social justice

“Let us choose life; let us choose the future.” Pope Francis’ plea to decision makers and participants at COP28 and to all of us has been resonating in my heart.

While many in the U.S. think of August as the last breath of summer, a time to squeeze in a last bit of relaxation before the rush of the fall begins, the Daughters of Charity were doing anything but relaxing this past August.

At the end of 2018, The Vincentian Family started to work on the Welcome Home Project to provide safe housing for 32 displaced families in Parramos, Chimaltenango.

As a member of the Vincentian Family Social Justice Advocates group, I am grateful that we have taken the time to delve more deeply into racism, white privilege, the legacy of Native American Boarding Schools in USA and Canada, and at our April meeting, the Doctrine of Discovery.

It seems like a lifetime ago when we were in the throes of the pandemic. We wore masks and went about attempting to sanitize the world against a virus we knew very little about.

The privilege of being part of the Vincentian Family Justice Representatives also involves a serious responsibility to learn and grow with issues of social justice. 

“Love is creative even to infinity.” Those words of St. Vincent are frequently quoted to remind us to show love to others.

It was at Mass in 1974 that I first heard the Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” – a poem written by James Weldon Johnson in 1899