Social Justice

Members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of St. Louis quietly answer calls made each year from thousands of people who reach out for help.

They rely on the generosity of others who share the blessings they have received.

Currently the Society is seeking donations for the Food and Fuel for Life program. Winter is a time when funds especially are needed as people in need seek to keep warm and put food on the table.

The proposed Missouri law on immigration and a controversial Alabama law share language on the two areas of the Missouri law regarding education and law-enforcement stops. The Alabama law, which is 71 pages, addresses many more areas. Missouri’s law is five pages.

JEFFERSON CITY — In a Missouri Senate committee hearing on Jan. 17, advocates for immigrants voiced their opposition to Senate Bill 590, which would require schools to check students’ immigration status and send that information to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence on the American scene was short and dramatic. It began in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott and ended with his assassination in Memphis in 1968.

But through those brief 13 years, his Gospel-grounded voice moved our nation forward in the struggle against racism, poverty, violence and injustice. Working with other people of faith, Dr. King hastened the end of legal discrimination, fostered a national commitment to social justice and launched human rights initiatives at home and abroad.

At a recent JustFaith ministry session at St. Gabriel the Archangel School in south St. Louis, parishioners from several south city parishes discussed the difficult topic of racism.

I was the guest speaker, but I chose not to address the topic with a traditional keynote presentation. Rather, I extended introduction and then sought dialogue. I was the sole African-American in the room, yet I
was inspired by the reciprocal, open expressiveness on a potentially explosive topic.

Migrants who come to America have much to teach others, Father John Vien, pastor of St. Pius V Parish in south St. Louis, said at a Mass kicking off National Migration Week.

Father Vien gave the homily at the annual Migration Mass celebrated on Epiphany Sunday, Jan. 8, at St. Pius. The parish has always been an immigrant parish -- first to the Irish in the early 20th century and now to immigrants and refugees from around the world. The multicultural celebration welcomed parishioners and immigrants and refugees from throughout the area.