A model for effective Catholic social justice

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jwinch2 said:
The Compendium for the Social Doctrine of the Church cites that passage of Sacred Scripture in its discussion of God’s plan and the Mission of the Church.
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That’s a starting place. I’m sure it gives you more than a bibliography though. It probably has references that go back and back and back, rather like the Catechism. And among those final basic references, you will probably find an answer to the question, if you don’t settle for a prescription, but actually seek out an answer for WHY.

You said there was a passage of scripture. That scripture passage is probably not there just for decoration. Can you find an good exegetical treatment of that passage of scripture to examine what it might have meant to the inspired author and why that inspired author put it in scripture where he did? That will tell you a lot about how you are supposed to regard it now and apply it later. A good Scripture commentary can be a wonderful tool for understanding what is meant by it.
 
iloveangels said:
That’s a starting place. I’m sure it gives you more than a bibliography though. It probably has references that go back and back and back, rather like the Catechism. And among those you will probably find an answer to the question, if you don’t settle for a prescription, but actually seek out an answer for WHY.
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Patristic influenced commentaries on the passage, such as the Haydock, discuss its applicability in terms of a motivation for performing good works as do papal Encyclicals such as Deus Caritas Est and others. We also see the passage discussed at length by Augustine, Origen, Jerome, and Chrysostom (see the Ancient Commentary on Sacred Scripture series for examples). Heck, Blessed Pope John Paul II references the passage in his homily at the Beatification of Mother Teresa:
“As you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). This Gospel passage, so crucial in understanding Mother Teresa’s service to the poor, was the basis of her faith-filled conviction that in touching the broken bodies of the poor she was touching the body of Christ. It was to Jesus himself, hidden under the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor, that her service was directed.
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He goes on to highlight the importance of this understanding of the motivation for performing such service:
Mother Teresa highlights the deepest meaning of service – an act of love done to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, prisoners (cf. Matthew 25:34-36) is done to Jesus himself.
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He goes on to say:
Recognizing him, she ministered to him with wholehearted devotion, expressing the delicacy of her spousal love. Thus in total gift of herself to God and neighbor, Mother Teresa found her greatest fulfillment and lived the noblest qualities of her femininity. She wanted to be a sign of “God’s love, God’s presence, God’s compassion” and so remind all of the value and dignity of each of God’s children, “created to love and be loved.” Thus was Mother Teresa “bringing souls to God and God to souls” and satiating Christ’s thirst, especially for those most in need, those whose vision of God had been dimmed by suffering and pain.
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I have my answers for why, to me this is not in question. Is Matthew 25:40 the only reason? No, of course not. However, that does not dismiss its importance nor does it imply that Mother Teresa was wrong to have quoted it so and to have boiled things down to that level of simplicity. If a Christian in today’s world uses this as a rationale for their own works of Social Justice, they would not be wrong in doing so.
 
jwinch2 said:
I have my answers for why, to me this is not in question. Is Matthew 25:40 the only reason? No, of course not. However, that does not dismiss its importance nor does it imply that Mother Teresa was wrong to have quoted it so and to have boiled things down to that level of simplicity.

In addition, the Compedium does not simply cite it and move on, it uses the passage as the foundation for a paragraph under the heading I presented earlier. In addition, patristic influenced commentaries on the passage, such as the Haydock, discuss its applicability in terms of a motivation for performing good works as do papal Encyclicals such as Deus Caritas Est and others. We also see the passage discussed at length by Augustine, Origen, Jerome, and Chrysostom (see the Ancient Commentary on Sacred Scripture series for examples).
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No, no, I’m not saying she was wrong. I am saying that a remark, by itself, can’t be a reason. Even a practice in itself can’t be a reason.

But okay, with your documentation there it looks like you have a foundation for finding out WHY. And it looks like you have grounds in Augustine, Origen, Jerome, Scripture passages and so on. The next step is to go in and look at those references to see exactly what they said about these things and then you will know why.

That’s one piece. Then there are the other pieces, such as identifying who the poor really are. And what the Gospels suggest that we do for them.

There’s a bit of a puzzle here. To use your quotes, for instance, when it says:
Mother Teresa highlights the deepest meaning of service – an act of love done to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, prisoners (cf. Matthew 25:34-36) is done to Jesus himself.
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What about that is the Christian service? The gift or the giving? If you say the gift, I’m not sure Mother Teresa would have agreed with you.
 
jwinch2 said:
… If a Christian in today’s world uses this as a rationale for their own works of Social Justice, they would not be wrong in doing so.
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I strongly suspect that you are correct. But there are so many misunderstandings about this. People conflate our cultural context with the reasons we do things in the Church constantly. That’s a big part of the problem we find ourselves in these days.

