Corporate Stance on:

Human Trafficking

We Sisters of Charity – Halifax, called to be prophetic women in a world wounded by violence and stripped of hope, are committed to make the love of God visible in our world by serving persons who are poor, especially those who through shame conceal their necessities.

We stand together in a time when we hear the silent cries of victims of human trafficking, especially those women and children taken for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. We commit ourselves to work to eradicate this global human rights violation and to affirm the dignity of all human beings.

adopted 2008

Water

Water is an essential element of all life on Earth. At this moment in history, the availability of water for life is threatened, even though our Creator God has provided enough for all if we knew how to share it well. Affirming our choices, in solidarity with those of many others, will determine the outcome of this moment, we resolve to adopt a corporate stance on the issue of water.

We, Sisters of Charity, resolve to pray, study and act to assure the just sharing of water for life on earth. This threefold commitment will include both individual and corporate dimensions so that our resolve forms an integral whole: the change of heart in each Sister is mirrored in acting for solidarity as a Congregation.

adopted 2005

Debt

The Sisters of Charity – Halifax, uniting with the Sisters of Charity Federation, Pope John Paul II, numerous Canadian and U.S. Catholic Bishops, and the Religious Working Group of the World Bank and IMP, call on the international financial community, in particular the IMP and World Bank, to cancel the debts of the “heavily indebted poor nations” (HIPC). The payment of these debts is inflicting intolerable suffering upon the poorest and most helpless in these countries. In the name of women, children, the unemployed and the homeless, all innocent victims of economic policies in which they have had no voice, we must speak.

We support:

  • cancellation of international debts of nations which are unable to meet the basic needs of their people or to reach a level of development that ensures a decent quality of life
  • debt relief that benefits ordinary people and enables their participation in the process of determining the conditions of relief, as well as the future development of their national and local economies
  • debt relief that does not include reforms which continue or reinforce poverty or environmental deterioration
  • international mechanisms that prevent recurring, destructive cycles of indebtedness

adopted 1999

Never mind, God is God in it all.
If you are to do his work, the strength will be given.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton