EARTHKEEPING
NEWS
A NEWSLETTER
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY
Volume Fourteen, Number Six
November / December 2005
Catholic Solidarity Campaign Helps Rural Communities
The Peace and Justice Action Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, is launching a Campaign for Human Solidarity to help local residents and farming enterprises in northwest Iowa to begin reversing the economic, social and physical damage that has come with the increasing industrialization of farming operations. Sixty percent of the water in the state is polluted, much of it from factory farming, over which local communities have no control.
The Campaign is recruiting and training Human Solidarity Workers in the 24 counties of the diocese to work with local people and groups, linking them with a network of governmental and non-governmental resources, in order to make local communities sustainable economically, socially and physically.
The Solidarity Workers will clarify the human rights and the natural moral law principles including the principle of subsidiarity* and norms as the guide for local people in their development and social justice work for sustainable local economies. In addition, the Campaign will use as a guide A Social Agenda for Iowa for the 21st Century: A workbook for Citizen Action, by the United Nations Association-Iowa, 1997.
Sustainability includes “ecological integrity, economic viability, quality of life and social/political stability.” (Professor Jerald L Schoor, University of Iowa).
For more, write Father Marvin J. Boes, Director, Diocesan Peace and Justice Action Commission, 55 W. Clifton Ave. Apt 303, Sioux City IA 51104 (712-277-2046).
* The principle of subsidiarity is: “A community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.” (Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus)
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