July 2018 Newsletter
Refugee Children
According to the Department of Homeland Security, 2,342 refugee children have been separated from their parents on the U.S. southern border since early May. The emotional trauma and potential abuse for these innocent victims highlights the urgency for comprehensive immigration reform, including:
  • A legal path to citizenship
  • A worker program
  • Humane family‐based policies
  • Restoration of due process
  • Addressing the root causes of migration
For more information on Immigration , click here .
A Prayer for Refugee Children
Separated from their Families

Loving God,
As our nation struggles with how we treat the children and families arriving at our southern borders,

Remind us that we are a nation of immigrants ourselves. Give us the strength to be honest and humble about our own family’s migration and help us to be generous to others out of gratitude for what we have received.

Give us the strength to live up to the ideals we claim as a nation and help our elected representatives, who act in our name, to make wise, just and compassionate policy decisions.

Remind us how to recognize good from evil and give us the courage to trust our conscience and to speak the truth – both to those in power as well as to those we encounter in our daily lives.

Bless all those families affected by this tragedy –especially the anguishing parents, who do not know where their children are, what is happening to them or when they will see them again.

Most of all bless the innocent children, who are vulnerable to emotional trauma and physical abuse.
Help us to see you in them and to treat them as we would want to be treated.

Amen

For more Immigration prayers, click here .
Resources
Immigrant Stories: Doctors and Nurses
A resource from Brave New Films, exposes how inhumane immigration policies are forcing people to choose between medical care or deportation.
For more information and resources on Immigration , click here .
National Immigrant Justice Center
A Heartland Alliance Program; protects human rights and provides access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Learn more .
For more Immigration information and resources, click here .
Visualizing Two Centuries of American Immigration
An animation that shows changes in immigration to the US and lists the top three countries of origin by decade. Also has maps and information about the major waves of people migrating. Watch now.
For more Immigration information and resources, click here .
International Rescue Committee
Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee delivers lifesaving care to people fleeing conflict and natural disaster. Year after year, the IRC is one of the highest-ranking nonprofits for accountability, transparency, and efficient use of contributions. Learn more.
For more information and resources on Refugees , click here . 
Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham
By Melanie Morrison. Tells the story of an attack that occurred in 1931 on three white women in a remote area of Alabama and its tragic aftermath. Reveals how the judicial system could function as a lynch mob in the Jim Crow South and sheds new light on the struggle for justice in Depression-era Birmingham. Read more.
For more information and resources on Racism ,
Human Bar Graph
This 6 minute video from the Network Lobby, takes a look at what has happened to income inequality in the past few decades. Sister Simone Campbell uses a “human bar graph” to demonstrate the change in income of different populations from 1980 to the present. Watch now.
For more information and resources on Economic Justice , click here .
The Scandal of Redemption:
When God Liberates the Poor, Saves Sinners, and Heals Nations
By Oscar Romero. Selections from Archbishop Romero’s diaries and radio broadcasts invite readers to align their lives with the way of Jesus that lifts up the poor, welcomes the broken, wins over enemies, and transforms the history of entire nations.
(Note: Archbishop Romero will be canonized in Rome on October 14.)
For more Justice resources, click here .
Faith in Action: A Handbook for Activists, Advocates and Allies
By the Faith in Action Writing Collective. Offers information on a wide range of topics, including racial justice, environmental concerns, LGBTQIA equality, Native people's rights, women's equality, disability rights, mass incarceration and immigration. Each topic includes visuals and data, as well as practical suggestions for what can be done to make a difference in communities. Created by contributors with varied experiences in activism, faith, policy, and social change, provides the knowledge, tools, and confidence to make a real impact - to step out into the world and be an activist, advocate, and ally.
For more Community Organizing resources,
Incarceration Reform
A digital resource center for criminal justice reform in Illinois, including topics such as the system & bias; cash bail; diversion and incarceration; the role of the prosecutor; prison, release and re-entry; parole and probation; sentencing; resources; speakers, moderators & involvement. Learn more.
For more information and resources on the
Criminal Justice System ,
Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job
By Kerry Weber. Explores the Works of Mercy in the real world, in an authentic, personal, meaningful way, while maintaining a full, robust, regular life. Maintains a gut-level honesty and transparency that people of urban, country, and suburban locales alike could relate to. Read more.
For more Justice resources, click here .
Push Back the Dark: Companioning Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

By Elizabeth Altmaier. Offers tools needed to undertake caring ministry to adults suffering in the aftermath of childhood sexual abuse. Empowers readers to be effective companions in God's transforming work in the lives of survivors of abuse. Read more.
For more information and resources on Domestic Abuse , click here .
Resist and Persist:
Faith and the Fight for Equality
By Erin Wathen. Navigates the complex layers of what it means to be a woman in our time and place -- from the language we use to the clothes that we wear to the unseen and unspoken assumptions that challenge our full personhood at every turn. Reframes the challenges to women's equality in light of our current culture and political climate, providing a new language of resistance that can free women and men from the pernicious power of patriarchy. Read more.
For more information and resources on Gender Inequality , click here .

Catholic Energies
Takes the burden of reducing energy waste off already thinly-stretched Catholic organizations and serves as a single point of contact to help execute energy procurement, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy storage projects. Learn more.
For more information and resources on the Environment , click here .
The Biblical Truth About
America's Death Penalty
By Dale Recinella. Compares biblical teaching about the death penalty, including passages such as "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life," with the nation's current system of capital punishment, and offers arguments for a faith-based moratorium on -- and eventual abolition of -- executions. Read more.
For more information and resources on Capital Punishment , click here .
The Root of War is Fear:
Thomas Merton's Advice to Peacemakers
By Jim Forest. Drawing in large part on the letters the author received from Thomas Merton, this book offers spiritual encouragement and guidance for those engaged in efforts today to rid the world of war and violence. Read more.
For more information and resources on War ,
Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence
By Marie Dennis. Consists of contributions from Lisa Sowle Cahill, Terrence J. Rynne, John Dear, Ken Butigan, Rose Marie Berger, and Maria J. Stephan, among others who participated in the Peacemaking Conference held at the Vatican in 2016. Together they advance the conversation about the practice of nonviolence in a violent world, Jesus and nonviolence, traditional Catholic teaching on nonviolence, and reflections on the future of Catholic teaching. It concludes with Pope Francis’s historic Message for World Peace Day in 2017. Read more. 
For more Peace resources, click here .
Episcopal Service Corps
Develops and supports a national network of intentional communities. These communities are marked by young adults:
  • Serving others in solidarity, promoting justice in community
  • Deepening spiritual awareness and vocational discernment
  • Living simply in intentional Christian community
For more resources on Volunteering and Service , click here .
Redemption and Restoration:
A Catholic Perspective on Restorative Justice
Edited by Trudy Conway, Matzko McCarthy and Vicki Schieber. Develops the traditional Catholic understanding of justice and offers a theological understanding of restorative justice, reflects on the practical arguments and explains how it can be implemented. Grounded in real stories, helps provide a deeper understanding of how restorative justice can have a positive effect both in our country and our church. Includes small group discussion questions. Read more .
For more Justice resources, click here .
 
Important Dates This Month

Individuals Honored This Month
July 2nd
You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. 
July 5th
The Gospel has to grow little feet.
Compassion is the radicalism of our time.  
I don’t want to flee, not do I want to abandon the battle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the environment.
July 12th
So here I stand, one girl among many. I speak not just for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard. Those who have fought for their rights. Their right to live in peace. Their right to be treated with dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right to be educated.
July 18th
Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.
July 25th
Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, 'That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong I was. I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.
Mamie Till, Emmett's mother
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