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Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation
Updated: March 2008
 Welcome to the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation web page.
My name is Sister Marge Wissman and I am the director of this office. By way of this site, I will present current issues that affect our lives. You will be invited at times to join us in actions that move us to peace. As expressed in our Community Mission Statement: "Enlivened by a spirit of justice, reconciliation and peace, we collaborate with others in responding to the needs of the world." As stated in this office's Mission Statement: In the Spirit of St. Francis, St. Clare and Mother Theresa, the Oldenburg Franciscan Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office strives to continue the Gospel Message of Justice and Peace. This office educates, coordinates, and promotes Justice, peace and Integrity of Creation throughout the entire congregation and with groups inside and outside the community. Justice to all creations and to the Earth is the primary focus so that we may bring peace to ourselves and others.
"THINKING OUT SIDE THE BOTTLE"
Groups and individuals are pledging to choose tap water and filtered water over bottled water: Bottled water corporations are changing the very way people think about water. Though many bottled water brands come from the same source as public tap water, they are marketing them as somehow more pure. What's more - bottled water corporations sell water back to the public at thousands of times the cost. Plastic bottles also require massive amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture and transport. Billions of these bottles wind up in landfills every year.
Did you know?
* 74% of Americans drink bottled water, and one in five drinks only bottled water.
* Worldwide, consumers spent $100 billion on bottled water in 2005.
* Each year more than 4 billion pounds of plastic bottles ends up in landfills or as
roadside litter.
* Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water required the equivalent
of more than 17 million barrels of oil last year - enough fuel for more than 1 million
U.S. cars for a year - and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
This issue is a spiritual one. We talk about the sacredness of water and the need to be stewards of the earth. This issue is a life issue. The UN estimates that more than 1 billion people worldwide currently lack access to safe water and that by 2025 two-thirds of the world's population will not have access to drinking water. Water is a basic need for all. The $100 billion the world spends on bottled water every year could certainly be put to better use creating and maintaining safe public water infrastructure everywhere. When water is privatized and corporatized, the problem grows worse.
Concerns about bottled water are bubbling up in Catholic organizations, with women religious strongly in the lead. They are banning bottled water at their motherhouses, retreat houses and conference centers, and some are substituting refillable water bottles for the throw-away kind at sponsored events. At our own Franciscan Center, bottled water is no longer in the machines. Filter water is provided for the participants at the center. Some women religious have bought "token shares of stock in the big water companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle. This way that can work the stock - vote proxies, contact the company CEOs and attend the shareholder meetings.
FIFTY THREE SISTERS AND ASSOCIATES SIGN THE
PLEDSE "TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE"
Pledging that they will not drink bottled water:
Because water is a human right and not a Because worldwide there is a need for
commodity to be bought and sold for profit; investments in public water systems to ensure
equal access to water, a key ingredient for
Because bottled water corporations are prosperity and health for all people;
changing the very way people think about
water and undermining people's confidence Because solutions to ensuring water as a
in public water systems; fundamental human rights require people
acting together and standing up for public
Because some bottlers have run over water systems.
communities' concerns and the environment
when they extract water and build bottling If anyone wishes to still take the pledge you can
plants to get local spring water and ground water; do so at www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org
NUCLEAR WEAPONS NUCLEAR PLANTS
In 1982, "We the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, (took a corporate Stance) strongly
condemning any use of nuclear Weapons as a danger to the survival of God's creation.
We oppose the continued production and stockpiling of the weapons as an unjust use
of global resources, a tragic furtherance of the arms race, and as posing a constant
threat to peace through accident, miscalculation and design."
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced its plan to build a nuclear weapons production complex to continue manufacturing nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Oak Ridge, TN and Los Alamos, NM are being targeted for new bomb production facilities to continue remanufacturing warheads. This plan is called Complex Transformation and it is about an enduring nuclear stockpile - it is pure nuclear proliferation. Each of the proposals put forward by the NNSA creates a new weapons complex to design, build and test bombs. According to OREPA (Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance to Stop the Bombs), Complex Transportaion is an attempt to solidify nuclear weapons as the currency for the next century. OREPA avers that a new weapons complex does not make us more secure, it makes us greater targets.
OREPA's message is: "No new bomb plants, no new bombs, no old bombs, no Stockpile Life Extension bombs. Spend the billions on building a stronger society, where everyone has food, shelter, health care, and the prospect of a living wage job. Lead the world to true security and keep the promise we made in the Non-proliferation Treaty of 1970 to pursue complete disbarment."
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE JUSTICE, PEACE AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION OFFICE
In the spirit of St. Francis, St. Clare and Mother Theresa, the Oldenburg Franciscan Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Office strives to continue the Gospel Message of Justice and Peace. This office educates, coordinates, and promotes Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation throughout the entire congregation and with groups inside and outside the community. Justice to all creatures and to the Earth is the primary focus so that we may bring Peace to ourselves and others.
Other JPIC web sites of interest:
Sisters on Line
Sisters of Mercy
Nonviolent Peace Force
Franciscan Friars' Peace and Justice |
