Catholic Labor Network: New models for workers’ rights that promote solidarity, dignity and the common good

Fratelli Tutti: New models for workers’ rights that promote solidarity, dignity and the common good

In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis reminds us, “Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community” (no. 116). Providing service to those in need is important, but solidarity requires partnering with low-income workers and the poor to accompany them on their journey toward justice. Participants in this workshop will learn some of the ways the Church has allied with labor organizations and community groups around the U.S. to demonstrate solidarity with working people and promote worker justice during the pandemic, and will explore ways they can do so in their own diocese, city or parish.

Fr. Ty HullingerPastorSt. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominic, and Most Precious Blood in Baltimore, MD

Nancy ConradNortheast Catholic Community (Archdiocese of Baltimore)

Charles (Chuck) Hendricks, Union Organizer, UNITE HERE charles/chuck@catholiclabor.org

Clayton Sinyai, Executive Director, Catholic Labor Network, brings together Catholic union leaders and activists and clergy, religious and lay social justice advocates around their shared commitment to worker justice. With support from CCHD, the Catholic Labor Network fosters partnerships between labor and Church organizations on behalf of the working poor and immigrants. clayton@catholiclabor.org

Aimee Shelide Mayer, Catholic Labor Network, Nashville TN, working to build Church-Labor partnerships. 7039671841 aimee@catholiclabor.org

Healing as Church and Nation: Remembering, Recognizing and Reimagining the Common Good

Kim DanielsAssociate DirectorInitiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, She was appointed by Pope Francis as a Member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication in 2016. She is also a consultor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and has advised the USCCB and other major Catholic institutions on a broad range of issues where Church teachings intersect with public life, including immigration, human life and dignity, responses to poverty, and care for creation.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy is the Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network. Krisanne has twenty-five years of experience working in national level, faith-based policy advocacy. For more than a decade, Krisanne served as the senior church relations staff at Bread for the World, a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Krisanne is co-author of Advocating for Justice: An Evangelical Vision for Transforming Systems and Structures.

Being Prophetic Ministers in Challenging Times

Valerie LizarragaRelationship ManagerCRS West Regional Office. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are two of the largest Catholic organizations in the world that provide support to communities in need and accompany them in their work for a more just future.

Kayla Jacobs, Director of Programs, Laudato Si’ MinistriesDiocese of Joliet, On May 24, 2020, the Vatican celebrated the 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si’ by launching the Action Platform, a 7-year program and public commitment by Catholic institutions to implement the spirit of integral ecology.  Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools, universities, religious orders, businesses, farms, and health care facilities across the world are invited to elevate efforts related to spirituality, sustainability, social action, and advocacy.

Caring for Creation and Community (Nehemiah Action): DART, a national network of 23 grassroots community organizations throughout Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. training community leaders and professional organizers how to build power and take direct action on problems facing their communities. Our network of 23 grassroots organizations bring people together across racial, religious, and socioeconomic lines to pursue justice. We train community leaders and professional organizers how to: Listen deeply to their community for what they are struggling with and what their vision is for the future. Research effectively to better understand problems that members of the community face, and to determine what might be done to solve those problems. Organize & take direct action so that those who hold the power of decision making are held accountable to putting people first and solving the problems that their community faces.

Fratelli Tutti & Community Organizing5:45 PM-6:20 PM ET

Conversation led by: Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Chicagoland grassroots led coalition that includes parishes, institutions and communities to address racial, social, economic, and environmental injustice in the vision of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Race, Justice, and Community5:45 PM-6:20 PM ET Conversation led by: Metropolitan Congregations United, which develops leaders to influence public policy for the common good in the St. Louis area.

Border Workers United, a community organiz ations that organizes for workers’ rights in the Rio Grande Valley/El Paso, TX.

Breath of Life: Environmental Justice and Health4:45 PM-5:15 PM ET

Ricardo Simmonds, Environmental Justice Consultant, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Philip Landrigan, MD, MScPediatrician, Epidemiologist, Program DirectorGlobal Public Health and the Common Good and the Global Observatory on Pollution and HealthThe COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected low-income and minority communities. These poulations also experience heightened levels of air pollution, live in close proximity to toxic waste sites, and are not most impacted by climate change. This workshop will explore the health and policy implications found at the crossroads of pollution, health and environmental justice. Experts will share insights and propose solutions to the disparities caused by environmental injustice.

Catholic Labor Network
7145 Roosevelt Ave
Falls Church, VA 22042

Nehemiah Action

Nehemiah Helps the Poor

5 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. ² Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

³ Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

⁴ Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵ Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

⁶ When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. ⁷ I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them ⁸ and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.

I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! ¹¹ Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”

¹² “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. ¹³ I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”

At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

All my men were assembled there for the work; we^[b] did not acquire any land.

¹⁷ Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸ Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

¹⁹ Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.