It's a question focused on at present by two Catholic organisations - the Christian Life Community and the Bicultural Committee of the Archdiocesan Commission for Ecology, Justice and Peace.

They have already held a two-day hui to further their thinking and gather ideas.

The hui gave them a shared understanding and appreciation of the Treaty and related issues.

"There is some confusion and anxiety at times and certainly when we look at the political landscape, looking at the principles of Te Tiriti" said Mat Ammunson of Wairarapa Moana in a Waatea News interview.

"I guess it would be understandable for some people to be a little anxious in that space."

The Treaty covenant

The Treaty of Waitangi - Te Tiriti o Waitangi - is more than a document Ammunson told hui participants.

As an agreement between two peoples, the Treaty has a spiritual dimension, so it's often referred to as a kawenata tapu or sacred covenant.

Within the Treaty context, we start talking about things like tika and pono, he says.

"Pono is an essential foundation concept which encompasses both truth and genuineness, and which provides the deeper ethics from which tika, doing the right thing, operates.

"We recognise that this is an agreement between two people, and so we're talking two people, two bodies, so it becomes inherently spiritual.

"We're starting to talk about mana and tapu.

"Tapu refers to ethical behaviour that acknowledges the intrinsic value of each and every person and thing, and behaving according to this principle.

"And then through spirituality and these values, we recognise a commitment between two people and parties is formalised."

The parties' commitment encompasses whanaungatanga, which is about relationship, kinship and a sense of family connection.

This comes from shared experiences and working together, providing people with a sense of belonging.

"This is how we get the idea that it's a kawenata tapu, a sacred covenant" he said.

Mixing and matching

The Treaty covenant is for all generations. It resonates with Catholic social teachings, Ammunson said.

"Key principles of Catholic social teaching are participation, common good, distributive justice, preferential options for te pani me te rawakore (orphans and poverty), human dignity, stewardship, solidarity, promotion of peace and subsidiarity.

"As Catholics and as a Catholic Church we support actively protecting taonga."

Taonga include the Maori language and Maori culture, he said. Some parishes conduct the Mass in te reo. The Church increasingly embraces a wide range of cultures and languages.

For the Church - and local churches - honouring the Treaty involves developing excellent relationships with Maori people within their region.

Equitable outcomes

We need to consider how as a Catholic community we can support our whanau, hapu and iwi aspirations, Ammunson said.

"This comes back down to a couple of things.

"Awareness of what is within this covenant and then making sure that we're undertaking a correction of what has been done in the past."

Next weekend a working party will meet to create a statement that synthesises the themes put forward at the hui.

Source

• Waatea News

The conference aims to agree on goals and negotiate agreements in the fight against climate change.

The Caritas submission

In preparation for this year's event, COP28 in Dubai, Caritas Aotearoa-New Zealand made a detailed submission to the New Zealand government.

The government had opened a consultation process as to how Aotearoa should approach the negotiations and which policies we should advocate for.

"A major focus of our submission ... was on building better outcomes for the Pacific ..."

These include better targeted climate finance to Pacific Island countries and a just transition to a fossil fuel-free Pacific.

Advocating for Pacific Islands Forum priorities like the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent is also important.

"Our prioritisation of the Pacific is grounded in Catholic social teaching principles," Caritas says.

Caritas believes everyone's contribution should be heard.

"Pacific Island countries are some of the most deeply affected by climate change and have unique voices and moral authority on climate action," Caritas says.

Barriers

There are various barriers to the Pacific nations' voices being heard however. Distance to the COP forums, costs, and having colonial powers speaking for them are among the barriers muffling their unique contributions.

"The principle of distributive justice teaches that resources should be allocated to those who need them, rather than being exploited by the few," Caritas says.

"Pacific Island countries are in the most urgent and severe need of climate finance as they face the immediate impacts of climate change on their societies, but are also some of the least likely to receive the funding they need...

"Without adequate climate finance, Pacific countries face the threat of both environmental devastation and accompanying debt crises."

Caritas also pointed out Pacific Island nations have some of the lowest carbon footprints in the world, especially compared to Aotearoa's high emissions per capita.

We have a responsibility to ensure resources are justly distributed to where they are most needed, Caritas says.

Care for our common home

The Pacific Ocean, te Moana Nui a Kiwa, is our common home in Oceania Caritas says.

Yet foreign powers seek to exploit it with little regard for its environment or people. Nuclear testing and seabed mining in the Pacific are obvious examples of this.

"Our principle of subsidiarity teaches that decisions should be made at the most appropriate level, generally by people they directly affect.

Statements and strategies like the Pacific Blue Line, Treaty of Rarotonga for a nuclear-free South Pacific, Port Vila's call for a just transition to a fossil fuel-free Pacific, and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent show Pacific resolve and commitment to protecting the environment.

"We should heed these calls and support the people of the Pacific to have the final say over their own futures," Caritas insists.

This support is especially needed "in global platforms such as COP28 where we have the opportunity to stand in solidarity with them, in line with our Catholic social teaching principles."

