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Current Involvements

Human Dignity/Human Trafficking

School Sisters of Notre Dame are involved in a variety of issues concerning the preservation of basic human rights and human dignity, perhaps none as compelling as the trafficking of women and children.

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery. Each year an estimated 800,000 people – largely women and children – fall victim to international traffickers. These innocent victims are forced into unpaid labor, debt bondage, coerced prostitution or sexual servitude. The trafficking of human beings is the second largest source of profit for international criminals amounting to billions of dollars each year. As many as 17,500 people are believed to be trafficked into the United States each year.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame Respond by:

What you can do.

Help raise awareness of this issue. Contact the School Sisters of Notre Dame Global Justice and Peace Office about arranging a speaker for your group.

Let your voice be heard! Contact your elected officials about your concerns on human trafficking and ask what they are doing to address this issue.

Check out these links:

Prayer: LIVING SHALOM

Prayer for an End to Human Trafficking

O God, our words cannot express what our minds and hearts can barely comprehend or feel.
When we hear of women and girls deceived and transported to unknown places.
For the purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse because of human greed and profit.

Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry that their dignity and rights are being transgressed.
We cry out against the degrading practice of human trafficking and pray for it to end.
Strengthen the fragile-spirited and broken hearted.
Make real your promises to fill these sisters with a love that is tender and good.
And send the exploiters away empty-handed.

Give us the wisdom and courage to stand in solidarity with those caught in this terrible web.
That together we will find ways to the freedom that is your gift to all of us.

Amen.

Prayer by Sister Genevieve Cassani, SSND

 

 

Global Poverty/International Debt

“We commit ourselves to explore and face the complexity of the economic, social and political causes of poverty as we work toward the elimination of unjust structures…” (SSND Call of the 20th General Chapter)

The School Sisters of Notre Dame have recognized, for many years, the role international debt plays in perpetuating poverty throughout the developing world. In the world’s most impoverished nations, the majority of the people do not have access to clean water, adequate housing or basic health care. These countries are re-paying debts to wealthy nations and institutions at the expense of providing these basic services to their citizens. This is foreign aid in reverse. For every dollar sent to the poorest countries, $1.30 flows back to lenders.
"Every child in Africa is born with a financial burden which a lifetime's work cannot repay.
The debt is a new form of slavery as vicious as the slave trade."
All Africa Council of Churches
The School Sisters of Notre Dame Respond by:
In the late 1990s, the School Sisters of Notre Dame joined the Vatican, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and hundreds of other concerned groups in supporting major debt relief for heavily impoverished nations. While almost two dozen countries have received significant debt relief, much work remains.

What you can do.

In 2008 we have an historic opportunity to break the chains of debt and change the lives of millions. The Jubilee Act is the single most important piece of debt legislation in the past seven years and it is one of the most widely supported anti-poverty bills in Congress.

Let your voice be heard! Go to Jubilee USA to learn more about the Jubilee Act and use their easy email advocacy options to contact your senators and representative about this important legislation.

Check out these links:

Prayer: LIVING SHALOM

Prayer for the Work Against Poverty

Christ, who showed great compassion to the poor
Give us compassion toward those in poverty.

Your wish is for all of your children to live with dignity
With adequate food, shelter, health care and education.

Help us take up your work as a community of faith
And guide us as we seek just solutions to the poverty of the world.

Amen.

Author of prayer unknown

 

Care for Creation/Sustainable Development

 


Education for Sustainable Development

There is growing concern that human dignity and our environment are suffering due to unsustainable consumption. The quality of our air, water, and land, the treatment of workers and animals, are all affected. The poor and marginalized are disproportionately impacted.

Some of the consequences of our current consumption include:

Consumption inequities include:

The School Sisters of Notre Dame Respond by:
“We have heard the cry of our world. Although precious and beautiful in God’s design, the earth and its peoples exist today in a fragile, divided and fragmented condition. We commit ourselves to reverse those personal and communal choices which exploit the earth and impoverish its people.” (20th and 21st SSND General Chapter statements)

What you can do.

