Social Justice

Called to act justly

Tuesday 2 October 2012

By Colin Maslen
Kairos Catholic Journal

AS Catholics we are all familiar with the wonderful work undertaken by the St Vincent de Paul Society and by Caritas Australia, but we are relatively unaware of how these organisations came about and how they link into the teachings of the Catholic Church on social justice. What is even less known is the tradition of papal encyclicals that go back more than a hundred years, laying down how we as Catholics should respond to issues that arise within life involving our rights and the inalienable rights of human beings throughout the world.

Human dignity is the starting point and central concern of Catholic thinking about human rights. Each person is created in the image and likeness of God and so has inalienable, God-given dignity. It follows that each member of the human family, wherever they live in the world, is equal in dignity because we are all children of the one God. Therefore Catholic teaching on social justice, as explained in many of the papal encyclicals, is opposed to anything that does not lead to the protection of life itself or that violates the integrity of the human person.

The common good within any society, then, is understood as the collection of social conditions that make it possible for each social group and all their individual members to achieve their potential. That is why we consider that it is morally essential to help those who are in any way underprivileged, whether they live in our society or reside overseas. That is also why we as Catholics are under a moral obligation not to misuse our wealth, to think about our responsibilities to others and always to be ready to give someone a helping hand, regardless of their faith, their race, their colour or geographic location.

In many Catholic parishes small groups of people have banded together to form social justice committees to further the work of the Church in this area. Whether these groups raise money for specific overseas projects, as we do at St Jude’s, Scoresby, or sell fair trade products like coffee to parishioners, or try to raise awareness of issues facing our Indigenous brothers and sisters or asylum seekers, each group tries in its own way to put into practice what Catholic social teaching is trying to put forward as a just way of running a society.

We are all called to act justly to our fellow human beings and in doing so to show love, just like the love that Jesus showed to his fellow man. For more than a hundred years the popes have written about how we can do this. Although these documents provide a wonderful insight into how we can put Jesus’ love into action, because they have influenced the Church’s overall teachings, we should all be aware of what responsibility they place on us as Catholics in our relationships with our fellow man. This applies both to the people we come across in our daily lives and those whose needs become obvious to us, whether in Australia or overseas.

That is why the St Vincent de Paul Society helps others, in response to Jesus’ call to love one another. It is also why we need to be aware of the work, both overseas and in our own country, of Caritas Australia and be able to help financially whenever possible.
But Catholic social justice teaching demands more than just this. We are called to look after our planet, to share the fruits that we have, to use our God-given talents wisely, and to be aware of the needs and concerns of others. This is the Church’s teaching because it is Christ’s teaching. We all need to respond to this teaching by trying to put the concept of social justice into practice in our lives.

Colin Maslen is a member of the St Jude’s Social Justice Group, Scoresby.