The Roundtable seeks to provide you with relevant formation and professional development opportunities to enhance your work in the midst of a changing world. To this end, we’ve developed a series of education and formation opportunities that respond to the greatest needs and interests that you’ve expressed over the past year.

We hope you’ll join us again this month on Wednesday January 25 at 11-12 noon PT / 2-3pm ET, for a webinar on Building a Life & Dignity Movement, led by your colleague Rob Shelledy, Director of the Social Justice Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Lydia LoCoco Director of the Nazareth Project for Marriage and Family Formation at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Barbara Sella, the Associate Director for Respect Life and Social Concerns will join Rob and Lydia.

Please note: This is a date change from what was originally listed on the webinar calendar.

As John Paul II wrote in his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium vitae, “The Gospel of God’s love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.” Yet, we often do not act this way as we bring our faith into public life and our public life certainly does not reflect this reality. The webinar will give several practical steps, including use of language and specific programs, to help build a Life and Dignity Movement.

To receive call-in information for the webinar, please RSVP to coordinator@catholicroundtable.org.

Our conversation will be limited to 25 participants. We look forward to you joining us!

On the first of December, 25 Roundtable members participated in a webinar on building capacity. As diocesan directors seek to develop infrastructures within their dioceses and assist parishes in building their own capacity for social action work, the topic was particularly relevant, given that in many dioceses, offices are facing the challenges of smaller staffs and budgets.

The model that Tony Stieritz and Pam Long in the Catholic Social Action office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati offered was comprehensive and inspiring. They began the webinar by stressing that building capacity meant capacity not only for their office but increasing capacity for all parishioners of the diocese to take part in the church’s social mission. Tony and Pam’s capacity building strategy includes formation to build new leadership, organizing regional infrastructure, and organizing diocesan level ministries.

In the area of formation, Tony and Pam shared that programs like JustFaith and Journey to Justice have been powerful in transforming parishioners into social action leaders, and school in-services have helped teachers empower youth and take Catholic social teaching to heart. Tony noted that the 2012 World Day of Peace message will be Educating Young People for Justice and Peace. The office also provides a five-week course based on the Communities of Salt and Light document course for parishes looking to start a social action committees. They have created a parish assessment tool for broadly integrating Catholic social teaching into parish life and seeing that every parishioner understands the church’s social mission to be their own.

Tony and Pam shared the regional infrastructures which reflect the unique needs, geographic features, and interests of various parts of the diocese. Cincinnati and Dayton both have networks where parish social justice commissions or other advocates come together across the city to discern which social teachings and issues they will work on that year, and develop educational resources and provide or support opportunities for legislative advocacy according to USCCB or OH State Conference priorities.

A unique feature of the Advocates for Justice: Greater Cincinnati Parish Collaborative is the Annual Issue Discernment Congress, at which any parish delegation can submit an issue submit an issue and offer a presentation on how it:  relates to Catholic social teaching and the Bishops’ teachings, has current actionable items, and meets current Archdiocesan priorities. Delegates vote and taskforces are created around the issues that emerge.

In the more rural deaneries of the dioceses, two rural life conferences exist, because the two rural areas of the Archdiocese have their own distinct charisms. These conferences host an annual farm mass, rural life plunges for youth which connect them to their food and to caring for God’s creation. One conference has created a registry for Catholic farming families who have been farming the same land for 100 years.

In order to organize diocesan level ministries, the Catholic Social Action Commission is divided into task forces for CCHD, CRS, and special issues (currently climate change and racism). The CRS Committee assists in hosting the largest annual Fair Trade sale in the U.S. (outside of what SERV does at conferences). A CRS Capacity Building Grant has allowed the office to create a CCHD-CRS parish promoter network. Promoters receive updates just before the CRS and CCHD collections, including guest speakers representing those organizations and opportunities to engage with CCHD-funded groups. Being transparent and inviting about CCHD-funded groups has meant that parishioners have been very enthusiastic about contributing to the collection.

