Catholic Bishops Announces National Migration Week, January 2-8, 2011

Migration and Refugee Services of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced "Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice" as the theme for National Migration Week celebrated the first week of January (2-8, 2011).

Learn more at their website: http://www.usccb.org/mrs/nmw/index.shtml

They have a spiritual Rosary for world unity, brochures, and bulletin inserts for parishes.

When I went through the "JustFaith" program a few years ago, I learned that the vast majority of migrants would have preferred to remain home, just like you or I. Only really tough conditions can drive people out of their homes, e.g. devastatingly bad economy, political oppression (real torture and death), environmental catastrophe.

My own great, great grandparents on all sides of my family are migrants to America. They came from England, Scotland, France and Germany. Many were fleeing the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. What about your family?

The Catholic Social Teaching of "Solidarity" talks about us being responsible for one another globally: "We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that “if you want peace, work for justice.”1 The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict. "

Children's Book Review: "Care for Creation" by Christy Baldwin

I was recently given the opportunity to review this new children's book, "Care for Creation" by Christy Baldwin from Tribute Books. http://www.tribute-books.com/careforcreation/index.html

This is a delightful book that clearly explains how caring for God's creation is our job as Christians. Each page has a clear description about some aspect of caring for the environment, a Bible verse, and an illustration of children caring for creation. The book gives practical suggestions that families and children can do, e.g. use less water, clean up a local park, recycle.

My guess is that this book is for about age 8-12, but can benefit younger and older. Parents, I'll leave it to you. This book would also work well for children's "Sunday School" or faith formation classes -- it has activities and discussion questions at the end.

The Bible verses come from a paraphrase translation called "The Message" described on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_%28Bible%29) or you can google "The Message Bible Paraphrase". This idiomatic paraphrase should be very easy for children to understand, but you may also want to look up the verses in the New American Bible translation (used at Masses in the USA) to compare.

To learn more about Catholic Social Teaching and specifically Caring for God's Creation, see the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: scroll down -- caring for creation is the seventh theme of Catholic Social Teaching.

Care for God's Creation: Recycle Your Christmas Tree

You and your family can practice the Catholic Social Teaching of caring for God’s creation by recycling your Christmas tree. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, between 25 and 30 million fresh-cut Christmas trees are sold in the United States every year. Christmas tree recycling helps return a renewable resource back to the environment.

For Christmas tree recycling in your city, enter your zipcode into the Earth 911 website: http://earth911.com/recycling/garden/christmas-trees

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's summarizes the Catholic Social Teaching of "Care for God’s Creation": "We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored."

"Religious Freedom: The Path to Peace” is Pope’s Theme for World Day of Peace, January 1, 2011

I found this on the Vatican Radio website and the Vatican website: "In many parts of the world there exist various forms of restrictions or denials of religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalization based on religion, to acts of violence against religious minorities. Religious freedom is rooted in the equal and inherent dignity of man, it is oriented toward the search for unchangeable truth, and thus can rightly be presented as the freedom of freedoms."

See the Vatican website for the full text of the Pope’s message to be posted soon (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/index_en.htm).

Or read more at the Vatican Radio website (http://storico.radiovaticana.org/en1/storico/2010-07/407824_pope_picks_religious_freedom_as_theme_for_2011_peace_message.html).