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In This Issue:
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Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.
Labor
Day Concern:
Those Who Serve the Traveler also Deserve our Care
By Rev. Carol
Been, Interfaith Council
Since biblical times, the mark of an honorable and ethical household or community has been its hospitality to the visitor or the stranger. The basis for such concern seemed obvious; travelers lacked protection from the elements or other hardship; they lacked a secure way to meet their needs. A traveler was vulnerable and hence dependent on others.
Today, in a state like California, travelers are able to secure shelter and enjoy comfort through the facilities of a growing hospitality industry. Here in Silicon Valley, modern hotels offer not only a bed but a myriad of services ranging from fitness rooms and swimming pools to in-room movies.
But what of the men
and women who serve the traveler, the workers in the hospitality industry?
What are their working
conditions? What security and even dignity do they 
experience
on the job? What is our duty as a community to protect them from hardship or
unfairness?
Unfortunately, the situation facing many workers in the hotel industry is a difficult one. In some cases, employers have cut back staff so severely that their employees must struggle furiously to finish their assignments on schedule. Consider the case of hotel housekeepers. They may have to clean as many as 24 rooms in a day, including check out cleanings that require extra attention. The results are not simply exhaustion but injury. In the words of one housekeeper, "Some days my leg would swell up and I would literally limp from room to room. When the pain was at its worst, I would sit on the beds and cry..." Eventually, this worker required surgery. Catholic Charities helped her pay for rent and utilities while she was out of work. But with a family to support, she had to return to the job and to continuing pain. Like many housekeepers, she begins and ends the day with pain medication.
Many travelers who enjoy the luxury beds in a fine hotel do not realize the strain these products place on housekeepers. A luxury mattress weighs 113 pounds; the extra linen weighs 16 pounds. What happens to people who have to make up dozens of those beds a day? Hotel workers are 48% more likely than other service workers to be injured on the job. They are 51% more likely to have a disabling injury.
How can these workers change the kinds of corporate policies that treat them as expendable? When they unite their voices they can hold these businesses accountable for fair and just treatment. With a collective voice they can insist on a reasonable workload, health care plans that cost families approximately $35.00 a month, not $300 a month.
The work we do involves more than effort for pay and benefits. Our work provides us with a sense of worth. Ask a hotel worker who has no protection on the job, and he or she will tell the story of working conditions that are an affront to any person's dignity. Ask about the banquet worker sexually harassed by a manager who dared to confront his improper behavior. Her hours were reduced so that she lost her health benefits. Ask about the worker who pleaded for two days off in a row to receive treatment for cancer. Her request was denied. For these service workers, having a union means more than simply winning a contract. It means an opportunity for respect at the workplace.
This year in Silicon Valley 300 workers from a local hotel will begin the struggle for humane workloads, affordable health care and livable wages. They will need the support of their community. For some firms, fomenting distrust to counter the unity of workers has become a mission. Intimidating individual employees so that they will fear to exercise their rights is a specialty. Hotel workers who lack education and status, who have limited income and resources, who lack connections and influence may begin to see the defenses and power of a corporate hotel chain as impregnable.
Their struggle can lead to triumph if they realize they are not alone. They need to realize that others respect their dream of fairness. They need to see people from their parish and their neighborhoods speak out on their behalf. They need to know that leaders from our region, leaders from churches and community groups and labor organizations, believe that social justice should be as much a part of Silicon Valley as start-ups and venture capital.
This year on Labor Day weekend, hotel workers will be telling their story to our congregation and we will be invited to pray for and support those who provide hospitality to the traveler. We should do both for the same reason; it is the right thing to do.
The St. John
Vianney Parish Communication Team currently maintains three email lists.
You are welcome to join or remove yourself from any or all of these lists.
They serve specific purposes in our plan to facilitate communication in the
parish, an ongoing project.
Since you are reading this newsletter, most likely you belong to the first list: the SJV Parish Newsletter list. The newsletter is published periodically as an on-line document and members of this list are notified when the newest issue of the newsletter is published. (The newsletter has been weekly but will soon become a monthly publication...see the next story.)
The second email list is for the St. John Vianney Discipleship Magazine. The Discipleship Magazine is published quarterly and mailed to families registered with the parish. In order to save money and time, this eight-page two-color printed document can also be received via the internet. Parishioners who subscribe to this email list are requested to send their postal address to the list manager, newsletter@sjvnews.net, so we can remove your address from the mailing list, saving the cost of printing and postage.
The third email list is a new one that has not yet been used. We are calling it the Pastor's Message Email list. Subscribers to this list will hear directly from the pastor. We envision this list as something that is only used occasionally, but could be useful in an emergency or fast changing situation, as well as for any communication the pastor feels is needed. To start with, the Pastor's list will include all email addresses that we have from the other two lists.
To sign up for one or more of these lists, or to remove your address from one or more of these lists, click here.
The St. John
Vianney Parish Newsletter is changing to a monthly, bi-lingual
publication starting with October. We are excited to be able to offer our
Spanish speaking 
parishioners
the same information and stories that are currently available only in
English. Adding Spanish will require a longer preparation time, but we think
it is important that all parishioners receive the same information. We are,
after all, one parish, not two groups (English speaking and Spanish
speaking) who merely share a common facility.
As part of this change in schedule, we are making a change in the delivery of announcements. When we publish a monthly newsletter, many announcements could be lost because they come at the wrong time in the publishing cycle. Rather than lose this important feature, we have created an announcement blog. This blog will be available all the time, with the latest information published as it arrives. We will try to keep it in both English and Spanish so the information is available to as many as possible. Many thanks to our Spanish translators! (More translators are always welcome. Sharing the work makes it so much easier.) Announcements that come in English will be translated to Spanish and announcements that come in Spanish will be translated to English. All announcements will be displayed in the order in which they are received.
