IMMIGRATION  -  SAVING DEMOCRACY  -  STOPPING TRAFFICKING
WATER  DEPENDING ON PEOPLE 

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Catholic Sisters Air Radio Spot Urging Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Clinton Franciscan Sister Hilary Mullany recording the radio spot urging area citizens to lobby on behalf of just immigration reform. The spot announcement was produced and distributed by SUN - Sisters United News of the Upper Mississippi Valley representing the Catholic Sisters of the area. www.sistersunitednews.org 

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Catholic Sisters in Iowa are taking to the airwaves again in a radio spot urging immigration reform. 

Spurred by the December raids at meat packing plants in the Midwest, Catholic Sisters in Iowa 's women religious, including the Clinton Franciscans, are asking that individual acts of compassion expand into concerted efforts urging legislators and candidates to work for the new Congress to enact systemic reform of the country's broken immigration system.

The 30-second spot will air Jan. 10-19 throughout June on at least eight nine stations in Iowa beginning this week:

• Clinton, KROS- AM 1340 and KCLN-AM 1390 

• Cedar Rapids, WMT-AM 600 and FM 96.5  /  KISS FM

• Dubuque, KDTH-AM 1370 and KAT-FM 92.9

• Davenport, WOC-AM 1420

• Sioux City, KSCJ-AM 1360

Bookings in Des Moines, Ottumwa, Fairfield, Storm Lake and LeMars are being pursued.

Recorded by Clinton Franciscan Sister Hilary Mullany, and produced through Sisters United News (SUN), [ make SUN a link ] the communicators for twelve congregations, the spot's message is: 

Sister Jane did the Spanish translation of the radio spot announcement for use in Spanish-speaking media in Iowa.

“We need to make the system fairer, to eliminate the backlog of 15 or more years for people's papers to be handled, and a system to reunite undocumented people with their blood relatives, “said Sister Judy Callahan, BVM, Director of Hispanic Ministry for the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

Calls for comprehensive immigration reform have also come from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Iowa Catholic Conference. For more information, go to www.justiceforimmigrants.com.

This is the second time the area's Catholic Sisters have initiated a media message related to immigration. The first initiative was a state-wide billboard campaign to “Welcome the immigrant you once were.” 

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The billboard, produced and distributed by SUN, was displayed across the state in the winter of 2003 when anti-immigration forces were focusing on Iowa.

Sisters United News (SUN) includes the Sisters of St. Francis, OSF, Clinton, Congregation of the Humility of Mary, CHM, Davenport, Discalced Carmelites, OCD, Eldridge, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, RSM, Cedar Rapids as well as the Cistercian Nuns of the Strict Observance, OCSO, Sisters of Charity, BVM, Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family, OSF, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, PBVM, Sisters of the Visitation of Mary, SVM, Dubuque, all of Iowa.; the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, FSPA, LaCrosse, Wis.; the Sinsinawa Dominicans, OP, Sinsinawa, Wis.; and the Sisters of St. Benedict, OSB, Rock Island, Ill.

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“Saving Democracy: Revitalizing Citizenship”

A Public Forum to examine how citizens might respond to the current crisis in democracy around the world and the implications that Catholic social teaching might hold in shaping a viable response and restoring the common good, 
led by

Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director of NETWORK
The National Catholic Social Justice Lobby (link)

Tuesday, April 8
7:00 – 8:30 P.M.
Alumni Center: 
Marie Graber Ballroom
Loras College, Dubuque, Ia. 
On the corner of Cox St. and Loras Blvd.

NOTE: Parking is available in a lot in front of the Alumni Center and, at the crest of Loras Boulevard In the larger parking lot facing the College on Alta Vista. From the Alta Vista parking lot, one needs to walk down Loras Blvd. (a hill) to the Alumni Center. An elevator is just inside the lobby and can be taken to the 4th floor. Doors to the Graber Ballroom are to the left after exiting the elevator.

Just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Iraqi refugees in Syria and Lebanon, Simone calls us - “We the People” - to address the crying needs of our times and to insist our government return to caring for the common good.

“Beginning with post-Viet Nam and post-Watergate disillusionment, citizens began to see government as more of a problem than a solution. We have survived 25 years during which this attitude has seeped into our culture. Congress has cut back on domestic programs. Administrations have privatized all manner of government services. Elected officials often refuse to resolve challenging issues, preferring to be re-elected and keep special interests content. In this process, “We the People” have been lulled into a complacency that is the antithesis of the inspiration that created our country.”

