End Capital Punishment-No To The Death Penalty

Jan 14, 2021

by Gabino Zavala, Peace & Justice Director

At 1:31 am EST on January 13 Lisa Montgomery was executed by the United States Federal Government. She became the first woman executed in nearly 70 years. Her life was marked by extreme child sexual abuse, torture and neglect which led to serious mental illness. Our government continued this abuse by executing Lisa. Our Federal Government has executed 11 people in the last seven months during a pandemic. The executions of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs are scheduled this week.

As a Precious Blood Community, we promote the sacredness of all human life. As such we have taken a corporate stance against the death penalty. We promote life from conception to natural death. That is what it truly means to be pro-life.

The execution of Lisa Montgomery and the others executed in the last seven months have furthered the cycle of violence in our society. As Precious Blood family members, let us continue to strive to be pro-life Catholics.

Please read the statement from Kelly Henry, issued after Lisa’s execution.

Provincial Council Statement Regarding January 6th’s Violence in Washington, D.C.

Jan 8, 2021

As a religious community dedicated to the spread of the Gospel, we condemn the violent protest at the capitol building in Washington today. It is one more indication that we as a society are more and more placing our trust in violence and force to solve our problems rather than working together to resolve our differences. Although these rioters are a relatively small group, their actions can make us think that what binds us together as a country, as a people, is disappearing. But in the days ahead, the rest of us will speak up with words and actions to make clear that we are one country, united by the Gospel of compassion, care, concern, justice, and love. So, as we move through this crisis, we will do so by trusting in each other and in God’s providential care. Let us keep our leaders and each other in prayer.

Provincial Council Statement Regarding Voting

Oct 1, 2020

Soon we will be electing national leadership for the next four years. It will be our opportunity and moral duty to choose leaders who reflect gospel values, especially those values that are at the core of our Precious Blood Spirituality. As the Leadership Team of the Kansas City Province, we want to state some of those main values clearly and urge everyone to use them as a guide in voting.

Justice
All are created equal and have equal rights to the basic necessities of life. This includes (among other things) food, shelter, health care, employment, educational opportunities, and freedom from discrimination of any kind. Our elected officials have a moral responsibility to enable all to have access to these basic necessities and should not relinquish this responsibility by handing it on to the free market, charitable organizations, churches, or any other entity.

Protection of Life
All life is sacred, as Cardinal Bernardin so eloquently put it with his “Seamless Garment” image. This includes life that is unborn, on death row, on the battlefield (on both sides of the battle), elderly, and disabled. This also includes a concern for quality of life, not just keeping people physically alive. We are called to elect leaders who will work to protect life in all these areas, not just in a few areas.

Ministry to the Marginalized
This is one of our major charisms as a community, and we are called to elect leaders who embody this charism also. It is not difficult to identify those who have been forgotten, who have no voice or do not “count” in our society – minorities, refugees and immigrants (both documented and undocumented), the economically poor, criminals, non-Christians, etc. We do not vote simply for our own interests. We vote for the interests of our whole community, the human community. The leaders we elect need to represent the whole community.

Interconnectedness of All
We are all one Body of Christ, intimately connected to each other and to creation. We need to choose leaders who believe and live this truth. This would be reflected in a leader who values working with other leaders and other countries. Such a leader would also work to reduce the divisions between us, like the division between the “have’s” and the “have nots.” Since human survival is intimately connected to the health of our planet, protecting our natural resources would be a priority for a good leader.

Reconciliation
Our mission as a community is to promote reconciliation, and we choose leaders who will do the same. This requires an ability to see both sides of an issue and to facilitate dialogue and discussion to iron out differences. An appreciation of and tolerance for diversity is needed for Reconciliation, which enables the bridging of differences. Pitting one side against another is the opposite of Reconciliation.

In a perfect world, there would be ideal political candidates whom we could choose from. But no candidate is perfect, and no candidate models the values mentioned above perfectly. That means we must decide which candidates come closer to living these values and vote for them. This is hard work, and it would be easier to cast our vote based simply on one party, or one person, or one issue. But that would be shirking our personal moral responsibility to make our choices based on all the values we hold dear, and which the gospel calls us to uphold.

May the Spirit of Wisdom guide us as individuals, as a community, and as a country as we cast our votes in November.

Provincial Council
Fr. Garry Richmeier, C.PP.S.
Fr. David Matz, C.PP.S.
Br. Daryl Charron, C.PP.S.
Fr. Keith Branson, C.PP.S.
Fr. Timothy Armbruster, C.PP.S.

