Responding To the Needs of our Brothers and Sisters

The bus

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire” (St. Catherine of Siena).

Our Dominican Volunteers USA Mission Statement calls us to “respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters especially those who are poor and marginalized.” In our most recent blog post, Dominican Sister Bernadine Karge OP shares that one of the ways she responds to this call through her ministry with Nuns on the Bus. Sister Bernadine is an immigration lawyer, longtime member of the House of Connections community in Chicago, and the Dominican Volunteers USA’s 2016 Sister Marcela Conley Award recipient. Thank you for your Dominican witness Sister Bernadine!

1. Give us some background. What is Nuns on the Bus? How did it come to be?

NETWORK, the Catholic Social Justice Lobby, founded by congregations of Catholic Sisters in the early 1970’s in Washington, D.C. had their first Nuns on the Bus (NOTB) in 2012 in response to Paul Ryan’s budget.  The Network staff came up with the idea of the bus tour to lift up the work of Catholic Sisters and other partners who are serving the needs of those on the margins of society.  It is through community that we see and become aware of the gifts and needs of our sisters and brothers.  Together we the people can decide how we want to be together.  We can create the structures that will support the common good.

2. How and why did you get involved with Nuns on the Bus? What inspires, challenges and invigorates you about their mission and work for justice?

My first NOTB was the 2013 Immigration Reform bus tour.  I have known S.  Simone Campbell for many decades.  As a woman of hope and action, I made it my business to get on the bus for immigration reform.  It is amazing how hope is generated by those who welcome the sisters, mostly total strangers, but there are always connections to be found. This year Shannon Green, a DV-USA honoree greeted us in Santa Monica. Zach Moeller DV-USA 2017-2018 showed up in Irvine, CA, the next day.

Culinary Union Group

3. Please tell us about your current Nuns on the Bus Tour and its goals and mission.

TAX JUSTICE TRUTH TOUR on the Road to Mar-a-Lago, is the 6^th tour of Nuns on the Bus.  It began in Santa Monica, California,  October 8 and will end on the east coast on November 2 at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida.   From sea to shining sea, Catholic Sisters will be making site visits, congressional visits and conducting town hall meetings in 20 states and the District of Columbia

Las Vegas, Nevada was our first stop after our California beginning. The Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 was the site we visited to listen to the bartenders, kitchen staff, and housekeepers as they shared their struggles to get the owners of one chain of casinos to sit down with them to negotiate a contract for just wages, consistent schedules, health care and paid time off.  173 countries and 40 languages are represented in the 60,000 workers in the hospitality industry in Las Vegas.

Those in the hospitality industry are not treated hospitably.  Their bosses recently spent $4.5 million dollars on a family wedding.  The cost of the healthcare these workers are seeking would cost $4 million! Why can’t those whose work enables the owner to gain wealth, not get their share and financial security?  The next morning after a rally on the parking lot, 2 members of Local 226, paired up with 2  sisters, like Jesus and Dominic, right?  Sister Dusty Farnan, OP and I were accompanied by Ash and Veronica.  We went to knock on doors and canvass the neighborhoods with information on voter registration, early voting and on candidates in the Nevada race.   Our shirts and our hearts said, WE VOTE. WE WIN.

4.  What has stood out to you to from your work with Nuns on the Bus?

What struck me was the fact that the fellow on our team who was 26 years old, had never voted. The woman on our team who was in her 30’s was only voting for the 2^nd time in her life. As citizens they have the right to vote.  Ash and Veronica are now committed to take responsibility to vote.  They took leave of their jobs to do the canvassing for weeks, 10 hours a day at a rate of $12 an hour, instead of their usual pay.

I have a question for DV’S and other readers of this site.  Why do young persons not vote?   I have conversations each year with DV’s about voting.  Some care and vote. Others not.  Is voting not electronic enough?  Is it too much of a bother to change one’s address, register to vote or request an absentee ballot?  The power of the ballot box is there.  It is one way to speak your truth and make your choice for candidates willing to mend the inequalities in our society.  Reasonable revenue for responsible programs is what NOTB 2018 is seeking. Get to know the candidates and vote.

5. How do you view the ministry of Nuns on the Bus in relation to our Dominican mission and the ministries of St. Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena?

