Reparar nuestra democracia

Pronunciamiento de la  Vida Religiosa en Estados Unidos ante los sucesos violentos registrado en el Capitolio.

"La Conferencia de las Líderes de Mujeres Religiosas (LCWR) se une al mundo en oración por la paz después de ser testigo de la violencia y la anarquía de ayer en la capital de nuestra nación. Estamos profundamente preocupadas por el estado de nuestro país y el futuro de nuestra democracia. Nos dolió el corazón al ver acciones violentas que amenazan no sólo con destruir la sede de nuestro gobierno sino con romper los lazos que nos unen. Saludamos y agradecemos a los miembros del Congreso que valientemente continuaron su servicio a la nación anoche incluso en medio del caos.

En nuestra nación cada vez más dividida, renovamos nuestro compromiso con el bien común y nos comprometemos a aceptar el reto de utilizar nuestra energía para reparar nuestra democracia y contribuir a la labor de construir una unión más perfecta. Invitamos a todas las personas de buena voluntad a unirse a nosotras y pedimos a nuestros líderes electos que señalen el camino".

Traducción realizada por esta Oficina.

El pronunciamiento de la Vida Religiosa en Estados Unidos fue publicada el 7 de enero del 2021. Texto original en inglés: https://lcwr.org/media/news/repair-our-democracy

LCWR Calls for the Welcome and Humane Treatment of Arriving Migrants

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is deeply troubled by President Trump’s continued denigration of those fleeing untenable situations in their home countries. These are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers who have been forced from their homes by unimaginable violence and insecurity; runaway corruption; and droughts and floods linked to climate change. These are women and girls fleeing intolerable situations of domestic violence. These are young men and women who have no access to quality education and no hope of economic opportunity.

These are courageous people who have rejected cultures of corruption and exploitation. They are traveling the same road trod by our forbearers who fled tyranny and violence in search of the American dream. They are people of hope and promise who only want the opportunity to contribute their toil and talent to this nation.

We reject the president’s rhetoric of fear and policy of division that poisons our politics. We choose instead to embrace a dream for America that is filled with hope for a nation united in service of the common good. We stand with Pope Francis who calls us to “promote the dignity of all our brothers and sisters, particularly the poor and the excluded of society, those who are abandoned, immigrants and those who suffer violence and human trafficking.”

We urge the administration to manage refugee arrivals humanely and in a manner that respects their dignity and rights under US and international law and to:

• Allow migrants to approach our border and ask for protection in the United States and to be admitted for processing in a timely manner. 
• Ensure that asylum seekers have access to legal counsel and receive a fair resolution of their claim.
• Guarantee that parents and children stay together after they are apprehended. Holding families indefinitely in detention or detaining parents while releasing their children violates the values of this nation and the standards set forth in the Flores settlement.
• Eschew detention of those awaiting adjudication of their asylum petitions in favor of alternatives that are more humane and more cost efficient.
• Direct Homeland Security to cooperate with faith-based and humanitarian organizations who are prepared to assist asylum-seekers.

The United States has a long and proud history of welcoming immigrants and sheltering refugees. Women religious have been blessed to be able to accompany and serve migrant communities across this country for a very long time. We will continue to welcome them as our national history demands and our faith requires.

LCWR Objects to Trump Administration’s Public Charge Rule

LCWR has issued a strongly worded statement opposing the latest attempt by President Trump to restrict immigration and punish immigrant families.  On September 22 the Trump administration issued a proposed change to Public Charge Rule that would punish immigrants going through official immigration processes and their families for applying for or receiving benefits for themselves or their children.  This would mean the use of Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicare Part D, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program or Public Housing, could render a family member ineligible for a green card or unable to keep their family together.  The Department of Homeland Security’s statement announcing the planned change indicates the rule will be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks.

