The Weekly Word

The pandemic has been revealing our connectedness as people of this planet. Separation and isolation are the biggest anti-human ways we sin. Unity (not uniformity) shows how we are created in the image of God – three in one, different but the same.

A message for Lent.

The world, the church, even the country in which I grew up no longer exist. Facing the demands of our time requires a lot of savvy and courage.

Consideration of poverty in Catholic social teaching begins with the foundation that each person is both sacred and social, created in God’s image, and destined to share in the goods of the earth as part of a community of justice and mercy…

Consideration of racism is grounded in fundamental scriptural beliefs: equal dignity of all people, created in God’s image; and Christ’s redemption of all. The Catechism of the Catholic Church spells this out: The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it…

Social Analysis in CST is one-half of the answer to the question, “What is really going on in this situation?”

The frequent acknowledgment of the reality of social, economic, political, cultural, and religious systems and structures and the power which they exert over our ability to live Gospel values marks one of the most critical insights in CST in the last fifty years.

The clearest statement on taxes and their morality came in the US Bishops’ pastoral on Economic Justice for All. The bishops urged that, “The tax system should be continually evaluated in terms of its impact on the poor.”

Consideration of prison construction, imprisonment practices, and imprisonment of immigrants should begin with principles drawn from Catholic Social Teaching (CST).

Catholic reflection on the rights of migrants (refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, migrant workers, and internally displaced persons-IDPs) begins with the foundation of all of Catholic Social Teaching–namely, the dignity and sanctity of the human person.

Contemporary environmental consciousness in the Church received a strong kick-start with Saint Pope John Paul’s 1990 World Day of Peace message, Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation, and in a number of statements from conferences of bishops in recent years. This essay discussed the connection between Catholic Social Teachings and the environment.

It is hardly surprising that people of sincere conscience occasionally find themselves in serious disagreement with the prescriptions of “the law”—the allowance of capital punishment and procured abortion, the conduct of wars, the treatment of immigrants, etc.

For anyone eager to practice the values associated with political responsibility in the Catholic tradition, advocacy is one invaluable instrument in our hands.

The right to asylum is a fundamental human right in Catholic social doctrine, rooted in human dignity and “an instrument to preserve the right to life.”

Recent election cycles invariably exhaust everyone involved, leaving all of us breathing a sigh of relief when the excruciating and contentious process finally concludes. When we emerge from these prolonged experiences of harshness and venom, most of us probably long for the ideals that our bishops express when they write: “In public life, it is important to practice the virtues of charity and justice that are at the core of our Tradition.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of two conversions. The first responds to the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ and leads to Baptism. The call to conversion, however, “continues to resound in the heart of Christians” and is “an uninterrupted task for the whole Church.”

Like all forms of human wrongdoing, corruption may take many forms. These include outright bribes to law enforcement officers, kickbacks from successful contractors to public officials awarding contracts, theft of public or private funds by insiders, and campaign contributions specifically targeted to influence the legislative or administrative decision-making process in self-serving ways.

In the context of the nation’s recent awakening to economic inequality—prompted in large part by the Occupy movements nearly a decade ago but continuing to the present day—it is most helpful here to revisit the meaning and roots of the concept of distributive justice.

In modern Catholic social thought, Pope John XXIII (in his 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris) enumerated a number of human rights including, “the right to a basic education and to technical and professional training in keeping with the stage of educational development in the country.

Catholic thought has evolved from an orientation toward merely helping people who are poor and marginalized to an updated orientation that emphasizes promoting their empowerment as “artisans of their own destiny” —individually, as workers and citizens, and as poor nations.

In Catholic thought, “authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image” within the human person. Created in God’s image, every person has “the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being.” We have a duty to respect each one’s right to exercise freedom as essential to human dignity.

In October, 2011, the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace applied Catholic social teaching [CST] to global financial systems.

In 1986 the U.S. Bishops summarized Catholic teaching on government: “…the teachings of the Church insist that government has a moral function: protecting human rights and securing basic justice for all members of the commonwealth.” The bishops explained that, while all people have responsibility for the common good, government’s special role is to guarantee the minimum conditions for rich social activity, namely “human rights and justice.”

