FW: PICO: Vatican Visit

From:hms@sandlerfoundation.org To: ses@sandlerfoundation.org, james@sandlerfoundation.org Date: 2015-06-22 18:26 Subject: FW: PICO: Vatican Visit

I thought you might find this of interest. Herb, In case you did not get this from Steve. Sergio Knaebel Grant Director Sandler Foundation sknaebel@sandlerfoundation.org<mailto:sknaebel@sandlerfoundation.org> Hi Sergio: I just sent a note to Steve with this summary of our visit to the Vatican. I look forward to talking soon. PICO sent a 15 delegation of clergy, leaders and staff to visit the Vatican last week. Cardinal Rodríguez, following our conversations with him in Philadelphia, helped facilitate our visits. Our team included several PICO African-American pastors deeply involved in Black Lives Matter work including a Pastor from St. Louis who is on the Ferguson commission; Rev. Alvin Herring, our Deputy Director, who has worked closely with clergy in Baltimore; a DREAMer from Florida; a priest from California who was formerly undocumented himself; a Black Catholic Deacon who is leading our work on mass incarceration in New Orleans; and two workers from SEIU helping to lead the Fight for 15 workers. I was proud to be standing with this amazing group. During our three day visit we had 15 meetings, including several with senior Vatican officials. We met with three of the main authors of the Encyclical on the Climate that is just now being released; we met with the Deputy Secretary of State charged with drafting Pope Francis's remarks when in the US speaking to Congress and the UN; we met with Cardinal Turkson, who is both a close advisor to the Pope and oversees Justice and Peace and with Bishop Sánchez Sorondo who leads the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The Pope honored us with a personal greeting but did not have time to meet with us on substantive issues. For some reason, his meeting with Mr. Putin last Wednesday trumped our visit! Our visits were dialogues. We conveyed our view that the Pope is a World leader of historical significance; that his message of exclusion, alarm over rising inequality and concern about globalized indifference is important for the U.S. to hear and see animated during his visit; and that we intend to amplify his remarks so that we have a more profound moral dialogue about policy choices through the election cycle of 2016. In our meetings with relevant officials, we strongly recommended that the Pope emphasize – in words and deeds – the need to confront racism and racial hierarchy in the US. Conversations that were originally scheduled for thirty minutes stretched into two hour dialogues. As in our breakfast conversation with Cardinal Rodríguez, senior Vatican officials shared profound insights demonstrating an awareness of the moral, economic and political climate in America. We were encouraged to believe that the Pope will confront race through a moral frame. We were told that the Pope will visit a prison while here – demonstrating his concern about incarceration. We were invited to help organize a site as part of a town hall meeting that would connect people and the Pope in a web-based dialogue in advance of his visit. We suggested a Ferguson site that would include youth leaders. We were invited to send participants to the Meeting of Popular Movements in Bolivia in July, which the Pope will attend and offer his first major address following the release of the Climate Encyclical. We are working with Nextgen to stream the remarks to a gathering of leaders in Los Angeles. At the end of the day, our visit affirmed an overall strategy: Pope Francis, as a leader of global stature, will challenge the “idolatry of the marketplace” in the U.S. and offer a clarion call to change the policies that promote exclusion and indifference to those most marginalized. We believe that this generational moment can launch extraordinary organizing that promotes moral choices and helps establish a moral compass. We believe that the papal visit, and the work we are collectively doing around it, can help many in our country move beyond the stale ideological conflicts that dominate our policy debates and embrace new opportunities to advance the common good. I appreciate your continued involvement in this project and would be happy at any time to sit and think with you about the opportunities around the papal visit. My team is working intensively with partners to plan an expanded set of activities through the end of the year and I look forward to updating you when there is news to share. Best, Scott "Every papal visit leaves something behind, an energy that can either dissipate or be channeled into a growing force for change – and the opportunity we see within the movement-building we are doing ." - Cardinal Turkson P.S. A number of media outlets covered our trip. Here are three of the best articles. Why we are going to The Vatican St. Louis American http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/guest_columnists/article_eba1b5f2-0e0c-11e5-9e1d-772e25744545.html (this is written by Rev. Traci Blackmon who is on the Ferguson Commission and who joined us on our delegation) Bishop to join U.S. clergy at Vatican to discuss race issues Philadelphia Inquirer http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pope/20150606_Bishop_to_join_U_S__clergy_at_Vatican_to_discuss_race_issues.html (Bishop Dwayne Royster is the E.D. of our Philly affiliate POWER) Organizers, union leaders seek to influence Francis' US visit through Vatican meetings National Catholic Reporter http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/organizers-union-leaders-seek-influence-francis-us-visit-through-vatican-meetings (important press for continuing to frame this out inside of Catholic circles)