What you can do:

• Learn more about public charge and the proposed rule changes. 
  • Visit CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.) to read about the proposed changes to the public charge rule. 
  • Download a fact sheet from Protecting Immigrant Families, Advancing Our Future. 
  • Speak out against the rule with statements, press, and social media (#ProtectFamilies #MyImmigrantStory #OurAmericanStory). 
• Plan to submit comments on the proposed rule change. Once the rule has been published and the public comment period opens, look to CLINIC for additional analysis and materials to help you draft comments. 

Full LCWR Statement: 

The US Department of Homeland Security’s proposed changes to the public charge regulation are yet another attempt by President Trump to restrict immigration and punish immigrant families. The new regulation would force parents to make impossible choices between the well-being of their families and the prospect of future citizenship.

The rule changes would dramatically increase the barriers to lawful status for low-income immigrants and their families. It could dissuade parents from obtaining benefits for which their children qualify, out of fear that they may not be able to regularize their immigration status in the future. Lack of access to public benefits programs will increase poverty, hunger, homelessness, and disease, and decrease children’s school attendance and general well-being.

This attempt to target the most vulnerable within the immigrant community violates the tenets of our faith and threatens the values of our nation. We are called by our faith to welcome the stranger and care for the most vulnerable and we are challenged by our national values to promote the welfare of our children and tend the common good. If we want our communities to thrive, all families in those communities mast have access to the care and services they need and to which they are entitled. The Trump administration’s proposed changes to the public charge regulation threaten us all.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious urges all people of faith to call for protection of immigrants, especially those who are most vulnerable, and to register their objections to this unreasonable and mean-spirited proposal during the 60-day comment period.

LCWR Statement on Sexual Abuse by Clergy

The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, as members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, support and echo their recent statement on Sexual Abuse by the Clergy.

"The recent news detailing the extensive and sometimes brutal sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests in the United States has left us at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious sickened and ashamed of the church we love, trusted, and have committed our lives to serve. We weep and grieve with all who over the decades have been victimized by sexual predators within the faith community and feel their pain as our own. We recognize that the damage done to many is irreparable.

Sexual abuse is a horrific crime, and the horror is so much worse when committed by persons in whom society has placed its trust and confidence. Equally difficult to comprehend is the culture within the church hierarchy that tolerated the abuse, left children and vulnerable adults subject to further abuse, and created practices that covered up the crimes and protected the abusers.

We call upon the church leadership to implement plans immediately to support more fully the healing of all victims of clergy abuse, hold abusers accountable, and work to uncover and address the root causes of the sexual abuse crisis. We believe that the work to implement the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its subsequent revisions has been an important and effective step in addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. We have watched the Conference of Major Superiors of Men diligently work to assure the protection and safety of children and youth and applaud its efforts. However, it is clear that more serious action needs to be taken to assure that the culture of secrecy and cover-up ends.

We also call upon church leaders to attend to the severe erosion of the church’s moral standing in the world. Its members are angry, confused, and struggling to find ways to make sense of the church’s failings. The church leadership needs to speak with honesty and humility about how this intolerable culture developed and how that culture will now be deconstructed, and to create places where church members can express our anger and heartbreak. We call on the leaders to include competent members of the laity more fully in the work to eradicate abuse and change the culture, policies, and practices. We are committed to collaborate in the essential work of healing and transformation that our church so desperately needs.

Finally, we recognize that the vast majority of priests have not committed abuse and are suffering greatly because of the actions of some of their brothers. We offer them our prayer and support as they continue their ministries in these very challenging times and as they too struggle to understand the complexity of factors that led to this deplorable situation."

View the statement on LCWR's website HERE

Promotores de JPIC para las Congregaciones Religiosas Se Reunieron en Chicago

El 5-7 de marzo de 2017 personal de Justicia, Paz e Integridad de la Creación (JPIC) y las/los promotores de las Congregaciones Religiosas de todos los EEUU se reunieron en Chicago, Illinois para su segunda convocatoria nacional titulada "¿Qué raíces regaremos? Cambio Sistémico y el Ministerio JPIC". Representando a las Hermanas de la Caridad del Verbo Encarnado fue Jennifer Reyes Lay, Asistente de la Oficina Congregacional JPIC.  Había más de cien participantes formados por mujeres religiosas, asociadas y mujeres y hombres laicos. En general, fue un día inspirador y desafiante para fortalecer las redes y las relaciones, aprender sobre la opresión sistémica y el cambio sistémico, y orar y reflexionar sobre dónde hemos estado y hacia dónde vamos.