It’s necessary to be very deliberate and careful not to get our cultural context confused with Christian teaching. I am becoming increasingly aware that getting things wrong, when teaching or speaking about the Church or acting in the Church’s stead in some way, has played a huge role in “poisoning the well.” This is one of the drivers for the large number of people leaving the church, as well as the large number of young people who are alienated from Christianity.

And a small point, an aside: Is it really social justice, which seems to me to be a politically-loaded term, or is it the virtue of Christian charity we are talking about? Which? And how does knowing WHY inform that?
 
areluctantsinner.blogspot.com/2012/12/popes-latest-motu-proprio-signals-end.html
Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the Church performs three important functions: she preaches the Word and witnesses to the Gospel, she worships God through the sacred liturgy, and she also provides a ‘service of charity’ to the world.
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Concentrating on this last function, the Holy Father writes:
…all the faithful have the right and duty to devote themselves personally to living the new commandment that Christ left us (cf. Jn 15:12), and to offering our contemporaries not only material assistance, but also refreshment and care for their souls (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 28).
As well as acknowledging that Catholic charitable groups need proper organisational structures, the Pope emphasises the bonds that exist between the three missions of the Church, and how each informs the other. Works of mercy, when carried out in the name of the Gospel, can also be a means of preaching the Word – of witnessing to the reality of God’s love. In light of this, the Pope, according to the Motu Proprio, wishes that those who work in the ‘service of charity’ in the Church do so according to her mind and the full treasury of her teaching.
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In recent times, it has become apparent to many within the Church that some of those organisations charged with helping the Bishops and faithful to exercise their rights and duties in performing a service of charity tend towards dissent from the Gospel – as it is understood by the Catholic Church. Such counter-witnessing to the truth, whilst claiming to be ‘Catholic’ causes scandal both inside and outside the Church. Often, those who come across ‘social justice’ or ‘charitable’ movements within the Catholic Church are surprised to see that these groups sometimes preach an alternate Gospel to the one which challenges men and women in every aspect of our lives – social and personal.
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Whilst it is true that many Christians with a ‘social justice’ bias wish to be prophetic voices, witnessing to God’s love for the poor and dispossessed, the very same people can also fall into the delusion of false prophecy – seeing the whole Gospel message purely through the truncated (and often perverse) prism of worldly social progressivism or socialism. Yes, lives can be helped in a material way by such men and women, but eternal souls are sometimes left to fend for themselves.
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The modernist ‘social Gospel’ is often preached at the expense of the real one – the one that also asks followers of Christ to renounce the world and stand up as witnesses to the truth. It is only by witnessing to the truth that we can begin to be properly prophetic – truly standing up for life and the family, as well as for the poor; for the rights of God in a secular and relativist world, as well as for a fair wage.
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A compelling take on Pope Benedict’s latest Motu Proprio, along with some personal witness.
 
Catholic Social Teaching: It’s Time to End the Misrepresentations
I’m sick of it. I’m sick of hearing that Catholic teaching regarding sex and marriage is one thing, in that old-fashioned trinket box over there, while Catholic teaching regarding stewardship and our duties to the poor is another thing, on that marble pedestal over here. I’m sick of hearing that Catholic teaching regarding the Church and her authority is one thing, the embarrassing Latinate red-edged tome tucked away in that closet, while Catholic teaching regarding the laity is another, and pass that bread this way! No, it is all of a piece. What the Church says about divorce is inextricable from what she says about the poor. What she says about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is inextricable from what she says about the respects in which all men are created equal—and the many respects in which she insists upon a salutary inequality. When we fail to see the integrity of the faith, not only do certain truths escape our notice; the rest, the truths we think we see, grow monstrous, like cancers, and work to destroy the flesh they once seemed to replace.
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jwinch2 said:
Catholic Social Justice - You’re doing it RIGHT!

youtube.com/watch?v=4WIuSAvcQNQ&list=SPA02A15AE776B6200&index=76

youtube.com/watch?v=Pps_4cOqEAg

youtube.com/watch?v=xlSeVIy0a44

If every Diocese’s Catholic Charities as well as the national worked in this manner, I believe it would lead to an explosion in the Faith. It is a wonderful example of subsidiarity in that it is locally operated and funded yet also a wonderful example of solidarity in that persons from all over the Diocese come together to donate time, talent, and treasure to help those in need.
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jwinch2 said:
Catholic Social Justice - You’re doing it RIGHT!

youtube.com/watch?v=4WIuSAvcQNQ&list=SPA02A15AE776B6200&index=76

youtube.com/watch?v=Pps_4cOqEAg

youtube.com/watch?v=xlSeVIy0a44

If every Diocese’s Catholic Charities as well as the national worked in this manner, I believe it would lead to an explosion in the Faith.
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It is a wonderful example of subsidiarity in that it is locally operated and funded yet also a wonderful example of solidarity in that persons from all over the Diocese come together to donate time, talent, and treasure to help those in need.
 
