Fr Manuel Barrios Prieto, Secretary General of COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union), introduces the new document, published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Love the Stranger.
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The band “The Strawbs”, perhaps most famous for “Now, I’m a Union Man”, was formed at St. Mary’s before it was a university (they were originally called “The Strawberry Hill Boys”). The lyrics of that song, don’t really accord with Catholic social teaching on unions (“I say what I think, that the company stinks”…”With a hell of a shout, it’s ‘Out brothers, out!’ And the rise of the factory’s fall”…“And I always get my way If I strike for higher pay”…), but it is a good song and forms an interesting preface to an article on Catholic social teaching and trade unions.
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Listening to the Archbishop of Canterbury speak on ‘reconciliation’ the other day at Digby Stuart College, I was reminded of my time working as the first ever faith advisor appointed at Cabinet level in the UK. While the current Archbishop had worked out a series of steps by which to address reconciliation in a variety of contexts, back then the argument was who best, and how best, for faith voices to be heard or engaged by government as a prelude to building up social harmony and collaboration in UK society. The whole approach was, for a while, qualified by long lists of ‘who not to talk to’ even if they were going to be key to the future.
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Cardinal Bo of Myanmar reflects on World Peace Day in the context of a nation of nearly 60 million that is trapped in the most appalling wars against its own people. This article is his World Peace Day message issued in his capacity as Chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar.
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This week’s blog post is an extract from Pope Francis’s message for the World Day of the Poor on 4th November 2022. The full message can be found at: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/papal-message-world-day-of-the-poor-2022/
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Following the recent post on this blog about corruption, we thought we would follow up by one on the related theme of lobbying.
The subject of lobbying has had very little sustained treatment in Catholic social teaching, though Pope Francis has started to address the question. If anything, Catholic writers tend to regard lobbying in a rather positive way. And there is no doubt that lobbying has its positive dimensions, for example where Christian organisations are lobbying on behalf of the oppressed.
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October 4th was the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecologists and animals. The day brought to an end the season the Catholic Church describes as “The Season of Creation”. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales also chose that day to launch a considerably revised, new edition of its teaching document on the environment – The Call of Creation.
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The term “social justice” leads to a lot of sabre rattling in Catholic social teaching circles. Greater attention to its meaning, including to some of the ambiguities about its meaning, might be helpful in promoting more fruitful discussion. Debates are often clouded by bringing F. A. Hayek’s disdain for the whole idea of social justice into the discussion. Supporters of a free economy, in the spirit of Hayek’s work, are therefore pitted against supporters of social justice in Catholic social thought. Constructive dialogue is impeded.
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This week’s blog post is the address of Pope Francis to the 25th Anniversary meeting of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe in Clementine Hall, the Vatican on 10th June 2022. The theme was “The Urgent Need to Develop Family Networks”. For brevity, some of the formalities have been edited out.
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Pope Francis has raised, in several of his talks and encyclicals, the problem of corruption. It is surprising how rarely this has featured explicitly in Catholic social teaching more generally because it is a major driver of poverty, injustice and miserable living conditions.
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