Blog

15/12/2017

John F Kane writes this week's blog on Caring for our Common Home and the now urgent message within Laudato Si

With the Season of Creation now at a close, it is time for the Church to take stock and reflect on how it has taken on board Laudato Si and also to consider the lines and approach that are required to have any real impact on the universe.

In a speech to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation on October 16, Pope Francis urged nations to uphold the Paris Agreement on climate change. He also urged the international community to “talk less about chronic problems such as hunger, war and climate change, and do more to combat them”

Today we are witnessing the effects of climate change with intense and more frequent hurricanes, coral reefs dying, glaciers rapidly melting, and sea levels rising. So many poor people and creatures are suffering and face extinction if we do not quickly change our lifestyle. We have to work together to creatively find solutions, to reduce our carbon footprint, to live more simply and sustainably on this, our only home. The health of the planet and our continued existence depend upon our choices and actions.

So how can we in Scotland take on board what Pope Francis is now asking us to do - ‘talk less and do more to combat the issues’?

Laudato Si offers a real opportunity for us all to play an active role in combatting climate change. The Church could be an advocate for sustainable living, whilst practicing that approach itself. We should be the beacons of good practice, with sustainable dioceses and parishes.

At the international level, through the Bishops of Scotland, a commitment should be made to join in with the Catholic movement for Divertissement from Fossil Fuel in all Church properties.

At national, level there is a real opportunity to engage with the Scottish Government in their preparation for free fossil fuelled cars with a pledge and commitment from the Church to have energy stations in each of the Church car parks throughout Scotland. (Laudato Si 180)

At local level, in each deanery, a Church should be selected that would champion an exemplar sustainable church together and every parish signing up for EcoCongregation and Simply Living.

Parish groups xould take up the local challenge from the many excellent resources that are available to them. In Scotland, the Justice and Peace Commission is making reference to some examples to good practice through organisations such as La Roche and EcoCongregations. SCIAF has produced some excellent documentation with a guide to Caring for Our Common Home to cut your carbon footprint and bring Laudato Si' to life in your parish.

These are a few of the many positive actions that could be taken to demonstrate that the Church in Scotland is one with Laudato Si and Care for our People and the Creation.

The Earth Charter 2000 asked us to leave behind the ‘period of destruction and make a new start as never before in history. Common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning….Let ours be a time to be remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life’.( Laudato Si 207)

The time is now for all of us to stop the talking and take up the challenge as pilgrims of the future in making the Church in Scotland a Beacon of good practice for Caring for our Creation.

08/12/2017

We Take Our Saints Seriously In This House

In this week’s blog Danny Sweeney, Our Social Justice Coordinator, reflects on his recent visit to Calais.

“We take our Saints seriously in this house!” That’s what Br Johannes told me the first morning we were in Calais as we gathered for morning prayer. He handed me a book about the lives of witnesses; not all (yet) saints, but holy men and women to serve as inspiration at the start of the day. He advised me to read both the short and long versions of the story of Saint Joseph Pignatelli SJ, who led the Jesuits during their exile from Spain.

The Catholic Worker House in Calais is named for St. Maria Skotbsova, also known as St. Mary of Paris, who is relatively unknown in the UK. Born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, she was a poet, mother, and would-be assassin (she once planned to assassinate Trotsky). Travelling to France, she answered a vocation to become a nun on condition that she was free to minster to the poor and live among them.

During the Nazi occupation, her house began sheltering Jews and providing them with false papers. She died in Ravensbrück concentration camp on Easter Saturday 1945, and was canonised by the Orthodox Church in 2004. The Catholic Worker House in Calais tries to follow her example, being prayerfully present with and among the poor.

Br Johannes said that when the so-called ‘jungle’ refugee camp was still standing, his work was mostly pastoral. Since its demolition in October 2016, the authorities have refused to allow any permanent refugee site and his increasingly hard work is about relieving the worst of the present Calais situation. During the summer, the authorities banned showers and at one point even the distribution of food.

But if by the end of this blog it reads as a depressing, or despairing situation, I will have failed. The living conditions are harsh, the young migrants there are facing great challenges, in many cases having already overcome many trials to get to Calais. But there is joy.

We visited a warehouse where several organisations operate, sorting donations from the UK and across Europe. The mostly male refugee population needs smaller sizes of clothing, but nothing is wasted. What can’t be used in Calais goes to local organisations working with the homeless, to Paris, or for charity re-sale.

