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.”

Bishop Gabino Zavala, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and President of Interfaith Worker Justice, will open the Social Action Summer Institute with reflections on the dignity of work and theological foundations for supporting workers rights.

On Labor Day 2010, he offered the following reflection, Enduring Principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Reprinted with permission.

Catholic Social Teaching, stretching from Rerum Novarum (1891) to Caritas in Veritate (2009), has given us enduring principles to deal with “new things” as they arise in the economies of our time. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the conditions of workers in a world that was in the midst of rapid technological change. This new economic structure had little or no regulations that produced not just gaping inequality between the industrialists and workers, but really two very different human realities. The teeming industrial towns had poor sanitation and housing; inhumane working conditions for men, women, and children; and, a political system unable or unwilling to address the new social environment wrought by economic change.

The class struggle in Europe and the United States pitted the opulence of rich against those struggling for survival. Pope Leo XIII, in his search for peace, condemned the violence of ‘class struggle’ and sought resolution in gospel values. The letter from the pope “On the Condition of Workers” had a huge impact in the Church and on the people of the United States that were fraught with concern over the rights of workers, wages, unions, and larger social conditions.

The lasting points made in Leo XIII’s encyclical and found throughout the church’s social doctrine begin with a correct view of the human person. Human persons are willed by God; they are imprinted with God’s image. Their dignity does not come from the work they do, but because they are as human.

The Holy Father wrote about the dignity of work and the rights and dignity of workers. Work is the way we procure the necessities of life for ourselves and our families; it is the way we realize ourselves through self expression; and finally, through work we contribute to the common good.

Pope Leo XIII stressed:
1. the centrality of the human person
2. the errors of socialism and laissez-faire capitalism
3. the right to form trade unions and other associations
4. the right to limited working hours and to rest
5. the right to a just wage

Caritas in Veritate, an encyclical written in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI, expresses similar concerns about our economic and social life in an increasingly globalized society. Facing the current economic crisis squarely, with so many people around the world lacking decent work and struggling for the necessities of life, the Holy Father offers a moral framework for economic life, a call to solidarity, and the challenge of working together to build an economy that is founded on gospel values. Pope Benedict clearly places the human person at the center of economic life as he reflects on creation, respect for life, rights of workers, and the role of civil society.

Benedict notes: “The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.”(#25)

Instead of relegating labor unions to a by-gone era, he says it is “important…that labor unions – which have always been encouraged and supported by the Church – should be open to the new perspectives that are emerging in the world of work.”…“The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labor unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated.” (#64)

On a related matter, Benedict says, “the dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone.”(#32)

Benedict then responds to the question: What is meant by the word “decency” in regard to work? He goes on to say “It means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labor; work that permits the workers to organize themselves freely, and to make their voices heard; work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one’s roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level; work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living.” (#63)

The Catholic tradition, our social doctrine, asks us to look at social and economic issues from the perennial viewpoint of the value of human work that finds its intrinsic meaning in the dignity of the worker. Making the principles of Catholic Social Teaching applicable to everyday life is never easy. We need to develop ways to assess not just our own individual actions but wider trends in society both in public policy and economic activity. As Pope Benedict XVI writes: “The current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future.” (#21)

Widely considered the first great social encyclical, Rerum Novarum was issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It marked the first formal endorsement by the magisterium of the budding Catholic social movement and laid the foundation for the magisterium’s teaching on social issues.

Allie Suwanrumpha, “Factory Worker” February 6, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Rerum Novarum responded to the emergent ideas of the day promoting the common good while warning against the negative elements in the two prevailing schools of thought on how to structure the economy – socialism and capitalism. Against socialism, it asserted that private property was a right and principle of natural law. Against laissez faire capitalism, Rerum Novarum declared that the state has a role in protecting private property, regulating the conditions of work, seeing that employees receive a just wage, and producing laws to encourage a wide distribution of property. It also stated that it is the Church’s task to remind the world of the inequalities and sufferings that exist and to alleviate poverty through works of charity and the promotion of justice. The document also encouraged and supported organizations that promoted social and worker solidarity, such as trade unions and Catholic social action organizations.