La oradora principal de la convocatoria fue Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, profesora de Ética Social y Teología en la Escuela de Divinidad de la Iglesia del Pacífico. Su último libro es "Resistir al Mal Estructural: el Amor Como Vocación Ecológica-Económica."  Su discurso se centró en temas de su libro más reciente, que incluyó lo que nos motiva en nuestro trabajo para el cambio sistémico, las herramientas de cambio sistémico, las raíces del poder moral y las herramientas de resistencia. Nos recordó que "amar significa interrumpir la injusticia sistémica". Esto es parte de nuestro llamado vocacional, encarnar el amor de Dios en el mundo, cual significa trabajar por la justicia, la paz y el cuidado de la creación.

Éstas son algunas de las ideas impactantes compartidas por Cynthia:

·         Nos arraigamos en la promesa del amor infinito de Dios. Estamos llamados a recibir ese amor y también encarnar ese amor en el mundo.
·         Necesitamos tener una "visión crítica mística" que significa: 1) ver claramente lo que está pasando y desenmascarar el mal sistémico que trata de presentarse como bueno; 2) ver qué alternativas ya están en proceso de ser realizados o crear nuevas realidades; 3) reconocer los poderes sagrados que actúan en el universo para el bienestar de toda la creación.
·         El cambio climático es una manifestación de privilegios de los blancos y privilegios de la clase alta. Los que tienen más privilegio están contaminando a aquellos con el menor privilegio. La mayoría de los refugiados climáticos son africanos y asiáticos.
·         Haciendo poco a nada contribuimos activamente a la opresión y al mal sistemático.
·         Venimos de una rica herencia de "férreos subversivos ferozmente amantes". ¿Conocemos y compartimos estas historias? ¿Cuál es la historia de la que nos vemos parte?
·         De la sabiduría de Ireneaus de León, somos "criaturas de barro", húmedas por el rocío del Espíritu Santo para que podamos ser continuamente moldeadas por la Palabra (Jesús) y la Sabiduría (Espíritu) de Dios en quienes estamos destinados a ser. ¿Cómo mantendremos nuestra humedad?
·         Pando es una vasta red de árboles de Aspen con sistemas de raíces interconectados. Ella utilizó esa imagen para reflexionar sobre cómo podemos construir sistemas de raíces más fuertes unos con otros para mantenernos unos a otros nutridos y húmedos con el Espíritu Santo.
·         Necesitamos resistencia (detener el mal sistemático) y reconstrucción (crear nuevos sistemas justos).
·         La acción en un nivel de la sociedad afecta a los demás (individuos, familias, instituciones civiles, empresas, gobierno).
·         Hay muchas opciones para tomar acciones, y todas son necesarias. Estos incluyen: cambios en el estilo de vida, defensa legislativa, organización comunitaria, educación y concienciación, testimonio público, alternativas económicas, servicio directo a los necesitados, adoración y oración y reflexión teológica.

Durante el resto de la convocatoria hubo tiempo para conversaciones, construcción de relaciones y sesiones de trabajo sobre inmigración y refugiados, trata de personas, no-violencia evangélica, feminismo, defensa legislativa, Laudato Si y cuidado de la creación, y racismo. Muchos de estos temas y acciones son temas en los que las Hermanas de la Caridad del Verbo Encarnado ya están activamente involucrados y Jennifer compartió acerca de algunas de las formas en que los CCVIs han participado en la oración, la educación y la acción alrededor de la no violencia, la trata de personas, y el cuidado de la creación.