Tony and Pam completed their presentation by offering a number of challenges their office faces, including a lack of time and capacity for needed ongoing deeper formation, the number of meetings to attend given such an elaborate infrastructure, and parish and commission leaders sometimes wanting to go faster than the Archdiocese in their planning.

Participants had a number of specific questions for Tony and Pam, including how they publicize opportunities to be involved in the structures they have set up, how they communicate electronically with their teams, how pastors are involved in their work, and how Operation Rice Bowl funds are allocated in their diocese, for example.

The conversation is just beginning; please join us on the Virtual Roundtable as we continue to explore ways to build diocesan capacity and creatively meet the challenges we face in that process.
Tony and Pam ask: Where have you found long-term ways to empower parish leaders to own CST and move into action? What are your challenges in moving forward?

If you’re a Roundtable member, you can access a recording of webinar and Tony and Pam’s slides on the Virtual Roundtable, along with the parish assessment tool they have created.

We had a great webinar at the end of October to kick-off the Roundtable’s new series of increased Education and Formation opportunities.

We hope you’ll join us again this month on Thursday, December 1 at 10-11am PT / 1-2pm ET, for a webinar on Building Capacity for Social Action, led by your colleague Tony Stieritz, Director of the Catholic Social Action Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and Pam Long, Regional Director for the office.
(The date is later because of Thanksgiving).

Building Capacity for Social Action: Sample Diocesan Infrastructures for Engaging More Parishioners

Every diocese has a unique commitment to and staffing for forming Catholics in the Church’s social teaching and for realizing it through concrete efforts of social action. Tony will share what infrastructures his office has used and created locally to prioritize and build advocacy around certain social justice issues, promote the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Catholic Relief Services, form parishioners in the Church’s teaching, and support parishes in establishing their own social action ministries. To help Roundtable members consider various ways of approaching our similar missions, the presentation will serve as an example of what one diocese is doing, with discussion directed towards what works and what doesn’t in other dioceses.

To receive call-in information for the webinar, please RSVP to coordinator@catholicroundtable.org.
Our conversation will be limited to 25 participants.

In late October, nearly 30 Roundtable members along with 10 of their social ministry associates  joined the Roundtable for a webinar on Catholic Social Teaching and the Constitution – the Roundtable’s biggest virtual conference ever! The popularity of the webinar speaks to Roundtable members’ interest  in educating about Catholic social teaching in a way that is relevant to and goes beyond current political rhetoric, highlighting a just vision for our nation, oriented to the common good.

Jude Huntz of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph led the webinar. He opened by mentioning how the current Congress made a point at the beginning of the session to recite the Constitution. Taking ideas  from Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love’s article The Constitution, By Heart, participants discussed the notion of a “more perfect union” and how it relates to the Catholic notion of the common good. The idea of a more perfect union demonstrates the need for continued development both in the country’s Constitution as well as Catholic social teaching, responding to the challenges of the day.

Jude talked about Gaudium et Spes and the notion of communion within the church and its implications for communion in society. Participants examined the lack of communion in society today, and expressed challenges related to society’s polarization and an inability for “reasonable people of goodwill to disagree respectfully.”

During the webinar, participants also looked at the places where Catholic Social Teaching goes beyond the protections of the Constitution, calling for universal access to health care and education, for example, as well as the abolition of the death penalty. Roundtable members shared the successes and challenges they face in educating around Catholic social teaching, and specifically the death penalty. Members cited their work in collaboration with Offices for Respect Life, Family Life, African American Catholics, and State Catholic Conferences in educating about CST and doing advocacy for death penalty abolition. Members shared the need for doing basic catechesis around Jesus’ call to love our enemies, as well as for effectively sharing facts on the costs of death penalty and the number of people sentenced to death whose guilt is in question. Generally, members felt there has been an increase in understanding of Church teaching on the death penalty in recent years.

The culture of American individualism was also brought up as a challenge, both to the idea of a perfect union and the communion to which our faith calls.  This individualism leads to distinct crises like the epidemic of homelessness, for example, and a deterioration of society’s social fabric. Transformation, however, is possible. Two members shared experiences of public officials undergoing conversion and as a result making politically difficult choices in line with Catholic teaching, after being in relationships with Catholic leaders and receiving letters from Catholic parishioners.

