Read recent stories of refugees and immigrants collected by the United Nations Refugee Agency. Include those fleeing violence and oppression in your prayers.

As the storm brewed
The  long-anticipated national JPIC gathering in March 2020 was moved from Las Cruces, NM, to an online gathering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gathering featured dynamic panels of speakers addressing critical aspects of immigrant justice and asylum.  Following this virtual gathering, the group which included the Passionist Solidarity Network and other religious communities issued a powerful and compelling statement, Envisioning Gospel-Based Solidarity and Flourishing with Migrants. The statement reads in part:

"...we looked at how racism, economic injustice, climate change, militarization and migration are all interconnected, just as we as a human family are connected to our migrant sisters and brothers. An intersectional lens helps us to see how these issues not only exacerbate each other, especially forced migration, but how getting to the root causes of forced migration requires us to address each of these issues together."  --From the gathering's final statement

The final statement is here.  Please share it broadly within your communities and consider some of the action steps and to share them with each other for encouragement, collaboration, and momentum.
 
The collected links for the conference are here. The individual sessions included 

• Accompaniment and Solidarity from a Pastoral Lens
• Economic Justice and Migration
• Climate and Migration
• Militarization and Migration
• Envisioning Gospel-Based Solidarity and Flourishing with Migrants
• Building a National Network and Strategic Campaigns

The PowerPoint slides from the panels can be found here.
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Two action plans from Chapter and Assembly meetings

In his opening reflection at the June 6-11 35th Provincial Chapter meeting of the Holy Cross Province in Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Fr. Joachim Rego reflected on the call of Jesus to Peter “to get out of the boat” and he continued by asking us to accept the risks and dangers of that call and to do the same. Passionists have a unique calling to be in solidarity with the crucified of today by recreating our relationships with fellow human beings who are poor and on the unjust margins of society. He spoke of the solidarity, empathy and compassion that comes with accepting that invitation in our work. This human solidarity also requires of us an active engagement with environmental concerns, because it is the poor who suffer first from environmental harm, even though they have contributed the least to its causes. Fighting poverty and facing our ecological crisis are not either/or propositions. As we’ve heard, “You can’t have healthy people on a sick planet.”

At that meeting, as a culmination of the long-term visioning process for the province, calls to action were highlighted relating to five key areas of Passionist life and ministry:  Charism, Community, Collaboration, Outreach and Preaching.  Two of the calls to action that emerged from the Chapter are particularly compelling for the Passionist Solidarity Network and will form the basis of much of our work going forward.  They are:

• Embracing Laudato Si--Taking Action to Care for Our Common Home In response to the pressing crisis of global climate change, we affirm our commitment to the teaching of the Church expressed in Laudato Si and the calling of our charism to respond to the suffering of the Earth and its creatures, we recommend that all members and entities of the province (community residences, ministry sites, and province organizations) affirm and embrace the spirit of Laudato Si’ by taking action to care for the Earth as our “common home.” 
• Responding to the immigration crisis-- Affirming Holy Cross province’s longtime commitment to Hispanic ministry and the suffering of the most vulnerable of today, we call ourselves to explore ways in which we respond to the desperate plight of refugees by offering care and compassion for immigrants and migrants.

Later in June, at the St. Paul of the Cross Assembly in Jamaica, conversations were also very much in keeping with these concerns and they will be further discussed by the leadership of that province with an eye toward collaboration.  

See also the statement from Inter council Passionist Meeting, For-difficult-time-courageous-choices