En el último día de la convocatoria, cada mesa tuvo tiempo para reflexionar sobre las siguientes dos preguntas: 1) ¿Qué necesita para asegurar un ministerio vital de JPIC en las congregaciones religiosas femeninas que trabajan hacia el cambio sistémico? 2) ¿Cómo podemos ayudar a los miembros del LCWR (coordinadores de justicia para mujeres religiosas) a fomentar esta organización? 
Hubo muchas buenas ideas y esperanzas compartidas para continuar apoyándonos y trabajando juntas para el cambio sistémico como congregaciones religiosas de mujeres. Hubo un apoyo fuerte para seguir teniendo estas convocatorias nacionales cada dos años, y en los años fuera de tratar de tener más reuniones regionales.

Después de reunirnos durante tres días en oración, educación y reflexión, nos fuimos con un renovado sentido de esperanza, energía y compromiso con el trabajo de justicia, paz y cuidado de la creación, sabiendo que estamos en la lucha juntas/os y estamos continuando una larga y poderosa historia de fiel resistencia a la injusticia y al mal, todo ello en nombre de nuestro Dios amoroso.

Take Action to Build Bridges, Not Walls!

LCWR is partnering with Faith In Public Life (FPL) in a prayer campaign to call on members of Congress to overturn President Trump's executive orders through public prayer vigils scheduled Feb. 17th-20th. These national days of prayerful action are tied to the anniversary of the Pope's visit to the border and the upcoming Congressional recess (Feb. 21-24th). 

One year ago, when Pope Francis prayed for migrants and refugees at the U.S.-Mexican border he transformed a dusty fence into an oasis of hope. Just days into the Trump administration, immigrant and refugee families are now at greater risk than ever.  We need to “Build bridges, not walls”.

We will be kicking off our campaign of prayer on February 15 when FPL will host a “tele town hall” with Fr. Jim Martin and Sr. Norma Pimentel to inspire listeners and give guidance on how to take action.  

1.   RSVP today to join our teletownhall on Feb. 15th at 2:30pm, to rally our communities before our days of action. Ask two stalwarts for immigration and refugee rights -- Father Jim Martin and Sister Norma Pimentel -- your questions about how people of faith can stay hopeful while protecting our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters.

2.   Join your community members and leaders February 17-20th to pray for and stand with immigrant and refugee families across the country. Stay up to date to find out what’s being hosted close to you at www.faithinpubliclife.org/bridgesnotwalls.

As people of faith, we respond with one voice: “Build bridges, not walls”. Together our voices will echo through the halls of Congress and throughout the land.  

People of all faiths will be holding vigils, protests, and press conferences outside their local Congressional offices. Learn more about when and where at “Build bridges, not walls” or take the lead and get a few friends together and plan to form a prayer circle at the office of one of your Members of Congress. Please Join us . . . Be a prayer leader . . . Signup here.

Click here to join a prayerful witness in your area to pressure and pray for Congressional leaders.

President Trump's attacks on our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters has begun - and an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. As a community of faith, it is our responsibility to defend our immigrant brothers and sisters. It's time for us to take action.

Inspired by Pope Francis as well as Muslim and Jewish leaders, we can send a powerful message that Congress needs to stand up to the President and we can reaffirm our commitment that the faith community won’t back down.

LCWR Statement on Recent Executive Orders

LCWR is Deeply Concerned about Executive Orders

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is deeply disturbed by many of President Trump’s recent executive orders. His misplaced priorities and denigration of the values that form the bedrock of this nation, threaten us all.

We are deeply concerned about the administration’s executive orders on immigration and refugee resettlement which serve only to threaten border communities, force our immigrant community members further into the shadows, and endanger those fleeing violence. These misguided executive orders do nothing to make anyone more secure and may well have the opposite effect.

Spending billions of dollars on an unnecessary and ineffective wall and further militarizing the border will divert funding from health, education, and social programs and will not make America safe again. In fact, such action threatens the health and well-being of border communities, the environment, and those seeking refuge in our country. President Trump’s orders, if enacted, will tear families apart, challenge our already stressed immigration courts, and deny those fleeing persecution and violence their right to asylum; all at enormous cost to our treasure and our souls.

