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Home \ Social Justice
Social Justice
We respond to the cry of the poor – women, children and Earth – with concrete actions.
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University of Great Falls (MT) students on spring break join the sisters at a rally in Seattle against human trafficking.
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On one Sunday each month, you will find Sisters of Providence united with others in a prayer vigil in downtown Seattle to raise awareness about the problem of human trafficking.
Once a year, you will find us engaged in peaceful, nonviolent protest of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.
At other times we are at immigration rallies, corresponding and visiting with legislators to discuss vital issues, and taking a stand in corporate boardrooms.
Stop the Demand
Thanks to the efforts of Pacific Northwest sisters’ “Stop the Demand” bus campaign, people in Seattle and Tacoma have been graphically reminded of the problem of human trafficking and its impact. A fundraising letter seeking donations to support the campaign read: “This modern form of slavery destroys the dignity of the human person and degrades all people – those trafficked as well as those who do the trafficking.”
Learn more about the Stop the Demand campaign.
School of the Americas protests
Each November, members of the Peace Community composed of Sisters of Providence, Providence Associates and friends travel to Fort Benning, Ga., to protest the School of the Americas, the Department of Defense school for soldiers that today is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Despite the name change, its agenda and practice are the same: to train military personnel who commit violent terrorist acts in the name of freedom. The annual protest also is to remember the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador.
Center for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
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Sr. Charlene Hudon participates in a demonstration against the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia.
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As part of Sisters of Providence International, Mother Joseph Province is involved in the Center for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (CJPIC). It was created in 2005 in Montreal to provide information and support for the sisters and their ministries on global social, environmental and political issues.
Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center
In addition, Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province, is one of 16 religious communities that co-sponsor the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center. Founded in 1991, the center is a nonprofit organization that networks with a broad range of community and religious groups. IPJC “acts for justice in the church and in the world.”
IPJC’s website includes resources for action on various topics, from awareness to involvement to leadership. Under IPJC’s umbrella is the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment (NWCRI), founded in 1994, which welcomes membership of any faith-based institution, religious community or its related organizations located in the Pacific Northwest. IPJC is “a regional collaborative organization of faith-based institutions committed to using their power as investors to shape a more just world. Members use their rights as shareholders to dialogue with companies about corporate policies and practices in order to promote peace, and economic and environmental justice.”
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In 1990, Sister Joan Campbell raised the issue of the death penalty in a meeting with Pope John Paul II.
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Ending the death penalty
IPJC’s website resources include a continuum of action to push for an end to the death penalty. The continuum begins with strategies for awareness, then for involvement, and finally for leadership on the issue. Many of the sisters in Mother Joseph Province have been longtime active supporters of efforts to end the death penalty, including Sister Joan Campbell, who is on the board of the Washington Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP).
The first step in the continuum, raising awareness, begins with learning the facts about the death penalty, including how it is applied, the impact that it has on the victims and their families and on death-row inmates and their families, and how factors such as race, poverty, age and mental health affect who is sent to death row.
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Juan Melendez-Colon, a former Florida death row inmate, shares his views with the sisters at St. Joseph's Residence in Seattle.
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Discussing the death penalty with others is part of the second step in the IPJC continuum, involvement. In September 2011, Juan Melendez-Colon, a former Florida death row inmate, shared his perspective on the issue with people in communities around the Northwest, including the sisters at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle.
Sister Joan Campbell took the continuum’s third step, leadership, and raised the issue in a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1990. The pope asked how he could get more practically involved on the issue in the United States and also asked for input as he was writing the encyclical, The Gospel of Life.
See the links at the right of this page for more information about the death penalty.
Reclaiming Earth
For more on the Sisters of Providence involvement in environmental issues, and specifically water as a justice issue, visit Reclaiming Earth.
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Social Justice Resources
Stop Trafficking!
An anti-human trafficking newsletter
Death Penalty Links
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