We know the world is full of plastic. Indeed, there has been so much awareness raising and discussion that we stand in danger of information fatigue, potentially switching off as we normalise the statistics and the shocking visuals of the plastic-swamped ocean beds. Potentially background news in a plastic world. It is true that at a local level, we can ...
Read More »Tag Archives: Justice Peace & Integrity of Creation
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU) takes place from 18-25 January 2019 on the theme ‘Justice and justice only you shall pursue’. Every year at this time Christians from across the world gather to pray for growth in unity. Such united prayer in a fractured world is very powerful. In this way we are called together to form a ...
Read More »Never too young to lead, never too old to learn
At beginning of this New Year, Mary Robinson as the new Chair of the Elders, reflected on the loss of Kofi Annan and on the events and issues of the past year. But she also focused on action. Faced with such an array of complex challenges she said, we must not succumb to fatalism or despair. “As Elders, we know that ...
Read More »It’s about welcoming
At our most recent Province Justice Day, we listened to one of the speakers Paul Frecklington, sharing with us about the ‘Power of Welcome’, and about how the diverse parish community around the ARD Family Resource Centre in Doughiska (Co. Galway) experience this in their everyday lives. In the world we live in, preparing to welcome is more than ever ...
Read More »The empty chair is ours
I was listening last evening to the presentation given by Sir David Attenborough at the UN Climate Change Summit which is now happening in Poland (3-14 Dec 2018). He was chosen to represent the world’s people in addressing delegates of almost 200 nations who are in Katowice to negotiate how to turn pledges made in the 2015 Paris climate deal into reality. Earlier ...
Read More »Fast Fashion issues
The COP24 (Convention on Climate Change) will be held in Katowice, Poland from 2-14 December. The hope is that it will unleash the full potential of the Paris Agreement by finalising the Paris Agreement Work Programme. This will put into place the practical implementation guidelines needed to make real this historic agreement that aims to limit global warming to well ...
Read More »Orange the World #HearMeToo
The official commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November) took place on Monday, 19 November 2018, at United Nations Headquarters, New York. This commemoration brought together survivors and activists under the theme of Orange the World: #HearMeToo, leveraging their voices and work on ending violence against women and girls. Research shows that the pandemic of violence ...
Read More »Justice for All: People and Planet
Justice for All: People and Planet ‘Love one another & spend yourselves for the poor’. The provincial Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Commission will hold a Day for Justice on November 24th, 2018 at Mount St Anne’s, Retreat and Conference Centre, Killenard, Portarlington, Co. Laois, exploring the theme: ‘Justice For All: People and Planet’. The keynote speaker is ...
Read More »It’s not enough to be good
On 14th October during the Synod of Bishops on young people, the assassinated Archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Romero will be proclaimed a saint. Romero was shot dead on March 24th 1980 as he was saying Mass in El Salvador. In his three years as archbishop, he had become an outspoken voice for the poorest people of his country, caught ...
Read More »Feast day of St. Francis
Today October 4th, is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, patron of animals, birds, conservationists and naturalists. He was born in 1281, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. As a young man he fought in the war between Perugia and Assisi. He was taken prisoner and became very ill. He returned home ...
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