Gun violence is nurtured by a pervasive culture of violence. Popes and bishops have repeatedly urged us to confront that larger culture in many different ways.

Catholic discussion of health care begins with the Catholic teaching that health care is a basic human right.

Human creation in the “image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26) is the very foundation of Catholic social thought. Of course, many religions and philosophies affirm the dignity of the human person, but Christianity is noteworthy for the distinctive way that it elevates the spiritual principle that we humans are capable of intimate relationship with God and sanctified by Christ’s salvific grace.

Consideration of hunger in Catholic Social Thought begins with the concept of human rights articulated, for example, by Pope John XXIII in his encyclical Pacem in Terris in 1963.

Addressing divisions between developed and underdeveloped nations, Pope Paul promoted a demanding concept of integral development that invited the reader to imagine two foci of progress: the whole person and every person.

It is important to understand how Catholic social teaching approaches the uses of, and distinctions between, principles and policy applications in Catholic social thought.

From time immemorial, people have inquired into the essential purposes and values of political life. Seen through the eyes of Christian faith, politics is about love writ large.

Private property is a human institution upon which theologians and church leaders have commented since the very beginning of Christianity.

Every election cycle affords us an opportunity to reflect on the role of citizen Catholics and our voting.

The Catholic Church has repeatedly identified racism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism as serious sins and has consistently contended that eradicating them in ourselves and in society and its structures requires conversion on the part of all of us.

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an alternative criminal justice practice that emphasizes repairing the harm of unjust behavior. As Howard Zehr, a leading founder of the RJ movement explains, RJ emerged in the mid-1970s to address three problems of how the traditional system: i) fails victims; ii) does not call offenders to account; and iii) does not address broader community needs.

In the social teaching document Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II described solidarity as the key to understanding several important contemporary realities: universal interdependency (in no. 4 of that document), international relations (in no. 90), and the communal character of the human person taught by Jesus Christ, the community of believers which he establishes, as well as the ultimate solidarity to be “brought to perfection” at the end of time (no. 32).

In his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI introduced a critically important Catholic social teaching concept, one which has maintained currency in political debates today.

A crucial component of Catholic thinking is the fundamental concept of the common good. The Catechism, following Pope Saint John XXIII in Mater et Magistra and Vatican II, defines the common good as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”

With millions unemployed in this economy, it is important to understand how Catholic social thought considers unemployment. It is not just another “economic indicator.” Unemployment undermines a just society since work is at the heart of the social question.

Reflecting widespread Catholic concerns regarding social injustices that sprang from the industrial revolution, Pope Leo XIII laid out the Church’s position on labor unions in his landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.

Current news about voter registration, voter suppression, gerrymandering, criminal justice reform, and foreign intrusion into U.S. elections call us to reflect on what Catholic social thought tells us about voting.

Discussion about wages in Catholic social thought (CST) revolve around two key principles.  The first is the just wage, that is, that wages that do not allow workers to support themselves, their families, or the common good demean human dignity and human life.  The...

The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes recognized two moral traditions in considering war—the so-called “just war” (or “justifiable war”) approach, on one hand, and pacifism, or the rejection of all forms of violence, on the other hand.

The rights and duties of workers are woven throughout modern Catholic doctrine.

We are all familiar with the Biblical account of the young rich man who approached Jesus and asked what he must do to achieve salvation. Equally, we know Jesus’ response was that he must give his riches to the poor and follow Him. Similarly, we recall the pleading of the man in hell who wished to return to let his family know his agony and change their ways and do good to avoid his plight. He, too, was made to realize it was too late to help those who were wayward. It is in this context that we present the theme of this essay – Reparations for African American citizens.

A couple of weeks ago the New York Sunday Times had a long report on American youth. It was called “It’s Life or Death: The Mental Health Crisis among US Teens.” Surprisingly absent from the Times report is any indication of the loss or lack of meaning among the young. Do they feel their lives have meaning, or their future, the earth, the country, the church?

Tikkun olam, a Hebrew term which literally means “to mend/repair the world” has gained currency in American Jewish circles over the past 50 years and has even entered the wider American religious discourse.

The association of tikkun olam with human agency, a human-centered utopian quest to realize God’s Kingdom on Earth is a relatively new phenomenon.

