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A Response from the Sisters of St. Agnes to These Times

February 03, 2025
By Sisters of St. Agnes (CSA)

CSA’s Mission Statement (1990) states that we “respond in our own times to those whose faith life and human dignity are threatened.” These threats are always around us, but recent rhetoric has increased them by implying that only specific groups of people are entitled to be treated with dignity. This is not true. We see inherent human dignity in everyone: people of color, people with cultural traditions different from our own, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, people with disabilities, believers of all creeds, those with mental illnesses, people suffering from addiction, people experiencing homelessness, people experiencing poverty in rural or urban settings who feel they cannot seem to get ahead, and those pushed out of their countries because of climate or power. To them and any who are feeling marginalized, we address the following:

You are safe with us because we believe in your innate dignity as human beings. You are safe with us because we believe you are images of God. Jesus gladly gathered with you and so do we. Jesus celebrated with you and so do we. Jesus built community, the Kingdom of God, with you and so do we. Jesus challenged the systems and structures that oppressed people and so have we and we will continue to do so.

We call on all people of every class and nation, of every religion and tradition, of every way of life and belief to recommit with us to the common good of all, the healthy wholeness of Earth, our common home, and to the diversity among us that weaves the most beautiful of tapestries ever imagined. Let us lay aside the swords of hatred, division, and greed and fashion the powerful plowshares of love and mercy, the only strengths that have ever changed anything.

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