Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee

JPIC November 20081

U.S. Province, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Minutes November 13-14, 2008, Washington, D.C.

Present: Maurice Lange OMI (ex officio, chairperson), Seamus Finn OMI (ex officio), John Lasseigne OMI, Patti Radle, Darrell Rupiper OMI, Gary Huelsman, Walter Butor OMI, Bob Wright OMI, Daniel LeBlanc OMI

Excused: Bill Morell, Bill Antone, John Cox, Karl Davis

Staff present: Christina Herman,Mary O’Herron,George Ngolwe

Guests: Stephen Cook, Milan Bubak SVD, Bernard Jesuratnam OMI

Opening prayer:

led by John Lasseigne; Friday morning the members joined the local OMI community’s morning prayer and Eucharist. Gary Huelsman led the opening prayer of the meeting Friday morning.

Introductions and brief personal sharing:

Milan Bubak SVD, originally from Slovakia, now in JPIC work in Rome for his congregation, invited by Daniel LeBlanc. The Divine Word Society and the Holy Spirit Sisters started the VIVAT non-governmental organization (NGO) at the United Nations; five other congregations including the Oblates are associate members of VIVAT and participate in organizing programs at the UN, World Social Forum and various countries where members of the various congregations work and live.

Land Ethic:

John Lasseigne and Maurice Lange presented drafts of a proposed OMI U.S. land ethic, balancing earth preservation and other considerations with financial benefit. Members commended that the statement is rooted in this province’s ministry history and begins with ethical/value principles. They suggested that it include more Scriptural and papal statements to speak to the larger community; that its scope be expanded beyond wilderness lands to green space; that it addresses not only the disposal of land but also the appropriate use of land. It was agreed that ecological principles in the construction of buildings should be addressed separately from this land-ethic statement. A revised draft was made overnight and some additional small changes were approved. The final draft was left up to John Lasseigne, to be submitted to the provincial administration for consideration and dialogue toward the Provincial Council’s declaration of a land ethic. (See ATTACHMENT)

Post-election briefing and discussion:

Andrew Small OMI and Kevin Appleby, respectively from the USCCB foreign-policy and immigration-policy desks, joined the committee for a little over an hour. The discussion centered upon immigration policy initiatives and the U.S. bishops’ recent letter to president-elect Obama on the Freedom of Choice Act (on abortion) which has been introduced in Congress but is unlikely to be addressed.

In regard to immigration policy, comprehensive reform will probably not be in the new administration’s first-year agenda. But we should advocate for smaller, sector-specific bills (Dream Act for college education, civics and English instruction for immigrants, no more border-wall funding, no more federal funding for local law enforcement acting as immigration agents) and press the administration to stop the raids – this last item can be done without fanfare by executive action. Our argument on the more difficult issue of a path to citizenship for the undocumented should make clear the imminent hole in our workforce as baby boomers retire. And our argument for comprehensive reform should make clear that since 1994 the U.S. has spent upwards of $30 billion on border enforcement and yet the number of undocumented workers has doubled. The bishops should feel supported by a new Zogby poll of Catholics that “breaks down” reasons for or against legalizing the undocumented: 62% favored legalization if they speak English; 64% if they pay taxes; 64% opposed the Wall. A lot of Americans said the economy should not be an obstacle to legalization of immigrants. Committee members briefly shared incidents in their own areas chiefly having to do with immigration raids and the real lack of local documented workers to do these jobs, as well as the takeover of Mexican border cities and immigrant smuggling by the drug mafia.

With the insights of Andrew and Kevin, the committee reviewed and discussed the new letter of the President of the USCCB (Cardinal George) to president-elect Obama on the FOCA (abortion) legislation. While recognizing the validity of the arguments presented in the letter, some question the advisability of issuing it at this precise moment with such a narrow focus. Cardinal George was recognized as helping to “tone down” the document to be less adversarial as a first communication to the new president-elect. The committee did not review the simultaneous letter on the economy.

JPIC Office:

Immigration (George): the informational e-mails sent out are appreciated. George is seeking suggestions about how to expand the action-response base specifically to immigration issues. A recommendation was to send out an initial call for names through the superiors’ network (Sr. Ann), for the superiors to bring to their district or house members for OMIs or persons in their parish or other ministry who are willing to work on immigration issues

Other topics presented were the Interfaith Funders update (try to get funding from major foundations, try to get diverse community organizations to cooperate more), the financial meltdown (stockholder resolutions addressing various aspects, possibility of historic international-finances restructuring), immigration issues (discussed elsewhere), mineral-extraction companies (trying to get some local OMIs involved where company headquarters are). The national office has hosted OMI interns/colleagues from other provinces for several weeks or months: Joseph Gomes OMI (Bangladesh; Tomas Vyhnalek OMI (Czech Republic); JJ Bernard OMI (Sri Lanka)

