Hours: Monday – Friday: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm (please call to schedule an appointment)
Location: Catholic Charities’ Main Office, 215 E Church St, Elmira, NY
Contact: Kathy at 607.734.9784, x2135
We collaborate with Catholic parishes, schools, and organizations, as well as community partners, to advocate for the poor and vulnerable and for national and global justice and peace in the public policy arena.
Our Mission is to foster a culture of life and love by addressing a wide spectrum of issues (local, state, national, and global) touching human life, human dignity, and human rights.
This mission is accomplished in three primary ways:
Read the latest edition of our Justice and Peace Newsletter.
Sign up to pray a Novena for Mental Health.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offices and national collaborating organizations will launch an initiative to address the stigma and scourge of mental health in our communities. Sign up now to receive the daily prayers of the Novena, which will begin on October 10th. Sign up for the Novena
Climate Change
All across the US, Catholic individuals, families, parishes, schools, hospitals, and organizations are taking the St. Francis of Assisi Pledge to Care for God’s Creation and the Poor…joining the Catholic Climate Covenant in response to climate change. Catholic Charities of Chemung & Schuyler, following the lead of our Bishop Emeritas, Matthew H. Clark, has signed on to the St. Francis of Assisi Pledge/Catholic Climate Covenant.
The Pledge is a promise and a commitment to live our faith by protecting God’s gifts of creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty in our own communities and globally who face the harshest impacts of global climate change. We invite you to sign on to the Pledge, too. Contact us if you would like some ideas for action.
In his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”) and his 2010 World Day of Peace message (“If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation”) and in numerous other speeches, Pope Benedict has called on Catholics and people of goodwill to care for creation, asking, “Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?
Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of “environmental refugees”, people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it?
Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources? All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health, and development.”
Catholic Charities of Chemung & Schuyler is committed to acting to reduce our “carbon footprint” and the ways we contribute to climate change by (some of these initiatives are already underway):
FAIRTRADE builds the right relationships between buyers and sellers that are rooted in the principles of human dignity and solidarity.
FAIRTRADE:
To order online, visit Catholic Relief Services.