Believing that environmental and social justice issues are intricately conneted, a group of parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish, Camden, held a peace rally at their church on Sept. 21.
The event was held in connection with the International Day of Peace and the People’s Climate March, which drew nearly 400,000 people to Manhattan’s West Side on the same day.
The 2.2-mile march was the signature event of a weeklong series of demonstrations, seminars and prayer services to urge bold action by the participants in the U.N. Climate Summit Sept. 23.
Both Sacred Heart’s Center for Environmental Transformatin and the Peace Community at Sacred Heart participated in the Camden peace rally.
“Today in support of the People’s Climate March in NYC, we are joining in with others across the country as part of Campaign Nonviolence, a national campaign that seeks to address the many ways that the issues of war, poverty and environmental justice are related,” the Peace Community at Sacred Heart said in a statement.
Speakers at the Camden rally included Msgr. Michael Doyle, pastor; Mark Doorley, director of the Ethics Progam at Villanova University; and Bob Smith of Brandywine Peace Community, Swarthmore, Pa.
As a poor city, Camden is “the perfect recruiting grounds for today’s military since so few of its youth have options,” the Peace Community stated. “War becomes much more possible when so many poor kids are the ones fighting it. Thus, in the business of war today, poverty is almost a necessity.”
The Camden group was not unique in connecting the environment and peace issues. On Sept. 23 Father John Dear, a nationally known peace activist, was arrested at the entrance to the White House in Washington during a demonstration to protest war, poverty and environmental destruction.
Musician and peace activist Tom Mullian speaks at a peace rally held at Sacred Heart Parish, Camden, on Sept. 21.
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