Website ( and action alerts: Christina demonstrated the site to the committee (format improvement, links, introducing Spanish page). The members congratulated her on the impressive progress of the site. Suggestions from committee members included developing a printed bookmark (English/Spanish) to make the website known, to have our ministry websites link to this site, to provide a printable two-pager (one sheet, perhaps English-Spanish) along with action alerts to facilitate their distribution in ministry sites, to send out a monthly e-mail reminder (with an opt-out) to check the website to all province members. 172 people are currently on the e-mail action-alert list (put all province members on the list with an opt-out?). It was noted that phone calls are the best way to respond to action alerts, and that faxes get more attention than e-mail clicks; contacting the local office of congress persons is more effective than just contacting their D.C. office.

GS-JPIC (Seamus).

With a new director, Camille Piche OMI, finally appointed, Seamus has agreed to be associate director for the near future. Sri Lanka remains a central concern (OMIs are the largest religious presence there). The new GSJPICElectronic Newsletter format has been improved thanks to U.S.-province novice David Uribe. A basic Catholic-social-teaching course has been given inter-congregationally to religious congregations’ membership (including OMIs) in various world regions. SEDOS in Rome is sponsoring a May 12-16, 2009, “Creation at the Heart of Mission” conference in Assisi. The international OMI Mission Committee is planning a conference on migration in Toronto next June (Bob Wright is among the invitees).

World Social Forum. Belem, Brazil, January 27-February 1, 2009. The committee made recommendations for a U.S. delegate or two.

United Nations (Daniel):

VIVAT is discussing how to be better connected with congregational grassroots, to the mutual benefit of both ends. There is good support from congregational leaderships. There has been a lot of work with indigenous peoples’ communities (instrumental in getting Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights passed) and financing for development and eradicating poverty. Daniel also facilitates contacts of visitors, OMI and otherwise, with UN offices. NGOs will be reviewing the effectiveness of their recommendations to the General Assembly in hopes of improving outcomes.

Ecology

OEI (Maurice): Stephen Cook and Gail Battle attended the August Earth Literacy Program. Maurice preached the annual OMI retreat in Malibu and preached to Oblates assembled at Arnprior in Canada. He has recently been a resource to an increasing energy around greening their operations by the Belleville ministries, due especially to some new hires at the shrine and MAMI. There has been a greater interconnect with novices this year.

Parish Eco-Mission (Darrell): Darrell explained the themes and process he uses. He continues to receive very positive feedback. Suggestions made to him included establishing ongoing direct contact with parish eco-committee coordinators (along with the pastors). Two of his recent invitations came through the JPIC website. Christine invited him to make use of the possibilities.

OST has two new hires with primary ecological expertise, and a new team-taught course on Earth Our Home is being offered this spring. Committee members asked about a distance- learning possibility for this course.

Bernard Jesuratnam OMI. Bernard shared about his justice and peace ministry in Sri Lanka as an advocate for the Tamil people, placing it in historical context; his arrest and consequent exile to the Philippines where he is doing similarly dangerous work in a conflictive region; he is currently visiting DC where he has been meeting with the Oblates and doing research..

Province Investment Principles and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Should we encourage a dialogue of a few JPIC committee members with the OMI investment committees around investment policies? Some issues: passive or active management? exclude certain companies due to bad social impact (e.g., weapons of mass destruction, abortion) and/or invest primarily in companies with good social impact? Have socially responsible investors who have retained a minimum amount of stock in “bad” companies in order to file shareholder actions had any impact with such filings, or should we just divest ourselves completely? Committee members shared about local impacts of the current financial meltdown: longstanding solid businesses can’t obtain adequate loans, grants to non-profits diminishing, social-service agencies are seeing contributions decline but on the positive side staff is more stable (don’t risk not finding another job).

Social Investment Funds (Seamus):

Seamus talked briefly about the current financial crisis and the impact that it is having on all investors. He also offered updates on the Isaiah Fund (New Orleans), OIP investment in Shared interest focusing on South Africa and Oikocredit. The Oblates are regularly receiving returns on these investments, unlike the results that are being realized through other equity investments.

Stephen Cook comments: Hopes to develop an interface of the OMI USA site with the JPIC site; inherited the OMI youth site ( from the Australian Oblates, and this can be populated with good items from the JPIC site; has been tasked to produce a biweekly newsletter to the men of the province, which will have a JPIC section; will seek to connect Oblate Media and Oblates magazine (Belleville) to JPIC items.

Spring 2009 meeting: it was decided to have an in-person rather than conference-call meeting. The dates selected are April 29, 1:30 PM – April 30, 4 PM, somewhere in the middle of the country (Chicago, Belleville, San Antonio). Seamus will work on determining the site.

Evaluation. Members found the meeting to have been productive, informative, encouraging.