Caritas social action celebrates the publication of “Catholic Social Justice – Theological and Practical Explorations”
A collection of informative and challenging essays on Catholic social justice has just been published focusing on the encounter with God in all human experience to nurture action and help the poor, vulnerable, excluded and marginalized.
“Catholic Social Justice – Theological and Practical Explorations” features chapters by a number of leading academics and practitioners involved in social justice including MP John Battle, his essay entitled “Hearing the call of the poor”, Jim Richards on the “Rights of the Child” and Stephen Wall on “The Nature of the Catholic Advocate” to name but three of the 14 thought-provoking chapters.
In his foreword to the collection, Bishop Christopher Budd, Chair of Caritas social action Theology Commission on Social Spirituality recognises the contribution Catholic social teaching makes to the wider world:
“The overall message of the Incarnation is that God is concerned for all people. We the Church are custodians of that message and we need to be vocal about it and active in using it to influence the arrangement of our societies”
This collection will challenge, inform and provoke debate in the field of Catholic social action.
Briefing 11/08/07: if anyone wondered about the influence of the Bishops on our Catholic press, this comment from Damian Thompson, Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Herald, is revealing. Referring to the book 'Catholic Social Justice', whose attacks on the Pope he brought to public attention through his blog, he comments (in his own comment-box):I think I've done all I reasonably can by blogging about this despicable publication. I don't want to drag my Catholic Herald colleagues into what the bishops see as a mad crusade on my part. Yet I defy anyone to read those quotes and deny that the bishops' conference is being manipulated by people on the far Left.
Guys, it's up to you: do something.
Faithful Catholics must understand: there are no Catholic leaders out there, no bishops, no newspapers, no mass-membership lay groups, who are prepared to defend even the Pope from the latest twaddle from the Bishops' Conference. It is very rare for a Catholic organisation to long survive being excluded from the Catholic Directory, or from selling its wares in churches; even the best bishops are terrified of contradicting the Conference 'party line', and most faithful Catholics are still reluctant to support anything criticised by the Bishops. It follows that all the people who have an official mandate to oppose attacks on the Church are unable to oppose those attacks when they come from the most dangerous quarter: within.
Faithful Catholics must wake up. They must support the small and non-official groups who are doing this work, notably Pro Ecclesiae et Pontifice; you can also sign up to our own 'alerts' emails.
This blog will always defend the Church. Often, that means defending our bishops, and we do so whenever we can. Sometimes, the Church -her teachings, her traditions, her Supreme Pontiff - has to be defended from our own bishops. That is not the moment to lay down your arms. 'Guys, it's up to you: do something!'
1 comment:
I've requested a statement from our Bishop, Peter Doyle; a devout orthodox man who has never abandoned us; and has systematically taught and lived the Gospel in the few years he has been our shepherd. He is not a man to be silenced by the crowd or the 'inner-ring' at the top of the conference. I've also contacted Philomena Cullen and floridly expressed my outrage at what she has done.
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