Sunday, December 30, 2012

Social Concerns Column for January 4, 2013



He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. --Micah 6:8 

US Bishops' National Migration Week, January 6-12, 2013.  
The theme for 2013 is “We are Strangers No Longer: Our Journey of Hope Continues” to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the historic joint pastoral letter of the United States and Mexico bishops conferences, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope." This theme reminds us of our responsibility as Catholics to help newcomers integrate in ways that are respectful, culturally sensitive and responsive to social needs, and of the ongoing need for comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform.  Learn more at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' website: http://tinyurl.com/National-Migration-Week

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, January 11, 2013.  
Human trafficking is “modern day slavery” because it uses force, fraud or coercion to make people do things they don’t want to do. Women, children and men are all affected by this crime. They are enslaved throughout the world through forced labor and/or commercial sex. Many times they are right in our own communities.  For more information 

(1) Oakland Diocese Office of Social Justice (www.oak4life.org)

(2) the Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking (www.afc.hhs.gov/trafficking)

(3) the State of California (www.safestate.org/trafficking)

(4) monthly e-newsletter, Stop Trafficking! (www.StopEnslavement.org)

Walk for Life West Coast, Saturday, January 26, San Francisco.  
St. Michael parishioners will be going in a group organized by the Knights of Columbus.  In the last few years, the walk has grown from 5,000 to well over 50,000 men and women, families and teens, people of all faiths.  Let the world know – "We are ‘in it’ to ‘WIN IT’!"   The event starts at Civic Center Plaza and ends at Justin Herman Plaza.  For more information, find them on Facebook or visit: http://www.walkforlifewc.com

Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. --Isaiah 10:1-2 

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