protect our earth, hence this year's theme. In fact, CNI is contributing to the implementation of the 7-year plan of Laudato Si' together with the Dicastery on Integrated Human Development at the Vatican.
This year our CCVI School, Colegio Central in Puebla (Mexico) has joined the initiative to recreate life from nonviolence actions in an intentional way. In fact, with joy and gratitude we share with you some of the edu-communication pieces made by the students in the framework of the Nonviolence Day. These edu-communication pieces are part of the educational effort to promote and embody in everyday life an inclusive love, forgiveness and resistance to systems of violence. We thank the educator Veronica Garcia for sending us these resources, and, in her, the entire educational community that are nurturing the active nonviolence of Jesus at all levels.
Hoping that today will be a day of peace as well as a time to re-encourage our commitment to nonviolence, we invite you to discover the message that these images want to offer you. We also invite you to pray with the prayer written by one of the students; perhaps it might serve as a significant resource for our personal or community prayer.
Nonviolence
We ask you Jesus, man of love
that on this day of nonviolence,
that women and men
value each other and help each other
so that a relationship of love and peace may be built,
so that this broken society may heal in harmony.
Amen.
Edu-comunicational pieces
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| Central School Nonviolence Day No more violence! We want peace! You are valued You are important You are loved |
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Insults, humiliation, discrediting, shouting, verbal aggression, harassment, abuse of authority, flattery, intimidation, physical aggression, abandonment, etc., can cause loss of self-esteem and independence, stress, terror, feelings of loneliness and isolation.
No to psychological violence
violence is not just hitting
When it comes to promoting non-violence towards women, men and women must participate equally. In relationships there must be respect and mutual care. Love and violence are incompatible.
Violence against the elderly.
Many older adults experience a series of inequalities that can accentuate their vulnerability and affect their quality of life. These inequalities have resulted in abuse and mistreatment.
Values that can promote nonviolence:
- patience
- generosity
- respect
- joy
- gratitude
- service
Día Internacional de la No Violencia
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| En el vitral de John Pett en Birminghan, Alabama, se encuentra un Jesús negro quien muestra las manos de la no violencia: una que detiene la opresión, la otra que tiende la mano para el perdón y la reconciliación. |
El Día Internacional de la No Violencia se celebra cada 2 de octubre, fecha de nacimiento de Mahatma Gandhi, líder del movimiento independentista indio y pionero de la filosofía y estrategia de la no violencia. Según la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, en el 2007 se estableció esta conmemoración para "asegurar una cultura de paz, tolerancia, comprensión y no violencia."
Este año las Jornadas de Acción Católica por la No Violencia 2021 ha tenido como tema "La no violencia como forma de vida en la red de la creación". Las jornadas comezaron el 21 de septiembre, Día Internacional de la Paz, y terminaron hoy 2 de octubre, Día Internacional de la No Violencia y cumpleaños de Gandhi. La Iniciativa Católica por la Noviolencia (CNI por sus siglas en inglés) cree que la no violencia ofrece un enfoque y herramientas para abordar el llamamiento a proteger nuestra tierra, de ahí el tema de este año. De hecho, CNI está contribuyendo a la implementación del plan de 7 años de Laudato Si' junto al Dicasterio sobre el Desarrollo Humano Integrado en el Vaticano.
Este año el Colegio Central en Puebla (México) se ha sumado a la iniciativa de recrear la vida desde la no-violencia de manera intencional. De hecho, con alegría y gratitud les compartimos algunas de las piezas edu-comunicacionales realizadas por las/los estudiantes en el marco del día de la No Violencia. Estas piezas edu-comunicacionales forman parte del esfuerzo educativo por promover y encarnar en la vida cotidiana un amor inclusivo, el perdón y resistencia a los sistemas de violencia. Agradecemos a la docente Veronica García por hacernos llegar estos recurso, y, en ella, a toda la comunidad educativa que están nutriendo la no violencia activa de Jesús a todos los niveles.
Esperando que hoy sea un día de paz así como un tiempo para re-animar nuestro compromiso con la no-violencia, te invitamos descubrir el mensaje que estas imágenes quieren ofrecerte. Así mismo te invitamos a orar con la oración escrita por una de las estudiantes; quizá pueda servirnos como un recurso significativo para nuestra oración personal o comunitaria.
