Our First Meeting

For those of you who were able to attend our first Pax Christi meeting thank you for a lovely and meaningful discussion. For those of you who could not hopefully you will be able to join us next time. I would like to suggest February 28th at 7:30 at St. Teresa's (specific meeting room TBD).

Below is a list of the main topics of discussion from my notes:

Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical and the implications for the Church

Our feelings about the war in Iraq

Holding a regular peace vigil

Lobbying our elected officials Ecumenical Advocacy Days http://www.advocacydays.org/

The Death Penalty Moratorium in NJ

Human Trafficking

Immigration reform

Haiti

We all agreed that whatever topic we choose to apply ourselves to first it should have a local, state, national and possibly international impact.

After listening to all of you and considering all of it over the last week I would like to suggest that we create three areas of focus:

1) Lobbying elected officials who are Catholic and reminding them of the principles of Social Justice of the Church

2) Organizing a regular Peace Vigil

3) Sponsoring periodic educational programs for St. Teresa's and the surrounding parishes regarding the teachings of the Church on Social Justice issues and relating those teachings to contemporary issues.

I think this is a good place to start while we each develop our specific areas of interest.