Reflection Process
WINTER EVENTS
Prophetic Communities: Organizing as an Expression of Catholic Social Thought:
Questions
n In “Caring for Creation and the Common Good in the Lower Snake River Region,” the Washington bishops stress that any plan for preserving the salmon population must include the voices of local Indigenous peoples. What might it look like to truly listen to and be in reciprocal relationship with Indigenous communities, whether in addressing the salmon population crisis or in your own local area?
n How adequately do you think our culture and society allows for reciprocity? Is there anything you or your communities can do differently to foster such reciprocal relationships?
n How might understanding our relationship with salmon and the rest of the ecosystem as reciprocal change how we address ecological crises?
n Have the articles and reflections in this issue changed your perspective at all? How so? How might you act differently after reading about the importance of salmon in both Indigenous culture and our ecosystems?
Find and support Native owned bookstores at blog.libro.fm/indigenousowned-bookstores/
From February 9-11, Catholic community organizers, theologians, and those committed to social justice work gathered at the University of San Francisco for a conference titled “Prophetic Communities.” Participants from across the country participated in plenaries, workshops, and synodal sessions aimed at connecting Catholic social thought and the work of community organizing. The conference offered the opportunity for meaningful and intentional dialogue, networking among Catholics from diverse vocations, and the creation of materials that express the importance of Catholic community organizing to the Catholic tradition. On May 12, planners and participants of the conference will gather virtually to work toward ensuring Catholic community organizing is part of the spiritual formation of the faithful with the long-term goal of creating a more just church.
“ Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal gives its life to feed me, I am in turn bound to support its life. If I receive a stream’s gift of pure water, then I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. An integral part of a human’s education is to know those duties and how to perform them.”
—ROBIN WALL KIM MERER, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, 2015)