Source

• Caritas

We also excel at something less praiseworthy: producing excessive emissions which damage the environment.

However, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is gloomy about the country's response to climate change and in its latest 'advocacy newsletter,' and pricks at New Zealanders' consciences.

It points out that New Zealand ranks fifth-highest in emissions per capita among industrialised countries.

Pope concerned

Caritas's concerns about responding to the climate emergency are at the forefront of Pope Francis's mind.

In his most recent apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum, Francis laid out some telling statistics.

He says in 2019, the bottom 50 percent of the world's population was responsible for just 12 percent of global emissions. At the same time, the top 10 percent accounted for 48 percent of emissions.

Call to action

Caritas says, assuming resources and opportunities should be allocated to where they are needed, a change is needed.

It suggests emissions reductions should focus more on high-emitting countries - like New Zealand.

"Climate action across the globe has been grossly inadequate, and it is utter hypocrisy of us to lay the blame at the feet of poorer countries while we have some of the highest emissions per person of any country", Caritas says.

"Social Justice demands New Zealand shoulder its rightful burden.

"It should not further weigh down nations that already emit the least, such as its Pacific Island neighbours."

Personal change brings hope

Underscoring the importance of each of us making a personal change, Caritas says despite the grim outlook, Pope Francis offers messages of hope and pragmatism.

Francis emphasises that even small reductions in global warming can have a profound impact, sparing countless individuals from future hardship and suffering.

"Every little bit helps, and avoiding an increase of a tenth of a degree in the global temperature would already suffice to alleviate some suffering for many people.

"Yet what is important is something less quantitative: the need to realise that there are no lasting changes without cultural changes, without a maturing of lifestyles and convictions within societies, and there are no cultural changes without personal changes."

Furthermore, writes Francis, our individual actions can inspire communities, which in turn can influence nations.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Speaking at the University of San Diego this week he said such labeling "distorts the call to authentic discipleship in voting rather than advancing it."

Abortion and the environment are "core life issues in Catholic teaching," he said.

"The death toll from abortion is more immediate ...but the long-term death toll from unchecked climate change is larger and threatens the very future of humanity.

"There is no mandate in universal Catholic social teaching that gives a categorical priority to either of these issues as uniquely determinative of the common good."

McElroy said even if either of these issues were the current preeminent question in Catholic social teaching in the US, partisans will hijack them.

They will suggest "Catholics have an overriding duty to vote for candidates that espouse that position," he added.

Last November U.S. bishops approved a series of videos to augment their "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens" document.

At the time McElroy said he was concerned about a supplementary letter to voters that told them abortion is the preeminent teaching of the church.

This would open the door to people ignoring Pope Francis's urging that other concerns "equally sacred" should be considered.

These issues include "the lives of the poor and elderly people, human trafficking victims and others who are struggling to survive," Francis wrote.

During his talk at the university McElroy also listed 10 issues Catholics should scrutinise.

Besides abortion and the environment, immigration and refugees, euthanasia and assisted suicide, racism, work and workers' rights, poverty and inequality, the promotion of marriage and family, nuclear disarmament, and the protection of religious liberty are all top concerns to consider.

Catholic social teaching points toward an understanding of justice, life and peace that refuses to be categorised, McElroy said.

"At the same time, this very comprehensiveness makes the prioritization of Catholic teachings difficult for voters."

McElro also spoke of a third compelling election issue.

He said "the culture of exclusion" has developed during the last three years, resulting in increased racial injustice and new language and symbolism that seek to advance the evil of white nationalism and create new racist structures.

This culture "seeps into all of the most salient questions of life and dignity that our society faces and corrodes each one in turn," he said.

Many faith-filled Catholics believe the most compelling Catholic social teaching for American voters is the need to get rid of the culture of exclusion before it spreads further.

Voters must choose, McElroy said. "It is the candidate who is on the ballot, not a specific issue.

"Which candidate will be likely to best advance the common good through his office in the particular political context he will face?"

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: US News & World Report

But he also modeled nonviolence by actively confronting injustice and violence, as when he defied the Sabbath laws to heal the disabled, confronted unjust power at the Temple, challenged a throng of assailants accusing a woman of adultery, and, on the night before he died, commanded Peter to put down his sword.

Neither passive nor weak, Jesus' nonviolence is the power of love in action for the well-being of all.

Imagine nurturing a new identity as nonviolent people in a nonviolent church with a clear and deliberate commitment to preaching, teaching, activating, and boldly proclaiming Jesus' nonviolence at every level.

We must return good for evil, break the chains of escalatory violence and revenge, stand up to systemic injustice not with violence but with determined love, and fully trust the God of love and truth rather than the power of violence.

And if the theology and spirituality of gospel nonviolence were more deliberately integrated into the life of the church, we would more clearly recognize the sacred way and work of peace, reconciliation, and nonviolent transformation in our time of monumental crisis and opportunity.

Catholic social thought, including a growing number of recent papal statements and church documents, has increasingly articulated the centrality of gospel nonviolence.