At Home With the Word: Glass Half-Full

Sep 8, 2020

by Vicky Otto, Companion Director

If you ask people who know me, I hope they would describe me as a “glass half full” kind of person. I try to see the brighter side of life, be grateful for all that I have been given and focus more on the positive perspective of things. It is hard these days to be the “glass half full” person. We are living during a global pandemic. There is violence on our streets. Wildfires are burning throughout California and other parts of the world; many people have lost their homes due to flooding from recent hurricanes. Thousands of people have lost their jobs and even their homes due to the economic downturn. Many farmers have lost their crops because of the derecho storms, and yes, there have even been reports of locust storms in India. Amid all of this, we are in the midst of a political election that at best could be described as contentious, drawing in even religious leaders to make accusations that unless you vote one way, you are not a good Catholic.  If you feel like it is all too much, you are not alone.

A few weeks ago, one of the readings at Mass reminded me of how to stay true to who I am during these turbulent times. In the Book of Kings, we heard of how Elijah found the Lord, not amongst the chaos of the various storms that he experienced, but a tiny whispering sound. Have you heard the whispering sounds?  I have when I heard the story about the three-year-old girl who, with just a little help from adults, backed 1000 cookies for the essential workers in her city. Or the couple whose wedding reception was canceled due to the pandemic who not only took the catered food to a homeless shelter but served their new guests in their wedding attire. I also heard the whispering in the story of a nine-year-old boy who was recently adopted, who is on a mission to care for every elderly or sick dog that has little hope for being adopted. He said, “I know how it feels not to be loved or cared for, and I don’t want any animal of mine to feel that way.” I  heard it loud and clear in a national movement called “Freedges.” Food pantries, restaurants, and cafes around the country are putting out refrigerators outside the doors of their establishments and filling them with healthy vegetables, fruits, and other food that is free for anyone who needs it. The organizers said that they wanted to provide a way for people who are struggling to get what they need without fear of shame.

I’m sure there are thousands of stories just like these today in our country and in our world. They remind me that even among what many would consider the worst of time, there is still inherent good in the world. We have a choice today, to continue to bring forth the kingdom of God by acting upon those “whispers” that bring forth good in the world or becoming paralyzed in fear.  Fr. Jeff reminds us in a recent letter that Gaspar didn’t wait for peace to fulfill his calling to found our Congregation. As sons and daughters of Gaspar, we too must lead by faith, not fear. It is in that respect that we all must become “glass half full” children of God.

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At Home With the Word: Friends, Enemies, Teachers

Aug 27, 2020

“You have no friends. You have no enemies. You have only teachers.”
– Buddhist Proverb

We seem to be mired in a society that has divided itself into friends and enemies, good and bad, right and wrong, stupid and smart, enlightened and ignorant. Many find it impossible to have civil conversations when there are differing opinions. This has torn apart families, paralyzed congress, and sown distrust and fear throughout our country, and the world. It is a plague that may very well be more destructive than COVID-19. In fact, this dynamic has been greatly to blame for society’s inability to effectively deal with the pandemic.

To fix problems, we humans tend to try to eliminate what’s wrong. We often conclude that other people are “what’s wrong.” To fix the problem we attempt to eliminate those people, either by trying to change them, bully them, silence them, imprison them, marginalize them, excommunicate them, or kill them. The result of such efforts is always polarization, pain, and death.

To free ourselves from the grip of this plague, we need to redefine the relationship between ourselves and others. Instead of separating people into friends and enemies (or us vs. them), we could consider each person as a teacher. This could be more constructive and life-giving for all involved.

What do our “enemies” have to teach us? Every mental health worker knows that what we dislike most about another person is usually what we dislike about ourselves. We could consider our dealings with such a person as an opportunity to learn about ourselves. This might help us discover how to mitigate our tendencies to inflict pain, and how to increase our abilities to bring life. Seeing a difficult person as a teacher would mean we would spend less time demonizing them and trying to get rid of them. Our growth in our ability to bring life as a result of their “teaching” would in turn invite them to join in the same work.

Our “friends” could teach us that we are valuable and precious. They help us know the value of loyalty and support. But even when they let us down or abandon us, they can teach us that no one is perfect, including ourselves. When we learn to accept that about ourselves, we will be more able to accept that about others and see them as like us.

Reconciliation is a charism we hold dear as Precious Blood people. Reconciliation as bringing together those who are separated or at odds, healing the divisions that exist, is work that our world sorely needs today. But we can’t give what we don’t have. That is why our foundational work must be within ourselves, to change the way we perceive others. We must resist the tendency to pigeonhole people into convenient categories (friends/enemies, good/bad), and somehow come to a different way of seeing— a different understanding. Considering every person as a teacher is one practice that could help us in this regard.

There is only one real category everyone falls into—the people of God. The more our perceptions of others match that fact, the more reconciliation becomes who we are, not just what we do.

 

 

 

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