Welcome to the June 15, 2022 edition of Just 3 Things, the weekly social action newsletter of the Office of Human Life & Dignity. If this email was forwarded to you, and you'd like to receive it each week, please click here. 

Melissa Vlach
Social Action and Digital Media Coordinator
Office of Human Life & Dignity
Archdiocese of San Francisco

You are invited to a Juneteenth Celebration Recital at the Cathedral on Monday, June 20 at 12:45 pm. The recital will feature a collection of African-American spirituals sung by cantor Ash Walker, with congregation participation encouraged. 

This is the second year that Juneteenth will be observed as a federal holiday. The day commemorates the moment when news of freedom was brought to Texas, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had ended slavery. (Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Action Alert: Join the USCCB in asking Congress to invest in the climate and support clean energy. In a recent letter to Congress, Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, wrote, "Care for creation, and especially the climate which affects all life on earth, is integral to the care for humanity."

The letter expresses support for the funds included in the reconciliation bill passed by the House, which has since stalled. It also emphasizes that those most affected by climate issues and by the transition away from coal and fossil fuels must be included in provisions.

On Saturday, June 11, Sister Paschalis Jahn and nine of her fellow Elizabethan Sisters were beatified in Wroclaw, Poland. These women religious worked with the sick, the elderly, and children, refusing to leave when the Soviet army invaded in 1945. They were ultimately martyred.

At the Mass on Saturday, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro compared their trials to the current situation in Ukraine, saying, "Today we commend to them in a special way the Ukrainian people, migrants and our quest for peace." Pope Francis also praised them and their example of faith, especially for Christians who are persecuted. (Photo: Courtesy of the Elizabethan Sisters / via CNA)