La no Violencia
Te pedimos Jesús, hombre de amor,
que en este día de no violencia,
que mujeres y hombres
se valoren y se ayuden
para que se construya una relación de amor y paz,
para que esta sociedad tan quebrada sane en armonía.
Amen.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Sister Dorothy Ettling's Prophetic Worldview
Sister Dorothy Ettling (1940-2014)
Sister Dorothy Ettling, Sr. Dot, became a transformative educator.
She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, entered Incarnate Word Convent in San
Antonio when she was 18, took vows at 21, and ministered in orphanages and
schools from 1961 to 1974 in Dallas, TX; El Paso, TX; and Old Mines, MO. She had
earned an MSW at Worden School of Social Work at Our Lady of the Lake College.
The Second Vatican Council 1962-65, was a major event in the Catholic Church that shifted emphasis from clergy as the main part of the church to the people of God, all united through baptism. Religious congregations were called to renewal. The Incarnate Word Sisters took this call to conversion seriously and had a Renewal Team from 1974 to 1978. Sr. Dot was among the six sisters who were to help all learn to communicate and transform power structures. That team went around in a station wagon from convent to convent, from country to country. They invited each sister to listen on a deeper level, to get in touch with her own story, to share her story, and to listen to each other stories. As we know ourselves, as we know others, as we overcome fear, we can work to transform power dynamics. This is an ongoing unfinished process.
In 1978, she was elected to the sisters’ leadership team and from 1984 to 1990, she led the team. The congregation had about 700 members at that time. As a part of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, she influenced Sisters in many parts of the U.S. in renewal after the Second Vatican Council that brought greater service to people. When she was being interviewed in 1987, she said, “Today we are closer to the people and our orientation leads us to concern ourselves more with social justice and to defend their rights. Among us [the sisters] our relations have changed also. We live more by collegiality and the sharing of responsibility, something that has not always been understood by the Roman Congregation [formal Roman Catholic clergy in the Vatican].” (Ettling, French article, 1987, CCVI Archives) She was always aware of the most vulnerable.
After congregational leadership, instead of returning to social work, she focused on getting a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, Menlo Park, CA, and facilitating change. In the late 1990’s she joined the Education faculty at Incarnate Word. In this “third career,” she perceived education as the best way for her to promote individual transformation and systemic change.
Many kinds of work are needed, but at this time in the history of world transformative education is particularly important. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals , the Charter for Compassion, and Pope Francis’ document on “Out Common Home,” Laudato Si are all meant to be transformative education inviting us to new realities. Women's studies are a part of this.
Dr. Alfredo Ortiz notes: Sister Dot’s participatory worldview provides a deep philosophy for participatory and action research.: “Openness to cosmic awareness is the capacity for ongoing critical reflection on one's own deeply held beliefs within an evolutionary consciousness. It calls us to recognize not only the multiple worldviews in a global community but also the possibility of rediscovering reality in the paradigm of a participatory universe. This capacity may challenge us to rethink the meanings of development and participation. It will most likely entail a stretch in our thinking and in our teaching so a new intellectual basis in transformative education can collaboratively emerge”. (from Ethical demands of transformative learning )
Sr. Dorothy had written “At its core, the mission is about transforming us from VIEWERS of a disconnected and conflicted international reality, to PARTICIPANTS in creating a more interconnected and responsive global community."
Background of Sister Dorothy's work
A group of immigrant women strongly committed to solidarity with God’s global family responded to needs and formed relationships in 1869. Over the years the women institutionalized more and more, eventually being central animators in both educational and health care institutions. As they received accreditation to be a junior college in 1919 and soon a full college, they emphasized equity in education. The Incarnate Word Sisters’ constitutional idea to “promote human dignity” has prompted them to an underlying commitment to systemic change. For a period of years the largest number of Hispanic women who earned Ph.D. came from Incarnate Word College and Our Lady of the Lake College. When UIW firmly established Ph.D. programs, a large number of Black women earned them.
Following this trajectory of emphasis on systemic change in society, institutions, and in education, in the early 2000’s UIW faculty brainstormed with Sr. Dorothy Ettling how to create a more just world. Both males and females involved defined and committed themselves to women and children as the more vulnerable in the world. Women’s Global Connection was founded and since 2003 has extensively promoted education and research that could transform unjust systems. WGC hosted two major research conferences. The website of WGC shows some of the research with links to dissertations and extensive articles.
