Events

There will be a remembrance to mourn the atomic bombing of Nagasaki this Thursday, August 9, 2007, 5-6pm in front of the Federal Building in South Bend, Indiana.

It is being organized by the Peter Claver Catholic Worker community.

Attendees are asked to wear black. For more info, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com

Howdy folks. This Sunday, April 29, I’ll be participating in the Peninsula Harbor CROP Walk. This is a 10-km walk around the streets of fabulous San Pedro, California to raise funds for Church World Service’s interfaith efforts to fight world and local hunger. My sister is a high school teacher and is heading a team of some of her students called Team Jester (after the St. Joseph’s HS mascot). You can find out more about Church World Service here.

Donation is easy! Just follow this link and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation. Donations of any amount are appreciated.

I used to do the Long Beach CROP Walk every year when I was a little kid and it was always a happy event.

The Worcester Middle East Film Festival starts tonight. The films are free, but putting this on is costing the organizers a lot of money, so if you can make a donation (suggested: $5) it would really help.

The listings are at the festival homepage.

The first film is Iraq In Fragments, April 20, 7pm at Worcester State College.

We’ll be interviewing Grace Ross, former Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor and Worcester resident, Tuesday night for the Saint Kermit podcast.

We’re recording the podcast with the TalkShoe service, which means you can listen to it as we record it, and phone in with your own questions. See the Saint Kermit website for details.

Grace is making “an important announcement” Wednesday morning, and we’ll be asking her about that.

We always pick the topics for Saint Kermit a few minutes before recording it, so I’m not sure what else we’ll be talking about. Probably sports and taxes. The regular team of Jim Henderson, Tony Lorenzen, Janine Duffy, and myself will be hosting.

April 18, 7pm, 52 Mason St, Worcester. Refreshments. Co-sponsored by Real Solutions and the Catholic Worker.

I’ll be part of a panel on “Your Right to Know” this Thursday, 2pm, at WCCA (415 Main Street, Worcester, Massachusetts). This event is free and open to the public.

We’ll be talking about how to get information about what the government is doing, and how the government often stonewalls private citizens, bloggers, and professional journalists. This is part of the national event called Sunshine Week.

Other panelists include blogger Bill Randell, Assistant District Attorney Patricia C. Smith, Jay Whearley of the Telegram & Gazette, and Jaime Flores of Vocero Hispano.

This discussion will be taped, and later broadcast on WCCA and posted to their website.

If you have suggestions for things we should discuss, comment away.

T&G article about the panel

Seeking and Working for Social Justice and Peace as Guided by the Nine Themes of Catholic Social Teaching: An Easter Novena and Conference at Anna Maria College, 50 Sunset Lane, Paxton, Massachusetts.

April 10th through 21st, 2007

The Theology and Religious Studies Community at Anna Maria College, Paxton, MA invites you to a multi-day conference on the nine themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Each day of the conference is devoted to one of the nine themes. This spring conference purposely coincides with Anna Maria’s student musical, “Cotton Patch Gospel” by Harry Chapin which will be presented on the evenings of Thursday, April 12 and Friday, April 13 at 7 PM.

The Novena/Conference aims to increase understanding of and enthusiasm for the faithful pursuit of social justice and peace called for by Scriptural inspiration and admonition, Christian tradition, and the century-plus old promulgation of social encyclicals issued by recent Popes. The Conference will also attend to the documents of the Ecumenical Councils and select pastoral letters issued by Bishops’ conferences.

Solidarity Event at Stone Soup (4 King St.)

Maggie Newburger is home for a week from Morazan, El Salvador and she is working to raise money to help fight a dam that would be devastating to thousands of people in the community where she has been living. They need money to build latrines and feed people that are coming to help fight the dam with them. At this Worcester Indymedia sponsored event Maggie with show us photos and talk with us about her time in El Salvador and the situation in Morazan. Please come and help show what international solidarity is all about.

For more info call Anne (508) 561-1164

There’s a huge rally on Thursday, Jan 11, 2007, in Washington, DC to close down the Guantanamo prison.

People are driving down from Worcester early Wednesday morning. To see about a ride, contact Scott at theresecw@gmail.com.

(announcement)

The fifth annual Midwest Catholic Worker Resistance Retreat will take place Sunday March 25 and Monday March 26, in South Bend, Indiana. The So Bend Catholic Worker Community is hosting.

South Bend Catholic Worker Community:

The South Bend Catholic Worker hopes that the Midwest Catholic Worker Resistance Retreat will be an opportunity to challenge the University of Notre Dame to speak more clearly for the peace that is based on the tradition of the Church and the ancient teaching of the apostles. Our goal is to inform the consciences of those students participating in ROTC by bringing to light the stark contradiction between Catholic teaching and military training, so that these ROTC students will become conscientious objectors to the military. We also hope that our actions, performed in the personalist manner of the Catholic Worker, will lead to the disintegration of ROTC at Notre Dame and all Catholic campuses.

The two day CW Retreat is designed to follow an all day Saturday, March 24th Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF) Conference, “Neither Left Nor Right: the Heart of Christian Peacemaking”. Jim Forest and Tom Cornell, long time Catholic Workers and co-founders of CPF, will lead the CPF Conference. Also presenting will be Michael Baxter, South Bend Catholic Worker and CPF national secretary; Joshua Casteel, Iraq War Vet and conscientious objector; Farah Marie Mokhtareizadeh, an Iranian-American Catholic activist who recently traveled to Lebanon.

The cost for the CPF retreat is $25. (Though this fee can be waved for those who can not afford it.)

Steve Jacobs of the Columbia MO. CW community will lead and facilitate the CW Resistance Retreat which will end with a nonviolent direct action on the Notre Dame campus.

Housing and hospitality for the Conference and Retreat is being provided by the South Bend CW Community. Efforts to find beds for all out of town participants will be made with floor space as a last resort (something reserved for the younger folks if necessary). All participants are encouraged to register for both the Conference and the Retreat. Pre registration will be necessary for all who will need housing and or any special hospitality needs.