Sous-série 10 - Social Justice

• Document textuel

2 cm of textual records

In 2004, in London, the Office for Children and Systemic Justice was formed, becoming part of the Federation for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada in 2006. This subseries contains material related to the Sisters’ efforts to raise awareness of and act against social injustices.

Present in this subseries is material from In a Broken World We Seek Unity, an educational resource for the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada’s Corporate Stance. The Corporate Stance is the collective voice of the Federation on issues of justice. The material included here is a toolkit related to the charism of justice. Charism, also known as spiritual gifts, is the ability for Christians to be a channel of God's will. They are special gifts to be used to fulfill the missions of the Church. The toolkit is intended to familiarize Sisters with the link between the congregation’s Charism and social justice issues. Another effort to raise awareness among the Sisters were newsletters. In this subseries there are newsletters from the Offices for Systemic Justice which define systemic justice and describe current issues of systemic justice with connections to the Christian views, values, and responsibilities of the Sisters. There is also a memorandum from the Federation’s Office for Systemic Justice concerning the Vote for Change campaign during the 2006 Canadian federal election. The campaign called for voters to choose candidates and parties that advocate for social justice rather than tax cuts. Much of the work of the Federation’s Office for Systemic Justice has been based on the efforts of Sister Joan Atkinson and Sister Sue Wilson of the London congregation.

The subseries also contains material concerning the Sisters’ efforts to address poverty. Present here is a collection of reports and statistics on poverty and housing in Windsor, Ontario, and Canada compiled by Sister Joan Atkinson and Sister Sue Wilson. These reports and statistics were sent to Peter Whatmore of CBRE London, a commercial real estate agency in London, Ontario.

Climate change and environmental issues were also a concern of the Sisters. In this subseries is the statement of the Congregation of St. Joseph on sustainability presented at the Rio 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The statement connects how sustainability is a responsibility of all nations and people to protect the Earth and human rights and to eradicate poverty. The Congregation of St. Joseph was an NGO in General Consultative Status with ECOSOC at the United Nations.