2014 List of Further Resources #2

Page #2 of the Further Resources published in Mercy E-News throughout 2014 can be found below. If you hadn't time throughout the year to read, watch and listen to these, you might like to do so over the Christmas holidays and before Mercy E-news returns on 21 January 2015.

Note: Timebound news items, including UN observances, conferences and other highlighted events, have been deleted and monthly links to newsletters such as Stop Trafficking and LCWR's Update have been replaced by a link to the current/latest issue at the end of this list on #4

JUNE 2014

'UNITED NATIONS, Jun 17 2014 (IPS) - Try to imagine an expanse of barren land, stretching for miles, with no trace of greenery, not a single bough to cast a sliver of shade, or a trickle of water to moisten the parched earth. Now imagine that desert expanding by 12 million hectares a year. Why? Because it’s already happening.... Read 'Picture the World as a Desert'

Image courtesy of scottchan at Freedigitalphoto.net

In its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released last Friday 20 June, the US State Department downgraded four nations— Thailand, Malaysia, The Gambia and Venezuela— to Tier 3, the lowest possible ranking it gives for a country's response to fighting modern-day slavery. Read the Report here

Toronto is the “most common destination” of human trafficking in Ontario, and a hub on the larger map of national and international trafficking routes, according to a new study released at Alliance Against Modern Slavery conference on 14 June. Read the report here

In concert 12 months ago Leonard Cohen introduced his masterful singing of his classic Anthem (ring the bells that still can ring) by emphasising the privilege of gathering in safety and comfort 'when so much of the world is plunged into darkness and chaos. So ring the bells that still can ring...'
12 months later that situation remains true. Watch the video here (09:00)

Listen to Patricia O'Callaghan's interpretation of Anthem, a most appealing rendition. Preview/purchase it here

'Room at the Table' by Carrie Newcomer .  'Let our hearts not be hardened to those living on the margins...' Great lyrics which are provided as part of the creative and catchy video clip. Play it here (03:57). Purchase it here

'All God's Beggars' - A Refugee Ballad  sung by Kavisha Mazzella, co-written by Singer Songwriter Kavisha Mazella and Story-teller, Author and Human Rights Advocate, Arnold Zable
Play it here (05:39) Purchase it here

Maya Angelou, celebrated US  poet and author, died 28 May. In tribute to her inspiring words, both USA Today and the Guardian published a list of her powerful quotes. For those who might be unfamiliar with Dr Angelou's work, what better introduction than the USA Today list which gives the sources of  her writings from which they've compiled their 'top 13 quotes' list.

Image courtesy of Talbot Troy - originally posted to Flickr as Maya Angelou

'Get off social media.  Put down the phone. Live life' are the messages in Look Up. There have been more than 41 million views of this spoken-word film since it went viral on 25 April. Watch it here (04:58)

In Mercy E-news Issue 564 (7May 2014) readers were introduced by Ann Lenihan rsm to the Via Francigena, sometimes called the Italian Camino.  ‘Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago’ is a new documentary on the more familiar pilgrimage route. View the Trailer here (03:34) Read about this new film here

Read about Joyce Rupp’s experience of walking the Camino in ‘Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino’ here  Purchase the book from Amazon here

Forbes has released its newest annual list of extraordinary female icons and leaders, groundbreakers and ceiling crashers who command the world stage. View the list of the world's most powerful women here

The Canadian Religious Conference is celebrating its 60th Anniversary. An outline of the challenges from the talks given by Anthony Gittins,C.S.Sp on Intercultural living can be accessed on the CRC website in the Latest News section

A low criminal conviction rate and worries over the treatment of exploited irregular migrants are key findings in a new report by The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings’ (GRETA)on Sweden’s fight against human trafficking. Read the Report here

'Haiti-To-Brazil Migration, Along A New Route For Human Trafficking.' Read the article here

MAY 2014

Slavery, human trafficking, and forced labour are more profitable than oil or finance according to a recently released UN Report: 'Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour'.