Many young Jewish Americans were energized by the political and social change movements of the 1960s and 70s, and some looked to Jewish tradition to ground their activism.

Surely Jesus would not have made such a powerful commitment unless he meant it. Perhaps for African Americans, this commitment is especially important. Yet, since 1619, the promise often appears late in coming. Being the most oppressed among those living in America, blacks have been (and continue) to be damned by their white neighbors.

Across the country yesterday, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was honored in acts of community service, community breakfast programs, and worship services. Rev. King is remembered as a hero, a symbol, a martyr but few remember or know that before he was Dr. King, he was Reverend King.

I’m sure I am not the only person who was troubled by the statement released by the Vatican last Monday forbidding priests from blessing marriages of same-sex couples.

This essay describes the socio-political conditions and major prophetic voices of the Northern Kingdom, also called the Kingdom of Israel, during the eighth century BCE prior to its fall to Assyria in 721 BCE.

Today, we begin a series of essays on the Jewish prophets, Jesus and the prophetic voice in our world today. This initial essay provides an introduction to some of the Jewish prophets during a five-hundred-year period of Jewish history.

Recent election cycles invariably exhaust everyone involved, leaving all of us breathing a sigh of relief when the excruciating and contentious process finally concludes. When we emerge from these prolonged experiences of harshness and venom, most of us probably long for the ideals that our bishops express when they write: “In public life, it is important to practice the virtues of charity and justice that are at the core of our Tradition.”

This essay describes the socio-political conditions and the prophetic voices of Isaiah and Micah in the Southern Kingdom of Israel, also called the Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, during the eighth to seventh centuries BCE.

The prophetic voice continues in history and it is that voice that is the subject of this final essay on the Jewish prophets, Jesus, and the prophetic voice in our world today.

This essay describes the socio-political context during the emergence of John and Jesus during this time.

Jesus preached that the kingdom of God had irrupted into this world in his words and actions

This essay describes the socio-political conditions and the prophetic voices of Jeremiah and Second Isaiah (ch 40-66) in the Southern Kingdom of Israel, also called the Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, during the seventh to the sixth centuries BCE.

“The poor you have with you always,” said Jesus. But they’re not supposed to be the same poor.

Back in October, at the time of the Synod on the Amazon, there was much attention paid to the images of the pregnant woman, larger and smaller, present in the scene set up to mark the Synod. Later these were transferred to a nearby church.

But hope is not a wish. It is the expression of faith in God’s promises and our commitment to live so as to make the present world better. The present signs of chaos may be the call to change and simplify our lives, to learn how to live the human story in a new way.

This essay features First Principle and Foundation, the preamble to the Exercises. Its acceptance is essential to a successful experience of the graces that flow from the Exercises.

The Fourth Week invites us to share the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection. Here we present Jesus’ Appearance to Mary Magdalene in the second ending of Mark’s gospel (16:9-19) and supplement it with John’s description of this same appearance story.

The Fourth Week invites us to share the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection. Here we present the major part of Jesus’ Appearance to the Eleven in the second ending of Mark’s gospel (16:9-19) and supplement it with Luke’s final appearance story.

The Fourth Week invites us to share the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection. Here we present Jesus’ Appearance to Two of His Disciples on their Way to Emmaus in the second ending of Mark’s gospel (16:9-19) and supplement it with Luke’s description of this same story.

The Fourth Week invites us to share the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection. They claimed to have seen Jesus alive, not in a dream or as an apparition, but in the bodily form they had known him before he was crucified.

  A Faith That Does Justice engages The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola1  (Exercises) to discern how to live faith in action on behalf of God’s people. When appropriately adapted, they offer a way for all people of good will to do the same. For...

Presuming we have opted for Jesus, Ignatius offers two additional meditations during the Second Week, Three Kinds of People and Three Kinds of Humility. They are intended to help us recognize the depth of our commitment to active discipleship with Jesus. This article addresses the meditation on Three Kinds of People.

A Meditation on Two Standards is the peak moment of the Exercises. It is in this exercise that Ignatius asks us to choose between two foundational stances towards life: The Standard of Satan or The Standard of Christ. In opting for one we will find ourselves in direct opposition to, and in conflict with, the other.

