Category: Social Action

Military conflict and the destruction of the environment

environment and war

As we move towards the end of the Season of Creation, I would like to ask Catholics in England and Wales to intensify their focus on the Holy Father’s theme “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4). In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Leo asked us to work unremittingly for peace and to end the cycle of violence that destroys our common home. I commend his message to all of you.

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Catholic social teaching, taxation and generosity

generosity

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales recently published a document on taxation called Render unto Caesar. There is relatively little Catholic teaching that is specifically on taxation. Catholics apply principles such as the universal destination of goods, the right to property and the primacy of the family to try to develop practical approaches to taxation in the wide variety of specific circumstances in which they find themselves. Unsurprisingly, they disagree.

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Practice what we preach – the Church and the environment

envionment

Why should Catholics work to nurture the natural environment? The answer to this It is part of our Christian calling. The teaching of the Church has been clear from the earliest times. In the book of Genesis, it is stated at the end of the creation story “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” If God proclaims His gift of creation to be good, then we have a responsibility to care for it and use it appropriately.

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Catholic social teaching for everyone – fed by our relationship with God

Solidarity

The topic of fraternity was covered in a post shortly after the death of Pope Francis. It is worth revisiting, especially following Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi te, though this was drafted before that document was issued. The starting point for this post is the question “how might Catholic social teaching affect our everyday lives?”. In particular, I want to consider how it might affect all our everyday lives, not just those involved, for example, in political lobbying.

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Is compassion under threat?

Compassion

To know whether compassion is under threat, we need, firstly, to define it. In the Christian tradition, compassion means to “suffer together with”. It involves entering into the suffering of another. There are classic Christian examples of compassion. Mary shared her son’s agony at the foot of the cross. The Good Samaritan provided the financial means and put himself at considerable physical risk to help the person who had been robbed. St Maximillian Kolbe substituted himself for a condemned father in Auschwitz and, as a result, was condemned to starvation himself, though he actually suffered death from the injection of carbolic acid into his veins.

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