St. Martin of Tours Peace and Justice Commission strives to alleviate the root cause and effect of injustice, while witnessing and embracing Gospel values.
Our goals and objectives are:
- Educate parishioners and ourselves about justice issues
- Engage parishioners to live out Christ’s call to work for peace and justice
- Support and promote programs that address social justice issues.
Peace and Justice Commission Meetings: We meet monthly, currently on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 in the Bailey House. Our meetings are full of prayer, discussion and laughter as we try to find ways to make a difference in our parish and in our world.
Programs and Activities
The Peace and Justice Commission is involved in a number of social justice activities both within the parish and outside the parish boundaries. Our mission is to provide information about current peace and justice issues at the local, national and international levels and to lead and suggest actions that individual parishioners can take regarding these issues. The following are some of the areas in which we have been involved:
Therese Lehane is the Director of Pastoral Care and Outreach, and can be reached by calling (408) 289-9617 .
The following are some of the areas in which we have been involved:
- Economic Justice
- Work for Peace
- Education
Fair Trade Fair: For the past few years, the Commission has sponsored a Fair Trade Faire through CRS and offers their wares outside the church after the Masses. In addition to our usual Fair Trade coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate, their products include Fair Trade clothing, crafts, toys and housewares.
Hotel Workers/ Fair Wages: We have spoken at Masses and gathered signatures from parishioners in support of fair wages and humane working conditions for local hotel workers.
Peace Prayer: At various times throughout the year (usually during Advent and Lent) the Commission has sponsored a special Evening Prayer for Peace in the Church. We are proud that we have been designated by the diocese as a ‘Peace’ parish and we try to live up to that name in everything we do.
Lenten Education Series: The Commission has developed and coordinated educational/transformation series during Lent for the past few years. Issues covered have included a series on Forgiveness, a series on Matthew 25, and Lent 4.5: Christian Simplicity.
Peace & Justice Resources
Click on each title to expand and view resource information.
Justice, Peace & Human Development http://www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp/
Justice for Immigrants http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/
U.S. Bishops’ Study Guide about Torture http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/stoptorture/
Campaign for Human Development http://www.usccb.org/cchd/
Pax Christi, U.S.A. http://www.paxchristiusa.org/
Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org
C.R.S. Action Center http://actioncenter.crs.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ac_homepage
CRS Rice Bowl http://www.crsricebowl.org
(Catholic Lobby) Network http://www.networklobby.org/
Catholic Peace Fellowship http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/index.asp
Diocesan Justice Events & News http://www.dsjjustice.blogspot.com/
Catholic Charities http://www.catholiccharitiesscc.org/
San Jose Peace Center http://www.sanjosepeace.org/
Peninsula Peace & Justice Center http://peaceandjustice.org/index.php
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition http://www.etoxics.org/site/PageServer
People Acting in Community Together http://www.pactsj.org/
For regularly scheduled Local Demonstrations and Peace & Justice meetings, download pdf document.
JustFaith http://www.justfaith.org/
U.S. Bishops: Catholic Social Teaching http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/socialteaching/
Catholic Social Teaching http://www.osjspm.org/default.aspx
Pax Christi Links http://www.paxchristiusa.org/links.html
Peace & Justice Resources http://www.richmonddiocese.org/ojp/ojp130.htm#War%20&%20Peace
Education for Justice http://www.educationforjustice.org/
Bread for the World http://www.bread.org/
Call to Action http://www.cta-usa.org/
National Catholic Reporter on-line http://ncronline3.org/drupal/
Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/
John Dear: On the Road to Peace http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/dear/archives.htm
Joan Chittister: From Where I Stand http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/fwis/archives.htm
The Peace Pulpit: Bishop Thomas Gumbleton http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/peace/archives.htm
School of the Americas Watch http://www.soaw.org
Salvadoran Solidarity http://www.cispes.org/index.php
Refugee & Development Issues http://www.concernamerica.org/
Salvadoran Accompaniment http://www.share-elsalvador.org/
Tim’s El Salvador Blog http://luterano.blogspot.com/
Mexico’s “pluralistic & objective journalism” http://www.lajornadanet.com/
University of Central America http://www.uca.edu.ni/centro_pastoral/
(If you don’t read Spanish, you can try using the Google translation resources for “poetic” translations)
Dom Helder Camara http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/spiral-of-violence.htm
National Council of Churches http://www.ncccusa.org/
Fellowship of Reconciliation http://www.forusa.org/
Nat’l Religious Campaign Against Torture http://www.nrcat.org/index.php