“the right of association is a natural right of the human being, which therefore precedes his or her incorporation into political society…” Centesimus annus, 7, emphasising Rerum novarum
Read more >>Civil Society under pressure[1]
Category: Social Action
“Now, I’m a Union Man”? – Catholic social teaching and trade unions
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.
Read more >>Listening to faith communities – lessons for Labour
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.
Read more >>World Day of the Poor
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/
Read more >>The family and solidarity
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.
Read more >>Depression, suicides, deaths of friends – prisoners tell their stories to the Cardinal
There are some who worry that prison is like “a holiday camp” these days, although maybe this sentiment will be less prevalent given what so many have been through during the pandemic.
Read more >>Research in Service of Catholic Education – Part II: Interviews with Friends and Colleagues of Professor Grace
In the interview with Professor Grace mentioned in Part I of this post, I asked him about the areas where he believed more research was needed. He suggested three main areas: (i) Catholic Education and service for the Poor; (ii) the effectiveness of the spiritual, moral and social cultures of Catholic schools; (iii) the education and formation of Catholic school leaders and teachers. These themes are echoed by his friends and colleagues in interviews conducted over the last six months that are available in a compilation from the Global Catholic Education project. The interviews are organized around the following questions:
Read more >>Research in Service of Catholic Education – Part I: Interview with Professor Grace
This is the first of two posts forming a tribute to Professor Gerald Grace who retired late last year. This post is an interview with Quentin Wodon who is a lead economist at the World Bank
Read more >>Service learning and social justice – a new innovation at St. Mary’s University
St. Mary’s University is launching a new degree programme. It is coming to the end of its validation process and will be formally “on the books” from February. Students will be able to join the programme from September 2022, but they can apply now. For the next month, we are currently advertising it “subject to validation” as the regulations require. The programme is probably unique in the UK. It will be called: “MA in Social Justice and Public Service”.
Read more >>Building from the bottom up – Politics after Covid
Sometimes – it looks as if we are gradually emerging from the pandemic, leaving the worst behind us. But then there are probably times when even over the past few months most of us have felt hugely disorientated, lying awake wondering where will we be in six months, a year, ten years from now?
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