Even before the encyclical was issued, the Church was engaged in work responding to the inequalities and violations of rights that had developed as a result of the Industrial Revolution. In Germany in 1864, Bishop Wilhelm von Ketteler had published The Worker-Question and Christianity. Alongside these teachings, Christian workers’ clubs and union movements were developing across Europe – of which Cardinal Gaspard Mermillod of France was a part. He was called to Rome to consult on economic issues and later helped found the Fribourg Union, committed both to papal loyalty and addressing social issues. The Union’s statements on work as a laborer’s personal act (not just a commodity), just wage, and collective bargaining were reflected in Rerum Novarum.

Tom Szustek, “Restaurant workers protest” March 16, 2011 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

While organizing for and promoting workers’ rights were taking place in Europe, there was also a great deal of hostility toward the Church by the European working class (including the assassination of archbishops). In the U.S., however, the immigrant working class was backbone of the U.S. Church. To a great degree, the impetus for Rerum Novarum was American, seeking to identify with and protect the rights of Catholic immigrant workers.

Understanding the connection between Catholic immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19^th century and the importance of promoting the dignity of work and protecting workers’ rights is important work for us as the Church today, too. Latino Catholic immigrants, which make up 1/3 of the U.S. Church, are often victims to violations of workers’ rights.

At the recent conference on Rerum Novarum at Catholic University, Fr. Clete Kiley shared testimonies of hotel staff whose workload of rooms to clean had nearly doubled in recent years, and workers felt compelled to work at an exhausting pace and through lunch to complete the work. “We want to be proud of our work,” they insisted. These are Catholic women with families, seeking to do their jobs well, and being robbed of wages when forced to work through lunch. They have been discouraged and even prevented from forming unions to provide a channel through which their voices can be heard more clearly against the injustices they face. They call out to their brothers and sisters throughout the Church, to help them to secure just and dignified work — a concrete recognition of their own human dignity and their ability to be co-creators with God in their work.

BP America, “Workers remove damaged boom from the waters” July 4, 2010 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Rerum Novarum was clear in recognizing the right to strike as a tool for workers to demand their rights, as well as the role of unions in negotiating workers’ rights. Later encyclicals and documents by the U.S. Bishops continue to make these rights explicit. In the Bishops’ letter Economic Justice for All for all, they write, “No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts… to break existing unions and prevent workers from organizing” (104).

And in Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI writes, “Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ union that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past” (25).

Lawrence Lew, O.P., “The Holy Family engaged in Work” March 26, 2007 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Examining the content of and the context in which Rerum Novarum was offered to the Church by the magisterium, can help guide our understanding of the history of Church teaching and our social analysis in the present age. Many of the problems that plagued the world when Rerum Novarum was written still challenge humanity today: economic decline, concentration of wealth in the hands of few, powerful employers neglecting the dignity of their workers and using their work solely as a commodity to further profits at any cost. The teaching of the Church and the examples of everyday Catholics living out their faith through practicing worker justice is a living witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At the 2011 Social Action Summer Institute later this month, over 100 Catholics from across the country will come together to learn and discuss Supporting Workers Today, and will examine the history of Catholic thought on work, explore current case studies in promoting workers’ rights, and strategize for the future of the Church’s work locally in promoting human dignity and the dignity of work.

You can still join us - register today!

Text adapted from Rerum Novarum: Context, Foundations and Impetuses by Jennifer Svetlik and notes from the conference on the 120^th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum: Church, Labor and the New Things of the Modern World at the Catholic University of America in May 2011.

Great news – the deadline to register for the Social Action Summer Institute has been extended! If you’re still thinking of attending but need some more time to consider please take advantage of this opportunity!

If you need on-campus housing, you must reserve your spot online then mail in your check by June 24. If you can find accommodations elsewhere, registration will be accepted until July 6.

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The 25th Annual SASI has a great lineup including Bishop Gabino Zavala, president of Interfaith Worker Justice who will offer our keynote address, Track II leader, Kathy Saile, Director of Domestic Social Development at the USCCB and many other talented speakers who will offer Track I and our plenary sessions and workshops.

