"Urge Congress to Extend Jobless Benefits and Promote Long-Term Job Growth" Says Catholic Charities USA

Catholic Charities USA has just sent out an action alert for all of us voting Catholics to write to our Congresspersons now.

The Catholic Charities USA website explains the Church's position in detail, and makes it laughably easy to email your members of Congress with the click of a mouse.

Action Alert website for this topic: http://capwiz.com/catholiccharitiesusa/issues/alert/?alertid=15076796&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id]

Catholic Charities USA homepage: http://capwiz.com/catholiccharitiesusa/home/

I just wrote my senators and representative. How about you? 67 million Catholics in America can be heard, if we respond to our Bishops when they call us to action.

Simple Things to Do to Care for Planet Earth

The Catholic Coalition for Climate Change has a great website. One of their handy features are lists of things anyone can do to care for God's creation.

Here is a list of 25 "Everyday Approaches" that are great activities for families and individuals: http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/pdf/Everyday_Approaches.pdf

The list covers the following topics, giving some details around each one: recycling, washing clothes in cold water, using tupperware, fixing leaks and drips, using energy-efficient light bulbs, buying local, carpooling, walking, eating more veggies and less beef, planting a tree, assessing your home's energy use, turning off lights, and so on. Tips are also given for school and work and parishes.

I work with the Department of Energy in my day job, and many of these things are from the DOE. In other words, these activities really do make a difference, and are the correct things to do.

US Bishops Website on New English Translation of the Mass

http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/index.shtml

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have rolled out a new website on the new English translation of the Roman Missal.

This new translation into English from the Latin will probably be implemented in all US parishes by Advent 2011.

You will have to relearn (and hopefully study and ponder) most of the memorized responses that you currently say during Mass. (A dozen years ago when I went through RCIA to join the Church, I sweated to learn the Mass: now we can all do it together!).

Check out the sample texts. They are really great -- much, much closer to the intent of the Latin. In my parish, we use bilingual missals, with English on one side and Spanish on the other. The Spanish has always been far closer to the Latin. Interesting.

Make a Difference in Washington, D.C., with the Click of a Mouse

Catholic Charities USA keeps a close eye on legislation passing through Congress, and regularly asks Catholic voters to write to their Congresspersons on time urgent bills.

What can you do? Sign up to receive an email alert, or twice a month visit the CCUSA website to see the latest Action Alerts.

With the click of the mouse and the entry of a few fields of data about yourself, you can send an effective email to your Congressperson. You do need to include your full name and address: your Congressperson needs to know that you are one of their constituents.

At the Catholic Charities USA website, click on “Advocacy” and then “Take Action”: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

As of this writing, the action alert is: "Urge Congress to Extend Jobless Benefits and Promote Long-Term Job Growth"

Remember: there are tens of millions of Catholic voters in the USA. Working in concert with our Bishops, we can be heard.