The president’s attempt to enhance public safety in the interior by cutting federal funding to sanctuary cities and counties will have the opposite effect. It challenges local authority and threatens to destroy the hard won trust of the immigrant community. The order eviscerates prosecutorial discretion and places every undocumented person in the country in danger of immediate deportation.

Finally, we are appalled by President Trump’s order which bans residents of seven Muslim majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days, suspends refugee resettlement entirely for four months, and bars resettlement of Syrian refugees indefinitely. This is unconscionable in the face of the unprecedented global refugee crisis. More than 61 million people have been displaced from their homes, more than at any time since World War II. Some 21 million are refugees; most are children who have been forced from their homes by unthinkable violence. The Trump administration has forced all of us to turn our backs on families who are literally running for their lives.

This nation has a long history of welcoming immigrants and sheltering refugees. Women religious have been blessed to be able to accompany and serve immigrant and refugee communities across this country for a very long time. Catholic sisters remain committed to welcoming refugees who come to this country after passing through the U.S. government’s already rigorous screening processes. Halting or undermining the U.S. refugee resettlement program leaves vulnerable refugees, including women and children fleeing violence, in extreme danger and diminishes us all.

We strongly object to President Trump’s attempts to limit our ability to heed God’s call to welcome the stranger (Mt. 25:35) and to care for those most in need (Mt 25:40) and we are particularly concerned about rules and regulations that deny access to refugees because of their religion, race, or nationality. It is a violation of our faith and every norm of humanity.

We vow to continue to welcome refugees and minister to immigrants. LCWR and its members will continue to press for restoration of refugee resettlement, relief for families, an end to needless deportations, and the closure of all family detention centers. We will continue to advocate for compassionate, bipartisan legislation that fixes our broken immigration system. We will continue to stand in solidarity with families, regardless of immigration status, who labor daily to provide safety and security for their children.

LCWR is an association of leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has nearly 1300 members, who represent more than 38,800 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, LCWR assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.

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We urge you to share the statement and publish your own statements, letters to the editor, and opinion pieces.

There are many resources that can help you craft a letter or an opinion piece. Here are just a few that you might find helpful.

• Information about how to place an op-ed or letter to the editor in the top 100+ newspapers in the United States is available from the Communications Consortium Media Center.
• Helpful hints for writing a Letter to the Editor are available from:
•  NETWORK Catholic Social Justice Lobby
•  Reclaim Democracy
• Advice on writing an OP-ED article is available from
• Smith College's News Office
• Harvard Kennedy School Communications Program

We have all been encouraged by the many people, including many women religious, who have participated in marches and vigils and protests across this country. Your promise of welcome and shouts for justice are appreciated. Thank you for your continued commitment to stand up and speak out.

 

Our members of Congress and elected leaders at every level need to be challenged to do what is right and just. We know they listen carefully to the voices of their constituents. Please stand with us as we stand with refugees and immigrants. Call your members of Congress, (202) 224-3121and tell them that you are constituent, a Catholic sister, and that you will stand with refugees and immigrants of every faith. Ask him/her to stand with you and for our American values which demand that we be an open, inclusive, welcoming community.

LCWR and CMSM Open Letter to President Donald Trump

SILVER SPRING (January 18, 2017). The Presidents of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) representing the elected leaders of more than 55,000 Catholic religious sisters, brothers, and priests sent a letter to President-Elect Donald Trump reminding him of the gift and responsibility of leadership.

LCWR President, Mary Pellegrino, CSJ and CMSM President, Brian Terry, SA write out of their concern for the critical needs facing the country and the world today, and the call to respond through the service of leadership.

They express deep concerns about the “fractures and divisions” that “threaten the well-being and freedom of all Americans and those who have fled in fear to our shores and borders.” They urge all of us to commit to “respectful and dignified civil discourse.”

Sister Mary and Father Brian invite President-Elect Trump and his administration to join them in promoting the “common good” and  they renew their own commitment to “actively advocate against promoting the privilege of some over the needs of others and turning away from our shores those who are in need.”

