Social Justice Quotes 2006

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for August 27, 2006

We encourage Caribbean theologians and ethicists to accompany scientific research in order to help all of us to understand more clearly the nature of creation and the true worth of every creature.
No. 62 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for August 20, 2006

“How can we remain indifferent to the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity?”
Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 2000 No 43
Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for August 13, 2006

The reconciliation and restoration of all creation was achieved through Jesus’ resurrection. “In the transfiguration of the risen body of Christ begins the transfiguration of every creature, the ‘new creation’ in which all creation will be transformed.” John Paul II, 1989.  We all have a role to play in preparing for this new heaven and this new earth. 
No 39 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for August 6, 2006

Pope John Paul II, looking at the entire world, stated that the ecological crisis is a moral problem.  The exploitation of the resources of the earth, as well as pollution of the atmosphere, is due to a large extent to humans’ unethical treatment of the rest of creation. It is vital that our fundamental attitude to human and non-human nature be transformed. No. 30 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for July 30, 2006

Harmony between humans and nature will be restored only when people determine to “be more” rather than “have more”.
No. 40 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for July 23, 2006

God owns His world. We are responsible members of God’s community of life, answerable to God on how we exercise our responsibility to the rest of creation. The contrasting parables of the rich fool and the faithful servant (cf. Luke 12: 13-21; 41-48) seem applicable for our prayerful reflection in this regard.
No 34 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for July 16, 2006

Nothing exists independently; each being has value of its own. The universe cries out to us, humans, to accept nurture and celebrate the diversity, beauty, interdependence and innate worth of all creatures and in this way preserve the natural order of creation.
No. 31 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for July 2, 2006

“We highlight the injustice of human poverty. This is so because human beings constitute an integral part of the environment, the destruction of which impacts negatively on the poor.  At the very heart of sustainable development is the quality of life of our people.”
Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for June 25, 2006

As the Church grew, this radical form of material communion (Acts 2:44-5) could not in fact be preserved. But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.
Par 20, Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est

for June 18, 2006

If we as Church are truly following our risen Lord, making his historical concerns our own and committing our lives to the coming victory of the reign of God, then we are compelled to be involved in critical peacemaking and economic issues where the shalom and well-being of all peoples, and indeed the whole earth are at stake.
Elizabeth Johnson, Consider Jesus, p. 78

for June 11, 2006

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is presented as an instrument for the moral and pastoral discernment of the complex events that mark our time; as a guide to inspire, at the individual and collective levels, attitudes and choices that will permit all people to look to the future with greater trust and hope.
No. 10 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching

for June 4, 2006

Love faces a vast field of work and the Church is eager to make her contribution with her social doctrine, which concerns the whole person and is addressed to all people.  So many needy brothers and sisters are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed are waiting for justice, so many who are unemployed are waiting for a job, so many people are waiting for respect.
Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching No. 5

for May 28, 2006

The persistence of many forms of discrimination offensive to the dignity and vocation of women in the area of work is due to a long series of conditioning that penalizes women, who have seen ‘their prerogatives misrepresented’ and themselves ‘relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude.’
Pope John Paul II – Letter to Women, 3. (1995)

for May 21, 2006

Christian vocations are always vocations to earthly ordinariness and death, vocation to believe in the light shining in the darkness, to actualize love that seems to go unrequited, to enter into solidarity with the poor and the “shortchanged” – the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who are anything but the elite.
Karl Rahner, The Practice of Faith, p. 207

for May 14, 2006

Christian tradition has never recognised the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: “On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone.”
No 177 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching

for May 7, 2006

“The Christian knows that in the social doctrine of the Church can be found the principles for reflection, the criteria for judgment and the directives for action which are the starting point for the promotion of an integral and solidary humanism. Making this doctrine known constitutes, therefore, a genuine pastoral priority.”
No. 7 Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching