St. Thomas Aquinas Human Concerns Committee Meeting Minutes, June 23, 2009

Attendance:
Paul Chestnut, Laura Chiu, Terry Atkinson, Ruth Chippendale, Walt Lundin, Terry McCaffrey

1. Faith-Sharing/Question of the Week - Terry A.
Terry read two scripture passages. Then she asked, "Is there any event that stands out to you that you believe was the working of the Holy Spirit?"

2. Approval of May minutes
Walt suggested that item #12, "St. Vincent de Paul needs help" should distinguish between the East Palo Alto and Palo Alto branches. The minutes, as amended, were approved.

OLD BUSINESS

3. Re-statement of HCC's role and activity - Walt
In April of 2001, it was established that the Human Concerns Committee would be the coordinator of social justice activities in the parish. The objectives are to educate the population and move the people to become active in social justice activities. The directive is not to "take charge of" these activities, but to communicate with, connect various interested parties, and at times to work in common with them. Examples of such activities are JustFaith, Hotel de Zink, and S.O.U.P. Also, the HCC will coordinate the parish association with broader social justice groups, such as PIA, St. Vincent de Paul, and California People of Faith (CPF).

4. Death penalty - Terry
There was a vigil in Palo Alto for Troy Davis.
The state of California is trying to get back into the business of executing people. A series of regulations is being considered; public hearings are required, so we are trying to influence the proceedings. We (Terry, Ruth, Mary O'Connor) will go to Sacramento next week. Alma may join them. Each person can sign up to speak for three minutes. Our message concerns regulations. For example, it has been said that there is no fiscal impact to the proposed regulations, which is incorrect. Other issues are religious freedoms and rights; a spiritual adviser is required to be present at an execution. Terry did a video of a person who witnessed an execution; the impact was profound. There is a CPF campaign to get one thousand congregations involved.

5. Day Worker Center - Walt
Our parish contributed $1000 to the Day Worker Center. We received a thank-you letter from the director.

6. Next year's budget:  Terry
The budget for the fiscal year from July 1 to June 30 has been submitted.

7. St. Vincent de Paul needs - Roberta or Walt
Our long-term faithful workers, such as Cliff Herndon, Bob Montez, and George Chippendale, are slowing down. We need additional people to step into their places. Roberta Uebbing is in charge of the Palo Alto group. She reports that there is a gap in the staffing at the Pastoral Center on Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. She reports that we are having difficulty with very angry clients who yell at the receptionist.

NEW BUSINESS

8. PIA Activities
Alma: PIA is gearing up for action next week. Our main topics are health care and immigration reform. For health care, our main priority is achieving a public option that is affordable. Thursday, there is a meeting with the County Supervisor of San Mateo, Carl Groom, and also one on June 30. The next PIA community action is Saturday, July 18, First United Methodist Church, Redwood City. Walt: Regarding immigration, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently urged the President to promote the passage of a comprehensive reform bill, which would include a broad-based legalization program which provides a path to citizenship; a future worker program with protections for both immigrant and domestic workers; family-based immigration reform that reduces backlogs without harming the current preference categories; restoration of due-process protections; and measures that address the root causes of unlawful migration by encouraging economic development in sending countries.

9. Torture Conference - a two-day event
The HCC is co-sponsoring, with the Council of Churches of Santa Clara County, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and No2Torture (no2torture.org), a "Torture Conference." The two-day event begins with a panel entitled "Torture is a Moral Issue" on Friday, June 26, 7:30 pm at the First Presbyterian Church, 1140 Cowper St., Palo Alto. Then on Saturday there will be a one-day Conference from 9 am to 5 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto. Terry: There will be a demonstration at noon Friday re Jeppesen Airline. The ACLU recently sued Jeppesen, claiming that the airline is complicit in the torture of five detainees who were transported to foreign countries for interrogation. The demonstration will consist of a march to the Jeppesen offices in San Jose.

10. Environmental campaign - Laura
At the PSC retreat various environmental activities were discussed, but they ran out of time. Jerry McGuire has the action to follow up. Laura has ideas of her own, including:
1. Have the whole parish take the St. Francis' Pledge (catholicclimatecovenant.org/the-st-francis-pledge)
2. Sounding the Alarm Bell 350 times (www.350.org)
3. Cloth shopping bags. We have ordered 500 for distribution; we may order more
4. Promote a "bike to church day"
5. Ban styrofoam campaign
6. Promotion of Fair Trade (a more elaborate version of what we have already done)
7. Show, as a Burning Bush item, a DVD about consumerism and how it affects the environment
8. Promote indoor recycling bins.

11. Annual HCC report - Laura/Paul
The PSC wants an annual report covering the period from July 2008 to June, 2009. We have already written two six-month reports, so these will be combined into one report. Paul will create this report and pass it to Walt and Laura.

12. JustFaith future plans - Patricia
Plans are being made for an eight-session module on non-violence, to start in October of 2009.

13. What's On Your Mind?
Ruth: Hotel deZink will be in August. Signups in July. The dinners will be held at the Christian Reformed Church on Arastradero.
Walt: To get more participants in HCC, we should contact the many people who are on our email list, but who do not attend meetings. The best way to do this is by one-to-one contact. That means a person-to-person meeting or at least a telephone call. Suggestions of queries to start the conversation: Do you get our email messages? Do you read them? Are you wondering how you could make a difference in the life of the parish? What do you like about what we do? Here are the issues that we think are important: . . . Do you agree? This is a topic we should pursue at the next meeting.

14. Volunteer for Faith-sharing/Question of the Week
Terry McCaffrey volunteered.

Next meeting - July 28