Bending the Arc

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s 2024 Dirty Dozen List Revealed! The Dirty Dozen List is an annual campaign calling out 12 mainstream contributors to sexual abuse and exploitation. Learn more and take action at www.dirtydozenlist.com

Addressing the link between forced migration and human trafficking is the current focus of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking (AEHT), an organization founded by American Catholic sisters in 2013 that supports survivors and advocates for the eradication of human trafficking. In a recent article by Crux Catholic Media, AEHT’s executive director, Katie Boller Gosewisch, said that the link between the two is clear, and therefore believes policy from the United States government is crucial. In particular, the organization is advocating for Congress to pass the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2023. Read the full article.

The May issue of the Alliance’s Stop Trafficking! Awareness-Advocacy-Action is now available. This month’s theme is “The hidden cost of the apparel industry.” Find this and past issues here: https://alliancetoendhumantrafficking.org/stop-trafficking-newsletter/ 

Sign here to ask your Senators to support online child safety regulation.

Join Shared Hope International and urge your governor to end the unjust incarceration of trafficking victims today!

The life of Jesuit Priest and Scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is featured in an inspiring film about him, TEILHARD: Visionary Scientist. The film will be available for national and international streaming for two years, beginning May 20, 2024 on the free PBS App. 

1. Download the app: https://www.mpt.org/anywhere/pbs-app/ 
2. Search in the app for the film’s title: “Teilhard: Visionary Scientist”

DVDs of the program will be available at this link beginning May 20, 2024, as well.

Watch the trailer here:

Teilhard de Chardin television biography trailer from Teilhard Project on Vimeo.

Learn more about the Teilhard Project 

Watch for details on a CSA Watch Party in the future - or plan your own!
 

Created in God’s image, humans have inherent dignity and worth. This belief of the Catholic Church lays the foundation for all its other teachings. The Sisters of St. Agnes and their Associates honor the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death. The sisters’ actions demonstrate their reverence for life and their commitment to a consistent ethic of life.

An execution calendar is maintained on the CSA website: www.csasisters.org/dignity Updates are provided from groups like Death Penalty Action. CSA Sisters and Associates participate in letter writing to inmates on death row; letter writing is always encouraged and directions can also be found on the website.

New and revised dates are being added to the execution schedule and new and current petitions await your signature. Please click to sign and share these petitions.

Additionally, please join Death Penalty Action to Demand Absolute Standards to stop profiting from executions!

Wear the Message with Abolition Gear - ORDER HERE.
 

This Laudato Si’ Week (May 19-26) and Pentecost, let us gather in community to contemplate and nurture seeds of hope for our “suffering planet” (LD 2). Laudate Deum is a reminder about the urgency of the Laudato Si’ message and the need for both personal and cultural transformation amidst our ecological and climate crises.

This year’s Laudato Si’ Week theme is inspired by the symbol for Season of Creation 2024, “firstfruits.” Let us be seeds of hope in our lives and our world, rooted in faith and love.

Download this Celebration Guide to fully experience this Laudato Si’ Week. Inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, this eight-day guide seeks to motivate all people of good will to protect our Common Home through concrete actions and simple changes in the way we live. Each day a specific theme is proposed that addresses aspects of integral ecology, such as waste reduction, renewable energy use and water conservation.

Don’t stop there!! Catholic Relief Services is urging all to engage in advocacy efforts aimed at influencing policymakers priorities and decisions. On May 21, participate in Call Congress Day  to advocate for climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and food security. Register here or text CALL CONGRESS to 677-68 to join this nationwide event. 

Join 87% of Americans from all walks of life who imagine a world beyond “us vs. them.

Starts With Us is a movement tired of polarizing politics and endless culture wars and declares the power to reclaim our culture Starts With Us. It was founded on the beliefs that diversity of thought is a strength that leads to our most innovative ideas and that we must cooperate across our differences to solve the most pressing societal challenges of our time. Learn more at startswith.us/

Additionally, or alternatively, read this beautiful letter co-written by Starts With Us Founding Partner, Daniel Lubetzky, and Honorary Board Member, Lonnie Ali, Co-Founder of the Muhammad Ali Center. As a passionate Jew and a passionate Muslim, the two came together to humbly share a path forward for how to transcend the construct of “us vs. them” and side with humanity instead. Enjoy this letter.
 

Bill H.R. 1325 corrects the counterintuitive work authorization process with a commonsense solution, giving asylum seekers an opportunity to live a safe, fulfilling life while giving our economy the boost it so desperately needs.

Asylum seekers in the U.S. are at risk of sex and labor human trafficking when not allowed to find legal work and provide for their families. Catholic Sisters and people of good will encourage Congress to fix this vulnerability and also to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic red tape by passing H.R. 1325, the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act. The bill was introduced by Congresswoman, Chellie Pingree of Maine. It would reduce the current 180-day waiting period to obtain a work permit to just 30 days after applying for asylum. Learn more on her website. H.R.1325 is a win-win. Businesses need workers and asylum seekers want to work.

Additionally, the Alliance to End Human Trafficking offered another edition to their Breaking the Link video series on April 17. It was called, Breaking the Link: Work Authorization for Asylum Seekers Protects them from Trafficking. 

The webinar reminds us simply, “if an asylum seeker cannot work legally, what are their options?” They have families to support. If they are caught working illegally, it is detrimental to their asylum process as well as the work permit. Key to this issue is changing the narrative - asylum seekers are not criminals. They are people who leave their country and are seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country. Seeking asylum is a human right, so is the right to work.

Two key principles of Catholic Social Teaching are Life and Dignity of the Human Person and The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers. People do not lose dignity because of disability, poverty, age, lack of success, or race. People also have the right to decent and productive work, fair wages, private property and economic initiative. The economy exists to serve people, not the other way around.

Now that you have this information, please contact your representative TODAY and ask them to co-sign H.R. 1325. The faster these individuals can legally work, the safer they are and work gives them dignity.

For additional information, read this 3/12/2024 release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: 
USCIS Streamlines Process for Refugee Employment Authorization Documents
 

Last week, Catholic Climate Covenant praised the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly updated power plant emission standards. These emission guidelines will reduce coal ash, carbon, mercury, wastewater, and other power plant pollutants and improve the quality of life and the health and well-being of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters for generations to come. The EPA’s carbon pollution power plant standards, alongside the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in Aug. 2022, are projected to reduce carbon pollution by up to 75% by 2035. Read the Covenant’s full statement.

We invite you to join us and others in the faith community in thanking EPA Administrator Michael Regan for this important step to protect human health and respond to the climate crisis. Write your letter.

The Catholic Advisory Council of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), Pax Christi USA, Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns, and the Franciscan Action Network invite all Catholic individuals and organizations in the United States to sign on and to an open letter expressing our grief and dismay over the horrors that have occurred in Israel-Palestine over the last six months. Read the entire letter and see all the signatures here. Sign the letter here. Please share!

Don’t stop there! Each day, mothers are witnessing the death of their children in the Middle East. Please join Franciscan Action Network - click here to again urge your legislators to call for peace in the Middle East. This will take less than one minute.

Also, use this SSND Voter Voice Tool to urge President Biden and members of Congress to do all they can do to stop the bloodshed and move all involved to a just and lasting peace. Letters to the editor are also an effective tool for communicating messages. Click here for assistance in putting one together.

An Amnesty International petition gathered more than a million signatures from people around the world. You can follow their work and reporting. 

Want to be better informed? For an alternative news source with live updates, visit Al Jazeera.

We must be relentless in our call to peace and justice - Read, Listen, Sign, Call, Write, Act!