•    "Catholic teaching calls us to serve those in need and to change the structures that deny people their dignity and rights as children of God. Service and action, charity and justice are complementary components of parish social ministry.  Neither alone is sufficient; both are essential signs of the gospel at work.  A parish serious about social ministry will offer opportunities to serve those in need and to advocate for justice and peace.  These are not competing priorities, but two dimensions of the same fundamental mission to protect the life and dignity of the human person."   

Fr. Leo's Homily on Holy Thursday 2010 addresses the above ideas. 

"The most important setting for the Church's social teaching is....in prayer and worship, especially gathered around the altar for Eucharist.  It is in the liturgy that we find the fundamental direction, motivation and strength for social ministry.  Social ministry not genuinely rooted in prayer can easily burn itself out.  On the other hand, worship that does not reflect the Lord's call to conversion, service and justice can become pious ritual and empty of the gospel."
Communities of Salt and Light:  Reflections on the Social Mission of the Parish (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1993). 

Lenten Presentation on Eucharist and Social Justice: March 7, 2010
Sr. Margaret Scott: Audio recording

•    Pope Benedict’s 2009 Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) offers moral guidance on economic and ecological crises as well as global poverty:  economic choices are moral choices.   Two critical moral criteria are 1) Justice is intrinsic to charity and 2) Love demands we seek the common good.  

The Caritas in Veritate Precis by Fr. Jim Hug SJ at www.coc.org provides details of the encyclical’s message.
 

MAJOR THEMES OF CST
MAJOR DOCUMENTS OF CST 

"Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace"- US Bishops 1994