The Refugee Community Kitchen also operates here – providing 2,500 meals every day to refugees in Calais, Dunkirk, and other areas. Nearly everyone is a volunteer, coordinated by long-term helpers. Music is played in the kitchen and at the distribution points, transforming into a celebration what could be an aggressive, or tense struggle to avoid missing out. The volunteers always make sure there is enough to go round (and some to spare). Some youngsters played football waiting for the queue to diminish.

Everyone joins in in collecting rubbish, making sure the police can’t find fault. Then they take bottles of water and seek shelter for the night. They know there’ll be breakfast in the morning.

Maria Skobtsova House is busy, full of young people in need of both material and spiritual support, and relying on donations and goodwill to provide for nearly everything. But it’s also full of music, and prayer. Morning prayer was in English, but each evening we joined in English, French, Tigrinya, and Amharic prayers.
Our visit has enjoyed increasing media attention, and with motions being raised in both Scottish and UK Parliaments we hope the situation will be back on the agenda.

The Church here can use its voice, but it is those, of any and all faiths cooking, cleaning, accompanying to food distribution points, or offering lifts to clinics, who are the hands and feet of Christ in Calais.

We heard that many locals donate whatever they can, or offer a shower, or bed for a night or two, even though there is local opposition and the political far right in the region is highly organised. In the face of such opposition, it’s good to know there are saints walking in Calais right now. And I agree with Johannes: we should take our saints seriously.

Danny Sweeney is Justice and Peace Scotland’s Social Justice Co-ordinator, and an animator with Salesian Youth Minsitry.

01/12/2017

Prisoners’ Week – Hope Within

Prisoners week took place from 18th-25th November and this week our blog is a very moving reflection on the the impact on families and children when a loved one is in prison. Written by Laura van der Hoeven, National Prison Visitors Centre Coordinator for Families Outside.

Prisoners’ Week is a churches’ initiative that aims to celebrate and raise awareness of the work in Scotland to support prisoners and their families. This year, the theme has been Hope Within and throughout the week the National Prison Visitors Centre Steering Group has encouraged family members and friends who visit people in prison to share their hopes for their families, friends and communities.

When we think about reform of the justice system and rehabilitation we tend to focus on education, employability and housing. When considering how to make society safer and fairer, the impact of the justice system on prisoners’ families and the vital role they play in supporting their family members throughout their sentence and after release is often overlooked.

The most recent Prisoners Survey results suggests nine out of ten prisoners are in regular contact with friends and family outside prison and on any given night 10,000 children in Scotland have a parent in prison.

Prisoners’ families have been described as “the most effective resettlement agency”. Prisoners who maintain good contact with their family are six times less likely to re-offend. Over half of prisoners move in with family or friends on release and a further twenty per cent have their rent or mortgage covered by family members while they are in prison. Only around sixteen per cent have a job to go to on release – mostly with the help of previous employers, family or friends. Above all – prisoners’ families are important to them because they love them.

And prisoners are very important to their families. One family member responding to our Prisoners’ Week campaign wrote:

“Why do I write, visit and accept calls? Why do I hold it down and keep things in order at home? Because when you love someone unconditionally you are their backbone and their strength. Love knows no boundaries. Regardless of the situation, turning my back is not an option. This is how we roll…”

That unconditional love is perhaps most important of all for children. Research shows that the quality of our relationship with our parents during childhood has a life-long influence on how well we do in school, our health and our relationships with other people. That is every bit as true if a parent is in prison. Prisoners’ children are more likely than other children to experience disadvantage, mental health problems and to go on to offend. So it is hugely important that all prisoners and their families should have access to initiatives which allow imprisoned parents to play a positive and active role in their children’s lives – from Bookbug sessions and parenting programmes to homework clubs and Halloween parties. Just because someone is in prison, it does not and should not stop families from loving each other, supporting each other and planning their futures together.

Many Visitors Centres work with prisoners’ children to encourage them to express their hopes. I believe that small people should have big dreams so it made me smile to see some of these such as “I hope to play for Man City” and “I hope to be a politician”. One young person had written that they dreamed of doing a PhD in nuclear physics!

Others with more modest aspirations reveal the pain of separation. “We will be a family again” is a sad hope to see written in childish handwriting. “I hope Dad will be home for Christmas” is a common theme.

Others write “For people to realise the effect of bullying”, and “I hope that bullies just disappear”. For too many children, stigma and trauma are part and parcel of having a parent in prison - burdens no child should have to carry.

I hope that the voices of prisoners and their families will continue to be heard and they will be supported to achieve their aspirations as we all deserve to be. Because for all of us to thrive we all need something to do, someone to love and something to hope for.

For more information on the importance of families and how you can continue to support them visit www.familiesoutside.org.uk

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