from december 2015 through november 2016. today we wil welcome to mosaic. today we'll continue our journey into the year of mercy. designated by pope francis to run from november 2015 to november 2016. we will learn about two member organizations based here in the ut. cath lee relief and -- catholic relief and catholic charities. join us when we come back to discover all of the wonderful things our catholic church in the u.s. are doing to serve the most poor and vulnerable around

the world. ,,

ferguson float from catholic charities. jane is the dire of community and parish engagement at catholic chari welcome to mosaic. i'm your host angela pollock. we have catholic charities. jane has more than 20 years of human engagement. she served at catholic charities for the past six years. prior to that, she was director of pastoral care at st. mary's for 10 years. she served as associate director of the peace corps in the eastern caribbean and worked in world community development as peace corps volunteer. we're delighted to have with us

kathy aroyo. she has 20 years of experience working with the church in various roles including parish, pastoral agent, youth and adult minister, catholic school teacher and also instructor at institute of faith formation. maria spent time leading delegations in india, africa, latin america and southeast asia. maria lived in southern mexico, accompanying indigenous communities. before we explore the two organizations each of these ladies represent let us first talk about the organization that the two are members. it is an organizing body of the catholic church, confederated in

rome. in almost every country of the world. when a crisis hits like the recent earthquake in ecuador, they're on the ground and able to respond. in addition to responding to crises, the members work to help the most poor and vulnerable around the world, inspired by catholic faith, they're the helping hands of the church. reaching out to the poor, the vulnerable, the excluded, regardless of race or religion. to build a world based on justice and paternal love. keritsa is inspired by scripture and social teaching and experiences and hopes of people disadvantaged and living in poverty. they work with people of all faiths and those who have none. the u.s. conference of catholic bishops here in the u.s. decided to organize into two organizations. catholic relief services seeks to serve the most poor and vulnerable overseas. catholic charities serves the

poor and vulnerable here in the u.s. these two organizations together are the official arm of the u.s. catholic community reaching out to love our neighbors at home and abroad. welcome again, ladies. i would love to hear you talk in your own words about each of your organizations and tell us about what your work is and how you work together collaboratively. >> it is great to be here and it is great to be here with maria and catholic relief services. speaking about catholic charities in san francisco. catholic charities serves the needs locally of the poor and null ver rabble in san francisco, marin and san mateo counties. we have been doing this work over 100 years since our founding in 1907. we serve as a bridge between the churching catholic social teaching on the one hand and the needs of the communities on the other. so what is this catholic social teaching? and the primary social teaching is the dignity of the human

person. and this informs how we respond to community needs, that each person is precious and that people are more important than things. and the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable that the moral test of every society is how they respond to people who have the least. >> right. >> you know, solidarity that we are our brothers and sisters' keepers, and we have a responsibility to each other. and then the call to community and family in participation that if we were to describe the more than 30 programs that catholic charities offers in this local region, strengthening families and reducing poverty is the theme. and we serve in five key areas in our community and that is in homelessness in housing, refugee and immigrant services, children

and family services, aging support services, and behavioral health services. we have a staff of 500 professionals who are providing expert and compassionate care alongside, you know, more than 4,000 volunteers who really help us increase our capacity to serve our mission and it's what we like to say is that all of us together, our clients, our volunteers, our staff and donors together, we are catholic charities. it's sharing and receiving dignity together. and and, you know, i think we collaborate, the way we collaborate with catholic relief services is that we know where each begins and ends. we serve the local needs of our community and when we get a call in of someone who is looking to help internationally with a crisis, we know who to connect them to with catholic relief services. but together catholic relief services and catholic charities are also on capitol hill

together hundreds of us going into our house of representatives, congressional representatives and advocating on behalf of the poor and vulnerable. >> that is fantastic. i love how it is not just about giving handouters, it is helping the whole of the human person. thank you. would you talk about catholic relief services and how you're structured and what you do. >> sure, catholic relief services, or crs, as it is known, it is humanitarian relief and development agency of the u.s. catholic church, and we have about 5,000 staff all around the world. we're in about 100 countries. we're really inspired by the gospel of jesus and really embody the principles of catholic socialness. what does this look like on the ground everyday? our emergency relief efforts, for example, we provide basic needs to the victims of natural

disasters like the earthquake in ecuador, typhoons, hurricanes. what does that look like? we're on the grund in one way where we collaborate with the local catholic charities offices, we help distribute these basic needs like food, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene kits. things of this nature. here in the u.s. what we do is that we walk with catholics and their journey towards solidarity and we invite them to four things, to pray, to learn, to act and to give. so through those steps the journey towards solidarity begins to be fostered in the family and parish communities and events of this nature. >> so your work here in the u.s. is all about helping u.s. catholics to live out their faith and learn about their

brothers and sifts overseas. >> yes. >> wonderful. we'll tell when you we come back, we'll talk more about the wonderful work of the catholic relief services and catholic charities. thank you.

