Books recommended by members of the Pax Christi Social Justice Committee (2019)
 

• Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargus –a  memoir of an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines currently living in the United States.

• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton – a memoir of a man who spent almost thirty years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit; a story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading.

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson – a true story about the potential of mercy to redeem us as well as a look at our system of justice.

• Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship by Gregory Boyle, S.J., who also wrote Tattoos On the Heart describing his work with Homeboy Ministries for gang members transitioning from prison.

• Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray – This memoir describes living in poverty, as well as the ecology and environment in the Southeastern United States.

• The Stone of Hope by Jim St. Germain – a memoir and call to save our at-risk youth by a young man who found himself in a rehabilitation program that saved his life and gave him purpose.

• What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forche – This book describes the author’s time in El Salvador during the late 1970s, when the country was on the verge of civil war.

• Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond -- follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads.  Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation through stories of hope and loss, reminding us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. 

Migration Facts:

Immigration Reform

Position: The Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Church support humane immigration reform. We must reform our broken system that separates families and denies due process.

Facts:

• During the last decade, more than 7.4 million immigrants have been welcomed into the United States as naturalized citizens.
• Undocumented immigrants also pay a wide range of taxes, including sales taxes where applicable and property taxes – directly if they own and indirectly if they rent. Estimates are that undocumented migrants pay $11.74 billion every year in state and local taxes, and the 1.3 million young undocumented immigrants eligible for DACA alone contribute an estimated $1.7 billion per year.
• Our current immigration system is broken and creates long periods of forced family separation. For example, it can take over a decade for legal permanent residents to reunify with immediate family members from Mexico, the Philippines, and other countries (See Congressional Research Service).

Refugee Protection
Position: USCCB supports protection, humanitarian support, and durable solutions for refugees and other forcibly displaced people. USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services in collaboration with local Catholic Charities across the United State form the largest private U.S. refugee resettlement network, one that has helped to welcome and resettle over one million refugees since 1975.

Facts:

• According to the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees, in June 2018, 68.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide. (UNHCR)
• Only the most vulnerable refugees are considered for third country resettlement beyond those neighboring host countries. Refugee resettlement is a rarely used protection tool: on an annual basis, less than 1% of refugees worldwide actually receive resettlement
• The U.S. has historically led the world in terms of refugee resettlement. Since 1975, the Unites States has accepted more than 3.3 million refugees for permanent resettlement.
• However, in 2018, the President set the lowest refugee admissions goal since the resettlement program began in 1980, admitting only about 20,000 refugees. For comparison, the average number of refugees admitted to the U.S. from 2010-2017 was approximately 67,000/year.

Unaccompanied Children and Families from Central America
Position: The United States should provide child and refugee protection, and safe, humane durable solutions for unaccompanied children arriving at our borders without their parent or legal guardian. In recent years, many of these children have been from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Most are fleeing grave, life-threatening violence and gang recruitment and are seeking to reunify with family in the United States.

Facts:

• The number of asylum seekers worldwide originating from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (often called the Northern Triangle) reached 110,000 in 2015, a five-fold increase from 2012.
• Unaccompanied minors accounted for much of this increase, with 41,435 children apprehended in FY2017, down from a high of nearly 70,000 in FY2014. 
• As violence and gang issues continue to affect the Northern Triangle, more children are targeted and look to flee. We must look to address root causes in home countries.

Immigrant Detention
Position: The United States needs to build an immigration system that affords due process protections, honors human dignity, and minimizes the use of immigrant detention - particularly for vulnerable populations such as families, children and torture survivors. Immigrant detention is a growing industry in this country, with Congress allocating over $2 billion a year to maintain and expand the existing system. While immigrant detention is necessary in certain instances to ensure community safety and enforcement of our immigration laws, there are many vulnerable individuals who should not be detained. For vulnerable populations such as families, children, torture survivors, there are alternatives to detention that are more humane, more cost-effective, and more consistent with American values.

Facts:

• Immigrant detention in the United States has reached record levels. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2001, the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detained 204,459 people. In FY2017, 323,591 people were detained in an ICE facility (Department of Homeland Security).
• Currently, for-profit contractors operate 73% of the entire immigrant detention system, including nine of the ten largest detention centers.
• Community-based alternatives to detention programs cost taxpayers on average $4.50 per person per day, as compared to $133.99 per person per day for detention. (DHS)

Human Trafficking
Position: The United States must not only hold human traffickers accountable for their crimes, but also work to prevent trafficking and provide protection and healing to human trafficking survivors. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. The Catholic Church has long condemned this practice as an affront to human dignity.

Facts:

• Estimates vary, but as many as 17,500 persons are trafficked into the United States annually.
• Although sex trafficking remains a serious problem, the two largest trafficking cases in the United States involved labor trafficking, in Guam and in New York (Long Island).
• The number of victims identified has grown from 151 in 2003 to 1,424 in 2016 -- a 843% increase.

National Migration Week Talking Points

• Catholics are called to stand with immigrants and refugees as our brothers and sisters. This is who the Catholic Church is. This is what we as Catholics do.
• Pope Francis invites us to be part of a culture of encounter as we welcome, protect, integrate, and promote immigrants and refugees in our midst.
• Immigration is about real people who are trying to find a better life and a new beginning. It’s about more than statistics, it’s about families. As Pope Francis stated, “Each migrant has a name, a face and a story.”
• Welcoming immigrants is part of Catholic Social Teaching and reflects the Biblical tradition to welcome the stranger.
• The Catholic Church has been welcoming immigrants and refugees to the United States since the nation’s founding and has been integral to helping them integrate into American culture.
• Forced displacement of people is at the highest level since World War II, with more than 65 million people displaced around the world and over 22 million refugees.

Social Justice Committee Mission Statement:

Recognizing that baptism calls each of us to work for social justice and following the guide of Catholic Social Teaching, our mission is twofold: to empower our fellow parishioners through education and to engage them in works of advocacy, with the goal of changing policies, structures, and institutions so that ultimately they work on behalf of the common good.

The Social Justice Committee meets monthly to identify and implement projects reflecting this mission statement. On-going activities include Catholic Social Teaching bulletin articles, and fair trade coffee sales and education. Ideas for future projects that are consistent with our mission are welcome. Parishioners who are interested in education and advocacy related to social justice are encouraged to consider this opportunity.

For more information, contact Mike or Sally Burns (507-287-0133, smburns@charter.net)

The Seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society.

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person
• Call to Family, Community, and Participation
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
• The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
• Solidarity
• Care for God’s Creation

From Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions, more information is available at the United States Council of Catholic Bishops' website (USCCB).

Information on Catholic Social Teaching

    * USCCB (United States Council of Catholic Bishops - http://www.usccb.org)
      
 

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   * Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis (https://www.cctwincities.org/education-           advocacy/catholic-social-teaching/)

Faith and Political Responsibility

Become Involved! The following are a few of many web sites that discuss legislative action related to social justice issues

    * JRLC (Joint Religious Legislative Coalition - http://www.jrlc.org/  )

    * Network (A National Social Justice Lobby - https://networklobby.org/) 

    * Bread for the World (http://www.bread.org/ )

    * Faithful Citizenship (USCCB - http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/)

     * Careers for Poverty Aid: Lifting Up the Poor Through Jobs & Community Service
https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/make-a-difference-careers/poverty/

Peace and Nonviolence

The following web sites are focused on peace and nonviolence issues

    * Pax Christi USA (http://paxchristiusa.org/ )