If you have an announcement you think should be included, send it to announcements@sjvnews.net. The Communication Team will review all announcements and publish those deemed appropriate. To read announcements, go to: http://sjvannouncements.blogspot.com or click on the 'announcements' link in an upcoming parish newsletter.
The Communication Team maintains a parish events calendar too. You can find it at http://my.calendars.net/sjvnews. To submit an item to the calendar, send an email to calendar@sjvnews.net. This is a great place to list your parish meetings so other parishioners can find out when your group meets.
Another change you will see when we go to the monthly format is the disappearance of the Weekly Reading section. However, the information will still be available to you, in English and Spanish, through a link to www.liturgy.slu.edu.
Are You Called? Two New Committees
St. John Vianney Parish needs two new committees, as noted in the Parish Transition Team Report (click here to read the report):
Hospitality Committee/Welcome Chariot
Facilities Committee
Are you called to share your talents with one of these groups?
The
Hospitality/Welcome Chariot Committee would focus on greeting new
parishioners and helping them to integrate into our community. There are
several parishioners who
have expressed an interest in getting this set up and they can use all the
help they can get. The plan is to develop some nice materials that a family
can take home for reference, to find ways to help the new parishioners meet
other parish families, and to make our parish a warmer and more welcoming
parish as we grow. Florene Poyadue and Pat Garcia have indicated a
willingness to get this started. Can you help?
The other new committee we need is a Facilities Committee. This team would take a good hard look at all the buildings, structures, and spaces on our parish facility and evaluate their possible needs. In the past, we have simply dealt with problems as they arose. If the roof leaked, we found a way to fix it. If the plumbing broke, we dealt with the emergency. The Facilities Committee would focus on long term planning for maintenance so we could be pro-active rather than re-active. Their job would be to create a plan for replacing a roof before an emergency, checking the condition of the asphalt and recommending when it should be repaired, etc. This should provide us with a better way to manage our facility, saving us money and making the whole parish facility a nicer, more usable place. Once the committee has established a base report, they would probably only need to meet quarterly to keep the pastor and the Finance Committee aware of facility concerns. We have two parishioners who may be interested, but could use a few more to share the work.
If you are called to serve on either of these committees, let us know by sending an email to newsletter@sjvnews.net, or call Ellen Turner at 272-9234 to volunteer.
Coming soon: Revitalization of several other parish committees.
Parish and Deanery:
El Grupo Juvenil Hispano de San Juan Vianney "Los Elegidos de
Dios" Participaron en el torneo Inter-Parroquial organizado por la
Parroquia Santa Catalina en Morgan Hill el pasado Domingo 27 de Agosto del
2006. Hubieron dos categorías hombres y mujeres. Las muchachas obtuvieron
el "Primer Lugar" ganando el torneo, y los muchachos obtuvieron el
"Tercer Lugar" El trofeo estará en exhibición este Domingo 3
de Septiembre del 2006 en la Iglesia y luego en el Centro de las
Oficinas Parroquiales en el lugar que el Padre Francisco decida.
The Saint John Vianney Hispanic Youth Ministry "The Chosen Ones
by God" were part of the Inter-Parish Soccer Tournament held and
sponsored by Saint Catherine Parish in Morgan Hill last Sunday August 27,
2006. There were two categories, males and females. The Girls achieved the
"First Place" winning the tournament and the Boys achieved the
"Third Place". The trophy will be displayed this Sunday, September
3, 2006 at the Church and then at the POC at a location to be determined
by Father Francisco.
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Reminders:
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Breakfast at the San Jose Family Shelter: | Sunday, September 17 | |
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Parish Pastoral
Council Meeting: Parish Picnic: Parish Retreat and Town Hall Meeting: Ministry Faire after Liturgies: |
Wednesday, September
20 Sunday, September 24 Saturday, October 14 Weekend, October 21 & 22 |
The Communication Team Maintains a Parish Calendar: You can find it
at http://my.calendars.net/sjvnews.
To submit an item to the calendar, send an email to calendar@sjvnews.net.
Community at Large:
Breaking Bread Together: An Interfaith Reunion By SouthBay Interfaith
Steering Committee We are planning to gather on September 21 at 6:00
PM at the Circle of Palms in downtown San Jose for Breaking Bread
Together: An Interfaith Reunion. We want the wider community to know
that we will not permit our differences of opinion divide us from each
other. If you are interested in participating or want more information,
contact us at southbayinterfaith@yahoo.com,
or telephone the Council of Churches at (408) 297-2660.
More Parish Announcements:
http://sjvannouncements.blogspot.com
Parish Events Calendar:
http://my.calendars.net/sjvnews
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This Week:
22nd Sunday in
Ordinary Time: Next Week:
23rd Sunday in
Ordinary Time: |
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Praying the
Scriptures: Visit this web site for ideas on praying the Scriptures: www.liturgy.slu.edu
Take a
Moment to Pray: |
Join Our eMail List!
Find out what's happening at St. John Vianney Parish by joining our SJV Parish Newsletter subscriber list:
To add your email address to (or remove from) other SJV Parish email lists, click here, or send an email request to newsletter@sjvnews.net, or phone Ellen Turner at (408) 272-9234. We will use your email address for SJV Parish business only. No addresses will be visible to others.
Visit our parish web site at: www.sjvnews.net.