Commission on Justice for Immigrants, Refugees, and Indigenous People

The Commission acts on behalf of individuals, women with children, and families who have relocated across the U.S. and face arrest, detention and deportation by ICE. The Commission works for justice through participating in border issues, detention visits, and demonstrations. Its members advocate by writing or calling legislators, signing petitions, and collaborating with religious and civic groups in their calls for action.

The rights of tribal people to their homeland and sacred grounds have been subject to exploitation by industries and corporations that enrich their profits in mining, fossil fuels, and other commercial developments that challenge the rights of Indigenous People to their legacy of land and water that their ancestors protected and entrusted to them.

As a part of the IHC’s commitment to action on issues that affect society, the Commission fights against measures that criminalize those who have fled violence and poverty in their countries to seek a more abundant life in the United States. The Commission supports the protection of recipients of DACA, and we summarily reject language and actions that demonize human beings with different cultures, languages, and national origins other than our own.

 Commission on Justice for Women

"The Commission on Justice for Women works to protect and promote the full human rights of women and girls. Through study, prayer and action we seek to identify, challenge and change practices and situations that harm women and impede their full human development. 

Through study we develop a deeper understanding of the ideologies of sexism, misogyny, discrimination and gender bias that marginalize and exploit women. Through reflection and dialogue we increase awareness of internalized, interpersonal and institutional sexism and encourage mutual solidarity and empowerment among women so that we may become agents of positive change in our lives and communities. We undertake this study by providing programs and educational opportunities that increase our understanding of the scope and impact of gender inequality in the lives of women globally.

In prayer, we join our hearts, minds and spirits in solidarity with our sisters all over the world who suffer the effects of patriarchal oppression. We pray for their liberation and for the conversion of those who perpetuate and benefit from the injustice of sexism. We work with other organizations that challenge sexist practices and support the full inclusion of women in every aspect of religious life.  

Through our activism we advocate for full gender equity, and we challenge and work to dismantle institutions in every arena of human life that perpetuate patriarchal domination. We do this by providing financial support to our partners and through grassroots participation with and engagement in political activism with others working to bring about systemic change in sexist institutions."

 Commission on Justice for the Environment

The Commission provides educational opportunities that encourage care for the earth as a vital, sacred spiritual path. It advocates for justice by collaborating with environmental organizations that address climate change and endangerment to the earth’s land and species. Consistent with the Community’s commitment to Social Justice, its mission is to live with reverence for all creation, while remaining acutely aware of our interdependency.

The Community believes one of the great moral issues of our time is the degradation of our environment. Elevated CO2 emissions have accelerated global warming’s effects, resulting in the loss of resources for millions of people around the globe. The resulting poverty and despair of these impacted communities has increased the flow of immigration to less affected regions of the world where feelings of xenophobia have often given way to violence.

Guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Earth Charter, the Beatitudes and Laudato Si, we seek to elevate our understanding and reduce our contribution to this moral threat. “With reverence for all Creation” has particular meaning for our time as there is little doubt and rich evidence that her resources are diminishing, as are other life forms. We openly declare our commitment to fostering a renewed understanding and reexperience of our unity with the natural world.

 Commission on Anti-Racism as Spiritual Transformation

The Commission is called to respond to a reckoning in our country and around the world to the grave injustices that have been perpetrated on people of color. We confess the evils of past racism as well as the ongoing systems of injustice that deny full human dignity and uphold unequal policies and practices against people of color.

To work for this spiritual transformation, we commit to:

• Praying for an end to racism, for interracial solidarity, and the healing of the fragmentation of our human family.

• Building bridges of connectivity by partnering with organizations who stand with the disenfranchised and who work to end systems of “white” supremacy and domination.

• Advocating support for new social and political policies that protect with compassion and justice the rights and dignity of all persons, and seek to remedy current policies and practices that have excluded persons of color from full participation in the benefits of society, such as housing, full employment, equal justice, education, and healthcare.

• Building awareness, study and understand the historic and religiously condoned systemic racism that has existed since the Europeans came to the Americas.

The work of antiracism at this moment in our history is vital to the Immaculate Heart Community as it strives to live out its mission of “building relations in society which foster access of all persons to truth, dignity, and full human development, and to strategically change practices and situations which impede such access.” Spirit in Which We Serve – Goal Statement

Commission on Housing and Community for Unhoused People

The Commission is called to respond to the crisis of affordable housing. It advocates for institutional change and communal action in support of the unhoused. Consistent with The Community’s Goal Statement, The Commission seeks to “build relations in society which foster access of all persons to truth, dignity, and full human development.”

We commit to:

• Partner with organizations and agencies who provide advocacy and support for people who are unhoused.

• Encourage IHC members to personally engage with local endeavors to serve the unhoused people in their area.

• Advocates for a greater understanding of the responsibility of faith-based communities to accompany people who are unhoused and who lack community support.