We live in a tension, Jude reminded participants, of knowing that the Reign of God is breaking in, both now and not yet fully. While Catholics are not to be assimilated into this culture, we are called to engage with it. Roundtable members are called to provide tools to those in our dioceses so that they are able to form their own consciences. These well formed consciences, Roundtable members shared, will allow Catholics to grapple with the challenges in the world now as we know it, while working to create a world more in line with the vision of the Reign of God.

There was a high level of engagement during the webinar, which highlights how important these issues are to the work of Roundtable members. The conversation is just beginning; please join us on the Virtual Roundtable as we continue to explore ways to educate about the Church’s social teaching while being in dialogue with our society.

If you’re a Roundtable member, you can access a recording of webinar and Jude’s slides on the Virtual Roundtable.

We hope that you’ll be able to join us for the 2012 Roundtable Symposium on February 11-12, The Constitution & Catholic Social Teaching: A Healthy Tension (Thanks be to God!).

Once again, the Roundtable is pleased to offer a limited number of scholarships to Roundtable members to cover the cost of tuition to the Symposium. Please apply today to join us!

Scholarships will be distributed on a rolling basis. Please email coordinator@catholicroundtable.org with a brief statement on why you are interested in attending the Symposium and how you hope to apply the skills gained at the Symposium to your work when you return home. Final deadline for scholarships is January 6.

The Symposium will feature Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love,professor of International Relations at the Catholic University of America, Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, Secretary for Health and Social Services for the Archdiocese of Boston, and Dr. Daniel Finn, professor of Moral Theology and Economics at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.

At the Fagan & Servant of Justice Awards Banquet, we will honor the work of the Jan Benton, Executive Director of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, and Msgr. Marvin Mottet of the Diocese of Davenport.

Please see the informational flyer and share it with your offices and diocesan partners. You can also get more information at http://catholicroundtable.org/events/symposium/ and http://www.catholicroundtable.org/events/awards/.

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Verbage for Local Fundraising for Conference Travel

We recognize how crucial it is to gather together in person with key academics, leaders in social action, and your colleagues around the country.  We know, too, that travel budgets have decreased in many offices in recent years, so attendance to the Symposium & Catholic Social Ministry Gathering may require additional creativity.
We continue to make it a priority to offer financial assistance so that we can gather together in person as a community.

We hope you’ll also be able to solicit funds locally to enhance your ability to receive in-person training and development. One colleague shared that she makes funding requests from local parishes & organizations using the following verbage, which she shares as a template for your own funding requests:

Rationale: We also find that the necessary additional training and orientation in Catholic Social Teaching for our staff and volunteer leaders is being severely hampered by cuts in budgets that have prevented attendance at the national Catholic Social Ministry, Social Action Summer Institute, and Catholic Charities USA conferences.

Cost of training for __ people at 2 national conferences: $___ (Breakdown available if necessary. We have $__ available.)

Have you had success in raising funds for training opportunities in your office? Please share your own tips with the Roundtable!

Dear Roundtable members,

In anticipation of the 2012 Roundtable Symposium, the Roundtable will host a webinar on October 27 on the Constitution & Catholic Social Teaching. Please join Roundtable members on Thursday, October 27 at 10-11am PT / 1-2pm ET, for a webinar led by your colleague in Kansas City-St. Joseph, Jude Huntz.

Our conversation will discuss the areas of overlap between Catholic social teaching and the Constitution (a document with which some American Catholics may be more familiar than CST), as well as their areas of dissonance and tension. We’ll examine the values of the Constitution (and the places where CST goes beyond the Constitution) as a way of educating about Catholic social teaching in our communities in a polarized political context.

To participate in the webinar, please RSVP to Jenn Svetlik at coordinator@catholicroundtable.org or 202/635.2757×133.

The Roundtable seeks to provide you with relevant formation and professional development opportunities to enhance your work in the midst of a changing world. To this end, we’ve developed a series of education and formation opportunities that respond to the greatest needs and interests that you’ve expressed over the past year.