The Second Week builds to a moment of profound decision. We will be asked to decide whether or not we will commit to following Jesus in his mission on behalf of the unfinished work of the kingdom of God.

The Exercises of the second week include a contemplation on Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem and Conflict in the Temple.

In the context of the nation’s recent awakening to economic inequality—prompted in large part by the Occupy movements nearly a decade ago but continuing to the present day—it is most helpful here to revisit the meaning and roots of the concept of distributive justice.

The contemplations of Jesus’ public ministry help us come to know him, love him and join him in the unfinished work of the kingdom of God. This Exercise presents Jesus’ Return to Galilee (Mk 1:14-15).

A Meditation on Two Standards asked us to choose for or against Jesus and his work on behalf of the kingdom of God. Presuming we have opted for Jesus, Ignatius offers two additional meditations during the Second Week, Three Kinds of People and Three Kinds of Humility

The Exercises of the second week include a contemplation on the Beatitudes. The core beatitudes, or blessings, of the Gospel of Luke likely originate from “Q”, a pre-gospel source, making it quite possible they were spoken by Jesus himself.

The contemplations of Jesus’ public ministry intend to help us come to know him, love him and follow him in the unfinished work of the kingdom of God. The Exercises of the second week include a contemplation on the Transfiguration.

Following the Fourth Week, Ignatius ends the Exercises with the Contemplation to Attain Love, a prayerful reflection on the mutual love between God and humanity that is expressed in union and joy.

The Contemplation to Attain Love focuses us on the mutual love between God and humanity that is expressed in union and joy. God’s love is pure gift and we ask for the grace of this love as we pray after each of the four points of this exercise.

The Kingdom of Christ is a two-part exercise that serves as a bridge from the First to the Second Week of the Exercises. The first scene describes the call of an earthly king who invites his subjects to consider joining him in a noble undertaking on behalf of humankind. The Christ we encounter in the second scene is none other than the Jesus of history who first labored, suffered and died on behalf of the kingdom of God before being raised from the dead to live in the fullness of God’s love for all eternity.

The contemplations of the Third Week invite us to enter into the paschal mystery (the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) with Jesus.

The contemplations of the Third Week invite us to enter into the paschal mystery (the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) with Jesus. We walk with him from the Last Supper to his agony in the garden, to his arrest and trial, and finally to his crucifixion, in “sorrow, compassion and shame” as human sinfulness rises up against Jesus and seeks to destroy him. Here, we contemplate Jesus’ Arrest and Trial.

The contemplations of the Third Week invite us to enter into the paschal mystery with Jesus. We walk with him from the Last Supper to his agony in the garden, to his arrest and trial, and finally to his crucifixion, in “sorrow, compassion and shame”, as human sinfulness rises up against him and seeks to destroy him.

While the first three meditations of this week depicted sin as a historical reality, existing from the beginning of creation to the present moment, the fourth meditation moves us from the past and into the present.

The contemplations of the Third Week invite us to enter into the paschal mystery (the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) with Jesus. We walk with him from the Last Supper to his agony in the garden, to his arrest and trial, and finally to his crucifixion and death, in “sorrow, compassion, and shame,” as human sinfulness rises up against Jesus and seeks to destroy him. Here, we contemplate Jesus’ Crucifixion and Death.

When appropriately adapted, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola offer a way for all people of good will to discern God’s will and live faith in action on behalf of all God’s people. This essay features First Week: Human Sinfulness and God’s Infinite Love (Part One).

For Christians, Jesus is the way, as well as the life and the truth.

African American men have long been targets of vilification, given efforts to malign and defame them. As people of faith, we must reject such biased notions, for all are made in the image of God.

A Faith That Does Justice (AFTDJ) seeks to live faith in action on behalf of all God’s people, and especially the most vulnerable among us, in solidarity with people of all religious traditions. It claims its own Christian and Jesuit identity by engaging the Spiritual...

The mission of our organization “A Faith That Does Justice” includes much overlap with the principles contained in the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching (henceforth, CST). Rooted in the Scriptures and the moral teaching of the Catholic Church, Catholic Social Teaching represents a developing tradition that brings together what is and what ought to be…