Capacity Building https://www.womensglobalconnection.org/research/capacity-building/ Early Childhood and Girls https://www.womensglobalconnection.org/research/early-childhood/ Microfinance for Women’s Economic Empowerment https://www.womensglobalconnection.org/research/microfinance/ Nutrition and Health: Agriculture, Food Security, Clean Water Access https://www.womensglobalconnection.org/research/nutrition-and-health/ Current faculty in Humanities, Business, Nutrition, and Health Care have been involved in research, traveling, and presenting in conjunction with WGC.
Dr.
Kevin Vichcales and Sr. Dorothy co-edited a book Reach Out Africa: Studies
in Community Empowerment, Sustainable Development, and Cross-Cultural
Engagement. Unfortunately she died before the final release of the book.
Worldview of Sister Dorothy Ettling as revealed in some of her
professional writings
These can be found by searching the UIW library resources using
her name:
Herbers, M. Sharon ; Antelo, Absael
; Ettling, Dorothy ; Buck, M. Alison
Journal of Transformative Education, 2011-04, Vol.9 (2),
p.89-108
Dorothy H. Ettling editor.; Kevin B.
Vichcales 2014
Ettling, Dorothy
New directions for adult and continuing education, 2006-03,
Vol.2006 (109), p.59-67
Series: New directions for adult and continuing education, no.
109
Edward W Taylor 2006
Edmund O'Sullivan 1938-; Marilyn M Taylor 2004
Ettling, Dorothy ; Hayes, Neomi
ReVision (Cambridge, Mass.), 1997-06-22, Vol.20 (1), p.28
... and collaborating with women who want to become change
agents in their own lives. Building on previous studies where women shared
their stories of personal change (Ettling 1994...
Buck, M. Alison ; Mercer, Wanita N ;
St. Clair, Norman S ; Herbers, M. Sharon
Adult learning (Washington, D.C.),
2019-08, Vol.30 (3), p.101-110
Dr. Dorothy,
“Dot,” Ettling was a contemplative practitioner, a spiritual leader,
a scholar, and a mentor...
When she died, the Pax Christi Vow of Nonviolence was found in her manual, the traditional place that IW
Sisters keep papers about their vows.
Over Thanksgiving Weekend, 1975, she, Ada Maria Ada Maria Isasi Diaz, Sr. Mary Walden, an Ursuline Sister, and Sr. Martha Ann Kirk drove to the first Women’s Ordination Conference in Detroit. They returned to their ministries and continued to raise questions on how women might be recognized created in the divine image. They thought of this in solidarity with United Nations goals of gender equality.
To enter the 2000’s she, Sr. Neomi Hayes, and Sr. Martha Ann Kirk participated in “Millennium 2000, Walking the Ways of Peace,” an Inter-faith retreat with about 500 people including Fr. Daniel Berrigan, SJ, Dec. 28 to Jan. 1, 2000. She was among those choosing to participate in civil disobedience at the Nevada Nuclear Test site. She incarnated her words seeking a peaceful world by being arrested in the first hour of the new millennium.
Friday, September 17, 2021
Día Internacional de la lucha contra la Trata de Personas.
El 23 de septiembre, Perú y México, así como muchos países en Latinoamérica se unen en un día de lucha contra este crimen. El 23 de septiembre, Perú y México, así como muchos países en Latinoamérica se unen en un día de lucha contra este crimen. De hecho, en el marco de la conmemoración del Día Internacional contra la Explotación Sexual y el Tráfico de Personas, la CLAR – Confederación Latinoamericana de Religiosos, junto a las Redes de Vida Consagrada de América Latina y el Caribe contra la Trata de Personas (entre ellas, Red Kawsay Perú & Rahamim México), invitan a participar de un Encuentro Virtual que se realizará el próximo jueves 23 de septiembre a las 10:00hrs (Colombia).
Aquí el enlace de la agenda:
Más información aquí: https://www.clar.org
Un recurso para orar ese día:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ShtLoXMx8ax0_AtF9cI7qqDcGmcPJF2K/view
Más información aquí: https://www.clar.org
Un recurso para orar ese día:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ShtLoXMx8ax0_AtF9cI7qqDcGmcPJF2K/view
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