Catholic Charities. Providing Help. Creating Hope.
VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.
MISSION: Rooted in the Mission of the Diocese of Youngstown "to minister to the people in the six counties of northeastern Ohio . . .(and) to the world community", we are called to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.
GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Working to reduce poverty in half by 2020.
KEY VALUE: Hospitality
WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20)
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On Sunday, (Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, http://usccb.org/bible/readings/092312.cfm
) we read from the Gospel of Mark Jesus confronts his closest
disciples about the nature of servant leadership. He calls his
followers to be a different kind of leader: one who serves -- especially
those who serve the most vulnerable. One has to serve even if it means
one’s death. In the first reading from Wisdom, the writer discusses how
evil persons aim at tripping up the righteous, and their scoffing at
the concept of being a servant as a just and faithful person. In the
letter from St. James, we are reminded that our own perspectives and
passions -- rather than the perspective of the Lord -- causes and
contributes to discord and strife. Rather, as Christians, we are called
to be servants to each other and support in other in love and peace.
Catholic Charities http://www.ccdoy.org continues to be a ministry of the Church that serves the least among us. We work each day, in Jesus’ name, to bring love and hope to persons, families and communities in need. We are also called to be a witness of that message in our work in the public sphere. We constantly advocate for our clients and their families and communities, to obtain and work for the common good. Though many may disagree with us, we are called to be faithful to the Teachings of the Church, and call people to works of charity and justice.
Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - Forming
Consciences For Faithful Citizenship - Part II - Applying Catholic
Teaching To Major Issues: A Summary Of Policy Positions Of The United
States Conference Of Catholic Bishops
Family Life
70. The family is the basic cell of human society. The role, responsibilities, and needs of families should be central national priorities. Marriage must be defined, recognized, and protected as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, and as the source of the next generation and the protective haven for children. Policies on taxes, work, divorce, immigration, and welfare should help families stay together and should reward responsibility and sacrifice for children. Wages should allow workers to support their families, and public assistance should be available to help poor families to live in dignity. Such assistance should be provided in a manner that promotes eventual financial autonomy.71. Children are to be valued, protected, and nurtured. As a Church, we affirm our commitment to the protection and well-being of children in our own institutions and in all of society. We oppose contraceptive mandates in public programs and health plans, which endanger rights of conscience and can interfere with parents' right to guide the moral formation of their children.
72. Parents—the first and most important educators—have a fundamental right to choose the education best suited to the needs of their children, including public, private, and religious schools. Government, through such means as tax credits and publicly funded scholarships, should help provide resources for parents, especially those of modest means, to exercise this basic right without discrimination. Students in all educational settings should have opportunities for moral and character formation.
73. Print, broadcast, and electronic media shape the culture. To protect children and families, responsible regulation is needed that respects freedom of speech yet also addresses policies that have lowered standards, permitted increasingly offensive material, and reduced opportunities for non-commercial religious programming.
74. Regulation should limit concentration of media control, resist management that is primarily focused on profit, and encourage a variety of program sources, including religious programming. TV rating systems and appropriate technology can assist parents in supervising what their children view.
75. The Internet offers both great benefits and significant problems. The benefits should be available to all students regardless of income. Because access to pornographic and violent material is becoming easier, vigorous enforcement of existing obscenity and child pornography laws is necessary, as well as technology that assists parents, schools, and libraries in blocking unwanted or undesirable materials.
Some important date(s) this week:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/ByDate.aspxSee website for biographies of Saints and Blessed celebrated this week.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. St. Vincent de Paul (1580? - 1660)
The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent's eyes to the crying spiritual needs of the peasantry of France. This seems to have been a crucial moment in the life of the man from a small farm in Gascony, France, who had become a priest with little more ambition than to have a comfortable life.
It was the Countess de Gondi (whose servant he had helped) who persuaded her husband to endow and support a group of able and zealous missionaries who would work among poor tenant farmers and country people in general. Vincent was too humble to accept leadership at first, but after working for some time in Paris among imprisoned galley-slaves, he returned to be the leader of what is now known as the Congregation of the Mission, or the Vincentians. These priests, with vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability, were to devote themselves entirely to the people in smaller towns and villages.
Later, Vincent established confraternities of charity for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick of each parish. From these, with the help of St. Louise de Marillac, came the Daughters of Charity, "whose convent is the sickroom, whose chapel is the parish church, whose cloister is the streets of the city." He organized the rich women of Paris to collect funds for his missionary projects, founded several hospitals, collected relief funds for the victims of war and ransomed over 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa. He was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy at a time when there was great laxity, abuse and ignorance among them. He was a pioneer in clerical training and was instrumental in establishing seminaries.
Most remarkably, Vincent was by temperament a very irascible person—even his friends admitted it. He said that except for the grace of God he would have been "hard and repulsive, rough and cross." But he became a tender and affectionate man, very sensitive to the needs of others.
Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of all charitable societies. Outstanding among these, of course, is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by his admirer Blessed Frédéric Ozanam (September 7).
For Daily Readings http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
CHARITIES NEWSBYTES
Read Brian R Corbin’s Reflection on the Year of Faith https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/document.doc?id=3200&erid=5364625 published on-line by Catholic Charities USA
FIRST STEP FOR CHANGE
Catholic Charities will launch its 9th annual First Step for Change campaign the weekend of September 8-9, 2012. Participating families are asked to return their bottles to church the weekend of October 13-14, 2012. (dates are flexible) All Catholic Charities Service sites are approved drop-off locations. Please store bottles and/or money and checks in a safe location and contact Nikole Baringer, 330-744-8451 ext. 323 to make arrangements for pick-up by the Diocesan Office. Parishes are encouraged but not required to count and roll the change. We have coin counters at our office to do so as needed.
PAPAL INTENTIONS:
September 2012General Intention: That politicians may always act with honesty, integrity, and love for the truth.
Missionary Intention: Help for the Poorest Churches. That Christian communities may have a growing willingness to send missionaries, priests, and lay people, along with concrete resources, to the poorest Churches.
Corporal Works of Mercy: The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor
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Note: Please consider joining our
FACEBOOK CAUSE http://apps.facebook.com/causes/106889
FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/pages/Catholic-Charities-Diocese-of-Youngstown/138817639487339
TWITTER account, CCDOY, http://twitter.com/CCDOY
for current updates and calls to action that we can all use.
See our website at http://www.ccdoy.org for links to the our ministries and services.
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at: http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com/
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