National Catholic Rural Life Bulletin

In this issue

Social Action Summer Institute: July 19-24
Farmers Market Contest: Help your favorite farmers market
FARM BILL UPDATE: Appropriation bills moving
Religious Communities among investors persuading Chevron to track carbon
Preparing for International Climate Day, October 24
Vatican Recycling Program
Thomas Berry, Environmentalist, Priest, Eco-Theologian, Dies at 94
Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Social Action Summer Institute: July 19-24

The acclaimed Catholic Social Action Summer Institute will be held July 19-24 at Seton Hall University, Newark, NJ. Workshops are designed specifically for parish and diocesan social action directors. Sponsors of the annual summer institute are: The Roundtable Association of Diocesan Social Action Directors; U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development; Catholic Charities USA; Catholic Campaign for Human Development; Catholic Relief Services; and JustFaith Ministries.

For more details and registration materials, visit

http://www.nplc.org/roundtable/conference_social_09options.php

Farmers Market Contest: Help your favorite farmers market to win

This summer, American Farmland Trust is supporting farmers markets across the nation with a national farmers market contest. This is part of their campaign to help spread the "No Farms No Food" message and promote local farms and food across the country. Customers across the nation will be able to cast their votes for America's Favorite Farmers Markets in order to support their community market.

Visit www.farmland.org/vote

American Farmland Trust also asks for your help in getting managers of farmers markets in your area to enroll in the contest. As farmers markets across the country enroll in the contest, customers will be able to enter their zip code and find the farmers markets in their area. Read more about the Vote for America's Favorite Farmers Markets contest by visiting www.farmland.org/marketmanager

If you have more detailed questions, please contact Gretchen Hoffman, Communications Coordinator, at ghoffman@farmland.org or 202-378-1251.

FARM BILL UPDATE: Agriculture Appropriations and Food Safety bills moving

The Fiscal Year 2010 agriculture appropriations bill will be marked up in subcommittee in the House this Thursday, June 11. The full House committee is expected to take up the bill the following week, with House floor consideration sometime after the July 4th recess.¬Ý

There is also a good chance that the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up Food Safety legislation sometime this week, to be followed in the coming weeks by the full committee.

No parallel Senate action is scheduled at this point on either bill. We expect Senate agriculture appropriations action in July and food safety action either in July or in the fall. Please stayed tune for more updates and alerts: it is important to ensure full funding for the Farm Bill programs we strongly support for the health of farms, consumers and the environment.

Religious Communities among investors persuading Chevron to track carbon

Chevron recently became the first major U.S. oil company to track and report its carbon product content. Thanks in part goes to pressure from the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, New Jersey, investors in the company and representatives of a group of 16 investors holding over $100 billion in invested capital known as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

For more about their work and a Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment:
http://www.reuters.com/article/gwmEnergy/idUS215535530120090527

Preparing for International Climate Day, October 24

Last year, the world's leading climatologists published data showing that 350 parts per million CO2 was the highest atmospheric concentration consistent with maintaining a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." It was a profound new understanding of the planet and also a very tough one, since we are already past that red line. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are already at 387 parts per million and climbing rapidly. This is why the Arctic is melting, why disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading rapidly, why droughts are making peasant agriculture ever harder.

A campaign called 350.org is an effort to draw attention to this new fact about creation. This October 24th, various groups will organize thousands of events all over the world in an effort to make this most important number widely known. The hope of the 350 campaign is to add pressure on negotiators later this year who are gathering for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009.

The 350 campaign has asked for the help of faith communities in making this day of action a complete success. Churches are committing to ringing their bells 350 times; Buddhists in several Asian countries have already staged large mass actions. You can learn more about how faith communities are taking action on 350 at this link: http://www.350.org/faith

Please consider adding your name to the Interfaith Call for 350 and sign up to organize an action on October 24 in your community. Time for action is short, say the scientists. Please join in.

Vatican Recycling Program

At the beginning of last year, the Vatican initiated a recycling program which today has designated nearly one-half of its industrial-size trash collection containers to recyclables, including paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum and tin cans. The recycling program can also properly dispose broken appliances, discarded furniture, old car batteries and tires, large packing materials and florescent light bulbs. For a Catholic News Service story, visit http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902464.htm

In the United States, religious institutions are setting an example for others by working toward sustainability. Learn more at http://www.ncrlc.com/new_section/Practicing_Sustainability.html

Thomas Berry, Environmentalist, Priest, Eco-Theologian, Dies at 94

Thomas Berry passed away early on the morning of June 1st at Wellspring home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was born in Greensboro in 1914. After becoming a Passionist priest and historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the earth and its evolutionary processes. He described himself as a "geologian".

Many NCRLC members and friends, inspired by the life and writings of Fr. Thomas, created earth and eco-spirituality ministries to help others foster the awe-inspired great work of their lives amidst the enchantment of the sacred universe. This August two more books of his essays will be published: The Sacred Universe (Columbia University) and The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (Orbis Books).

For a look at the 94 years of Thomas Berry's life, visit http://ncronline.org/news/ecology/thomas-berry-environmentalist-priest-dies

There is also further information and a longer biography of him at http://www.thomasberry.org/

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we know that there is but one thing impossible to You: to be without pity for those who are in suffering or distress. Look down on us, we beg of You and grant us the grace which we humbly and earnestly implore, through the Immaculate Heart of Your most sorrowful Mother to whom You confided us as her children, and whose prayers are all powerful with You. Amen.

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