Dear Friend,
“Threescore years and ten” is the way the King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew of the 90th Psalm. That seems so much more appealing than the newer translations that simply say, “Seventy.” Would we remember the Gettysburg Address so fondly if Abraham Lincoln had said the United States was founded 87 years ago instead of “Four score and seven years ago”? I am sure he was inspired by this psalm.
I write of this because, at Catholic Relief Services, we are celebrating our Gospel service to the world’s poor and vulnerable people for threescore years and ten. We mark that anniversary here in Baltimore, an archdiocese that dates back to 1789.
When the Most Reverend John Carroll was named the first bishop of what was the first diocese in the United States, about 6,000 Catholics and one Church were in Baltimore just a few blocks from CRS headquarters. In 1806, Bishop Carroll laid the cornerstone a block away for the first cathedral built in this new country: the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an architectural gem designed by William Henry Latrobe, who also designed the United States Capitol. By the time Bishop Carroll died in 1815, the Catholic population had risen to 10,000. Now, almost a half million Catholics are in the archdiocese.
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Posted
May 21st, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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Over the next few weeks Congress will continue to tackle two very important issues, immigration reform and the farm bill. The decisions legislators will make during this month as much of the legislation moves through the committee review process will have a great impact on the final versions of the legislation later this summer. Our work on these issues are more of a marathon than a sprint, and at each stage your voice is needed!
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Posted
May 13th, 2013 in
Advocacy, CCGP by:
John Lindner |
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Some time ago, we asked you to sign a petition to support the Cremisan Valley community in the Holy Land and to oppose the route of the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Cremisan Valley, an agricultural area near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is best known for its olives, fruits and grapes used in local wine production as well as a recreational area for family outings. It is also home to a Salesian monastery, vineyard, convent and school.
This week we learned that the Israeli Special Appeals Committee ruled in favor of the proposed separation barrier route, rejecting the pleas from the Salesians and the surrounding farming community to keep the valley intact. Now, more than 50 Palestinian families and the Salesian monastery and convent will lose access to their lands and possibly their livelihoods. The Salesian Sisters Convent and School that provides education to more than 400 children in the adjacent villages will be surrounded by walls and a military presence on three sides, inhibiting many children from going to school. Families will lose access to important green space, and Palestinian youth will be cut off from friends, teachers, and mentors.
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May 6th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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Dear Friend,
Ethiopia is one of the many countries where Catholic Relief Services sponsors Savings and Internal Lending Communities. SILC groups are savings clubs: Members make regular deposits, then loan what they have accumulated among themselves and split the profits. Overall, three out of four members are women.
These groups often bring together people whose backgrounds might put them in conflict, but as they work together, they learn that they really have much in common.
One group in Ethiopia helps people with HIV and AIDS. Although the members save money and start businesses, they also talk about their problems without the stigmatization they might experience elsewhere. It’s a SILC group, as well as a health club and group therapy session.
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Posted
April 29th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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By Michael Sheridan
Just over 10 years ago, the global coffee market collapsed. The prices farmers earned for their coffee fell to their lowest levels in a generation – less than $0.50 per pound. Sometimes much less. Coffee-growing families saw their incomes halved overnight (or worse) due to market forces beyond their control. Farmers struggled to feed their families. Some gave up on coffee. Others gave up on farming altogether and migrated in search of work. The impacts of the price collapse were so severe that the episode became known simply as “the coffee crisis.”
CRS responded to the coffee crisis in the communities where farmers grow coffee overseas and the communities where they drink it in the United States. In Nicaragua, CRS mounted a humanitarian response to help coffee growers feed their families and stay on their farms. In the United States, CRS launched its Fair Trade Coffee Project to enlist U.S. Catholics in the effort to support small-scale family farmers through the purchase of Fair Trade coffee. For more than 10 years, CRS has worked to create new and improved opportunities for the family farmers who grow our coffee through programming in coffee communities overseas and the promotion of Fair Trade and sustainable coffees in the United States.
Today, the coffee sector is in crisis again. This time the crisis is driven not by what is happening in the marketplace, but by what is happening in the field. Coffee leaf rust, a fungus from the same family of “rusts” that affect U.S. staple crops like corn and wheat, has reached epidemic proportions in Central America. As much as 70 percent of Central America’s coffee fields are affected. Production losses for this harvest exceed 100 million pounds. Farmers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues due to low production. And hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost as there is less coffee to pick, process and export. Estimates of missed revenues are well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Posted
April 16th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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Green coffee cherries of new plants in Nuevo Amanecer, Pochuta municipality, Chimaltenango Department, Guatemala. Photo by Silverlight for CRS
Guatemalan coffee is world famous for its rich, understated taste. It is exported to North America, and Europe as signature blends by companies such as McDonalds, Starbucks, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. In fact, the whole Central American region produces rich blends which are exported globally. However, this important crop, valued around the world, is under attack, and subsequently so are the small-scale producers that derive their livelihoods from the sale of coffee beans. The assailant is the innocuously named, coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix).
Coffee leaf rust is a fungus which attacks the leaves of the coffee plant. The orange-yellow blotches which develop on the leaf´s surface appear like rust spots. It is a very aggressive pathogen, and it can spread rapidly across a plantation, leaving a trail of defoliated plants in its wake when its advance is unchecked. There are various ways to combat the leaf rust ranging from replacing older plants with new seedlings, using more resistant seeds, integrating other productive crops into a coffee monoculture, and the use of fungicides. However, all of these methods require a sizeable investment, something which is often out of reach for small-scale producers living below or near the poverty line.
