Justice, Peace, Ecology
The Marianites of Holy Cross are dedicated to Justice, Peace, and Ecology. Below you will find a selection of articles ranging from human trafficking prevention to environmental awareness.
| What is Trafficking in Persons? |  |
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Over the past 15 years, “trafficking in persons” and “human trafficking” have been used as umbrella terms for activities involved when someone obtains or holds a person in compelled service. The United States government considers trafficking in persons to include all of the criminal conduct involved in forced labor and sex trafficking, essentially the conduct involved in reducing or holding someone in compelled service… |
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| A Day in Your Life: Touched by Modern Slavery | |
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The food you eat, the products you buy, and the consumer items you use on a daily basis may have been produced or touched by those held in involuntary servitude. The clothes on your back could have been produced by a man, woman, or child in a garment factory in Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America who is subjected to forced labor, including withholding of passports, no pay, long working hours to meet quota, and physical and sexual abuse… |
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| Tricked and Trafficked |  |
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Jeannine Jones (not her real name) dreamed of getting out of her small town, rural Texas community. She never finished high school but went to work as a waitress to help with the family bills during her mother’s long illness. Jeannine yearned for a way out of her fate of want and poverty even after her mom’s death… |
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| Fighting Human Trafficking |  |
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With major events coming up in Austin, and nearly one out of four victims in Texas, law enforcement officials are bracing for an increase. According to a state task force created by the Legislature, 554 investigations into human trafficking were opened between 2007 and 2011. Law enforcement was able to get 113 indictments out of those, but they say they found 369 victims under the age of 18… |
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| LCWR Global Concerns Committee Resolutions |  |
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Four and a half years ago, the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph came to Nix Conference & Meeting Management to research the hotel site for their conference. They asked about the hotel’s policy on human trafficking. We were not aware at the time that hotels were the venue for this crime. Together with the sisters, we worked to generate conversation with the Millennium Hotel St. Louis to sign the ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) Code of Conduct. Nix has also worked with ECPAT to develop a Meeting Planners Code of Conduct to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children. As a socially responsible company, Nix utilizes our professional resources in the travel and tourism industry to create awareness of domestic minor sex trafficking of children… |
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| Tending and Mending Earth |  |
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I’m an Earth literacy student! “A what?” most people ask. “ What does that mean?” Technically, it means I’m part of the Earth Literacy Certificate Program at St. Mary of the Woods College in Terre Haute, Indiana. In practice, it means I’m learning to read planet Earth and her creatures and to articulate the stunning interconnectedness that’s always right before our eyes, but seldom recognized…from the intricacies of minute eco systems present in the dew on rainforest orchids to the gigantic web of life that makes us humans kin to all beings on Earth and beyond… |
| Earth Dolors |  |
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Plants grow, plants bloom and plants die! What happens then? They are graciously taken in by the soil and added to the nutrients of the earth, so that other plants may take life and continue the cycle of growth. There is a similar pattern in our own lives and in the lives of all creatures — life, death and re-birth! The re-birth for humans is what we know as Resurrection. Through Mary’s life journey we see this pattern many times. No events are more poignant than Mary’s seven sorrows or dolors… |
| Holy Cross Statement on Climate Change |  |
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“We must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it. This means being committed to making joint decisions… aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God…”
Benedict XVI |
| The Holy Cross International Justice Office |  |
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The Holy Cross International Justice Office is a collaborative effort of the four Holy Cross Congregations that claim Rev. Basil Moreau as their founder: the Marianites of Holy Cross (headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana), the Sisters of the Holy Cross (headquartered in South Bend, Indiana), the Sisters of Holy Cross (headquartered in Montreal, Canada) and the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross (headquartered in Rome, Italy). Each of these Congregations is international in scope, comprising 3,000 members in countries all over the world… |
| Rain Barrels on the Grounds of Holy Angels |  |
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September 12th, 2009 is a very special day because on that day several Scouts and four dads arrived to install rain barrels! This was the culmination of a project for Ryan who is working towards becoming an Eagle Scout. Some of the work was completed at home: building a sturdy four-foot bench for holding the barrels; gathering the other articles needed like the spigot, plastic tubing and downspout material. Ryan was the leader of the project so he was responsible both for writing the extremely detailed plan to be approved by Scout leaders and for assembling his team of workers… |