The report by the UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) found global profits from exploiting a forced labour force of around 20.9 million people worldwide generates $150.2 billion per year. This compares to around $120 billion generated by the global oil trade and $141.3 billion generated by the US financial system each year. Read the Report here (PDF, 66pps)

A Joint Workshop of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) was held in Rome, 2-6 May 2014 on Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility
The Statement of the Joint PAS/PASS Workshop: Stabilizing the Climate and Giving Energy Access to All with an Inclusive Economy can be read online here

'...Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate, called upon all religious leaders to take a public stand against fossil fuels, whose high emissions of greenhouse gases are said to increase the rate of climate change', reports the US Catholic in the article 'It's time religious leaders take a stand against fossil fuels'. Read the article here

In 2013, 706 patent applications were filed worldwide for so-called fracking technology, up 28 percent from the previous year, according to a report published by Thomson Reuters' legal business. Read the article here

Spiritual Leadership for Challenging Times, the book of 10 LCWR presidential addresses, is now available as an e-book. Order from Amazon. A reminder that a free reflection and study guide may be downloaded here

'Francis - Pope From The New World.' An accessible video portrait of 'the first Pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit [pope], and the first [pope] to take the name Francis'. Watch it here (51:17). Suitable for second level students as well as individual or group viewing. Note: there are ads. Smh.tv explains it this way: 'smh.tv is free because we serve advertising and we only serve at most two ads per break'.

It's Commencement (conferring of degrees or diplomas) Season in the United States. This animation The Importance of Kindness is an adaptation of a commencement speech given by George Saunders at Syracuse University, May 2013. Worth watching and thinking about. It is a resource that could be used with school students Watch it here (02:11)

Cardinal Walter Kasper on Mercy
-The Reflection in last week's E-news came from the article 'Merciful God, Merciful Church', an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper about his recent book Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life, published in Commonweal on 7 May.

-On 12 May Matt Malone, S.J., Editor in chief of America magazine,  interviewed Cardinal Kasper about his recent book Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life. Watch the interview here (49:31)

In last week's Mercy E-news readers encountered  two Irish poets - Pádraig Daly and Micheal O'Siadhail. In the latest issue of America online, the article 'Objects of Contemplation'  by Joseph P. Hoover, SJ,  described as 'A spring poetry anti-review from America's poetry editor ' is a fine introduction to the work of  poets who would be unfamiliar to many of us, such as Mary Szybist, the 2013 National Book Award Winner, Poetry.  Read Hoover's article here

A five-year project to fight human trafficking across Southeast Asia was launched in Hanoi this week by the United Nations Action for Cooperation against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT), Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. Read the article here

Earth as Our Home offers tips for living more sustainably with the planet. The 16-page illustrated pamphlet comes from the Catholic Sisters for a Healthy Earth, an environmental group comprised of eight women religious congregations. Contains suggested actions, reflections and further resources. Download the booklet here (PDF)

Pope Francis called on governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the 'economy of exclusion'. Pope Francis made his appeal during an address on 9 May to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who were meeting in Rome. Read the address here and Watch a video clip here (02:30)

Passport to Freedom is the Sabre® signature corporate responsibility programme to help fight human trafficking and provide support to victims and survivors. This excellent programme is now online, freely available for public use. The programme, which takes about 30 minutes to complete, is visually rich, audio driven, uses accessible language and provides two different scenarios to enable users to apply their learnings about human trafficking. This programme is suitable for use by individuals (self-paced) or with groups and could be incorporated into your own presentation on this issue eg beginning at slide 8. Work through  the programme here

An estimated 25,000 women and girls fall victim to trafficking in Chicago every year. Chicago Tonight addresses how Chicago is dealing with the problem of trafficking in human persons. Very Informative on the issue generally. Watch the programme here (14:55)

America's Daughters is a powerful piece of spoken word written and performed by a female survivor of sex trafficking. Watch the performance here (04:00)

Reducing Poverty Through Climate Action: A Strategy for Global Development Leaders. In this report the Centre for American Progress assesses poverty and climate change and identifies opportunities to jointly tackle these challenges. The article here provides links to the report in PDF and online versions

Religious life evolving: faithful and free is the overall title chosen by the two contributors (Pat Farrell,OSF and Sandra Schneiders,IHM)  to this year’s Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) conference held on 25 April.