SASI is being offered for **$125 off** last year’s tuition & room & board price! All of the components of the SASI are GREAT! If you’re a veteran, Track II on Supporting Workers Today will offer insightful information for your work. If you’re a newcomer, Track I is THE place to get started and the SASI is a great place to get to know colleagues and national contacts.

If you can’t come, think about sending staff or commission members, as well as getting the word out in parishes.

Thanks for spreading the word! Looking forward to seeing you there!

I hope you’ll join us at the Social Action Summer Institute and continue to spread the word in your dioceses and communities. The registration deadline is June 15 and if you’re still on the fence, we wanted to share 15 reasons you should be in New Orleans with us July 10-13! We pray SASI will deepen your spiritual life, expand your network and increase your effectiveness so as to enrich your vocation in social action.

In no particular order…

1. You’ll hear a keynote address from Bishop Gabino Zavala, President of Interfaith Worker Justice.
2. You can learn & plan for Supporting Workers Today through a history of Catholic thought on work, tools for social analysis, & a working session on labor.
3. You’ll participate in liturgy celebrated by Archbishop Aymond with Bishop Zavala, and pray in community.
4. You’ll receive $125 off last year’s tuition and room and board price.
5. You can join small group worker case studies on wage theft, immigration push factors, community organizing and labor, employment rights for those with disabilities, campus organizing, and more.
6. You can strengthen your foundation in Biblical Justice and Catholic Social Teaching with others from around the country.
7. You’ll hear reflections on Hurricane Katrina from the Zeitouns, protagonists of the book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.
8. You’ll have time for intentional discussion with your peers on Challenges & Opportunities in social action and Latino formation in social action.
9. You can visit with workers affected by the oil spill and those working for environmental justice.
10. You’ll meet new leaders and strengthen friendships with others engaged in social action at nightly socials.
11. You can explore self-care & spirituality for ministers with Joe Grant of JustFaith Ministries and practice meditation and relaxation techniques on the spot.
12. You’ll have opportunities to connect with staff from national partner organizations: USCCB Dept. of Justice, Peace and Human Development, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, and JustFaith Ministries and learn more about the Jesuit Social Research Institute.
13. You can ride the streetcar, listen to jazz at Preservation Hall, drink cafe au lait or savor a New Orleans snoball with new-found friends.
14. You can join in a strategy session around Statewide Immigration Legislation or learn the ART of Doing More with Less through Capacity Building.
15. You can participate in skills-building workshops like Creating & Sustaining a Robust Parish Social Justice Ministry, Global Solidarity through Parish Partnerships, Promoting Life & Dignity, Racial Harmony, Environmental Stewardship, and more.

I hope to see you there! Please let us know how we can support you in spreading the word about SASI’s offerings!

Registration is now live for this year’s Social Action Summer Institute. You can get more information and register online at http://catholicroundtable.org/events/sasi/.

Join social action ministers from across the country for a four-day institute titled, “Focus on the Worker: “New Things” in Labor 120 Years after Rerum Novarum.”

We will feature many talented and engaging speakers including Bishop Gabino Zavala, President of Interfaith Worker Justice; Kathy Saile, Director of Domestic Social Development, USCCB; Fr. Fred Kammer, Director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute; Tricia Hoyt, diocesan director in Phoenix; Joe Grant of JustFaith Ministries, and many more. Additional presenters will be announced on the SASI webpage.

July 10-13, 2011 | Loyola University | New Orleans, LA
***Tuition, room & board this year is $125 off of last year’s rates!***

Registration information: Although registration is available online, payment for SASI is not. Please reserve your spot online then make check payment to “Catholic Charities of Houma-Thibodaux” (fiscal agent for the Roundtable) and mail to: The Roundtable | 1225 Otis Street NE | Washington DC 20017.

Tuition is $250, room & board is $325, with two-day and one-day options available. Limited scholarships are available; contact the Roundtable Coordinator for details.

The deadline for registration is June 15, so don’t delay!

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues. We look forward to seeing you there!

Dear Roundtable members and friends,

After a number of months working toward securing a location, the Roundtable is very pleased to announce location & dates for SASI 2011.

