Pax Christi and Laudato Si' Movement Texas Chapter invites all to join the studies
on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear campaign
Tuesday August 5, 2025 7pm by zoom
Justicia, Paz y Tierra / Justice, Peace and Earth
Blog
Thursday, July 17, 2025
DANGERS, RISKS, PEACEMAKING TOGETHER
Monday, June 23, 2025
Paz con justicia
Te invitamos a sumarte a esta oración comunitaria por la paz con justicia: para alzar nuestras voces junto a las personas más vulnerables, acompañar a quienes han sido olvidadas y renovar el compromiso con un mundo donde la dignidad sea el camino. Oramos con esperanza profética y confianza firme.
Paz con justicia
Verbo hecho carne entre los más vulnerables,
que la paz sea más fuerte que la amenaza de la guerra;
que sea refugio para quienes se ven forzados a huir,
protección para quienes viven amenazados por la extorsión,
y valentía para quienes se niegan olvidar
a sus seres amados desaparecidos.
Que la paz brote de la valentía
de las comunidades que recuerdan,
hablan desde la verdad y resisten al silencio.
Que la paz transforme las políticas que oprimen o criminalizan.
Que la paz acompañe a quienes nutren la justicia
con decisiones cotidianas.
Dios de justicia y paz,
haz que nuestra paz sea activa, desarmante y sanadora.
Que acompañemos el dolor de nuestro pueblo y el clamor de la tierra comprometidas con una paz que no excluye ni olvida.
Te lo pedimos en el nombre de Jesús,
Verbo Encarnado,
que camina entre nosotras, nos interpela,
y confía la paz a nuestras manos y corazón.
Amén.
Peace with Justice
Join us in this community prayer for peace with justice, lifting up the vulnerable, standing with the forgotten, and committing to a world where dignity prevails. Let’s pray together with prophetic hope and steadfast trust.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Sisters Speak Out in Washington DC
On July 24 at 10am Eastern Time, representatives from about 50 religious congregations of women and justice promoters will be gathering in Washington DC to pray and speak for the vulnerable, the underprivileged and the forgotten.
Religious women have been advocating for the rights of the oppressed for centuries. They continue to work in hospitals, universities, schools, community and social support service centers, and the places that may be abandoned or untouched by the interest of today's world. They advocate for the vulnerable people affected by the challenges brought by a system that is being threatened by control, power, and greed which recently targets the education system, health system, immigration system, environmental regulatory system, and social services. There have been a staggering fears and violence in the community usually affecting those on the fringe of the society.
Currently, immigrants are being pictured as criminals or belonging to gang members who have intentions of creating havoc, and destruction in the country. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" attacks immigrants by using billions of dollars of taxpayers money to build detention facilities and obstructions to nature that will only hurt life forms apart from the fear and harm that the prison system can cause to our fellow human beings. On a relevant note, the whole world commemorates June 20 as the World Day of Refugee. The people all over world recognize the need of people to migrate from one place to another due to threats of war, political unrest, security concerns, and climate crisis.
The current budget planned through the "One Big Beautiful Bill" for the country will also impact the health of the vulnerable seniors, physically and financially challenged individuals. The bill targets these vulnerable members of our populations by cutting funds for Medicaid, SNAP, and the Child Tax Credit Program. What actions of mercy are we called to embrace in today's generation?
Another vulnerable members of our society is the nature. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" will allow sales of public lands for fossil fuel production. This means that more land will be potentially abused and left into the hands of businessmen whose objective is to gain more money. Unfortunately the laws are not protecting the land and the people from harm while this only perpetuate extractivism. The oil and gas industries have already caused harm to nature with so many hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells that are causing unregulated methane exposure in large part of United States. A healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human rights as recognized in United Nations (UN) Resolutions in 2021 from the Human Rights Council and General Assembly in 2022. A healthy environment paves way for accessible clean water, land, and air which are key to 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. How can we have quality air, land, and water accessible for all?
WHAT: Sisters Speak Out: Prayer and
Public Witness for Immigrants and a Just Economy
WHO: Speakers include Sister of Mercy
Mary Haddad, RSM, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, and
Missionaries of Christ Jesus Sister Norma Pimentel, MCJ, executive director of
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, among others.
WHERE: Capitol Hill, corner of Constitution
& 1st St NE (across from Russell Senate Office Building)
WHEN: Tuesday, June 24, 10:00 a.m. ET
For more information, go to Sisters Speak Out! information, go to Sisters Speak Out!
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A prayer of love, Suscipe Prayer of St Ignatius
Whatever I have or possess, it was you who gave it to me;
I restore it to you in full,
and I surrender it completely to the guidance of your will.
Give me only love of you together with your grace,
and I am rich enough to ask for nothing more. Amen.
Advocacies:
Save Medicaid - Action Network
Save SNAP-Ed – We need your voice!
Stop “One Big Beautiful Bill”: Tell Your Two Senators ‘Vote NO on Reconciliation Bill That Would Fund Cruel Border Policies and Mass Deportation’
Protect Arctic public lands from the administration’s attacks | NRDC
Stop the Sell of Public Lands in One Big Beautiful Bill
Protect the Solar and Clean Energy
Farm Aid Actions
Relevant Articles:
USGS Touts Potential Oil and Gas Resources Beneath Public Lands in Updated Survey - Inside Climate News
How Trump’s big beautiful bill will raise household energy costs • Nevada Current
New analysis: 250 million acres eligible for sale in newly updated budget rec bill | The Wilderness Society
Senate Committee Pushes Extreme Land Sell-off in Reconciliation
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” hurts farmers and communities – Farm Aid
Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment | OHCHR
Clean air as a human right
In historic move, UN declares healthy environment a human right
Monday, June 16, 2025
“No Kings” Demonstrations, the Pope Praying
“No Kings” Demonstrations, the Pope
Praying
On June 14, 2025, a few million U.S.
people participated in the “No Kings” demonstrations in multiple places to
indicate the people of the U.S. in 1776 chose to have a democracy with three
branches and a constitution, not a king.