Read: Sustaining Transformation - Pat Farrell, OSF 
Read: The Ongoing Challenge of Renewal in Contemporary Religious Life: Sandra Schneiders, IHM

The theme of the Latest edition (Vol 9, no 1, Spring 2014) of Bridge, a publication of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (Berkley Campus,) is ‘The Future of the Church’.  Articles include ‘The Papacy & This Pope’ by Howland Sacks, SJ and  'Mystic-Prophetic Dimensions of Religious Life: 2013 Asia/Oceania Meeting of Religious Women’ by Julia Prinz, V.D.M.F.  Access it online

On Saturday, April 26, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke  to a group of several thousand United Methodist women in Louisville, Kentucky about her faith, what has shaped it and how it has led her to fight against human trafficking; how we might promote maternal healthcare in developing countries, and the continuing work needed to promote women’s rights. Watch it here (40:52) The CNN Political Ticker blog account of her speech can be read here.

Cathy Solano (ISMAPNG) a Mercy Sister working with the Nuba people has asked that  this information be shared as widely as possible:

Subject: Church hospital bombed in Nuba Mountains in Sudan - Caritas Internationalis

APRIL 2014

The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis was published on Easter Sunday. The book is a collection from Pope Francis’s speeches, homilies, and papers presented during the first year of his papacy. Published by Loyola Press. Editions: kindle, hardback, paperback. Purchase from Amazon

The Church and World Program at Georgetown University's Berkley Center organised a major symposium on Evangelii Gaudium on Friday, 28 March 2014. The symposium  A New Vision for the Church: Pope Francis’ Agenda for the Church, World, and Social Justice was filmed and is now online. Among the participants was Maryanne Loughry AM, rsm (ISMAPNG) who was a panellist in the session The Global Vision of Evangelii Gaudium. View the Symposium

Remember the Girl. 'I believe that by sharing one powerful story you can not only turn negativity into positivity, but you can also ignite a movement around empowerment,' says MIchelle Phan, an American make-up demonstrator and entrepreneur who became notable as a YouTube celebrity, and who features in this campaign to support survivors of trafficking in human persons. Watch it here (03:15).
Visit the website here

The Sisters of Bon Secours, based in Marriottsville, Maryland, have launched a unique website, www.LifeAsASister.org. 'Imagine a Sister's Life' allows website visitors to imagine what it's like to be a woman religious and to discover if this could be their life's call.

Global Sisters Report is a project of NCR funded by the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. Read about it here. The website was launched last Thursday (24/4). Visit the site here

Todonyang is in a remote part of northern Kenya close to the border with Ethiopia. When children at the local school saw a video of Every Breath you Take by the Police they decided to do their own version.

Todonyang School was set up by Father Steven Ochieng  to help reduce the cross border conflicts between the people on the Kenyan and Ethiopian sides of the border. The school is the first to accept students from both communities. Watch it here. (01:09) DOn't miss the very able conductor.

A new Council of Europe report confirms that trafficking for labour exploitation is a growing threat to human rights in Europe. Read the Report here (pps 16-18)

Modern-day slavery can be eradicated from multinational supply chains, but only if global businesses contribute to greater transparency and collaboration, according to new recommendations by Sedex Global and Verite. Read the article

A year after the collapse of the Rana Plaza clothing factory that killed 1,133 people, there are accords and mechanisms for making factories but Western retailers aren’t doing enough, and garment workers are still dying, reports Liza Jansen. Read the article here

(Repeated) ' "The fragile world": Church teaching on ecology before and by Pope Francis' by Donal Dorr. Read the article

'For God so loved the cosmos' by Elizabeth Johnson CSJ (2010) Read it here (2010)

For those who garden - 'The Vermont Garden Journal'. Read online or listen to an mp3. Have a great time looking back through the searchable archives Read it here.