This year’s Social Action Summer Institute will take place July 10-13, 2011 at Loyola University in New Orleans. Please save the dates!

SASI is an annual opportunity to develop and enhance your ministry skills, delve deeper into issues relevant to your work alongside talented academics and practitioners, and fellowship and network with others working to promote the social mission of the church.

More information about the 2011 SASI will be coming very soon, but please share these dates with your communities!

The Diocese of San Jose’s newspaper, The Valley Catholic, published an extensive article in October covering the 2010 Social Action Summer Institute:

Diocese of San Jose hosts Social Action Summer Institute; Catholic justice teaching, peace-building are themes
Oct 19 2010
By Roberta Ward

The Diocese of San Jose hosted the 24th annual Social Action Summer Institute, “Peacebuilding for the 21st Century,” Aug. 1-4, held at Santa Clara University. Linda Batton, Director of Social Ministries for the diocese, was local facilitator.

…
Dr. Ami Carpenter, from the University of San Diego, facilitated “Becoming a Peace-Builder” during which participants raised issues regarding dichotomies in Church teaching on justice issues…

Many participants, representing dioceses from various parts of the U.S., expressed concerns that funding and staffing are being compromised regarding social ministries.

Carpenter outlined basic considerations to provide social ministries including basic faith formation on social teaching, accountability, intentional proactive communication, and transparency.

“Make sure that people understand that this has to do with their faith,” Carpenter said. Some people view social action as separate from faith and only related to partisan politics. Church social teaching transcends that, she explained.

The best diocesan resources, participants noted, bring local people together to share their stories reflecting personal struggles as immigrants, and working people, as well as professionals, and sharing food and meals as one community.

Participants’ “wish list” included more funding and the need for clergy formation on social issues, as well as appropriate space to meet at parishes.

The spirituality of how to deal with conflict was stressed, especially regarding “single-issue folks” and the bigger picture of social concerns.

One participant said, “I find a lot of people have compassion and charity but have resistance to justice and long-term solutions.”

…
In “Leadership Skills for Parish Social Action,” Rachel Lustig of Catholic Charities USA cautioned parish leaders, “Don’t take on too much. Have a viable plan in conjunction with the pastor and parish council, assign responsibilities and create accountability.

“Things get done when people take responsibility for them,” she said. “Keep new blood and energy going forward, always assessing the needs and capacity of responding to the Baptismal call.”

Lustig cautioned, “Your parish is not responsible for eliminating poverty. Keep things in perspective; accept limits. Define needs and discern them from ‘wants’ and be aware of the actual capacity to meet needs.”

She also called for creativity, especially in meeting on-going needs. “How many soup kitchens do we need?” she asked.

“We ought to be dealing with the bigger picture of hunger as well as simply feeding people. How can we address the broader issues of inequality, lack of education, and poverty?”

…

Sandy Mattingly Paulen, Catholic Campaign for Human Development/USCCB, facilitated a workshop on CCHD background covering community organizing and economic development, two major components in the 40-year-old program.

Paulen said that CCHD grants for community organizing focus on institutional change, non-partisan activities, low-income control, and leadership and organizational development.

Institutional change stresses a focus on the root causes of social problems and a long-term strategy to address them, not direct services or “charity,” and not “band-aids.”

CCHD, she said, also stresses cultural diversity, promoting the life and dignity of the human person, strengthening family life, compliance with Catholic teachings, and non-partisanship.

CCHD’s Economic Development Grants aim to create jobs and just workplaces; develop assets for low-income people and empower them to take control of their work, businesses and lives.

WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security) was a featured project at the workshop. It is a series of environmentally sound house-cleaning cooperatives, based in Oakland.

The non-profit organization develops worker-owned “green” businesses that focus on creating healthy, dignified jobs for low-income women.

For over 15 years, over 200 women have received above minimum wage incomes, a range of benefits, protection from harmful chemicals and opportunities to build leadership and vocational skills as well as have a voice, as co-owners, in their businesses.