We hope you’ll join us (nearly) monthly in a Virtual Roundtable discussion around the topics listed below, culminating in a conference call or webinar on a particular issue or skillsbuilding topic, typically the last Thursday of the month. Mark your calendars!

Roundtable Education & Formation Series 2011-12

October: The Constitution & Catholic Social Teaching – Tools for Teaching Faithful Citizenship
Oct. 27, 2011 – 10AM PT / 1PM ET

November: Capacity Building for your Office
December 1, 2011 – 10AM PT / 1PM ET (different date due to Thanksgiving)

January: Building a Life & Dignity Movement
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 – 10AM PT / 1PM ET

February: The 27th Annual Roundtable Symposium - The Constitution & Catholic Social Teaching: A Healthy Tension (Thanks be to God!) Feb. 11-12, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

March: Strategic Planning for your Office
Friday, March 30, 2012 – 10AM PT / 1PM ET
Featuring Jeff Korgen, Executive Director of Diocesan Pastoral Planning, Diocese of Metuchen

May: Creating Community & Developing Leadership in your Diocese
May 31, 2012 – 10AM PT / 1PM ET

July/Aug: 26th Annual Social Action Summer Institute with JustFaith Ministries & national sponsoring organizations.
Jul. 29-Aug. 1, 2012 at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.

Have ideas about how to make these education & formation opportunities even more helpful to your work? Contact me with your suggestions. We look forward to these opportunities for training & conversation!

Fr. Manuel Williams, C.R., Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions, offered the closing plenary session at the 2011 Social Action Summer Institute. His rousing commissioning of the attendees included honest truths, powerful storytelling, encouragement and even song. If you weren’t able to be with us, hear his presentations via the videos posted here.

This week, the Clarion Herald published an article featuring the July 2011 Social Action Summer Institute evening plenary session with Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the protagonist of the bestselling book Zeitoun.

Read the article below, or see it originally on the Clarion Herald website.

Hero painter jailed after Katrina holds no grudges

By Peter Finney, Clarion Herald staff

Not that citizens of the Greater New Orleans area need any encouragement to reflect again on a life-changing event, but the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina will arrive later this month – Aug. 29. The hope is it will arrive uneventfully and leave with little more than a whimper.

At the recent Social Action Summer Institute at Loyola University, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born New Orleans house painter, transfixed his audience by relating his incredible odyssey in the days and months after Katrina.

As chronicled in “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers – which now has been translated into 20 languages – Zeitoun had spent the days after Katrina rowing his canoe through flooded Uptown streets and rescuing stranded neighbors.
In a classic case of “no good deed going unpunished,” military personnel arrested Zeitoun a few days after Katrina while protecting his own home near Claiborne and Napoleon avenues.

Because he couldn’t produce ownership papers on the spot – even though his driver’s license backed up his claim he owned the home where he was staying – he was shuffled off to prison and spent weeks imprisoned, including time at Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, La. His pleas to make one phone call to clear up what should have been an open-and-shut case went unheeded for weeks.
“For three days we had no blankets – nothing,” Zeitoun recalled. “We were hanging on the overhead pipes like monkeys to take the pressure off our feet. I was being called ‘Al Qaeda’ and ‘Taliban.’”

Finally, Zeitoun’s wife Kathy, who had evacuated to Arizona with their children, was able to crawl back into their house through a window and find mortgage papers to prove her husband’s story. No, he was not a terrorist or a member of the Taliban, but an American citizen.

Zeitoun said he hoped telling his story through Eggers would prevent similar travesties of justice in the future. He said he would rescue people again if he has the chance. “Thank God I had a canoe, because one lady who was calling to me had a very soft voice,” Zeitoun said. “That’s the reason I could hear her. It was very quiet. The other boats were too noisy.”

Zeitoun holds no hard feelings.

“It is positive to let people know what happened because it should not happen again,” Zeitoun said. “I hope it doesn’t happen again in the future. If it happens, we should be prepared differently. I just did what each one of us should do.”

