I put this in Catholic Caucus because I am interested in sober comments from fellow Catholics about ideas for dealing with the Social Justice activities in the Church.
“Catholic social ministry begins and ends with Jesus Christ,” he said. “If it doesn’t, it isn’t Catholic.”
Archbishop Chaput
Not long ago I explained to my priest that the term Social Justice had its origin in the Communist movement of the 19th century. Every dictator since then has used that term to put forth their ideology while they were subjugating the masses.
Social Justice, in its relatively new iteration, is heresy (liberation theology). Charity-by-government is oxymoronic at best, theft at worst. If social justice meant private individuals acting even in groups to help the needy or the poor, it’s charity. The government has no money of its own to contribute, only yours.
If bishops are teaching, anywhere, that government must fund the needy, they’re teaching outside their authority and against everything the church has preached throughout its history. As even the Catholic Church must have learned this year, all that ‘giving’ has impossible price-tags.
The more I hear the term, the more I wonder “WT* is ‘social justice’?”
Seems akin to someone rattling the bars of their cage, failing (or refusing) to notice the door is wide open.
“Social Justice” is NOT some government run, “tax the rich” scheme that relieves the us from our responsibility for individual charity.
Pretending that your desire for government managed “social justice” somehow trumps your responsibility to protect innocent human life, is an abomination in scriptural interpretation.
For details, read “Render Unto Caesar” by Archbishop Charles Chaput.
I was raised a Catholic and I must say these “Catholics” make me puke.
Social justice STARTS with the unborn babies and any Catholic that doesn’t believe a soul resides in the fetus in the womb is an abomination.
Visit Ann Barnhardt’s site; she recently posted a grisly photo of a baby that had been decapitated during an abortion. I was reading her posts and involuntarily saw it—I cried ‘til I thought I would vomit. My better half was disturbed that I might have seen it from an e-mail—when I got my breath back, I explained how I accessed it.
Although I protested abortion as a child with my mother quite a long time ago, it had been a long time since I have seen photo evidence of the “results” of such procedures.
I not only do NOT fault Ann for posting this photo I reacted to so sickeningly; I applaud her. More “catholics” need to see the results of abortion.
Understand me when I say damn the catholics that support such travesties...and DAMN the progressives that try to force others to subsidize it.
More? I have yet to have been to a RC church that does not do tons of works of mercy for the poor, but I have been to plenty that demand to ignore abortion, problem is, too many in the RC church think they are protestants and have serious lack of understanding of their own teachings ...
Ya....these clowns chant “Social Justice”, while Obama’s HHS mandate is forcing the closure of all of the Catholic Charities, Schools, and Hospitals, which are the primary providers of all that IS “Social Justice”.
I feel that the churches may be responsible for the steady decline of people being responsible for themselves. In the 40’s and 50’s the churches played a pivotal role in giving folks down on their luck a hand up and the people were very wiling to participate in that help. The Great Society removed the burden from the private sector and put it on government where it could grow into what it is today and the churches are now off the hook.
The Church has faced dark times before and has prevailed. I had the good fortune to attend an Opus Dei school for six years. They are the Catholic version of Preppers. They have stocked up a surplus of knowledge and grace and can out last any siege.
I think the Church will get smaller before it prevails again, but when it does, it will speak with a louder and clearer voice.
I really wish they would describe “Catholics” as generalized here as American Roman Catholics. Not all Catholics here are American, or Roman. I suspect that the others may...uhhh...differ in these opinions.
Peter Cardinal Turkson, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has a message for Catholics in America, particularly those involved in social justice ministry, that could put a damper on the political machinations of the Shadow Party.
The message? “Social justice” is about “relationships,” not “socialism.” This clarification may very well be the catalyst to set the Catholic Church in America back on course with authentic Catholic teaching on hot-button issues involving massive government entitlement programs and other forms of overreach. If nothing else, it will almost certainly jump-start the “social justice” debate among Catholics. Cardinal Turkson, you see, is scheduled to deliver the plenary address at the 2011 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in February.It would be useful if we just observed our sense of justice as our ability to fulfill the demands of the relationships in which we stand.Whether he intended to or not, Cardinal Turkson has now echoed what many conservative Catholics in America have been calling for repeatedly — subsidiarity in economic policy. More importantly, the Cardinal observes the heart of the matter in noting that a ‘handout’ and a ‘gift’ are not at all the same, with the latter being more in keeping with the Gospel message.
This is in contrast to socialism, he explained, which is an ideology in which private property and private interests are totally placed in the service of government policies. What the Pope proposes in ‘Caritas in Veritate,’ said Cardinal Turkson, is ‘achieving the common good without sacrificing personal, private interests, aspirations and desires.’
Cardinal Turkson said the Council was also surprised that the Pope’s concept of the ‘gift,’ was perceived in some circles as encouraging government welfare handouts. In ‘Caritas in Veritate,’ Pope Benedict described the concept of “gift” as a way to understand God’s love for men and women in his gift of life and his gift of Jesus.
One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity. This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be. This principle is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State.You may remember that Pope John Paul II worked closely with President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to bring down communism in the Soviet Union and Marxist governments in Latin America. With the worldwide Left now in such kinship with Islam, and with no modern-day Reagan or Thatcher in sight, Pope Benedict XVI certainly has his work cut out for him. If they recognize that America has become polarized, perhaps America’s Catholic bishops will bite the bullet and commit themselves to following in the footsteps of the just-beatified Pope John Paul II…to morally undermine the Left as he morally undermined the Soviet Union.
Social Justice is a bad terminology -- we need to stop using it and use the term Subsidiarity -- Government is bad at helping the poor.
I fail to see how our liberal abortion law helps the poor. How does social justice not include those women who have abortion because they cannot find husbands who will support the children they sire? For abortion on demand encourages men to love’em and leave’, rather than commit to marrying women and raising their children. Many women have abortions because their parents and significant others give them no choice.