Protected: Parish Council Survey
July 19, 2008
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Voice in the Wilderness - March/April Edition
May 13, 2008
The social justice ministry at St. Jerome’s parish has shared the latest edition of their newletter, Voices in the Wilderness. The eight-page volume contains a range of stories and essays on the environment, fair trade, water availability and more.
Read more: Voice in the Wilderness - March/April Edition
Topics: Social Justics | No Comments »
Catholic Legislative Network
May 6, 2008
The California Catholic Conference, which is the legislative arm of the California bishops, is looking for Catholics to sign-up via their website for the Catholic Legislative Network. What this means is that, usually, once a week everyone receives an email update on legislative issues of interest to the Catholic Church in California. If an action is requested the network member is able to click on the link provided and be connected to the email of the the appropriate legislator(s).
Please considering signing up yourself and passing this on to others to sign-up at www.cacatholic.org or leginfo@cacatholic.org - it’s a little confusing to find the email signup so the direct link is at: http://capwiz.com/cacatholic/mlm/signup/.
It takes only a couple of minutes to enroll.
Requirements:
- Catholic, and
- Live in California.
Please pass this along to those that may be interested in signing up.
Topics: Announcements | No Comments »
Our Children are our Most Valuable Treasure
February 26, 2008
Listed here are 18 essential questions and answers about the Clergy Abuse scandal.
1. When did people become more aware of the terrible sin and evil of the sexual abuse of children?
Isolated incidents were reported for as long as we have been keeping records, but two historic events, one in Louisiana and the other here in Manhattan Beach, focused attention on this being a more widespread problem beginning in the 1980s:
The first was the indictment of Father Gilbert Gauthe, a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette, who turned out to be a serial pedophile; the publicity surrounding this case beginning in 1984 raised everyone’s awareness that even clergy could be a danger to children and youth.
The second was the case beginning in 1983 here in southern California involving many staff at the Virginia McMartin Preschool. After three years of testimony, no one was found guilty of sexual abuse in those cases. But the notoriety in the media over those years heightened everyone’s awareness to this problem in society, and led to California enacting new laws for the mandated reporting of suspected child abuse.
2. But didn’t the sexual abuse of children by clergy start before the 1980s?
Sadly, yes. Most likely there were cases of clergy sexual abuse down through the centuries. We know now that a small percentage of adults, particularly males, are prone to this type of immoral behavior. Unfortunately, this category has included a small percentage of clergy.
Topics: Archdiocese | No Comments »
Report from the Social Justice Committee
December 1, 2007
Social Justice Standing Committee Meeting Minutes Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Regional Council Regional Offices
Present: Deacon Hosea Alexander, Hortense Bradley, Terry Dicks, Deacon Guy Wauthy, Helene Wauthy
Dcn. Alexander and Hortense Bradley are members of the OLA Regional Council. Guests Terry Dicks, Deacon Guy Wauthy and Helene Wauthy are members of the St. Jerome Parish Pastoral Council.
Absent: Berenice Escobedo, Loraine DeJesus
The meeting began with an introduction of guests and committee members present.
Hortense Bradley led the Question of the Week Reflection on the past Sunday’s Gospel.
Copies of the Synod Initiative VI were distributed and read to revisit the purpose of the committee’s existence and its call to service to the faithful throughout the region. There was discussion on what it means to become “a People of Communion and Justice for the life of the world” and how our Regional Council can best assist the faithful in responding to God’s call to do so. Issues of peace and justice include feeding the hungry, housing the poor, providing shelter for the homeless, promoting the common human dignity of a living wage and fair trade among nations, visiting and assisting the imprisoned … (Notice the use of action verbs.)
Noted was the need for communication between our Regional Council and parishes. Discussion identified the need to facilitate widespread dissemination of information on Catholic social teaching and sharing what individual parishes are doing in their social justice ministries. An effort should be made especially to inform Just Faith groups in individual parishes of activities planned both at the archdiocesan level and within local parishes. Visits to the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace web site’s “News Blast” must be encouraged and promoted.
Dcn. Guy recommended that because pastors are so busy, each parish should designate a social justice point person and forward the name to the regional office so that information may be easily targeted to the right people. He further noted the need to make the faithful aware of the
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