“It is time to wake up and claim our country back! We have reached a political crossroads where government is paralyzed and gridlock is considered a positive political stance. The only way to make a difference is for “We the People” to demand change. We must insist on government that returns to caring for the common good.”

 For more on Catholic social Teaching and the Common Good, see

www.catholicsinalliance.org/node/19177

Sister of Social Service on Iraqi Refugees and 'Revitalizing Citizenship' 

Posted: 06 Apr 2008 10:25 PM CDT; www.iowaindependent.org

Sister Simone Campbell, who will visit Iowa on Tuesday, met with Iraqi refugees earlier this year with a delegation of women religious. For 10 days in January, on a visit sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, she heard stories from families in Syria and Lebanon. The trip was her second to the region; in 2002, she was in Iraq before the start of the U.S. invasion. 

Campbell is the executive director of NETWORK (a national Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, D.C.) and a Sister of Social Service. She will give a talk on "Saving Democracy: Revitalizing Citizenship" at Loras College in Dubuque on Tuesday, April 8. The talk is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the college's Alumni Center: Maria Graber Ballroom, located at the corner of Cox St. and Loras Blvd. in Dubuque.

Campbell discussed her Middle East fact-finding missions before and after the start of Iraq War in an interview with the Iowa Independent.

She visited Baghdad and Basra in December 2002, a few months before the start of the war.

Since then, she said, the perception of the U.S. in the Middle East has changed:

"When I went in 2002, people said to us in Iraq, "Well, why are you coming to invade us? Why are you coming to take away our freedom? Why are you coming to destroy us?" 
But they made a distinction between us as people and our government ...

Now in Syria and Lebanon, there is a fair amount of anger at what we have done, at how we have disturbed the Middle East, at our arrogance, at the control."

Campbell's delegation asked one of their Syrian hosts about a message to take back to the U.S. about the refugee situation.

"When we said, 'Well, what message do we take back?' she said, 'We don't need any money. We don't need anything but peace. This war is a crime against humanity,' with a passion that -- it touched me deeply. 
I remember vividly what she said." 

She also talked about her recent trip in January and her hosts, the Good Shepherd Sisters, in Syria. She described "heartbreaking" stories of Iraqi refugees and the "amazing" work being done by the Good Shepherd Sisters.

"A heartbreaking story is this Christian family in southern Iraq who was threatened by the militia and told to get out, to leave, because this is a Shia little town out near Basra. And they say, 'We're poor, we've lived here all our lives, we don't have any money to move, and besides, we've been here for generations.' 
The second or third time that they're threatened -- they come back and the militia kidnaps the father, takes the mother out to the back yard, hands the baby the mother is holding to the oldest girl, who is 7 years old, and shoot and kill the mother, in front of the kids. 

The oldest boy, the 14-year-old, who I guess was at school, comes back and finds his four siblings gathered around their mother's body. 

And then the neighbors and this resourceful 14-year-old kid, who feels sort of guilty now, get the kids to Syria, where they meet up with the Good Shepherd sisters. 

The Good Shepherd sisters find out that there is a grandmother who the kids don't know in Germany who had emigrated earlier. They get her to Damascus, and she thinks she's going to take the kids back quickly to Germany, but she's only a permanent resident. And in Germany, like in the United States, there's no provision for grandparents to petition for immigration or permanent residence for their grandchildren. And so she's now caught in Damascus with these kids. I mean, it's just -- it's horrifying. And the German Embassy says how do we know these are really your grandkids? They could be anybody. 

Sister Marie-Claude and the Good Shepherd sisters are organizing DNA testing to prove their relationship and try to keep the pressure on ... Those stories get repeated 2 million times; I mean, there are 2 million refugees. So it's HUGE. It's a HUGE problem.

Another woman who just broke my heart is this 30-year-old nuclear engineer, she has her master's in nuclear engineering and did nuclear medicine with her father, and had a contract with Parson's to rehab a hospital outside of Baghdad. There, militia people -- she didn't know who, what militia -- came and threatened them for working with an American company and she -- they said, but we've got this commitment and so they stayed and kept working and she saw her father killed in front of her. But she kept working, and they came back and threatened her again, and finally her family said you have to flee, you have to flee. 