The voting for tax justice, is a call to accountability for those charged with serving the common good. As Catherine spoke to religious authorities to do the right thing ,we hold our leaders accountable. Like Dominic, we try to engage in dialogue to help folks see the truth of the impact of their actions on those who they many not have in their sights.    Out of sight, out of mind.

Sister Bernadine (with microphone) with Sisters at St. Sabina

Church in Chicago

6. Any final thoughts you wish to share?

The 2017 Tax bill will create a deficit of $1.7 trillion in our budget.  Cuts to social services, education, healthcare, housing and nutrition programs will be made to offset the giveaway in tax cuts to the 1% and to corporations. Visit www.networklobby.org to follow the issues and ride along.

Welcome!  DON’T FORGET TO VOTE November 6^th.  Thanks.

For a complete Nuns on the Bus schedule of their most recent October tour, visithttps://networklobby.org/bus2018/events/

 

At Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles

Our Nature’s Fire

Allison Beyer, Co-director, Dominican Volunteers USA

As we approach the feast day of our Dominican St. Catherine of Siena, Dominican Volunteers USA shares the words of our Co-Director, Allison Beyer, from our annual celebration and benefit last Saturday. Like St. Catherine, Allison challenges each of us to be who we are meant to be and set the world on fire. We are inspired by Allison’s work, words, and witness in living out our Dominican mission.
St. Catherine of Siena said, “For a servant of God, Every place is the right place, Every time is the right time.” Catherine was not “a woman of her time.” Catherine lived in the present but was not contained by the social, family, political and religious expectations or boundaries placed upon her. She was free in the love of God and the pursuit of making this love manifest through her prayer life and love of neighbor. Catherine was not naive in her joy or zeal; she lived fully in the reality of the plague, war, sexism and political despondency.

We, Dominican Volunteers USA, do not run from the injustices and despair of our time. Dominican Volunteers USA was born out of the Dominican tradition, of running towards and with the weary, sick, rejected, forsaken. DVUSA partners with organizations around the country that serve individuals and communities that are the poorest of the poor and marginalized. This is the Gospel call. Dominican Volunteers respond to that call with their very lives.

Gustavo Gutierrez teaches that when Jesus said “Take up your cross and follow me,” he was referring not to a personal cross, a cross of individual sin or suffering, but rather to the cross of humanity, the cross that we all bear, because we are One Body. This is the cross of injustice.

Too many of us are hungry in a country of abundance and waste. Too many of us as children are unsafe, uneducated, and disempowered in a country that prides itself on being the best. Too many of us are forced to leave our home countries and are treated like unworthy strangers by our neighbors here. Too many of us are cold, lonely, imprisoned. Too many of us suffer violence and abuse at the hands of our partners, family members, strangers. Too many of us are without shelter, without clothing, without community, without access to health care. All of us are living on a planet on the brink of climatic catastrophe. This is the cross. Jesus calls us to “Take up the cross and follow me.”

This call is as relevant now as it was some odd 2000 years ago. The Dominican Sisters heed this call now just as they have for the past 800+ years. They, like Jesus, invite each of us to come closer. To take up the cross and walk with them, to see where such a curious, demanding road might lead. We find, like Catherine, that the road is marked by needless, contrived, systemic and inexplicable suffering-- and still we continue.

 We are able to continue this work because of the loving companions who share the load and the journey. We are able to continue this work because it is just. We are able to continue working for peace because we have felt peace in our hearts when at prayer. We are able to continue defending the truth that we are all One Body because we feel the joy of this truth in our beings. We continue to seek new volunteers, women and men to preach God’s love through service. Your continued support allows future volunteers to answer the call, to have the opportunity to be transformed in and by and for Love.

Each year, Dominican Volunteers take the opportunity to live in intentional community, minister full-time and enter more deeply into the injustices of our day through study and prayer. Volunteers serve as teachers, campus ministers, coaches, counselors, nurses. They make a difference in organic farms, the United Nations, the Dominican Youth Movement, refugee communities and immigrant centers. They teach children how to read and encourage them to dream. They help refugees find jobs and teach English as a Second Language. Dominican Volunteers answer crisis lines, hold the hands of the dying, organize celebrations for Day of the Dead, protest and advocate.

We thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for coming here to join us as we celebrate our inspiring partner Sarah’s Inn and for Continuing the Journey with Dominican Volunteers USA. We could not do it without you. Thank you.