Social Justice Team
Members of the Social Justice Team meet to educate themselves so they can educate the parish. Immersed in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, the team decided to concentrate on the following issues:
- The environment
- Fair Trade
- Darfur
- Southwest Chicago PADS
- Collecting cell phones for veterans
The environment
Each week, a tip on saving the environment appears in the bulletin in the Ecology Corner. Further, the Social Justice Team has sponsored two parish-wide events near Earth Day to educate parishioners on the need to respect and preserve our earth. Carol Conway heads this effort. To learn more about environmental impact, go to www.sierraclub.org or www.coopamerica.org.
Fair Trade
For two years, volunteers have sold Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate, almonds, pecans and cranberries each month in the narthex in the hope of raising awareness of our duty to be conscientious consumers. We have recently started selling every other month and have redirected our efforts to encouraging parishioners to demand Fair Trade products at local stores. A letter to grocers can be accessed here: (link to letter). Pat Bugos coordinates this effort. For information on Fair Trade, go to www.equalexchange.org.
Darfur
Noreen Sciaky is our Darfur expert. She has educated our school children and inspired them to host Dance for Darfur to send money to build schools. In addition, students have had letter writing campaigns to end the genocide in Darfur. More information can be found at www.savedarfur.org.
Southwest Chicago PADS
St. Germaine parishioners bring dinner on the second Sunday of each month for the homeless served by SWC PADS. Mary Trant coordinates this effort. In addition, three parishioners attend Bridging the Gap dinners twice a month; they supply dinner for 10-15 formerly homeless people who are making strides to live completely independent lives. The group discusses their successes and failures and shares wisdom to help bridge the next gap. More about Southwest Chicago PADS can be found at www.swchicagopads.org.
Cell phones for veterans
Mary Anne Cannon heads the bi-monthly collection of cell phones (and often other materials) for the veterans at Hines VA Hospital.
In addition, our parish bulletin has a weekly JustNews column that discusses aspects of Catholic Social Teaching and suggests ways we can apply them to our daily lives.
To learn more about Catholic Social Teaching, go to the website for the U.S. Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org, and click on “Social Justice Issues” in the left column.
To join our group or for more information, please call Carol at 636-5060.