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National Catholic Rural Life Bulletin
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In this issue
ACTION REMINDER: Catholics Confront Global Poverty
FOODMED 2009: International Conference on Healthcare Food
GLOBAL FOOD RESPONSIBILITY: new report released
STANDING WITH THE POOR on Climate Change Legislation
Commission on Climate Change and Development Report Released
CARING FOR CREATION: Benedictine Sisters in England
PENTECOST and the Fullness of Life
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ACTION REMINDER: Catholics Confront Global Poverty
During the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering this past February, the United States Conference of Catholics Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) launched the "Catholics Confront Global Poverty" initiative.
This nationwide effort, inspired by Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 World Day of Peace Message "Fighting Poverty to Build Peace," calls on one million Catholics to "confront global poverty." In a little over two months since the initiative was launched, more than 145,500 Catholics have become engaged in the effort, including 32 dioceses, 75 parishes, 27 religious communities, and 24 schools.
If you haven't joined the yet, please sign up today. You can do so as individuals and groups (parishes, schools, etc.). Invite others to sign up as well.
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/globalpoverty/
Explore this website for ideas about how you can defend human life and dignity by learning about poverty, educating others, and advocating for solutions that reflect the values of Catholic social teaching.
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FOODMED 2009: International Conference on Healthcare Food
June 30 - July 1; Detroit, Michigan
As places of healing, hospitals have a natural incentive to provide food that's healthy for people and good for the environment. This third international conference on healthcare food is designed to help incorporate nutritious food purchasing at hospitals and healthcare facilities. Participants will learn cost effective strategies that emphasize health concerns and facilitate the development of healthy communities. Presentations will be geared towards healthcare providers, dieticians, food service directors and food procurement and distribution professionals.
http://www.foodmed.org/
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GLOBAL FOOD RESPONSIBILITY: new report released
Policies enacted by the United States and the European Union, and aggressively pushed through global institutions, laid the ground for the ongoing food crisis, finds a new report by CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). Nearly one billion people are currently suffering from hunger around the world and the economic crisis is increasing this number daily.
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=451&refID=106054
The report identifies the convergence of the food, economic and climate crises as indicators that call into question the viability of existing models of food production and consumption. The report highlights policy failures including neglected agriculture programs, ill-advised economic adjustment policies, commodity speculation and unjust trade rules that have led to a vulnerable global food system.
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National Geographic covers food crisis in June issue
The feature article in the June issue of National Geographic asks: Is a reprise of the "green revolution" - with the traditional package of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation, supercharged by genetically engineered seeds - really the answer to the world's food crisis? Last year a massive study called the "International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development" concluded that the immense production increases brought about by science and technology in the past 30 years have failed to improve food access for many of the world's poor.
The six-year study, initiated by the World Bank and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and involving some 400 agricultural experts from around the globe, called for a paradigm shift in agriculture toward more sustainable and ecologically friendly practices that would benefit the world's 900 million small farmers, not just agribusiness.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text/1
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STANDING WITH THE POOR on Climate Change Legislation
Over the past week during legislative discussions on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, members of the faith community have pushed strongly for increases in the amount of international funding that will assist vulnerable people in the world's poorest countries to adapt to climate change. Greater effort is needed in this regard. The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change urges you to continue writing and calling members of Congress.
A joint letter to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from Catholic Relief Services and the USCCB urges that the "fundamental moral measure of climate change legislation is how it affects the poor in our own country and around the world." Furthermore, it states "we are deeply disappointed that the funding resources committed to international adaptation fall fundamentally short of what is needed and the increase in available resources is pushed too far off into the future."
Full letter (pdf): http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/crs-usccb_letter_committee_on_energy_and_commerce.pdf
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UN Commission on Climate Change and Development report
Last week, the International Commission on Climate Change and Development presented its final report to U.N. Secretary-General. The report's recommendations address the mobilization of new climate adaptation funds in addition to ongoing development programs; it also emphasizes the importance of context in how those funds will be put to use internationally. Noting that each country will have different exposure to climate risks amid different political and governance characteristics, each will also require different solutions to adapt to climate change effects. This is especially crucial for the world's poorest communities.
Full report (pdf): http://www.ccdcommission.org/Filer/report/CCD_REPORT.pdf
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CARING FOR CREATION: Benedictine Sisters in England
The Sisters of St. Benedict of the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation, had left their old monastery at Stanbrook Abbey, in Worcestershire, England, to take possession of a new Stanbrook Abbey in the North York Moors national park. They move from a fossil fuel-hungry monastery to a more environmentally-friendly campus. The new Stanbrook Abbey features solar panels to provide hot water, a woodchip-heating boiler fuelled by locally available trees, and a grass-covered roof to better insulate the buildings, reduce runoff, and attract wildlife. Rainwater from some of the roofs will be collected and used to flush toilets and sewage will be processed in a reed-bed wetland system before trickling out onto the surrounding land.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/21/green-nunnery-move
and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/01/catholicism-religion
Visit the new monastery online at http://stanbrookabbeyfriends.org/
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LET US KNOW if your religious community, parish, diocese, Catholic college or school is doing something that may lead others to more sustainable lifestyles and practices.看 Catholic Institutions Practicing Sustainability is a new initiative by NCRLC to collect and share examples Catholic institutions that are caring for God's sacred creation.
Notify NCRLC's Tim Kautza at tim@ncrlc.com if you know of such institutions. Or visit our webpage Catholic Institutions Practicing Sustainability to find out more.
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PENTECOST and the Fullness of Life
On the land, Easter comes as a true Resurrection.
Easter is the beginning, the first blossoming of new life.
Pentecost is the fruition, the fullness of it.
Christ planted the Divine Life at Easter;
看看 it is at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit comes
看看 bringing to the souls of Christians the fullness of life.
With the Sundays after Pentecost come the quiet summer months,
看看 the time of gradual maturing and ripening of the seed,
看看 planted in the early spring.
In the cycle of the Church we witness the unfolding and development
看看 of the new life sown at Easter.
Adapted from "The Unfolding of the Christian Seasons"
(Essay by Mariette Wickes, 1950)
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