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What brings together the Union of Catholic Mothers, a group of enthusiastic sixth years and a motley bunch of J&P workers with their kids on a cold January morning?
In our parish it meant it was Homeless Sunday as we worked together to highlight the issue of homelessness in Scotland today. Nearly 35,000 people are homeless according to recent statistics.

Every year Homeless Sunday is organised by Housing Justice and Scottish Churches Housing Action. They encourage churches throughout the UK to better understand, and raise awareness about, homelessness and ask why people are still homeless in 2017. In Scotland Scottish Churches Housing Action speaks on the issue on behalf of twelve Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church. The most ecumenical charity in the country!

I’ve been musing on what it is about Homeless Sunday that can draw people together in a way that other justice issues don’t. As justice and peace workers we can often feel that we’re working on our own. In some cases that’s because we’re seen as dealing with justice & peace issues on behalf of the parish; in others it’s because issues of justice can appear complex and off-putting, while campaigns which require people to march or lobby can be daunting for those who haven’t done it before.

Maybe what’s different about homelessness is that it’s very obviously personal. We all know the value of having a home where we can close the door on the world, or invite others in for a cuppa. We can also imagine, in our darkest moments, what it might be like not to have a home. In 2012 Shelter Scotland highlighted that a quarter of Scottish families are only one pay check away from not being able to pay their rent or mortgage if they lost their income. A fact that can bring us all up short.
In Musselburgh, where we have recently started a Justice & Peace group, we have a number of members who’ve not been involved in issues of justice and peace before.
Homeless Sunday has been an accessible way for all of us in the group to get a handle on a fundamental issue of justice, and consider how we best respond. At the same time, it has allowed us to reach out to other groups in the parish and work together on an issue that concerns us all.

So S6 Caritas students from our local high school researched information on homelessness and made a presentation to the parish; the Union of Catholic Mothers sold their home baking and ran a raffle, raising funds for homeless charities supported by the parish; the children’s liturgy group talked about homelessness as part of that Sunday’s session; while our parish priest and readers made sure prayers for those affected by homelessness were included in the weekend Masses.

For the justice and peace group itself, while we produced soup and drinks after Mass for the congregation (with help from our kids of all ages) conversations about homelessness and justice happened, between ourselves and with parishioners. What does it feel like to be homeless? How can we accept a society that allows homelessness to exist? And what do we, as people of faith, do about it?
Small, thoughtful conversations that challenged the assumption that homelessness is inevitable and began to explore how justice issues can be very close to home.
Through its mixture of practical action, awareness raising and prayer Homeless Sunday has helped us take issues of justice and peace beyond our small group and into the wider parish. It reminds us that homelessness, like all questions of justice and peace, is personal and enables us to find common ground through our belief that all people are loved and valued by God.

 

The Just Faith pilot project that’s been working its way through the dioceses of Argyll & the Isles, Dunkeld and Paisley since 2014 comes to a close this month. The main intention of the project, a joint affair bringing together Justice and Peace Scotland, Missio Scotland and SCIAF, has been to encourage Catholics to put their faith into action.

 

The conference that Just Faith planned as this phase of the project comes to a close aimed to look to the future. We felt the best way to do that was to look again at one of the most relevant Papal documents from the past. This is the 50th anniversary of Populorum Progressio and Just Faith decided to ask what progress has been made in that half century and to explore the challenge Populorum Progressio poses for us now in a world that seems even more troubled and complex than when Pope Paul VI released the document.

 

To have more than 70 people from all over Scotland attend the conference was encouraging, but then, we had invited an inspirational speaker whose expertise in the field of integral human development is summarised in a new edition of his book Option for the Poor and for the Earth: Catholic Social Teaching. 

 

Fr Donal Dorr is a hero for many of us. Missionary, theologian, he’s a man who has spent four decades empowering grassroots activists working for justice and caring for the environment.  And he agreed to travel from Dublin to be the keynote speaker at our event.

 

I had the opportunity ahead of the conference to ask Fr Donal a few questions for the Justice and Peace Scotland website. You can hear the outcome in our podcast.

Fr Donal’s book is called Option for the Poor and for the Earth. Like Pope Francis, Fr Donal places the emphasis on our stewardship of the planet. Pope Francis’s document Laudato Si, according to Fr Donal, moves the world on from Populorum Progressio. This clearly was the challenge our event was hoping to articulate and formulate into something of value for the future.

 

As we would hear at the conference itself, when food and water – the essentials of life – are at a premium, that’s when society begins to break down. Failed crops mean higher prices across a country. The economy begins to totter, people become angry, and confrontation is inevitable.

 

The three organisations that formed Just Faith are going to be subsumed into the new dicastery for integral human development, and Pope Francis has put special emphasis on that dicastery caring particularly for refugees and migrants. Those migrants and refugees are the people fleeing from hunger and from the conflicts that hunger ignites.

 

The new dicastery will have its work cut out, as was clear from Fr Donal’s contribution to the conference, and that of Duncan MacLaren (former head of Caritas Internationalis and a former director of SCIAF). As Fr Donal told me the night before, we have to get our act together as Christians. Of course we need inspirational leadership like that of Pope Francis - but we also need to act as individuals.

 

That could be as simple as joining a campaigning website. Fr Donal believes in the power of the on-line petition, Facebook and Twitter. Social media has brought us into the present. He is not an optimist, but hopes that in another 50 years time by putting our faith into action we will have survived today’s ‘shocking realities’.

Justice and Peace Scotland is on both Twitter and Facebook. We’d like you to spread the word by ‘liking’ and particularly by ‘sharing’ our posts on getting something done about those ‘shocking realities’. Small actions can have big results. Please spread the word.

The WEE BOX is recognised by Scottish Catholics as an important part of SCIAF’s Lenten fundraising efforts.  For many years, individuals, parishes and schools have supported the campaign and been amazingly generous in their giving.

This year’s WEE BOX features the Munyindeyi family who live in a small rural village in Zambia and are part of a SCIAF project there.   David Munyindeyi and his wife Maté have been given tools, seeds and vital training which allow them to farm better and more productively.  As a result David and Maté are able to produce better and more reliable harvests and no longer worry about sending their children to bed hungry.

But not everyone is as fortunate as David and Maté.  On the 14th March, SCIAF launched an urgent appeal to help get food and water to thousands of people being hit by famine and hunger in parts of East Africa.

The United Nations has warned that over 20 million people could face starvation in, what they deem, is the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.

As part of the global Caritas network of Catholic international aid charities, SCIAF is already working with local organisations in South Sudan to get emergency food supplies and water to those in need.

SCIAF is also working in other countries affected by severe food shortages such as Ethiopia where we are helping cattle herders to access clean water, both for people and for livestock, obtain animal feed and veterinary services to help maintain income.

The situation will get worse in the spring and summer months and many lives will be lost unless food aid going to the region is massively increased.  Details of how to donate to SCIAF are to be found at the bottom of this blog.

Important though fundraising is, SCIAF also asks supporters to reflect on the situation faced by those they work with around the world and to pray for their intentions.  As we look forward to Easter and the blessings that holy season brings, it is right to take a moment to ask for God’s blessing  for all those who are struggling to support their families wherever they may be.

God our Father, we pray for all those suffering from hunger – in a world of plenty no one should go hungry.

We pray O Lord that, with your help, emergency food supplies and water will reach those most in need and that all who are working to bring an end to this disaster are protected by your loving embrace.

Amen

Donations to SCIAF’s East Africa Appeal can be made via the website www.sciaf.org.uk by post or by telephoning 0141 354 5555.