They make this commitment in the context of the Holy Father’s message for the World Day of Peace and they urge President-Elect Trump “to join us in accepting Pope Francis’ challenge to political and religious leaders to apply the Beatitudes in the exercise of our respective responsibilities. ‘It is a challenge,’ the pope writes, ‘to build up society, communities and businesses by acting as peacemakers. It is to show mercy by refusing to discard people, harm the environment, or seek to win at any cost.’”

 The letter to President-Elect Trump reads as follows:

The gift of leadership is given to American leaders by the “Right of the People.” Leadership brings with it a great joy and a great responsibility.

We serve as Presidents of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), respectively.  Together we represent the elected leaders of 38,800 Catholic Sisters and 17,000 Catholic Brothers and religious priests who live and minister throughout the United States.  As elected leaders we know and share with you both the joy and the burden of this service. 

We and the members of our communities seek to be instruments of the reconciliation our people urgently need. In our poverty of spirit, we rely on the help of God and the example of Jesus, the one who came to serve us all. Since before the founding of our nation and often during its darkest hours, Catholic Sisters, Brothers and religious priests, ourselves often immigrants, have served the needs of both civic leaders and those on the outskirts of influence. We have chosen to live with those who were sick, dying or living in poverty. Our schools, hospitals and social services helped to build, shape and humanize American society by healing, educating and serving those in need regardless of ethnicity, religion, means or circumstance. Then and now, we strive to bring healing, hope and consolation in the face of sadness and despair.

As religious leaders, we are committed to contemplative prayer which compels us to take a long, loving look at what is real, to name its truth and to respond lovingly to its call through our service and leadership. We write today from this contemplative space, immersed in the Gospel call for all of us to grow in unity, peace, dialogue, and ultimately, conversion to the Reign of God. 

We are deeply concerned by the fractures and divisions—seen so clearly during this past election season—which continue to threaten the well-being and freedom of all Americans and those who have fled in fear to our shores and borders. We remember how we struggled at our country’s very foundation as strangers and pilgrims in this land. From this humble beginning, we celebrate how the United States of America has often been a beacon of hope and unity to a broken world. We rejoice in how our diversity has been our strength. America is at its best when its people come together to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles with ingenuity and creativity even going so far as to courageously risk their lives to transform conflict into peace. 

Jesus Christ’s Gospel of Love is the charter that moves us to action. In order to be “one nation under God,” we believe we are all called to live as true ambassadors of reconciliation, in all places and all times, so “that all may be one” (John 17:21).  We believe that we need a President who transcends party politics and personal agendas in order to heal deep divisions that threaten the stability of our nation.  We strongly believe that we all need to be dedicated to respectful and dignified civil discourse with those whose positions differ from our own. 

We pledge our own efforts toward this end. 

To the extent that the new administration seeks to promote the common good through its policies, practices and people, we stand ready to collaborate. We will actively work for the preservation of the dignity of all whose home is here in America and to welcome those who come to our shores in search of safety, freedom and a life worthy of their dignity. We will also actively advocate against promoting the privilege of some over the needs of others and turning away from our shores those who are in need. Together, we have the opportunity to advocate for and build a just, merciful and humane society worthy of the dignity of all. 

We invite you to join us in our constant prayer and hope that God might act in our hearts and through our actions as leaders.  We urge you to join us in accepting Pope Francis’ challenge to political and religious leaders to apply the Beatitudes in the exercise of our respective responsibilities.  (Pope Francis, World Day of Peace Message, January 1, 2017)  “It is a challenge,” he writes, “to build up society, communities and businesses by acting as peacemakers.  It is to show mercy by refusing to discard people, harm the environment, or seek to win at any cost.”

We pledge the service of our leadership and urge you to pledge yours toward this great endeavor of building a truly good and just society. 

We congratulate you on your inauguration and assure you of our prayers as you begin your service as President of the United States.

