Social Ministry Committee

The St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee enables parishioners to practice charity and work for justice, the two main parts of Catholic social teaching. Our ministry challenges every Christian to fulfill the essential obligations of the Gospel because we will be judged on how we have responded to the hungry, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner and the homeless.

Our ministry includes:

A group of confirmation students serve a meal at Place of HopeFeed The Hungry Place Of Hope

Our Social Ministry Committee, with the help of St Boniface youth and other members of the parish, enjoy preparing a meal for the homeless and hungry at Place of Hope in St Cloud.  We get a great deal of joy out of this mission.  It’s hard to recognize that we have many folks going hungry right in our area.  It is a wonderful experience to bring them a healthy hot meal.  They are so grateful it warms your heart. 

When we started this mission we were serving about 40 meals.  That number has continued to grow the last year or two.  On our most recent trips we served about 120 meals.  About a year ago we sold raffle tickets as a fund raiser to purchase the food for one meal per month until we ran out of money.  Due to the generosity of several members of our parish we haven’t run out of money yet.  We always seem to have enough money for the next month’s meal, and when we’re getting low, more donations appear.  We have been able to prepare at least one meal per month. 

Many other area churches are helping as well.  Our youth come out in numbers to help serve the meal.  Those eating at Place of Hope enjoy the youth and all their energy and the youth see how it is to depend on others for a meal.  If you would like to help, call Pat at 597-3993.

Collect Food for the Food Shelf

The Social Ministry Committee helps collect food for the Cold Spring Food Shelf by handing out grocery bags and lists of needed items on the third Sunday of the month and asking people to bring their donations the following weekend. If you would like to help hand out the grocery bags at one of the masses or deliver the donations to the food shelf, contact Sharon Skwira at sskwira@mywdo.com.

Habitat for Humanity "Nickels for Nail" Campaign

Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit ecumenical Christian organization builds homes for families who need a helping hand. The ROCORI construction class teaches students how to build homes through the hands-on experience of building a house. A partnership between Habitat for Humanity and ROCORI has resulted in Habitat for Humanity-- ROCORI Build. The St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee has chosen to be part of the partnership by helping raising funds for building the home with our Nickels for Nails Campaign

Donation “Houses” were made by Roger Bell and are in the Narthex and by the exit doors to allow parishioners to contribute their nickels and extra change for Habitat for Humanity. The committee has set a goal of raising $10,000 for Habit by this fall when the first house will be built. Contact Lynn Schurman at lynnschu@aol.com if you would like to be involved with our Habitat project.

Promoting Pro-Life Issues

Karen Rausch coordinates the parish 40 Days for Life project and other pro-life activities for the St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee. The committee has sold carnations on Mother's Day to raise funds for pro-life speakers and activities. To get involved with pro-life activities, contact Karen at Rausches6@aol.com.

Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolates

The Social Ministry Committee decided to sell Fair Trade coffee to develop awareness in the parish of the importance of the Fair trade Program to farmers around the world. Fair Trade is a program to ensure farmers in developing countries to have adequate income to support their families and help the communities. The program sees that the small growers get a fair price for their products, provides for healthy working conditions and allows them to develop long term relationships with the buyers. This eliminates the middlemen thus providing more funds for their products. Empowerment lifts the farmers from poverty through trade not aid.

At St. Boniface we have added chocolates to the products sold and will include tea next Fall, if there seems a demand for it.

Catholic Social Teaching gives guidance in how people of faith can transform the world through economic justice. Buying Fair trade products whenever we have a chance gives us an opportunity to start changing the world.

We want to thank all the parishioners that have taken this to heart.

Bulletin Announcements From Department of Social Concerns, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, MN

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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 19, 2012

Today's gospel miracle shows the witnesses what the good news looks like. In Jesus, God has drawn close to heal hurting humanity. The physical miracle is important because it points to the deeper healing God wants to bring about: the healing of a broken spirit caused by social or personal sin.

How are we as a parish community called to do the same; that is, to heal a hurting humanity? To answer yes to that question we need to act, first of all by listening with the ears of our hearts to the cries of the hurting and then by getting to know them. Often that means getting out of our comfort zones and taking a risk, just like Jesus did.

Quote for the week:

"Liturgy understood as the worship of the church and social action understood as the work of the church are part, one of the other. Liturgy which does not move its participants to social action is mere ceremonialism: social action which does not find its source in the liturgy is mere humanitarianism."

Cardinal Richard Cushing, quoted in,
LITURGY WITH STYLE AND GRACE by Gabe Huck and Gerald T. Chinchar. (Archdiocese of Chicago, Liturgy Training Publications, 1998.)

Kathleen M. Langer
Director of Social Concerns
Catholic Charities

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 12, 2012

In Scripture, leprosy referred to any number of skin diseases, each of which causing people who were suffering to be excluded from worship and sent away from the community to fen for themselves. The first reading gives us a picture of the exclusion of those considered "unclean".

Rather than stepping back from the 'unclean' leper who approached him, Jesus felt pity for him and touched him. He bridged the gap between the"clean" and "unclean," the "respectable" insiders and the "disrespectable" outsiders. As his disciples, we are to do the same.

So we ask ourselves:

Kathleen M. Langer
Director of Social Concerns
Catholic Charities

5th SUNDAY of Ordinary Time - Feb. 5, 2012 

What did you hear this week as you listened to the readings?  Did you hear about the suffering of Job in the first reading and think about the times when you felt the same way?  Did you listen to the Gospel being read and think of the times in your life when you needed healing and got it, or did you think of the times when healing just didn’t come fast enough and you were left questioning God? 

Great things to think about, but the Gospel calls us to widen our view.  Who are the people like Job in our churches, communities and world?  What is our part in their pain and how are we called to help?  Who are the ones in our world today who are ill and tormented and in need of healing?  How can we help in that healing?  
There are many organizations, individuals and faith communities that are doing this work of healing.  Heading Home Minnesota’s goal is to end homelessness in Minnesota; a great need in this time of increased poverty.  This statewide organization’s goals are to:

It is an essential charism of our faith tradition to be agents of healing and change in our world.  How are you carrying on this healing work of Jesus?  If you haven’t yet made a New Year’s resolution maybe now is the time!  Decide how you will work to end homelessness or poverty or racism or discrimination or violence.  Let the Spirit be your guide!
For more information on Heading Home Minnesota go to:  www.headinghomeminnesota.org/