'Humanity deserves dark skies and starry nights' by Joan Chittister OSB. Read it here

'Spiritual Ecology: Is It the Ultimate Solution for the Environmental Crisis?' by Leslie E. Sponsel
Abstract: Scientific, academic, and public interest in spirituality and ecology and their intersection has been growing exponentially since the late 1980s. This essay identifies the place of ecology in various religions around the world. It discusses some of the most important books on the topic, focusing on key textbooks, interfaith anthologies, publisher series, periodicals, reference works, and websites. The overview concludes with works discussing the opposition and obstacles to this movement. This invited Feature Article is a Bibliographic Essay reviewing over 100 books on the subject.
CHOICE 51.8 (April 2014): 1339-1348. Purchase short term access to the essay

The National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program (US) produces Earth Day Sunday resources each year. In 2014, the theme is “Water, Holy Water.” Developed ecumenically, this annual worship and education resource invites congregations to celebrate an Earth Day Sunday on a Sunday close to Earth Day (April 22), or any Sunday that works well for the congregation's calendar. Download here PDF

Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature (on the occasion of International Mother Earth Day).
Theme of the dialogue: "The promotion of a balanced integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development through Harmony with Nature"
The dialogue will include an opening segment, panel presentations, an interactive and multi stakeholder dialogue and a closing segment. Archived video can be viewed online here

NETWORK: A Catholic Social Justice Lobby has published a study and action guide to Pope Francis’  apostolic exhortation Evangelium Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). It includes summaries of each section of Joy of the Gospel and analysis and questions for reflection, as well as suggestions for ways in which individuals and groups can respond to the Pope’s message. Access it here (PDF 24 pps)

The Vatican and Law Enforcement Agencies from around the world are teaming up to combat human trafficking. The second international conference entitled 'Combating Human Trafficking: Church and Law Enforcement in Partnership' will take place in the Academy of Sciences in the Vatican from April 9-10. Archbishop Vincent Nichols will host the conference.Hear his announcement of the conference (01:41). Read the conference background and process. The conference will be live streamed and can be watched here

As we mark the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, the great untold story of Rwanda's rise is how women rebuilt the nation. Visit  How Women Rebuilt Rwanda which tells the story of how women rebuilt their society and brought peace across sectarian lines after the slaughter of a million people in 100 days two decades ago. It's an inspiring read.

A major campaign called 'Making Christianity No. 1 this Easter Season' has just launched in Ireland.  Part of the campaign is the release of a CD which recounts the story of Holy Week using old and new Irish hymns and tunes. Some of the hymns are over 1,000 years old.

The music on the CD will be a great source of spiritual nourishment and conversion at this time and the proceeds from the sale of the CD, will go towards a Dominican Youth Camp, in Ireland, called Knockadoon. 

To purchase the CD by the band Celi De Collective, visit the band’s website www.celide.ie, and if you like what you hear, there is an option to buy the album from iTunes. Your purchase will go a long way in helping the youth in Ireland, and bring Christianity into the Music Charts (a great source of evangelization).

 A preview of Caoineadh na dtrí Muire: The Lament of the Three Marys can be heard on YouTube (02:25)

Spiritual Leadership for Challenging Times  is now in stock at Orbis Books. LCWR members can purchase in bulk at discount rates. Check details first in the April newsletter

On 27 March, Christian Aid UK published a new report showing the devastating effects of climate change, with communities worldwide, particularly in worst hit poorer countries, being forced to change their way of life.

Using personal stories from seven different countries; Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Malawi, El Salvador, Bolivia and the Philippines, the report Taken by Storm: responding to the impacts of climate change, reveals the stark reality of life as a result of extreme weather events such as drought and flooding. Download the report (PDF, 32 pps, colour)

Every six or so years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces a significant report. The first instalment of its most recent assessment came out last September and argued that climate change was speeding up, even if global surface temperatures were flat. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability has just been released. It looks at how the climate is affecting the Earth's ecosystems, the economy and peoples' livelihoods. The Summary (44 pps) and Full Report are both online

A Maryknoll Book of Poetry includes contributions from many well-known names: Carlo Carretto, Joan Chittister, Thich Nhat Hanh, Edwina Gateley, Ernesto Cardenal, Dorothee Soelle, Robert Morneau, David Steindl-Rast, Joyce Rupp, John Shea, Miriam Therese Winter, Daniel Berrigan and many others. Order online here

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls. It takes viewers on a journey around the globe and around the US, opening people's eyes to the world of human sex trafficking. A 6 minute preview can be viewed here The film can be watched online for $4.99 or purchased in DVD format. Produced by Exodus Cry
David Whyte has a forthcoming book of essays entitled CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. An Excerpt from 'WORK' can be read here

Ron Rolheiser has a new book Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity. Chapter One is online here

 
 Image courtesy of arztsamui at FreeDigitalPhotos.net