welcome back to mosaic. we are journeying through the year of mercy and today i'm joined by two wonderful individuals representing two incredible organizations. catholic charities, san francisco and catholic relief services. together these two organizations are the official arms of the u.s. catholic church to reach out to serve the poor and vulnerable around the world. as we talk about the year of mercy and we have been talking

about all of these wonderful ways that people can engage in the year of mercy, i wonder if you would both talk about some of the different things that your organizations are offering people that they can really engage the year of mercy through some of the activities you offer. maria, can you tell us about catholic relief services, some specific activities around the year of mercy where people can get involved. >> this year one of the things we're doing is help to shed light on jesus' message of mercy, matthew 25, where he shares with us the work of mercy and he said whenever you did it for one of our brothers and sisters, you did it for me. so one of the things that we've done is that we've created a series of prayers and resources that the viewers can access on our website and these are specific to the year of mercy. they can take it back to their families, parishes and communities and have a

reflection session and, you know, prayer, exercises, around the year of mercy. and then one of the other things that we're doing is also inviting catholics to engage in some of our programs. some of our programs here in the u.s. so, for example, a lenten program, which is built on the three pillars of rent, and so what happens when the viewers participate in some of our programs, you know, for over 70 years since 1943, crs has been feeding the hungry, developing security programs. we have been bringing water to some of the most driest places on the planet. we've been helping the sick, helping curb diseases like

malaria, ebola, hiv and aids and bringing shelter to people made homeless through violence, war, natural disasters like the syrian refugee crisis at this moment. by participating in these programs, like crs, like fair trade products and coffee during your morning ritual, advocating as jane mentioned, advocating for more just global policies, reminding our national representatives to keep international assistance as a priority on the forefront. the viewers, our catholic viewers, will be participating in the corporal works of mercy at the corporate level and we invite them to go on to our website and discover the variety of options that we have for them. >> wonderful. wonderful. so really quickly, could you just give a couple of ideas. sounds like a lot of your work

here is in the u.s., we saw some of the pictures, education, and asking people to take legislative action, fasting, and those kinds of thing. for people who are really concerned and i know many people here in san francisco are, they're very concerned with what is happening in ecuador. they're concerned about hiv and aids and how it affects the most poor around the world. what are some ways they can take action? if people want to get involved in so many ways, is there something you would say specifically to something like ecuador right now, which is on people's minds, what would you ask people to do? >> sure, absolutely. first and foremost, to pray. we all have -- we all are able to pray. it is very simple and we can never underestimate the power of pray. we can pray for global solidarity, pray for the needs and sufferings of the victims of the ecuador earthquake, for example. for the syrian refugees, right? and the other thing is to donate

the generous contributions at this time is what helps the emergency relief efforts of our church and to help sustain the promotion of human development through the various programs that we do overseas, education, agriculture, micro finance, peace building efforts. and so really that does go a long way. i know the temptation is to want to donate blankets and can foods, but during emergencies, to be able to simulate the local economy and get the materials on the ground is really more far-reaching than these other materials. >> great. as the official organization of the u.s. catholic church you can be trusted but also you have gotten so many awards for just how well you honor donor intent and you make sure every dollar goes mostly to the poor and that is just fantastic. thank you for that. >> thank you. >> jane, would you tell us about catholic charities and how some of the different things we could

do here in san francisco through your organization to engage this year of mercy? >> absolutely. so maria was talking about education that is being provided by catholic relief services by the corporal works of mercy. what we're doing locally is give people the opportunity to put these works of mercy into practice, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, welcoming the stranger. through all of our programs and through counties. we have one-time volunteer opportunities and ongoing volunteer opportunities to serve food through our programs, to be a skilled volunteer, if you're an attorney or paralegal, to work side by side with our staff in helping to build cases for the immigrants who are looking for trustworthy place to navigate the legal immigration system. we have volunteers who are baby

cuddlers. we have so many opportunities listed on our website and we're happy to talk to people personally on the phone and find ways for people to serve. we have many ways for people to serve. a special way during the year of mercy, pope francis talks about the special place for pilgrimage during the year of mercy and it is a metaphor for the yourn knee we're each making in life to our true destination, which is love, to love one another. and we've offered a ways for people to do a type of pilgrimage through pill gram tours. we opened up in three counties and invited people, come from your neighborhood into our neighborhood and, you know, open your eyes and open your hearts to hear about what's going on at this program, how lives are being changed. and meet our staff. come in and volunteer with us.

