News from Visitation Province (Canada)
March 8, 2021. This is a global event to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It sends a call to everyone to keep insisting on women’s equality issues. www.internationalwomensday.com
This year’s theme is Choose to Challenge. We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements. Together and individually, we can all help create an inclusive world. We can choose to celebrate the brave women who step-out and step-up in leadership roles.
There is a beautiful video that has been circulating recently showing the names and faces of women leaders in today’s world: While the world has been distracted. It’s only a few minutes.
Eleanor McCloskey, CND
I have just finished reading Racial Justice and the Catholic Church by Bryan N. Massingale. Grounded in the historical context and social reality of racism in the United States, Massingale both informs and challenges his readers. His definition of racism as “a culture of white advantage, privilege and dominance” spurred me to look a little closer to home, at my cultural heritage, the Canadian context and myself. Massingale asks:
1. How do church and society get beyond their cultural captivity to white privilege?
2. What alternative set of meanings and values are mediated by Catholic Christian faith and its system of cultural symbols? He invites his reader to ponder issues such as forgiveness and reconciliation; the effort required to overcome racial antipathies and injustices; the legacy of suspicion, mistrust, and fear that we have inherited; and the contribution that our faith can make to a new beginning.
Ann Gotfryd, Associate
New Eyes: Our world is abundant with quiet, hidden lives of beauty and courage and goodness. There are millions of people at any given moment, young and old, giving themselves over to service, risking hope, and all the while enabling us all. To take such goodness in and let it matter, is a choice we can make to live by the light in the darkness, to be brave and free. Taking in the good, whenever and wherever we find it, gives us new eyes for seeing and living. Krista Tippett
Eileen McQuaid, for WHRT
Holy Redeemer Convent Updates Recycling Efforts: A lot of recycling is done at Holy Redeemer Convent. However, we felt it was time to review and update our knowledge re: new information and advancement in this area. On February 22, 2021, Shirley Boutilier, Waste Reduction Educator for the CBRM, (Cape Breton Regional Municipality) led the Sisters and Staff through an excellent in-service on Solid Waste Management. We were inspired by her concern and care for our Mother Earth. We greatly appreciated the new information and her tips to help improve our recycling efforts. Through a committed concern of both Sisters and Staff, we desire to adhere to the regulations of daily recycling.
Gwendolyn O’Neil, CND with the Sisters of Holy Redeemer Convent