Finally her husband went ahead to find a place in Lebanon -- she had studied in Lebanon, so they knew some people there -- with the last threat, she fled to Lebanon, but she is so traumatized by this whole experience that when she told us the story, we were in her little teeny one-room apartment in Lebanon, and she closes all the windows, and she closes the door, even though they were letting in the sunshine to warm the place up because it was so, so cold when we were there, and she brings us real close in the middle of the room and whispers to us her story because she's terrified she's being followed. 

They've already moved three times in Beirut because she heard an Iraqi accent.

So the trauma -- it's one thing to see violence and to experience violence, but the trauma continues. The post-traumatic stress disorder -- it's a whole nation of people with it. 

We worry so much with our military folks coming back with it. It is a national tragedy in Iraq ...

The Good Shepherd sisters have organized this whole big collection of Syrians to do a settlement house to meet the needs of Iraqis living in the northern part of Damascus, a shelter for women and children, women who have been abused, tortured or widowed or this kind of thing, and a hotline for domestic violence, for Syrians and Iraqis -- it's the first hotline for domestic violence in Syria. 

President Assad's wife is the honorary co-chair of it. They also are taking food out to people who are caught at the border who can't get into Syria right now. Food and water. 

I mean, [they're] doing amazing work. 

You need to know that it is across religious lines -- not just for Christians but for everybody.

Iowa Independent: So are they in camps?

"No, they're not. Which makes it in some ways harder. They're -- most of the refugees are just spread around Damascus. Damascus went from being a city of 4 million to being a city of 5 million in just three years. It's a huge change. 
They've had to go to double school shifts, because they're giving the Iraqi kids free access to education, but it's hard for the Iraqi kids, because the Syrian education is in Arabic and French, and the Iraqis' was just in Arabic. They don't speak French. So that's a challenge, but they're working on that. 

They also don't have a real strong medical system and so are now asking for help. The Syrians didn't think this problem would last this long. So they're now asking for international assistance in responding to this crisis. Everybody in Syria just kept saying, 'But they're our brothers and sisters, of course we would respond,' when we were amazed at their generosity. 

And we as a nation have only taken in 5,000 refugees when they have taken 1.5 million. You can tell I'm a little outraged. 

The Good Shepherd sisters in Damascus have started with a huge network of Syrian people that they've organized ... ordinary folks, all kinds of folks across all faith lines are working to meet the needs of the Iraqi refugees ... the Syrian people have been so welcoming. I rode in a taxicab with Iraqis and the taxicab driver heard them speaking with an Iraqi accent and he would not take money from them for the fare. ... 

He said, 'You people have had such a hard life, at least let me give you this ride. You don't have much money ... '"

Since returning from their Middle East meetings with Iraqi families, U.N. officials and religious leaders, the Catholic contingent has recommended that resettlement applications be expedited so the U.S. can reach its goal of resettling 12,000 Iraqi people in fiscal year 2008. Five months into FY 2008, fewer than 2,000 Iraqi refugees have been admitted into the U.S.

The group presented its findings to Congress in February.

"And in addition to the refugees we saw, there's an additional 2 million people who are displaced within Iraq. It's a huge issue. 
Congresswoman [Betty] McCollum [D-Minn.] says that she thinks the reason we aren't letting in more refugees is because if we let in more refugees, then the story of what is actually happening will get out. And the control of the message. That's her take on it.

I think this is a perfect reason why 'we the people' need to be on our toes and engaged. Because the politicians only can do what the people want and unless we make that really known people are nervous and are not likely to stick their necks out. But we the people can demand change. And that's the perfect example of where we need change.

`We the people,' as it says in the Constitution, need to wake up and take our responsibility seriously as citizens. And that all of the fear and apprehension and individualism that's been so ripe in our country has caused us to pull away from the actual engaging in our constitutional role as a people. And so my effort is to say that we need to make sure that our values and our commitment is expressed in the election. 

Voting, voter education, voter turnout, but then more than that, that we stay awake after the election and hold our elected officials accountable."

Iowa Independent: And so how do we do that? How do we stay involved?

"Well, it's things such as being aware of the issues we care about in the election, but then making sure that they carry over into actual legislative agenda. 

I always suggest that folks join Network. What we do is we track federal legislation from a values perspective, a common good perspective, and so that's one way to stay engaged. 

But whatever people do, they need to remember that the Constitution says, 'We the people,' not 'We the politicians,' and to stay alert and engaged with policy after Nov. 4."

