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 continue to advocate for the vulnerable people affected by the challenges brought by any system such as education system, health system, immigration system, climate crisis, prison system, and the challenges of providing social services and human rights for the people who usually 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.  This 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.  What kind of environment and values do we want to embrace in today's generation?

The current budget planned through the "One Big Beautiful Bill" for the country will also affect the health of the vulnerable seniors, physically and financially challenged individuals.  The bill targets the vulnerable members of our populations by cutting funds for Medicaid, SNAP, and the Child Tax Credit Program.   

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 abused and left into the hands of businessmen whose objective is to gain more money and unfortunately the laws are not protecthing the land from harm that the businesses will cause in the process of extraction as well as after the land has been fully extracted to its fullest. 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.

Please join us for the event. 

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

Receive, Love, my entire freedom.

Accept the whole of my memory,my intellect and my will.
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’
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

“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.”