Original article published on LCWR website

LCWR Commits to Gospel Values in Post-Election Season

November 17, 2016

The presidency and staff of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious congratulate President-elect Donald J. Trump and promise to work with him to build a society worthy of our values where the dignity of each person is respected and all can flourish.

We thank Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton for her many years of service and sacrifice on behalf of our nation. We are especially grateful for her tireless commitment to promoting the wellbeing of women and girls everywhere.

After a difficult and contentious election characterized by partisan rancor and divisive rhetoric, it is time for all of us to ask forgiveness and be reconciled with one another. We are called to “. . . put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another, and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14)

Now is the time to heal the deep divisions laid bare by this bruising political campaign and to tear down the walls, real or imagined, which divide us by gender, race, class, geography, lifestyle, political party and belief. This moment, these times, require us to engage in deep contemplative prayer and to risk courageous action for the sake of all who call these United States their home.

Now is the time to make space in our hearts and our homes for the needs and concerns of all God’s people, the undocumented mother, the unemployed steel-worker father, and those children and elders consigned to live in poverty. It is long past time to make room in our politics for those who have been disaffected, disenfranchised, and discarded.

We recall the many times that Catholic sisters in the United States and around the world have been called upon to exercise courage in the face of fear and division. We promise once again to be the healing hands of God. We pledge to hold the needs and concerns of all in a contemplative space, in the heart of a loving and ever faithful God.

We recommit ourselves to the Gospel call to welcome the stranger, care for creation, establish economic justice, abolish every form of modern-day slavery, and promote nonviolence and just peace and we pledge to continue to work together with all people of good will to build God’s beloved community in this place we call home.

(from LCWR webpage)

LCWR Assembly Confronts Racism and Religious Life

(from the LCWR website)

During the course of the 2016 LCWR assembly in Atlanta, Embracing the Mystery: Living Transformation, we, the members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, affirmed a resolution committing

ourselves to examine the root causes of injustice, particularly racism, and our own complicity as congregations, and to work to effect systemic change  . . . and We pledge prayer, education, and advocacy and commit to using our collective voice, resources, and power in collaboration with others to establish justice which reflects God’s abundant love and desire that all may have life.

This set the context for what was to become a powerfully moving moment as we listened to Dr. Shannon Dee Williams provide an overview on the history of racism and US religious life.

The pain and discrimination suffered by women of color who joined religious congregations in this country became a palpably present truth which could not be denied. The words of one of the responders, Dawn Tomazewski, SP, resounded in our hearts:  “. . . not only does our country need healing but also our congregations. I want to make amends with these women; I need to make amends with these women.”

... Our hope for a better future lies in the rise of a deeper commitment to anti-racist work by increasing numbers of individuals and groups engaged in consciousness-raising discussions examining white privilege, systemic racism, and racist practices which will lead to concrete actions for justice in solidarity with people of color.

Download the PDF below to continue reading

Attachment: 

 Resolutions to Action -- Fall 2016

Sign on to LCWR Letter Calling for Civil Discourse

(From the Leadership Conference of Women Religious) 

Thanks to all who have shared LCWR's Call for Civil Discourse for the Public Good with your sisters and colleagues. We encourage you to continue to work with your staff to share the statement with the wider public through letters-to-the-editor and op-ed pieces in your local secular and religious press.  

We'd like to invite you to join us in the second phase of our campaign to promote positive and productive dialogue during this presidential campaign. Please join us in calling on candidates for the highest office in the land to pledge to engage in careful listening and honest dialogue that treats all with the respect that is their God-given right.

In phase two, we hope to gather the signatures of thousands of women religious on a letter to the candidates for president. We plan to deliver the letter to the candidates, the leadership of their political parties, and the press shortly after the national conventions.

Please help us gather the thousands of signatures of women religious we need to make an impact on the candidates and the public. We have just two weeks to get it done. We plan to close the letter for signatures on July 30.

You'll find an invitation and the letter at: http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51250/c/201/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19143.  

Please join us!  Sign the LCWR letter calling for civil discourse for the common good and invite your sisters to do the same!