Read the full article here: http://www.valleycatholiconline.com/viewnews.php?newsid=1613&id=10&mode=archive

Dear Roundtable members,

I love the fall. Being from southeast Texas, where the leaves don’t change color, and now living on the east coast where they do, I find myself being more reflective about this season. Autumn calls to mind for me certain lines from Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front:

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

The autumn reminds me that our efforts, small as they may sometimes feel, are part of a larger vision. I remember that God uses us in unexpected ways, and that gifts and grace can come from unexpected places; things that seem tired, spent, or even dead can be transformed into life-giving newness.

God’s abundant grace and gifts are clear in the good work done by our members each day. In the October 2010 issue of the Roundtable Report, we highlight some of that work & other Roundtable happenings.

First off, we are thankful for the success of the 2010 Social Action Summer Institute! If you haven’t seen them already, check out the various articles and reflections on this year’s SASI focused on “Peacebuilding for the 21^st Century” in San Jose, California:

• Taylor Kingston, a young first-time SASI attendee, has written a thoughtful reflection about her experience with the intersection of faith and action.
• Additionally, read about what SASI participants took home to their ministries.
• Don’t miss the text of Bishop McGrath’s homily at the Opening Liturgy, where he addresses fear and the myth of scarcity amid the abundance of God’s imagination.
• And we have lots of pictures from the event as well!

And if you’re looking for opportunities to build on the good discussions and planning that took place at SASI around peacebuilding efforts in your own communities, we’d like to offer you opportunities for more:

• The February 2011 Symposium will be titled “Fear Not”: Addressing a Culture of Fear with Prayerful Conversation and will feature Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture and former editor of Commonweal on “Addressing Fear: Learning from the Historical Context” and Sr. Deborah Lorentz, a trained mediator and member of the Sisters of Social Service, on “Addressing Fear: Tools for Dialogue and Reflection.” Please save the date for February 12-13, 2011! More information will be coming soon.
  
• Additionally, 2010 SASI keynote presenter Dr. Scott Appleby has extended a generous offer for additional peacebuilding training for diocesan directors at the Kroc Institute. If you’re interested in more information about this opportunity, please email us.

The Roundtable is always on the lookout for resources to share with you to expand your capacity and help make you more effective. This Report offers an article by Peter Denio, on the Standards for Excellence offered by the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, and highlights how these standards have already helped some of our member dioceses.
Additionally, the “Might We Suggest” section of the Report offers CCHD Talking Points from Rob Gorman, Catholic Charities of Houma-Thibodaux, for staffing your bishops before the fall Bishops’ meeting.

The Roundtable extends a heartfelt congratulations to our partner Catholic Charities USA, who celebrated their Centennial Gathering this September in Washington DC. Roundtable member Brian Corbin of the Diocese of Youngstown reports on this very special event.

This summer the Roundtable also hosted a book discussion with Fr. Daniel Groody on Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice. If you weren’t able to be part of the great discussion, check out the report on it, and stay tuned for more information on the fall book discussion!

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the online repository of your e-newsletters. This page was added to the Roundtable website after Roundtable member Matt Cato in the Archdiocese of Portland suggested it to us at SASI. Do you have a suggestion of how the Roundtable can better serve you? Please email us!

Recently we’ve also added an archive of talks and presentations from recent SASI and Symposium events. You can check them out (along with other great resources and discussion) at the Virtual Roundtable.

I’m happy to report that at the close of the 2010 fiscal year, the Roundtable is financially strong. Thanks to a successful SASI and your support through membership dues, we continue to be in good financial standing and guided by the budget approved by the board. If you have not paid your 2010 dues yet, however, we do need your support. I sent out an email to the outstanding member dioceses in late August, and I express my sincere gratitude to those of you who responded in any amount. If you need a dues form, please email us.

There is much to celebrate in the efforts and initiatives of Roundtable members over the past few months (check out some of that good work in the Roundtable Roundup!); I pray that God may abundantly bless your work that it bears a harvest of great fruit!

Peace,

Jenn Svetlik
Roundtable Coordinator

Check out these photos from the 2010 Social Action Summer Institute, courtesy of Pat Dougherty, Catholic Charities of St. Louis.