>> that is fantastic. as we seek to love our neighbor the most important place is to build that relationship and meet people and there is at invitation to take that pilgrimage here in san francisco and when we come back we'll hear more about the work of catholic charities and crs, and we hope that you will join us.

[baby talk] [child giggling] child: look, ma. no hands. children: "i", "j", "k"... [bicycle bell rings] [indistinct chatter] [telephone rings] man: hello? [boing] [laughter] man: you may kiss the bride. [applause] woman: ahh. [indistinct conversation] announcer: a full life measured in seats starts with the right ones early on. car crashes are a leading killer of children 1 to 13. learn how to prevent deaths and injuries by using the right car seat for your child's age and size.

welcome back to mosaic. i'm angela pollock. with me is catholic charities and catholic relief services. these two organizations are the two arms of the u.s. catholic church reaching out to serve the

poor and vulnerable around the world. in everyday and age we're constantly as the faithful looking to respond to the command of jesus to love our neighbor. in every day and age we are brought new challenges and the beauty of these two organizations they look not to just give out handouts but look to change the structures that create poverty. they're looking to change the systems and structures to give people the tools they need to lift themselves up out of poverty. we have been talking about the year of mercy in different ways you can get involved with their organizations and live out this year of mercy that pope francis invited us to, but these organizations are constant many doing their work and doing it many years and so many ways you can stay engaged in their organizations. ladies, i'd like to in these last minutes of our show here, would you talk some more about just the general work that you do and each of your organizations does, and how people can continue beyond the year of mercy and getting

engaged. you mentioned so many different wonderful programs and opportunities that are available to people, you know, from rice bowl and responding to recent earthquake in ecuador to your wonderful programs helping the homeless here in san francisco. i wonder is there more you want to say in these last few minutes to our viewers and sharing your work with them and how they can continue to make this part of their lives working out the works of mercy which jesus asked us to live out in response to loving your neighbor? >> well, i think i'd like to mention how people can really become involved with us in changing the structures that actually create poverty. >> fantastic. >> because we are engaged in changing and reducing poverty. and strengthening families. and so i invite people to join us in this work by being merciful so that together we can

show mercy in our community, and how can we do this? i would like to be concrete and talk about two of our programs serving youth. how are we providing we like to say we provide a hand up, not a handout. so how are we doing this? so at catholic charities, canal family support, in the canal area of san rafael, and at our youth club at st. francis of assisi in west palo alto, these are two youth programs that search elementary age youth who are english learning students who are behind in reading and academics, from their peers in public schools. and so at the outset they face a disadvantage, but through our programs we are providing academic after-school support through teachers and volunteers

who are serving as mentors, that are really making a difference in the lives of these children, and they are going on to graduate from high school and college and breaking cycles of generational poverty. and so i invite you to join us in this work throughout the spectrum of the many different ways that we are changing people's lives. >> thank you so much. maria, how about catholic relief services? >> sure. one of the things that i'd like to invite the viewers to do is to continue their journey of learning. you know, what are those global issues out there and how is our church responding? and it can go on to our website and just keep updated on to the emergency response tool. lot of these crises, like the syrian refugees. now we have a major drought in ethiopia and what is the church doing? and also to reflect on how do they want to respond? how do they feel moved to

respond? how can they be bridges of solidarity and their families, how can they be bridges of solidarity in their communities and schools. how can they continue to be agents of solidarity? and then also to offer their generous donations. so they can go on to our website, crs.org. they can follow us on facebook, twitter, they can call our regional office and we can put them in touch with the relational -- relationship manager in their area and they can have a conversation and come up with many ideas. >> fantastic. what i love about both organizations is when you hear about these things on the news, it can be really overwhelming. people want to get involved but they hear it and so heart broken by it that they turn off the news. but if they go to your websites,

catholic charities there is lot of information that is hope-filled. it is joyful, also. the work is so wonderful. so thank you both so much. thank you all for joining us on this segment of mosaic. we hope you continue to worry about the -- continue to work through the year of mercy. thank you. see you next time.

the funny hair? you probably played with them nd if welcome to bay sunday, i'm kenny choi. remember those troll dolls with the funny hair? you probably played with them with your little kid and if you're a kid maybe you still do. . >> we just got a text. >> yeah, those little troll dolls are coming to the big screen. they have a quirky bay area connection. >> it is interesting we did work on a lot of the film. we almost named troll village