Hurrah for St. Thomas and Elgin County!

St. Thomas and Elgin County reached heroic heights this past year by raising $1,100,000 toward building a new shelter for Violence Against Women Services Elgin County --- and they’re at it again as this year’s 4^th annual “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” event kicks off at Pinafore Park on September 28^th. Already the participant list is growing as men sign up to wear women’s shoes and walk a mile to publicly commit and raise awareness and funds toward ending violence in the St. Thomas/ Elgin area.

I was privileged to attend the June 24^th Celebration of Building Hope. Saving Lives. Smiles were on the faces of the capacity gathering at CASO Station in St. Thomas where Liz Brown, executive director and board members of Violence Against Women Services thanked the city and county for being part of the 1,000 conversations and many fund raising efforts that resulted in the  over one million dollar bonanza.

During the celebration, we heard repeated gratitude and joy for how a small city and surrounding county working together could create dreams and help them to become a reality by many enthusiastic people working together for a lofty goal.

Although St. Thomas/Elgin has raised their share of the shelter’s building costs, they expectantly await the two million in provincial contributions to make the building a reality. However, the project is well on its way.

It is amazing to see how a few motivated individuals inspired by a dream can mobilize an entire community to noble acts of generosity and compassion. A comment on the agency’s website aptly sums up the situation: “It is wonderful to hear that the County of Elgin fully supports safety for women and children. Despite this community’s many economic challenges, the people of Elgin/St. Thomas are truly generous.” Blessings and kudos to all those involved in a most worthy venture.

Jean Moylan, CSJ

Don’t Change the Policy!

Presently, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons is reviewing the “Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code,” in accordance with their regular review policy to assist them in updating the code.  The College’s website states that they “are inviting feedback from all stakeholders, including members of the medical profession, the public health system organization and other health professionals.”

With regard to one section of the code that is currently under public scrutiny, the following question appeared on the College’s website: “Do you think a physician should be allowed to refuse to provide a patient with a treatment or procedure because it conflicts with the Physician’s religious or moral beliefs?

Out of 32,826 voters, 77% or 25,163 voted YES to the August 5^th quick on-line poll.

The public voters have given a resounding mandate to the College to not modify the section of the code that protects the conscience rights of physicians to prescribe anything they deem morally unacceptable.

A recent editorial in “The Catholic Register” refers to a legitimate concern that any change to the in-question section of the Physicians and Human Rights Code “could lead to erosion of that statute”. Such concern about changes in the wording of the code is happening “amid some pressure to purge religious freedom and conscience rights from everyday medical practice”.  Let’s do our part to ensure that this part of the policy remains unchanged.  The current system works.  It “lets doctors be honest with themselves and with their patients.  No one is denied emergency care and non-emergency treatments are available from the many doctors, who, with a clear conscience, accept any patient”.  (Catholic Register Aug. 10-17, 2014)

When a revised draft of the policy is developed, it will be circulated for further comment before it is finalized. It is important for us as Ontarians to stay alert to future updates on this important manner.

Do we want our medical professionals parking their consciences at the door before they treat patients?

Jean Moylan, CSJ

We Are the New Hatfields and McCoys

Each week seems to present us with a new humanitarian crisis. Israel’s announcement that it plans to appropriate four hundred more hectares in Gaza barely holds our attention and raises no condemnation from our Government. ISIS moves through Iraq seizing new territory and wreaking horrific violence on all who do not ascribe to their beliefs. Russia moves army troupes, weapons, and equipment into Ukraine amid ineffectual opposition of other nations. Civil wars, oppression, and violent suppression of citizens continue in Syria and other countries. 

In developed countries, mutual entanglement in economic systems, the need for continued access to resources, such as oil, and knowledge of the terrible costs of war deter us from engaging in major warfare. We are well aware that the use of force to overcome force fails to achieve desired outcomes and makes our planet even more unsafe. Consider the fallout of interventions in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Defeated nations harbour hate and desires for revenge. Even some of our own citizens choose to adopt abhorrent creeds and join terrorists at home or in faraway places.

Our world has shrunk. Immigration, refugees, travel, communication, threatening new diseases and weapons mean that we are all neighbours and the effects of our disputes far exceed the damage that resulted from the Hatfield-McCoy feuds. We need to begin as individuals to think differently if we are to live at peace with each other. Governments, financial institutions, and multi-national corporations have to move beyond self-interest to consider the good of all humanity and our environment. This has to start somewhere and that somewhere is with us.  We need to, become reflective thinkers and explore our own beliefs, values, and practices.  As the anthropologist Margaret Mead declared, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has”

Pat McKeon, CSJ

The Canadian Goose Saga

“April is the cruelest month.” (T. S. Eliot) It was April and as I looked out my window from the Crow’s Nest, I spotted Mr. & Mrs. Canada Goose inspecting the property.

