Current Actions
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Covid-19 Emergency Rental Assistance
From Joint Religious Legislative Coalition:
Has COVID-19 made it hard to pay your rent? If you have experienced hardship due to the pandemic and need help to pay your rent or utility bill, you may be eligible for COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance. RentHelpMN.org is now accepting applications for past due and upcoming rental assistance. The program will also cover utility payments and some additional housing payments. The
program is funded with $650 million in federal relief funds. Phase One will assist renters that owe back rent (covering March 13, 2020 to present).
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Just Deeds: Racism Has No Home Here
What Can You Do About Discriminatory Covenants?
Discriminatory covenants have been used to keep people of color from buying houses in certain neighborhoods. The result is a century of inequitable access to property which led to segregated communities-including in Rochester. Together, we can acknowledge this discrimination, discharge these covenants and build a foundation for more inclusive communities. (source: justdeeds.org)
Rochester is collaborating with the Twin Cities in raising awareness of Red Lining. Covenants are no longer lawful by state and federal law but many deeds still contain covenant wording. As a part of the program, the City of Rochester is committed to an educational component to the program; by making these covenants public and mapping where they were instituted.
Parts of Rochester that still have covenants in their deeds are being mapped. If you have a discriminatory covenant in your deed, while the covenant wording cannot be deleted, you can attach a “discharge” to your deed. The court process is simple.
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It All Comes Down to Water
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Holy Spirit parishioner, John Weiss, recently presented “It All Comes Down to Water” on Earth Day.
Some action steps we can take to lessen the nitrates that affect our Zumbro River Watershed:- Use organic fertilizers: Available at most garden centers, the best organic lawn fertilizers contain natural ingredients such as seaweed for potassium, bone meal for phosphorous, and feather meal for nitrogen.
- Research do-it-yourself lawn fertilizers made from epsom salts.
- Research safe homemade weed killer made with vinegar.
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Refugees and Displaced Persons
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"Even hope, like all good things in this world, has enemies...Hope is the push in the heart of those who leave their home, and sometimes their family and relatives - I am thinking of migrants - to find a better life, with more dignity for themselves and their loved ones...It's also the push in the heart of those who welcome: the desire to encounter, meet, dialogue...hope is the push to share the journey." (Pope Francis, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017)
PRAY
Lord Jesus, inspire us with the gift of hope. Help us to always look towards life with optimism, especially when we encounter people who look different than we do. We pray for the conversion of hearts, that all may see migrants and refugees as angels. Amen.
From the NOVENA FOR REFUGEES:
Sponsored by The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve, and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, that they may heal, learn, and determine their own future.
Learn more at www.jrsusa.org.
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As you follow the news in our local community, the nation, and around the world, do you ever feel helpless and discouraged? Social and political problems are nothing new, of course, but it seems sometimes that incivility, anger and hatred are intensifying as compassion and understanding are on the wane. Pope Francis wrote in The Joy of the Gospel, “An authentic faith—which is never comfortable or completely personal—always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave the world somehow better than we found it.” The role of the Social Justice Commission, using Catholic Social Teaching as our guide, is to provide opportunities for parishioners to learn about broader social issues that affect poor and vulnerable people in our community, our nation, and around the globe and to discern how to respond as faithful Catholics.
Holy Spirit parishioners participate in a wide range of outreach ministries that serve the poor and vulnerable here at home and abroad. These ministries include St. Vincent de Paul, Family Promise, the Sunday Lunch Program, the Sacred Heart Haiti Mission, and many others. Another role of the Commission is to provide education about opportunities we have as Catholic citizens to act on and to address social injustices.
The social justice dimension of faith has been a part of Holy Spirit Parish since its beginning. We sent a group of youth and chaperones on a mission trip to a church in East St. Louis, a poverty-stricken city in southern Illinois. Shortly after that, our group (then called the Social Concerns Committee) sponsored a “reverse mission” in which we welcomed children and families from East St. Louis to visit our parish for a chance to see life in a healthy rural community. More recently, the Social Justice Commission convened a speaker series on Catholic Social Teaching and has brought in speakers with a Catholic perspective on issues ranging from refugee resettlement to the environment to the war in Iraq. For the last several years, we have partnered with the Social Justice group at Pax Christi Parish to sponsor a winter half-day retreat regarding issues related to faith and social justice.
The Commission supports members in a collegial, working environment. We aspire for the Social Justice Commission to continue as a vibrant resource that reflects the diverse gifts and talents of our parish community.
Please join us! We need more people to continue this ministry within our parish. We invite you to join us to discuss the Social Justice ministry in our parish on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM.
If you have any questions about the Social Justice Commission, please call John McGuire (507-289-6384) or email [email protected].
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