New Members - Glenmary Challenge

Then & NOWCommissionon JusticeOver 25 years of helping theneglected and oppressed.The Glenmary Commission on Justice(COJ) was formed in 1979 onthe recommendation of Glenmary’sTask Force for Social Justice. Father BobBerson, Glenmary’s president at thattime, believed “that the Catholic missionChurch in rural America can begin toevangelize the poor only after it is clearlyidentifiable” that the Church is “for” themand on the side of the oppressed.For over 25 years, the COJ has provideda forum through which action on behalfof justice is fostered as a constitutive partof proclaiming the Gospel both locallyand nationally.photos / glenmary archives 1977: In calling for the formation of the Commissionon Justice, Father Bob Berson reflected on his earlyyears in the 1950s as a Glenmary missioner servingin the poorest county in Virginia. ”Glenmarians’ concernfor those locked into these kinds of communitieshas shown itself in their open response…to the shiveringand hungry person standing at the rectory door, inthe rummage sales…in the emergency food and housingthat has been arranged…. I’m proud of what we’vedone from 1939 to 1977, but it is not enough.” 1987: Ten of the 14 members of theCommission on Justice gather. GlenmaryFather Les Schmidt (back row, far right) andBenedictine Sister Evelyn Dettling (frontrow, far right) worked full-time implementingthe activities of the commission. 1990: Glenmary Father Bob Rademacher talks withmine workers during a labor strike in Southwest Virginia.The Commission on Justice worked to help promote theminers’ cause of obtaining adequate health and retirementbenefits. Today, the COJ still works to give voice tothe voiceless in Appalachia, primarily focusing on environmentalissues related to coal mining, such as stripmining and mountaintop removal.12 Glenmary Challenge Autumn 2010 www.glenmary.org