In the U.S. the principals of democracy are being eroded. Principals of
respect for U.S. law and international law are not being upheld. The vulnerable are suffering and immigrants
are being denied their rights under international law. All this violates Catholic Social Teaching
that emphasizes respect for human dignity.
Various groups came together to host
“No Kings,” among them the Women’s March. In the week before the demonstration,
50,000 people participated in the online Nonviolence Training provided by the Women’s
March. What a valuable and powerful
thing for the future of our country---ideas and methods based on Martin Luther
King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus ideas especially in Matthew 5.
In Travis Park in San Antonio, Texas,
Sr. Martha Ann Kirk and Sr. Jean Durel had a table of art supplies for young
people who might like to create for Artistic
Bridges. This is a global education
project in many languages to build healing, understanding, and unity among 4-
to 18- year old’s of the world which was initiated by Sr. Martha Ann and is
hosted by the Charter for Compassion. Young
people in six countries are participating so far and their exhibit books
can be seen online and copies were there printed out including the latest
pictures that Jude of Hebron, Palestine, gave to Sr. Martha Ann when she had a
lovely visit to their home in May.
Approximately 2,000 people were in
the park and on the march through the streets of downtown San Antonio. Many speakers participated and Sr. Martha Ann
wrote a dramatic piece and did pantomime and dance assisted by Rev. Julie Rowe
and Sarah Davis. This is the text:
Reader 1: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that 16
million more people will be uninsured as a result of the House-passed budget
bill.
And, new research from the
University of Pennsylvania and the Yale School of Public Health show that more
than 50,000 people will die each year from these attacks on Medicaid, SNAP, and
the Affordable Care Act.
Reader 2: Do you mean more than 50,000 people will die each year from these
attacks on Medicaid, SNAP, and the Affordable Care Act?
Reader 1: More than 50,000 people will die each year from these attacks on
Medicaid, SNAP, and the Affordable Care Act.
(Song copies were given to participants to sing as this was danced.)
“Hold
on to Love” by JesseManibusan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtrbxIW7bRo
Verse 1. There
is a place for the sadness. Hold on to love. There is a season of gladness.
Hold on to love. When pain and confusion
seem endless, hold on to love. We cultivate healing through kindness. Hold on
to love.
Refrain: Hold
on to love. Hold on to love where hope is found. Hold on to love where joy
abounds. Hold on to love where grace and mercy's overflowing. Hold on to love.
Verse 2. When
terror and fear overwhelm us, hold on to love.
Courage and faith will sustain us. Hold on to love. When violence seeks
to destroy us, hold on to love. Acts of compassion restore us. Hold on to love.
Repeat Refrain.
Verse 3. When
hatred is used to divide us, hold on to love.
Wisdom and truth reunite us. Hold on to love. When prejudice poses as
freedom, hold on to love. Dignity means “all are welcome!” Hold on to love. Repeat Refrain. Hold on to love.
Reader 2: Catholic Relief Services helps our sisters and brothers all over
the world because we are one human family.
The White House has proposed cuts to international assistance. These mean the lives of millions will be
significantly impacted.
Reader 1: It means cuts to long-term opportunities: education, livelihoods
and safer communities. It means cuts to
lifesaving necessities: water, food and shelter.
The administration terminated all
but two of Catholic Relief Services school lunch programs,
leaving nearly 800,000 children
without their only meal starting in July.
Reader. 2: Leaving nearly 800,000 children without their only meal starting
in July.
Reader 1: Leaving nearly 800,000 children without their only meal starting
in July.
(Sung and danced) Darkness Cannot
Drive Out Darkness https://katesutherland.ca/track/1753051/only-love-can-do-that
"Darkness cannot drive out
darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do
that."
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their
dreams."
- Eleanor Roosevelt. Music from Woodlandy Dandies "If I Were a
Tree" by Kate Sutherland
With faith, hope, and love, let us
like the prophets announce the beautiful dreams for the future and not get
trapped in despair and anger. With all God’s global family we unite in love compassionately
caring for each other.
Also on June 14, new Pope Leo XIV, spoke
online to a U.S. audience in the stadium in Chicago, his home town and to
the world. According to the Chicago Sun
Times, he said: “It’s a pleasure for me to greet all of you
gathered together in White Sox park on this great celebration as a community of
faith,” Pope Leo said in his opening remarks. “I want to both express my
gratitude to you and also encourage you to continue to build up community [and]
friendship as brothers and sisters in your daily lives, in your families, in
your parishes, in the archdiocese and throughout the world.”
In Chicago, Cardinal Cupich also
used the occasion to speak out about immigration and the treatment of
undocumented people in the U.S.
“It is wrong to scapegoat those who
are here without documents,” Cupich said during his homily. “For indeed, they
are here due to a broken immigration system. And it is a broken immigration
system which both parties have failed to fix.
Cupich encouraged those gathered to
look to the undocumented and find qualities they share in common.
“So many of the undocumented have
for decades been connected to us,” Cupich said. “They are here not by invasion,
but by invitation — an invitation to harvest the fruits of the earth that feed
our families; an invitation to clean our tables, homes and hotel rooms; an
invitation to landscape our lawns; and yes, even an invitation to care for our
children and elders.”
Cupich said that by looking for
connections instead of differences, people can “respond to this moment and thus
reclaim our calling to live as authentic persons in the image of divine
persons.”