Watch “The Story of Stuff”

Measure your own ecological footprint and see how much resources your lifestyle requires.

Take stock of your own green habits and then consider joining our Green Habit Campaign.

Check out these links:

Prayer: LIVING SHALOM

Prayer of Commitment

We commit ourselves to care for all the gifts of Creation.
We commit ourselves to explore and understand environmental concerns.
We commit ourselves to work with others for environmental justice for all.

Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send your breath over the waters and we shall be re-created.
And we shall see the face of the Earth.

Amen.

Prayer by Sister Genevieve Cassani, SSND

 

 

Seamless Garment of Life/For Whom the Bells Toll

“For Whom the Bells Toll” is a national initiative to have religious and other organizations throughout the country toll their bells whenever there is an execution. Its origins can be traced to Jamie Cardinal Sin of the Philippines who asked Catholic Churches in that country to mourn the execution of a citizen by tolling their bells. In 1999, Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Virginia, learned of this practice and wrote to all the churches in his diocese to toll their bells every day that there is an execution in the US – until there is an end to this “inhumane practice”.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame Respond by:
School Sisters of Notre Dame are involved in addressing many issues which tear at the “seamless garment of life” including abortion, treatment of the elderly and the sick, war, racism, euthanasia, and capital punishment. Participation in the For Whom the Bells Toll campaign is one such example.

What you can do.

Learn more about For Whom the Bells Toll and join in the campaign to raise awareness and take action to end the use of capitol punishment.

Include the “Prayer for Life” in your prayers.

Check out these links:

Prayer: LIVING SHALOM

Prayer for Life

Father and maker of all, you adorn all creation with splendor and beauty, fashioning humans in your image and likeness.

Awaken in every heart reverence for the work of your hands, and renew among your people a readiness to nurture and sustain your precious gift of life.

Author of prayer unknown

 

 

Global Economic Justice/Sweatshops

Sweatshops are one of the many global economic justice issues that concern the School Sisters of Notre Dame. A sweatshop is a workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage and benefits, poor working conditions, denial of worker rights, and arbitrary discipline. Workers typically work very long days for sub-poverty wages. Worker abuses can include unsafe or even life-threatening working conditions, physical punishment, emotional humiliation and the use of child labor.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame look at this issue through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching which tells us:

The School Sisters of Notre Dame Respond by:

What you can do.

Look for sweat free and fair trade certified products when you make your purchases. Various local and national fair trade guides are available.

If you can’t find them, let your store clerk know that you are interested in sweat free/fair trade products by using Dear Store Manager Cards Tarjeta para Compras (en Español) when you shop at your favorite stores.

Help raise awareness of these issues. Contact the School Sisters of Notre Dame Global Justice and Peace Office about arranging for a speaker for your group.

Check out these links:

Co-op America is a great place to start to learn more about sweatshops and fair trade.

Catholic Relief Services offers many fair trade products and programs through CRS Fair Trade.

Archdiocese of Milwaukee Clean Clothes Campaign includes a teacher tool kit and lots of other resources.

National Labor Committee – A human rights advocacy group that exposes global worker exploitation and promotes the defense of worker rights and dignity.

Interfaith Center for Worker Justice - calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the U.S. on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

Prayer: LIVING SHALOM

Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of Workers

St. Joseph, Patron of Workers,
Help us to respect the dignity of all workers.
Help us to learn about and to care about
Workers who do not have fair wages, just benefits, safe working environments.
Help us to raise our voices for justice for workers.
Help us to ask our government and our representatives
To develop policies that create jobs with dignity.
You taught your son
The value of work and the joy of work well done.
Teach us these lessons.
Guide us in our own work
And in the work of justice we are all called to participate in.
Renew our strength and commitment
Each day as we face the work ahead
As we labor for the common good of all.
Amen.

Author of prayer unknown

 

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