Women’s March Largest Nonviolent Demonstration in “Herstory”

 

It was the largest nonviolent demonstration in “herstory”. Millions showed up! Fortune Magazine’s latest estimate is that approximately 1 of every 100 USA citizens attended one of the demonstrations. Whether or not you were able to participate in one of the marches that took place on January 21, 2017 is not as significant as being actively engaged in protecting women’s rights. We must commit to gender equality which is Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The majority of human trafficking victims are women and girls, and 1 in 3 is a child. Thus, what you do to end slavery is significant. The U. S. Department of State reminds us of actions we can take. Cautionary note: the Trump Administration is modifying governmental websites on a daily basis so I don’t know how long the link will remain posted.

A Forward from Catholics in Alliance

In one hour, Donald John Trump will be inaugurated the 45th President of the United States.

Next week, we will be at a meeting with the new President at the White House, and we want to deliver a letter to him from the Catholic community.

In the letter, we promise the President that we will pray for him, but that in the spirit of St. Thomas More, we will challenge him to live up to the highest demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We tell him we'll fight for a nation where the poor are blessed, the last are first, and strangers are welcomed.

Please sign onto to our letter, and forward it to friends and family who want to do the same.

We're willing to encounter, engage, and befriend anyone to make Pope Francis's dream for the United States a lived reality: "let this be a place where everyone is welcomed, loved, and forgiven."

Let's challenge President Trump to do the same.

Also, your support is crucial to our work in the first days of Donald Trump's presidency. Will you chip in and invest in our efforts today?

Thank you for all you do.

Adult Section of Backpage.com Shut Down

Polaris invites us to take a quiz that indicates how much we know about human trafficking. The results are posted after you complete the quiz.  Polaris also shares the good news that yesterday, January 9, 2016, Backpage.com shut down its adult section.  MANY persons have suffered being “commodities” with their bodies up for sale through advertisements on Backpage.com.  Rejoice with this good news! Though it may make it more difficult for the FBI to conduct stings, but law enforcement will find other ways to catch perpetrators of this horrendous crime.

Gospel Nonviolence

Eli McCarthy from the Justice and Peace Office of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men offers a wonderful blog post on “Opening Wide the Doors of Gospel Nonviolence.” He reflects on the importance of Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Peace calling us to embrace Jesus’ way of active nonviolence. How might we do this in our faith communities?

1. share the World Day of Peace with your communities;
2. provide substantial education about active nonviolence in all levels of faith formation;
3. provide a regular Gospel-based training program in various nonviolent skills, as they have in the Archdiocese of Chicago;
4. join or develop a local peace team to deploy unarmed peacekeepers, provide nonviolent skill training, and scale-up restorative justice.