iloveangels said:
There are a lot of questions to answer here:
  1. Who are the poor? What does “poor” mean to all the originators of the concern? Christ. The inspired evangelists. The popes. The councils. The saints & doctors. Etc.
  2. What is the relationship of the poor in Catholicism to the poor outside Catholicism?
  3. What does this “poor-ness” cause us to be called to do in a Gospel sense? Exactly? And why?
And finally, ONLY when we decide who the poor are, why we are called to minister to them, and what we are called to do for them, then we ask HOW should we do it? There is no rule or principle in scripture or anywhere else in the faith that says that we have to go through some federal government to minister to the poor.
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I think Jesus taught that we should serve all. Which of His parables was about being of service ONLY when we decide who is the poor or the least? I wonder if we sometimes make conditional our need to be of service or to love everyone because we see the ultimate futility of having that as a standard. So because we know we can’t be in perfect concordance with that standard which basically requires each of our decisions to be in concert with jesus’ teachings, we settle for the more easily achieved don’t like in the ten commandments or breaking civil laws etc.

So we focus for example on being anti-abortion , while perhaps not placing equal emphasis on caring for those that have had abortions or those that engage in other behaviors that we find immoral or revolting.

To put it in the context of the season we are in now, I personally find it very hard to act in a Christlike manner with family members who I feel may not be the most pleasant to be around this holiday season. What did jesus say about that kind of stuff ? And if I can rationalize not being truly loving to a family member how much more of Jesus’ message am I missing?
 
I don’t get any of this. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts as He wills. Some of us will not be in a position to help the poor, some of us will be in a position to help the sick, others will have two jobs and kids and that will be their ministry.

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
I don’t get any of this. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts as He wills. Some of us will not be in a position to help the poor, some of us will be in a position to help the sick, others will have two jobs and kids and that will be their ministry.

Peace,
Ed
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What is it that you don’t understand? The topic of the thread is not our individual obligations or opportunities to help others based upon our own situations. Rather, the topic is that there is a right and wrong way to go about the implementation of Social Justice programs within the Catholic Church. When we lose sight of why and how we are to go about helping others, we end up doing social work instead of the work of God.

There is one comment about our individual obligations, so that is perhaps what caused the confusion?

Peace,
 
Anything that leverages one part of church teaching AGAINST another part is inherently political. One of the beautiful aspects of Catholicism (and I came to appreciate it very late) is its constancy and consistency.

When church entities use social justice as an excuse to run afoul of church teaching, they are making a political stance against the church itself.

On the other hand, when the church unapologetically, and unconsciously, simply ministers to needs within the construct of the church’s professed beliefs, without judgement or condemnation, but only through charity and love, then most if not all criticism must seem ridiculous and hollow.

The problem is: we’ve let politics into the church and it will take some time to weed it back out.
 
catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=16966
“When we make room for the love of God, then we become like him, sharing in his own charity,” the Pope explains. Thus faith arouses the impulse toward charity.
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But in charitable activity, the Pope cautioned, Christians should guard against a loss of that fundamental connection with faith. He writes:
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Sometimes we tend, in fact, to reduce the term “charity” to solidarity or simply humanitarian aid. It is important, however, to remember that the greatest work of charity is evangelization.
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Preaching the Gospel, the Pope reminds readers, is actually the greatest act of charity, since it involves “the highest and the most integral promotion of the human person.” He writes that the connection between faith and charitable work could be considered analogous to the relationship between the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist: both are essential.
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It’s controversial (?) to suggest feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless? :confused:
 
jwinch2 said:
The only one in this thread to use the word controversy is you. So, with that in mind, I am not sure what you are referring to.
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Perhaps like the poster a page ago, I am a bit lost. I am not sure why it would be necessary to discover the meaning of ‘poor.’ Even if poor is merely intended to refer to itinerant preachers or something, it is nevertheless the case that “love your neighbor as yourself” is the 2nd most important commandment according to Jesus, so…

I dunno, disregard what I’ve said, you’re obviously over my head at this point. 😉
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
Perhaps like the poster a page ago, I am a bit lost. I am not sure why it would be necessary to discover the meaning of ‘poor.’ Even if poor is merely intended to refer to itinerant preachers or something, it is nevertheless the case that “love your neighbor as yourself” is the 2nd most important commandment according to Jesus, so…
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Well, some religious communities are focused on helping those who would be considered poor in spirit but not necessarily poor from a monetary standpoint. Does that help?
I dunno, disregard what I’ve said, you’re obviously over my head at this point. 😉
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Perhaps we are just using different words or coming at it from a different place? The point of the thread was to suggest that coming at helping people from a social justice standpoint should always be faithful to the teachings of the Church. In some situations, we have seen it not be that way where the Gospel as well as the doctrine of the Faith took a back seat to what turned into social work, rather than Christ inspired social justice. Taking a look at some of Pope Benedict’s recent statements and directives, we can see this idea as well.

Peace of Christ,
 
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