Sisters Accept a New Corporate Stance

 “Racism is taught in our society. It is not automatic.”  Alex Haley

On Sunday, August 14, at 4:00 P.M. in the chapel at Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home in Joliet, the Joliet Franciscan Sisters will hold a Ritual of Acceptance of a new Corporate Stance on Anti-Racism.  This event is open to everyone.

The Anti-Racism Committee (ARC) was created in 2012. The committee members are a racially diverse group consisting of Sisters and members of the Joliet community. ARC’s activities include multiple presentations to Sisters, Associates, sponsored institution administrations, faculties and boards, as well as the Social Justice Coalition of the Joliet Diocese. The committee has been a participant in the BlueStem Earth Festival held each May, presented a reflection at the Spring 2015 Prayer Breakfast hosted by the Mission Advancement office, and offered a prayer service at the Joliet Franciscan Center in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2015.

The new Corporate Stance states: 

We, Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, commit to a stance of Anti-Racism.  As we take this position, we promise to make conscious intentional efforts to eradicate racism in all its forms – individual, cultural and institutional.

This is the fourth Corporate Stance the Sisters have accepted – the first three being:

• We commit ourselves to prayer, study, dialogue and action for nuclear disarmament. (1996)
• We commit to cultivating a reverent, interdependent relationship with earth and all its peoples. (2004)
• We denounce the practice of human trafficking and commit ourselves to the work of bringing about the elimination of this evil practice. (2006)

For more information about the Ritual of Acceptance on August 14, please call Sister Juanita Ujcik at 815-725-8735 or by email at:  jujcik@jolietfranciscans.org