Social Justice committee encourages parishioners to apply Gospel principles that will promote social justice. Our mission is to: increase awareness of human needs and social issues, foster commitment, provide a broad vision and provide opportunities for parishioners to participate in direct service and advocacy born out of faith.
Some efforts sponsored by the committee are: letter-writing campaigns, "Ministry Mminutes”, Sister Parish Partnership, Furniture Alert, Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets. If you would like to receive email about social ministry, advocacy issues, parish life issues, please provide your email address by contacting Deacon Bill Lenhart at wlenhart@dor.org or by telephone at 392-2710
Purpose: the goal of the Social Ministry Committee is to help parishioners experience the social gospel through participating in direct service and social action (advocacy).
Throughout the year the committee organizes projects which provide opportunities for parishioners to: provide direct service to those in need, through such projects as the Christmas Giving Tree, Thanksgiving baskets, and collections for needy causes.
Learn about a variety of human needs and social issues through bulletin articles and announcements. Participate in advocating for social justice through diocesan petition efforts and other initiatives.
Catholic Social Teachings (themes):
The following ten principles highlight major themes from Catholic social teaching
documents of the last century.
1. Dignity of the Human Person
Belief in the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching. Human life is sacred, and the dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society. This principle is grounded in the idea that the person is made in the image of God. The person is the clearest reflection of God among us.
2. Common Good and Community
The human person is both sacred and social. We realize our dignity and rights in relationship with others, in community. Human beings grow and achieve fulfillment in community. Human dignity can only be realized and protected in the context of relationships with the wider society.
How we organize our society -- in economics and politics, in law and policy -- directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. The obligation to "love our neighbor" has an individual dimension, but it also requires a broader social commitment. Everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the good of the whole society, to the common good.
3. Preferential Option for the Poor
The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor. The "option for the poor," is not an adversarial slogan that pits one group or class against another. Rather it states that the deprivation and powerlessness of the poor wounds the whole community.
The option for the poor is an essential part of society's effort to achieve the common good. A healthy community can be achieved only if its members give special attention to those with special needs, to those who are poor and on the margins of society
4. Rights and Responsibilities
Human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency – starting with food, shelter and clothing, employment, health care, and education. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities -- to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.
5. Role of Government and Subsidiarity
The state has a positive moral function. It is an instrument to promote human dignity, protect human rights, and build the common good. All people have a right and a responsibility to participate in political institutions so that government can achieve its proper goals.
The principle of subsidiarity holds that the functions of government should be performed at the lowest level possible, as long as they can be performed adequately. When the needs in question cannot adequately be met at the lower level, then it is not only necessary, but imperative that higher levels of government intervene.
6. Economic Justice
The economy must serve people, not the other way around. All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. They also have a fundamental right to organize and join unions. People have a right to economic initiative and private property, but these rights have limits. No one is allowed to amass excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life.
Catholic teaching opposes collectivist and statist economic approaches. But it also rejects the notion that a free market automatically produces justice. Distributive justice, for example, cannot be achieved by relying entirely on free market forces. Competition and free markets are useful elements of economic systems. However, markets must be kept within limits, because there are many needs and goods that cannot be satisfied by the market system. It is the task of the state and of all society to intervene and ensure that these needs are met.
7. Stewardship of God's Creation
The goods of the earth are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. There is a "social mortgage" that guides our use of the world's goods, and we have a responsibility to care for these goods as stewards and trustees, not as mere consumers and users. How we treat the environment is a measure of our stewardship, a sign of our respect for the Creator.
8. Promotion of Peace and Disarmament
Catholic teaching promotes peace as a positive, action-oriented concept. In the words of Pope John Paul II, "Peace is not just the absence of war. It involves mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations. It involves collaboration and binding agreements.” There is a close relationship in Catholic teaching between peace and justice. Peace is the fruit of justice and is dependent upon right order among human beings.
9. Participation
All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society. It is a fundamental demand of justice and a requirement for human dignity that all people be assured a minimum level of participation in the community. It is wrong for a person or a group to be excluded unfairly or to be unable to participate in society.
10. Global Solidarity and Development
We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological differences. We are called to work globally for justice. Authentic development must be full human development. It must respect and promote personal, social, economic, and political rights, including the rights of nations and of peoples It must avoid the extremists of underdevelopment on the one hand, and "superdevelopment" on the other. Accumulating material goods, and technical resources will be unsatisfactory and debasing if there is no respect for the moral, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the person.
Contrasting Service and Advocacy
Social ministry carries out activities to alleviate immediate need of individuals or groups.
Advocacy focuses is on the social problem, not the individual person’s crisis.
Social Ministry ...Charity... |
Advocacy ...Justice... |
Private, individual acts |
Public, collective actions |
Responds to immediate need |
Responds to long-term need |
Provides direct service |
Promotes social change in institutions |
Requires repeated actions |
Resolves structural injustice |
Directed at the effects of injustice: symptoms |
Directed at the root causes of social injustice |
Examples: |
|
Homeless shelters, food shelves, clothing drives, emergency services |
Legislative advocacy, changing corporate policies or practices, congregation-based community organizing. |
Links and Websites:
NYS Catholic Conference www.nyscatholic.org
The official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in New York State.
Network www.networklobby.org
A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, educates, lobbies and organizes to influence the formation of federal legislation to promote economic and social justice.
Service:
Catholic Relief Services www.catholicrelief.org
Founded by U.S. Catholic Bishops to help the poor, remove the causes of poverty, and promote social justice.
Catholic Charities USA www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
Provides vital social services to people in need, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds
Catholic Teaching:
Various US Dioceses: http://www.richmonddiocese.org/cst/
http://www.osjspm.org/
US Catholic Bishops Conference www.usccb.org/depts.htm
List of Statements http://www.usccb.org/statements.htm
