LEAP of Faith
“If you want peace, work for justice.”
Pope Paul VI
The Inclusive Justice Initiative (IJI) invites you to take a LEAP of faith with us … exploring Catholic Social Teaching (CST), this month focusing on Rights and Responsibilities. We are called by Catholic tradition and teaching to prioritize the rights of human dignity and the corresponding responsibilities.
Learn: Rights and Responsibilities under Catholic Social Teaching states: The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities — to one another, to our families and to the larger society.
Here is a short video looking at the CST Rights and Responsibility: https://youtu.be/OPB6sXj6Fwo
Explore: John D. Rockefeller said once: “… every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.”
“Many people today would claim that they owe nothing to anyone, except to themselves. They are concerned only with their rights, and they often have great difficulty in taking responsibility for their own and other people’s integral development. Hence it is important to call for a renewed reflection on how rights presuppose duties, if they are not to become mere license.” Pope Benedict XVI 2009
Act: St Thomas Outreach and Social Justice provides many opportunities to support human dignity and carry out the duties and responsibilities — to one another, and to larger society, through our many ministries in social justice. For example: Pax Christi, and the Inclusive Justice Initiative.
- Be an advocate for individuals or groups.
- Find out more about church teaching.
- Learn more about the issues.
- Write letters to our legislators asking for justice in all issues.
- Vote.
Pray:
Spirit of God,
We have heard your call to share in building up the Kingdom of God.
Fill us with the desire to change ourselves and to change the world.
Enflame our passion for justice into a commitment to address unjust situations and structures.
Deepen our concern for our sisters and brothers in America and overseas who endure the burdens of poverty, war, exploitation and persecution.
Let us enthusiastically play our part in the mission of the Church in the modern world.
Banish any complacency in our hearts and minds.
Teach us to recognize the lack of justice.
May we always act in the Spirit of justice.
May we envisage, pray about and create a different sort of world
in which injustice is replaced with a renewed sense of solidarity and care.
Enlivened by the Spirit, may we go forth in the peace of the Holy Spirit to love and serve the Lord.
Amen
