OUR FOUNDING VISION TODAY: OBLATES WILL COLLABORATE IN CHANGING ALL THAT IS A CAUSE OF OPPRESSION AND POVERTY

Action on behalf of justice, peace and the integrity of creation is an integral part of evangelization…
Whatever their work, Oblates will collaborate, according to their vocation and by every means compatible with the Gospel, in changing all that is a cause of oppression and poverty. They thereby help to create a society based on the dignity of the human person created in the image of God.

CC&RR, Rule 9a

In the United States Province, Antonio Ponce’s Oblate ministry is to head a team of JPIC members to assist the Mazenodian Family to live this aspect of our Rule of Life.

The Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation coordinates the advocacy efforts in the United States of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate on behalf of the interests of the poor and abandoned in the U.S. and 65 countries where the Oblates are in mission.

Based in Washington, DC, the staff:

Serves as a resource for members of the Oblate congregation;

Supports the community organizing efforts of Oblates in the US;

Coordinates the Faith Responsible Investing Program to advance just practices and policies by corporations in their worldwide operations;

Collaborates with other NGOs to promote peace, justice, an ethic of consistent life, and the integrity of creation through our educational outreach. We also share concerns about the impact of policies on the poor with the US government, and international institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the United Nations.

http://omiusajpic.org/about/

In addition, you can find and download a lot of useful resource material for the JPIC website: http://omiusajpic.org/resources/ This includes parish resources, JPIC publications, links to website resources, Religious Statements from the Vatican and the OMI, the OMI’s positions on issues relevant to our work, and audio and video material.

I have written about the situation in the Oblate province to which I belong, but every Oblate unit throughout the world has its own JPIC structures.

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“Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”   Robert Kennedy

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1 Response to OUR FOUNDING VISION TODAY: OBLATES WILL COLLABORATE IN CHANGING ALL THAT IS A CAUSE OF OPPRESSION AND POVERTY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Again this morning I am struck by every small piece of the Constitutions and Rules being very much an integral part of the whole. So much so that it is like a small echo of the heart, a repetition with new wording. And my silent response to even these thoughts is “of course – for we are all a part of the whole”. Everything we are and do, see and feel, everything touches the other (and all) and so the ‘tiny ripples of hope’.

    “Whatever their work, Oblates will collaborate, according to their vocation and by every means compatible with the Gospel, in changing all that is a cause of oppression and poverty.” I keep returning to this short paragraph – almost as though it is the first time hearing it. ‘…by every means compatible with the Gospel’. Another small ‘of course’ whispers my heart as I read it.

    I think of all the wars big and small that are fought and that rage on even now. How we go about trying to fix wrongs. What is my attitude? What does it all look like if I view it through the eyes of Christ (crucified and risen). It is only then that solidarity, respect and dignity enter into the equation. I am surprised where I have been led this morning.

    I am left finding myself filled with small awe, joy, pride and gratitude. It is here with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate that my heart has found a home; with the Mazenodian Family that have taken me in and where I belong so that I learn and discover more of the immensity of God which continues to grow and where I find God more and more in the other and all of creation – all of which I am a part. Praise God.

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