Peace & Justice
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The St. Cletus Peace & Justice Ministry was formed in 2005 to explore Catholic Social Teaching and to understand how we can serve our parish, our community and beyond. We focus on addressing social injustices and providing experiences to help our parish become Christ's hands and feet for justice. MISSION STATEMENT P - Prayer: To promote continuous prayer E - Education: To foster learning and education A - Action: To take peaceful action to right wrongs C - Compassion: To connect to others within and outside our parish E - Enlightenment: To spread knowledge of the needs of others Our Strategic Focus Youth Involvement We assist St. Cletus Grade School to support the teaching of social justice and tolerance, and develop teaching tools and games that may be useful in conveying the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching. We work with our parish Life Teen ministry to engage them in community action projects, such as for the homeless. We also support teens and young adults wishing to participate in annual mission trips to El Salvador. Communication and Education We publish a quarterly email newsletter, The Channel, for our parishioners and other interested readers. It covers our activities as a ministry as well as articles and viewpoints that speak to the social justice issues of today. To access prior issues of The Channel, please click here. Fill out the form below to subscribe to The Channel. Care For Creation We work with the parish and the school to implement "green" modifications to lighting, food packaging and recycling/composting options. We regularly publish suggestions on care for the environment in the parish bulletin. One of our members serves on the archdiocesan Care for Creation (Laudato Si) task force. Racial Equality and Justice We are involved in the struggle for equality and justice for all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). We have sponsored book discussions, videos, invited speakers, and helped the parish celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Black Catholic and Black History Month. We are members of the archdiocesan-wide Catholic Racial Justice Collaborative, and with the group have sponsored Racial Justice Sunday in 2021. Homeless Ministry We work in concert with the St. Charles County Community Council and with our St. Vincent de Paul conference at St. Cletus to provide temporary housing and other assistance to the homeless. Funds are provided by SVdP and the caseworkers are members of our ministry. We also fund youth projects at St. Cletus to provide non-perishable groceries to the homeless and "Blessing Bags" for people on the street. In addition, we support the Bridge Bread Program in St. Louis that employs former homeless as bakers, by selling their products at church every month. LGBTQ Welcoming and Outreach In an effort to follow Christ's admonition to reach out to the marginalized, we have been exploring ways to have St. Cletus parish be a welcoming community to LGBTQ persons and their families. Since 2018 we have sponsored a book discussion "Building A Bridge Between the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community" and began a dialogue with numerous stakeholders. Assisting Our Neighbors in Need Throughout the year we hold STOP Collections (Sharing Our Table of Plenty) in order to benefit worthy organizations that serve the poor and marginalized. As needed, we also sponsor fund drives and collections for key charitable organizations such as the St. Louis Food Bank, St. Joachim and Ann Care Service and Meals for a Million. Subscribe to The Channel
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Peace & Justice Ministry meets on the third Mondays of the month at St. Cletus Parish at 6:30 pm.
Contact: Bill Weisrock PJ@saintcletus.org
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