Bridges of Mercy

We are a ministry formed to invite people to recognize their kinship with all God’s people and to find concrete ways to learn about and put into practice, the social teachings of the church.  We do this by sponsoring educational events and classes at St. Alban Roe as well as publicizing local opportunities to increase our understanding of the needs of our marginalized and impoverished brothers and sisters. By increasing our understanding of these needs we will develop an ever-deeper commitment to care for the vulnerable and become advocates for justice.
 
Listed below are summaries of books which cover a broad range of issues related to Catholic teachings on social justice.
CONTACT: Parish Office at 636-458-2977
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I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctors Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish and Marek Clezerman
 
Dr. Abuelaish, a Harvard educated doctor, born and raised in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.  The loss of three of his daughters and a niece when Israeli shells hit is home, led him not to revenge but to call on the people of the region go come together so that his daughters “will be the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis”>

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Tattoos on the Heart by Fr. Greg Boyle
 
For twenty years, Father Boyle has run Homeboys Industries, a gang-intervention program located in Los Angles, the gang capital of the world.  In Tatoos on the Heart, he distills his experiences into a series of parables inspired by faith.   These essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love.  They remind us that no life is less valuable than another.
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Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
 
A powerful story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken
system of justice.   As a young lawyer, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned and women and children trapped in our criminal justice system.  Just Mercy is a window into the lives of those he has defended and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.
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On Care For Our Common Home - Laudato Si
Pope Francis
 
On Care for Our Common Home - Laudato Si', is the new appeal from Pope Francis addressed to every person living on this planet for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path. This encyclical is written with both hope and resolve, looking to our common future with candor and humility.
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$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
 
After two decades of research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn’t seen before – households surviving on virtually no cash income.  Along with Schaefer, an expert on calculating incomes of the poor, Edin discovered the number of American families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to one and a half million households, including about three million children.  Through this book’s analysis and compelling profiles, new evidence and ideas emerge about our national debate on income inequality.

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 All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of       Racism and Critical Race Theory
                                               
All One in Christ lucidly explains the Catholic Church’s clear and consistent condemnation of racism , showing  that the condemnation is not a recent development but deeply rooted in centuries of papal teaching and Scholastic theology.  This book also demonstrates that Critical Race Theory, far from being a remedy for  racism, is, in fact, a new and insidious form of racism  that cannot be reconciled with the social teaching of the Church and the call of Christ.