Campbell's "Saving Democracy" talk is part of a series on election year events organized by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. 

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri is sponsoring the public event. NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby based in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1971 by 47 Catholic Sisters.

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At their 2006 annual meetings, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Franciscan Federation each passed resolutions to action on critical social justice issues.

The 2006 LCWR ASSEMBLY endorsed a resolution that condemns torture in all its forms. The resolution, which had been approved by the assembly of Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), encourages support and help for victims of torture throughout the world, but especially in areas under the control of the United States government.

RESOLUTION CONDEMNING TORTURE -
CMSM condemns torture in all its forms regardless of putative justification, and encourages support and help for victims of torture throughout the world, but especially in areas under the control of the United States Government.

PRESERVING SISTER WATER

Statement of Resolution: In conjunction with the United nations "International Decade for Action: Water for Life," we the members of the Franciscan Federation promote a resolution to preserve, respect and use wisely, the gift of Water, including 
a. Join postcard campaign to address bottled water and privatization issue. Contact Zandra Rice-at-Corporate Accountability International, 46 Plympton St. Boston, MA 02118; (617) 695-2525, www.stopcorporateabuse.org; zrice@stopcorporateabuse.org.
b. Stop buying bottled water. Re-use your bottle and place sticker on bottle, "Think Outside the Bottle"

STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, THE SUDAN
The Security Council of the United Nations, the President of the United States and the U S Catholic Conference of Bishops have all called for an end to the violence in Darfur. Since 2001 it is reported that 400,000+ people have been murdered, raped and exposed to other forms of violence in Darfur. The Security Council voted on May 16, 2006 to send UN Peacekeepers to transition from the African Union force now present in Darfur.

TRAFFICKING OF HUMAN BEINGS: A FRANCISCAN CONCERN
The Franciscan Federation recognizes that, from recruitment to exploitation, trafficked persons are deprived of their identity and reduced into a slavery-like situation. The members of the Federation are called to a more comprehensive response to human trafficking.
In so doing, the members are asked to determine ways to respond to this dire situation through prayerful support, education and advocacy in order to foster the prevention of trafficking, the protection of victims, and prosecution of the perpetrators involved in human trafficking.

NOTE: A grassroots letter-writing campaign has been started by women in California. The letter asks manufacturers of women's feminine products to print the trafficking Hotline phone number on the INSIDE of their packaging. The request is seen as a quiet way to distribute this vital information to thousands of women and girls who may be involved in trafficking or who know someone who is. 
A sample letter and the addresses of U.S. manufacturers follow. 
It would be good to also suggest to the manufacturers that the information be printed in various languages.

SAMPLE LETTER:
[date], 2006

Dear [Corporate Executive]:

As a leading producer of feminine hygiene products used by women and girls in the United States and beyond, you are in a position to make a significant impact on the growing crime that is human trafficking. We are writing to seek your partnership in combating this egregious human rights violation. 

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - an estimated 15,000-18,000 of which are trafficked into the U.S. annually. The majority of victims are women and girls who are forced to work as domestic workers, garment workers or sex slaves, among others. Non-profit agencies, law enforcement, communities of faith and government have begun to address the problem through the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

We urge you to join the efforts in assisting victims to get the word out to the general public and reach out to the millions of victims who remain enslaved for fear of their families' wellbeing and their own. We propose that you include the national 24-hour hotline number: (888) 373-7888 in all your product packaging. This number provides critical information to potential victims and to citizens who want to report suspicious incidences that could well be cases of modern-day slavery. As more people learn to identify this crime, more victims will be helped.

The problem of human trafficking has grown to vast proportions as the movement of goods and services - and now, human beings - is easier than ever. The biggest challenge we face is finding the victims, and we are working collaboratively with law enforcement and community partners to ensure every police officer will be trained to identify a victim. Non-profit agencies and communities of faith are linking efforts to address the need for safe housing, advocacy, and counseling for trafficking victims. As a community leader, you have the opportunity to make a big difference in the lives of women and girls who are abused and enslaved. 

We urge you to print: (888) 373-7888 HOTLINE for human trafficking resources on your products. You would save lives and give the gift of freedom to millions of women and girls nationwide who suffer severe physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse.

Thank you for your leadership in helping to combat modern-day slavery. We look forward to an affirmative response in making a difference in the lives of thousands of women.

Gratefully,
[Name]
[organization/affiliation]

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