A portion of the proceeds of the book has been earmarked for the Zeitoun Foundation to aid in the rebuilding an ongoing health of the city of New Orleans and to ensure the human rights of all Americans. Thus far the foundation has distributed $200,000 in grants.

“I have wonderful neighbors, friends and customers,” Zeitoun said. “I look to America the same way my family looks to America. It’s a wonderful country. This was like a dream that never happened.”

At the 2011 Social Action Summer Institute, which offered the theme Focus on the Worker: “New Things” in Labor 120 years after Rerum Novarum, Bishop Gabino Zavala offered the opening address. His words both challenged and affirmed the social action directors present, while providing a theological, reflective rootedness for the training that took place during the duration of the institute. You can read the address in its entirety here!

Opening Plenary: The Dignity of Work: Theological Foundations
Bishop Gabino Zavala, Archdiocese of Los Angeles

I. Introduction and Invitation to Reflection

I want to welcome all of you to this Social Action Summer Institute. This is a wonderful opportunity for personal growth, renewing your commitment to your work, building relationships and enjoying this wonderful city. I am very grateful for your invitation to share some of my own thoughts with you. I am privileged to be with all of you.  Thank you for all the work you do in service to the Church and the bishops. Your work gives the People of God a wonderful context in living out the Gospel in our daily lives.

You are all well aware of the timeliness of this topic on the dignity of work.  The situation in Wisconsin with public sector workers that has spread to Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and other states has challenged us to examine once again our teachings on labor, unions and the common good.  In the latest Legatus Magazine we are told that “most Catholics, including bishops and priests, are relatively uninformed about the social doctrine of the Church, its themes and development.”  The article goes on to say that this is the case because most young priests are not interested in these issues and many older priests have failed to update themselves on these issues.  This may well be true. If it is, you have a lot of work to do!  Finally, they state that the times and circumstances have changed since Rerum Novarum and so we need to look at these present cases in light of the changing context of catholic social teaching.  Some use this argument as an opportunity to deny workers their basic rights.

In response to the Wisconsin situation Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee  issued a statement on Feb. 16 that came down in favor of workers’ rights.  “Hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers… Every union, like every economic actor, is called to work for the common good, to make sacrifices when required and to adjust to new economic realities.  However, it is equally a mistake to marginalize or dismiss unions as impediments to economic growth.”

I raise this just so that we can see how timely our work is today.

Do most of you remember the first paying job you had? I remember my first job.  My first job besides doing household chores at home was to sell newspapers.  When I was 11 years old I got this job which required me to stand on a corner selling newspapers after school.  I would sell the evening edition of the newspaper to people as they went home from work.  If I sold 30 papers at $0.10 a piece I took home $1.05.  It may not seem like much by today’s standards.  But we are talking about the early 60’s.  On my way home I could buy a small cheese pizza for $0.95 or a small bag of fries for $0.25.  Or I could save my money for something else.  I enjoyed my job.  It made me feel good.  It gave me a sense that I was getting something for my hard work.

Take a moment to reflect on your first job: What was it? What work were you doing? Why did you take the job? What did you do with your compensation?  How did it make you feel?

Because to work is so significant, to be compensated for what we do makes us feel valued.  It causes us to look beyond ourselves.  Even as a child or a teenager, it leaves a lasting impression.

II. Foundations of the inherent dignity of work

The Church has a rich tradition on work and the rights of the worker. It doesn’t matter if it is the labor of a paper boy, factory worker, or white collar worker.  Central to this teaching is the belief that work has an inherent dignity. And it seems that to an extent, every Pope from Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum to Benedict XVI in Caritas In Veritate have talked about the dignity of work.  In fact all of us, as we talk about work and labor, stipulate to work’s inherent dignity. We assume it. It’s axiomatic.  It is something that we just take for granted.

Why? Why do we believe so deeply that work has inherent dignity?

We need to go back to the very beginning.  Let’s look at the Book of Genesis.  The narrative on creation gives us two thoughts.  First of all we see that Man and Woman are  created in the image and likeness of God.  God’s labor is central to our existence.  God didn’t merely will the world or us into existence.  It wasn’t done with a flick of the wrist or a snap of the fingers. The creation of the world was work.  Hard work that required rest.