They seemed to aspire to an upscale place to raise their family. After much wandering about with Mrs. Goose in the lead; she appeared to choose a spot out front very close to the entrance of the residence under shrubbery. However, cars were whizzing about and Mr. Gander with his flat feet firmly planted, stood in the middle of the drive and cars had to circumvent him.

After a while they wandered off and to our surprise they had chosen a spot at the south of the building, directly over the chapel. A remote area with no access to human kind. Mrs. Goose settled comfortably into this new abode, scratching together a few grasses and feathers for a nest.

And there she sat for twenty-eight days incubating the eggs. She faced south with her long neck reaching over the concrete edge.

Did she have an audience? Yes, you bet! We, the Sisters, were congregating in other Sisters’ suites following this phenomenon – of a Canada Goose and her trials. She rarely left the nest – squatting and shifting her weight. We discovered that she had three eggs and later four.

April was indeed cruel to her. The weather was rainy and nasty. One evening, I peered out to see her weathering a ‘south-wester’ which reminded one of ‘A Storm at Sea.’

But Mrs. Goose persevered by lifting her body more and propping her feet to protect the incubating eggs. Behold one day three goslings, balls of yellow fluff appeared. Immediately Mother Goose took them on a tour of their surroundings. No food! No water!

She was very positive the little goslings would toddle along behind her. She seemed to give a signal with her tail if one fellow was faltering, but he flipped his little wings and marched on.

Many of us were in a panic wondering how Mrs. Goose would get her little offsprings off the roof, as there was a fall of thirty to forty feet. But she did and one early evening they were gone. Her motherly and patient instinct had conquered all obstacles.

One egg hatched after the family was gone. It seemed to be weak and perished very soon. The Canada Goose Saga has inspired us all. How nature overcomes all obstacles. Now that fall is here and the Canada Geese begin flying south overhead, they may give a salute to the residence on Windermere where life began.

Eileen Foran, CSJ 

We are who we stand with!

Some years ago, at a union convention, I was drawn to a particular T-shirt which was being presented for sale. It wasn’t the usual type of offering.  The graphic on it seemed to have a deeper meaning beyond what is frequently imprinted on union garb; no logo, no strident union message. What I saw was a depiction of ordinary people, of all ages and abilities relating with one another with the statement “WE ARE WHO WE STAND WITH”.  “Yes”, I thought, “this is the essential meaning behind the union movement. We have to represent the ‘ordinary folks’ who struggle”. I bought the shirt.

Fast forward to August 2014 and the recent Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Assembly in Nashville, Tennessee   ...   

I have been following this conference with great interest given the ongoing investigation of the LCWR by the Vatican’s ‘Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith’. What I have been reading is a tremendous affirmation of the journey of American women religious communities since Vatican II. This, I would suggest, is mirrored in Canada. Women religious have been true to what was asked of them.  

Originally, in North America, women religious provided health care and education, founding many hospitals and education systems, and yes they looked after the orphans and the elderly.  Today, however, what they continue to do is to identify current collective needs and then work toward making change happen. You see, these religious women do great work and then step aside as society catches up with them!  They engage on the leading edges of emerging concerns, always looking for the “needs of the new margin dwellers.” (Nancy Scheck, OSF)

Who are the people /issues that women religious are standing with now?  As Nancy Scheck said at the Assembly, this has happened and is continuing to happen, “from racism to climate change, from trafficking to the nuclear threat, from the concerns of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community to global economics, women's equality and violence, ethics in health care, issues of abortion and the death penalty, drones, immigration and peacemaking.”

Has this ‘prophetic stance’ come at a cost? Yes!  As stated by Sr. Miriam Ambrosio CRB, in terms of women’s religious life, it is “the awareness of our "non-place" in society and in the church. Religious belong on the margins, with other marginated people”.  

Because sisters have gone to the ‘edges’ and supported the ‘marginalized’ they are ‘counter-cultural’, perhaps even in terms of the institutional church. They truly live the slogan,” WE ARE WHO WE STAND WITH”!  Would not Jesus not have agreed?

Please take the opportunity to access all of the wonderful addresses given at the LCWR 2014 Assembly, as well as a great video at https://lcwr.org/calendar/lcwr-assembly-2014 . 

Ann Steadman, CSJ Associate