Sisters protest corporate exec's pay and human trafficking

(Photo of Salvatorian Sister Mary Leo - 1963, St. Joseph's Mission School, Huntsville, Ala.)

According to an article in Business Insider, Catholic sisters from four different orders are asking questions of Goldman Sachs: why did it award over $70 million to five top executives in 2010?

Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street investment company, was caught up in a financial scandal and agreed to pay $550 million to the U.S. government and investors in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2010. Despite the debacle, the corporation's top executives were paid close to $4 million each.

The Catholic Sisters included in the inquiry are Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel, Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. The sisters all belong to organizations who are Goldman Sachs shareholders.

The Sisters are requesting Goldman Sachs to explain why the pay was given to the executives and have submitted a proposal through the Nathan Cumming Foundation, an organization "rooted on the Jewish tradition and committed to democratic values and social justice," according to its website.

Sisters are also involved in protests against human trafficking, and on January 9, local Catholic Sisters representing sixteen congregations in the Greater Boston area gathered to commemorate the fourth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Participants gathered outside the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph for a prayer vigil. An estimated 850,000 people are trafficked annually worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department, 20,000 of them into the United States.

It appears that Sisters have come a long way in their campaigns for social justice since this blogger's experience with them as teachers in the 1960's when she attended St. Joseph’s Mission School, founded to serve the African-American community of Madison County, Ala. (Photo of Condredge Holloway, Jr., Joan Moses, Mary and Tomi walking from mass to St. Joseph's Mission School.)

In early fall of 1963, it became a focal point of "reverse" integration when twelve white students were accepted for admission. The event was noted for the initial integration of elementary schools in Alabama.

It was rumored that Father Mark, who was then the priest, and Sister Anthony, who was the principal, were sued over the desegregation of the school.

According to Wikipedia, sisters differ from nuns. A nun is a "religious female who lives a contemplative cloistered life of prayer and meditation, while a sister, in Christian denominations, lives an active vocation of prayer and service, often to the needy, sick, poor, and uneducated."

For more information, go to: http://www.businessinsider.com/nuns-ask-goldman-sachs-to-review-executive-compensation--69-million-2011-4 and http://www.csjboston.org/pr-AHT-012011.htm.

©2011 Tomi Johnson. All rights reserved.