Secondly, Man and Woman are put in Eden to cultivate and care for it. This is to be understood as an exercise of human creativity and a participation in God’s ongoing creation of the world.

In the Old Testament writers had very strong words for those who abused laborers and poor people, for those who withheld wages.  In the book of Deuteronomy the author tells us “do not cheat poor and needy hired servants, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns.  Each day before sunset pay them for that days’ work; they need the money and have counted on getting it.  If you do not pay them, they will cry out to the Lord and you will be guilty of sin.”  The prophet Jeremiah proclaims: “Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice and enlarges it by dishonesty: who makes his people work for nothing and does not pay their wages.”
Clearly this speaks to today’s concern about wage theft!

As we know, Jesus echoes these sentiments and frequently used the dynamics of labor and work to teach in parables.  We have the familiar examples of the Workers in the Vineyard [Mt 20:1-16]; the Barren Fig Tree [Lk 13: 6-9] in addition to today’s gospel (Parable of the Sower).

And Jesus even tells us why he does it–because that’s how we come to understand.
Of all the analogies or themes he could use, he repeatedly relies on work because that’s the easiest for us to understand. We are all engaged in it!

Not only are we all engaged in it, to some degree people want to define us by it.  How often when meeting someone for the first time are we asked the question, “What do you DO?”  As if what we DO, defines who we are.  Jesus himself is frequently identified by his vocation.  He is a carpenter.  While the question is limiting because it doesn’t encapsulate all we are, as Catholics, the hope is that our work DOES reflect who we are and what we believe to be true, what we know to be of value.  And if we look at the etymology of vocation, we know that the word ‘vocation’ comes from the Latin “to call”–i.e. our labor, properly understood, can be seen as a divine calling.

Work allows us to share with Jesus in creation. In work, we carry out our Gospel mandate to care, feed, clothe, visit our sisters and brothers [Mt 25]. In work, we bring forth the Kingdom of God here on Earth.

Today the Scriptures and teachings of Jesus continue in the Wisdom of the Church.
The Second Vatican Council reiterates the value of work and its transformative potential.

“For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if patiently borne—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. During the celebration of the Eucharist these sacrifices are most lovingly offered to the Father along with the Lord’s body. … the lay faithful consecrate the world itself to God” (Lumen Gentium, 34).

III. The goal of dignified work

It is in understanding the nature of dignified work, that we can understand the goals of our labor; that is, what our labor ought to accomplish.

Work ought to promote the common good.  Our work needs to contribute to society.  Our work should enhance who we are as human beings.  It should help us celebrate our humanity, be ever faithful stewards of creation, protecting the vulnerable and providing for those who cannot work.

Our work should be supportive of the worker and the worker’s family.  Work should provide a wage sufficient to allow everyone to achieve their personal, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual fulfillment.  Work should allow for realization and self-awareness in each worker.  Every worker should experience the same level of pride and accomplishment as that very first job selling newspapers.

IV. Our challenge, then, is twofold:

In conclusion, what are the challenges for us?  We need to ask ourselves: how do I personally discern, develop or nurture my own vocation? How do I continue to find work that contributes to the common good, allows me to support myself and my family, and helps me fulfill my role as co-creator? How do I challenge myself and find support for my work?

Second, but no less important; How do I invite others to discern, develop or nurture their vocation? How do I deprive, by my choices and behavior, my human brothers and sisters of their right to decent, dignified work? How can I live in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in my community and around the world in their quest for dignified work?

Solidarity means going that extra mile to shop in stores that treat their workers with dignity. Solidarity means standing with farm workers, hotel workers, janitors, car washers, meat processors, and restaurant employees who just want a decent wage. Solidarity is helping workers whose wages have been stolen to find justice.  And we can all think of so many more examples.

The work you do is tough. It is demanding. We need to celebrate what we do.  It is so important.  And we need support networks to give us the strength to carry on.

Thank you all once more for the work you do, for your persistence and tenacity, and for your commitment to the common good.