A Prophetic Opportunity

 Gerry Mullaney, member of the Northeast, Ohio Chapter and Affiliate Board sent this letter to NSFA for consideration. I couldn’t resist also posting it here for all of us. (Bob Short)

Dear Affiliates,                                                                                                          

Happy New Year to all Affiliates. I write today to propose gestures of Restorative Justice as the Trump Administration passes into our nation’s history. I lament the many outrages and cruelties this administration has visited on various peoples. One of these groups is of course our Southern neighbor immigrants seeking asylum and refuge in the United States. We have all come to know about children separated from parents, deportations resulting in deaths, delay and denial of legitimate asylum requests. Furthermore, my experience has been one of insufficient outcry from Catholic and other Christian leaders. My distress about this experience leads me to donate the sum of the COVID relief check provided by the Federal government to Maryknoll Sister Jane Buellesbach in Guatemala as a gesture of Restorative Justice. There are other donation opportunities as Maryknoll maintains a presence in El Salvador, at the U.S. Southern border, and elsewhere.                                                                                                                               

To those of us who may be in a position to do so, I urge consideration of passing along COVID relief benefits provided by the United States government as a gesture of amends for the sins of the Trump administration and for American citizens complicit by their support of this President. This would be one small gesture to join Maryknoll Sisters in making God’s love visible after the failures of these past four years.                                                                                                       

Sincerely,                                                                                                                                

Gerard J. Mullaney                                                    Northeast Ohio Chapter