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April 16th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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This week, Washington, D.C. was abuzz with the release of President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2014. While our staff continues to analyze the President’s proposal, we appreciate the administration’s overall commitment to diplomacy, humanitarian response and international development. Continued support for programs that save lives such as health and peacekeeping interventions are critical, and we look forward to working with the administration and Congress to ensure robust funding for these and other poverty-focused humanitarian and development programs.
One of the issues we will be monitoring closely is the President’s proposal to significantly change Food for Peace, the U.S. program that uses food commodities to address global hunger. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have long sought reforms to this program, but to do so in a way that prevents cuts to the life-saving work of existing programs. The President’s proposal would also move Food for Peace funding allocated for food needs during emergencies to a different account, known as International Disaster Assistance (IDA), while substantially cutting existing IDA programs. If enacted, these cuts would impact vital humanitarian needs such as shelter and medical assistance for the most vulnerable people around the world. The USCCB and CRS strongly urge Congress to reject cuts to disaster response programs.
As the President’s budget request is considered by Congress, you can rest assured that with your help, we will continue to advocate for our brothers and sisters who live in poverty.
Posted
April 15th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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Happy Easter to you and your loved ones! We are inspired by the Holy Father’s homily on Easter Sunday calling for peace throughout our troubled world. “Let us be renewed by God’s mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.” Pope Francis’ message reinvigorates our hope for a renewed peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians, an end to conflict in Sudan and South Sudan, in Syria, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere.
This week, we also see signs of hope for enactment of comprehensive immigration reform in our country. Imitating Jesus, we as the Church are called to be a beacon of light for the world and in the process dispel the darkness, wherever it might be. The image of light overcoming darkness has parallels with debates on immigration.
Undocumented migrants are often thought of as “living in the shadows” and “on the margins of society” and are thus particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Bringing them out of the shadows and integrating them fully into our communities is an important step towards upholding their dignity and helping them realize their God-given potential.
Please stay tuned for more information about upcoming immigration reform legislation. Until then, please take action in support of comprehensive immigration reform and if you can, join others in Washington, DC on April 10 for a special Mass in support of immigrant families.
May the joy of this Easter season be with you and your loved ones,
Your Catholics Confront Global Poverty Team
Posted
April 8th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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In his inaugural homily Pope Francis committed himself to “embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-46).” We can do no less.
During this Holy Week, we look forward to the hope and joy that Christ’s resurrection brings to us and to our broken world. With so much global conflict and poverty before us, at times we can feel overwhelmed, but we have Christ’s compassion and love to renew us.
Last week, your e-mails and calls to your Senators’ offices to protect lifesaving poverty-focused international assistance in the Senate’s fiscal year 2014 Budget were a strong symbol of love and hope on Capitol Hill. Thanks in part to your efforts the budget passed with funding levels for poverty-focused international assistance above those of the current fiscal year! Several amendments that would have cut aid were defeated, including two that would have practically gutted U.S. international assistance. Find out how your Senators voted on these amendments here and here. Thank you for raising your voice on behalf of our brothers and sisters in need. Your voice made a difference.
As we celebrate the events of Holy Week, our thoughts naturally turn to the Holy Land. Last week we hosted CRS staff, Hanan Nasrallah, for our live webcast from Jerusalem. Steve Colecchi from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Hanan spoke about the Church’s work to pursue peace in the Holy Land. With President Obama’s recent trip to the region and his reaffirmation of the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, we are hopeful for a renewed peace process. The Church stands ready to help advance a peaceful and just solution for all of our Jewish, Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters living in Israel and Palestine. You, too, can add your voice to the call for peace. Thank President Obama for his leadership on this issue by sending your message today.
May the Peace of Christ be with you this Holy Week and throughout the Easter season,
Your Catholics Confront Global Poverty Team
Posted
March 28th, 2013 in
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John Lindner |
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As the season of Lent draws to a close and Catholics around the world begin to anticipate Easter, it is time to turn in your CRS Rice Bowl. Since 1975, Catholics in the United States have been collecting their Lenten alms in these cardboard bowls, translating their Lenten sacrifices into life-saving assistance to our poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
“By turning in their rice bowls, participants have the chance to make sure their Lenten sacrifices help our brothers and sisters in need around the world through the work of CRS,” said Joan Rosenhauer, executive vice president of U.S. Operations for CRS.
While you can always give to CRS Rice Bowl online, educators and parish leaders are finding fun ways to collect rice bowl donations. This class from Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth, Florida, outgrew their little cardboard box by the second week of Lent!
CRS Rice Bowl Coordinators: How are you collecting CRS Rice Bowl donations? Tell CRS Rice Bowl on Facebook.
Need ideas for making your community’s CRS Rice Bowl collection fun and easy? Check out our guide to collecting rice bowls.
Whether you collect your donation in a water jug, the traditional cardboard bowl, or give to CRS Rice Bowl online, you are providing food for the hungry, clean water for the thirsty, or even an education for a child in need.
Seventy-five percent of your gift helps poor and vulnerable people overseas. The remaining 25 percent stays in your diocese to combat hunger and poverty in your community.
Read these stories of hope to meet the people you help with your donation to CRS Rice Bowl.
Posted
March 26th, 2013 in
Rice Bowl by:
John Lindner |
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