Community Life Communique #7

Submitted by: Carol Penno

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 EVERYONE: May Our God bless us with every blessing that we need to lead good and holy lives. May Peace Joy and Happiness fill your homes. We leave for AZ in a few hours, 5 AM January 03.

I expect that the Diocesan Chairpersons of Community Life are starting to work on their annual reports due February 15, 2008. Please email the report to me at communitylife@cwl.bc.ca.

Dear Ladies would you kindly send me copies of your communiques that you send out to your parish councils. I requested this and only heard from one person. Thank you Shirley.

Dignity and Rights of Persons
Dr. Rayleen De Luca prepared her Communique #6 December 03, 2007. It was nearing Christmas and I didn’t see that it contained anything too urgent to pass on to you immediately as I had communicated with you a month earlier. I did send out a notice that Rayleen had a new communique out and you could read it on the National website I was pleased to see that Rayleen acknowledged the concrete action taken by British Columbia CWL Councils in their fight against Human Trafficking particularly with the postcard campaign.

Some highlights from her communique: National executive members, President Lorette Noble, Resolutions Chairperson, Betty Anne Brown and Community Life Chairperson, Dr. Rayleen De Luca visited Ottawa the week prior to December 03, 2007. They met with MP Joy Smith (Kildonan-St. Paul, CPC). Mrs. Smith has been instrumental in bringing forward human trafficking to the forefront of government business. Her initial motion read, “That, in the opinion of the House, the trafficking of women and children across international borders for the purposes of sexual exploitation should be condemned, and that the House call on the government to immediately adopt a comprehensive strategy to combat the trafficking of persons worldwide.” In speaking to her motion Mrs. Smith stated, “For years the international community has been aware that vulnerable people have been tricked into believing they could find a better life in North America, only to become the victims of a cruel and horrendous deception and land up as prisoners in the sex trade against their will.”

Rayleen provided a website where you can print your own postcard. I opened this site and it contains wonderful information. Please visit www.CanadaCan.blogspot.com.

Rayleen continues on with statistics about water. We all know to do our part in conserving our water resources. Try not to use bottled water as it is detrimental to the environment. The one fact that tap water is on average 500 times more economical than bottled water should be enough to deter us from bottled water.

Development and Peace
In British Columbia we are making an extra effort to provide more funds for Development and Peace to help countries in Africa deal with the many problems created by the AID/HIV pandemic. I wrote about this at length in Communique #6

We have a project where we can now fund raise in a manner that is not against our morals and faith. See Dr. De Luca’s article in The Canadian League Fall issue page 10.

Resolutions
In the Fall issue of The Canadian League the two resolutions that come under Community Life Chair are listed. You are encouraged to work on these in your parish councils.

• 2007.01 GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR POLICE RECORD CHECKS. Follow the action plan.
• 2007.02 GLOBAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CANADIAN REGISTERED MINING COMPANIES. Follow the action plan as well.

Remember Darfur in your prayers and charitable donations. The stories coming from there are horrendous. Really is there anyplace in the world that doesn’t need help in one form or another. Pray for Peace in the World. Pray for the safety of our troops in Afghanistan especially in this volatile time after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.

Do you remember the little article I wrote in the spring issue of the Provincial Newsletter about the word counsel or council? I notice that some continue to use the word in the wrong context. I was gently correcting a Diocesan Chairperson about the misuse of council and she said she had copied the spelling directly from the Provincial chairperson’s report. So there you go. It is Our Lady of Good Counsel and the other spelling is, I am a member of Sacred Heart Parish Council.

Thank you for all your good works promoting social and economic justice, helping the recent immigrants, upholding the dignity and rights of persons, donating to Development and Peace and your work with developing countries. The world will be a brighter place. I await your reports with great anticipation. Let’s make this a wonderful reporting year. I would like to have 100% participation from the parish councils. A suggestion: If you haven’t heard from a parish, it is acceptable to telephone or send an email asking about the missing report.

May God bless you and keep you. May our Lady of Good Counsel guide us in this wonderful work of Community Life.

Your sister in the League,

Carol P….