As Pope Benedict XVI put it in a 2007 homily, "Nonviolence, for Christians, is not mere tactical behavior but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is convinced of God's love and power, who is not afraid to confront evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. Loving the enemy is the nucleus of the ‘Christian revolution.' "

In the same address, the pope declared that nonviolence "does not consist in surrendering to evil—as claims a false interpretation of ‘turn the other cheek' (Luke 6:29)—but in responding to evil with good (Romans 12:17-21), and thus breaking the chain of injustice."

This and many other recent papal declarations—including Pope Francis' 2013 statement that "faith and violence are incompatible"—have helped increase the church's awareness of the nonviolence of Jesus. Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic article by Ken Butigan, who teaches in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago.
• Image: neversleeps

The talk - a surprise for all in the audience - recapitulated the key themes of the Argentinian pope's view of the human person: We are all related and interconnected; scientific and technological progress must not be disconnected from social justice and care for the neighbor; and that the world needs tenderness.

I am a scholar of modern Catholicism and its relations with the world of today. From my perspective, there are two essential elements of this talk that are important to understand: the message of the pope and his use of the media.

Emphasizing Catholic social teaching
The message of the pope delivered in nontheological language for a larger audience comes at a time of extreme individualization of our lives. What the pope focused on is the Catholic social teaching of the "common good."

The principle of common good, as described by the Vatican, indicates "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily."

This principle proposes a society "that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being at every level," to have its primary goal in the "good of all people and of the whole person."

For the human person cannot find fulfillment in himself, that is, apart from the fact that he exists "with" others and "for" others."

In fact, there is nothing new about what the pope is teaching, except that he is talking among others to Catholics who have lost the sense of the common good and its importance.

The recent debates among Catholic politicians about the repeal of health care reform is an example of this.

The plan to repeal "Obamacare" included the undermining of the Affordable Care Act's essential benefits, requirements and protections for people with preexisting conditions: a proposal of the Republican Party under the leadership of House Speaker Paul Ryan, a politician who has never hidden his Catholic faith. Continue reading

• Massimo Faggiolini is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.

In between moments of rising to the challenge, giving until it hurt, were many moments of great selfishness, rashness, anger, borne out of a feeling that I was almost constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The idealism that none of us can avoid coming into this profession had dissipated and what was left was my own strength and weakness laid bare, no frills. I am proud of the work I did in the field, and perhaps it won't be my last.

I gave my very best and I do believe I was able to make a marked difference with my cog in the wheel. But it also left me with far too many questions that the aid world simply couldn't answer on it's own.

The other night a dear old friend recommended that I incorporate an element of testimony into the talks on Catholic Social Thought that I am preparing for Hearts Aflame.

So that is what I want to attempt. My love of Catholic Social Thought did not emerge in a vacuum.

Catholic Social Thought and I
When I left South Sudan in June 2011, I had spent the better part of two and a half years living in West, Central and East Africa, working for an aid organisation.

I wasn't sure if I would ever want or be able to come back, though I did go on to Pakistan, newly married, for another two and a half years.

My perspective on life had kind of burst open and shattered and shone through the broken glass all in one go.

I had worked myself into the ground - partly because that is a challenging part of my disposition, and partly because that was what was expected of me in the aid environment. And in the process, I could see it was putting my soul in harm's way.

I credit the support of a handful of religious sisters I met along the way - one in particular, Sister Georgette - who, for want of a better phrase, kept me on the straight and narrow.

Plus meeting my husband - that kinda helped a bit. Just a bit. Continue reading

• Lucy O'Donoghue hails from Auckland and lives in Bangkok, Thailand with her 'lads' - an Irish American husband, a baby boy, and a rambunctious dog.

When I stepped on to the train, I didn't go up or down the stairs, but sat in the handful of seats which face each other in the centre part of the carriage.

At the next stop, two men got on to the train. One was fairly well dressed - he was wearing a suit and a shirt, with a nice scarf around his neck. The other man was not.

He was in paint-stained boots and grubby clothes, and his long beard, unkempt hair and dirty skin gave me the impression that he was one of our city's many rough sleepers.

It didn't appear that they knew each other, but they caught my attention at first because the well-dressed man was yelling at the shabbily-dressed man, and using an inordinate amount of profanity, even for that time of night!

Being on my own, I was not confident to stand up and intervene. But I stared at them intensely. I wanted the well-dressed man to know that I was taking everything in.

"F— the birds," he was saying. "F— them! They're nothing. They're food and nothing else."

The shabbily-dressed man looked over and said: "They're not simply food. They are God's creatures as well, and we should respect them."

"Just yesterday," he continued, "the Pope was saying that we need to care for all of creation and not just worry about ourselves."

Now I wasn't just pretending to listen, they definitely had my attention.

Here was an apparently-homeless man citing an encyclical which had been released not 24 hours before to a complete stranger!

As their conversation continued, I came to understand why the well-dressed man had been yelling. Continue reading

• Monica Doumit is the co-ordinator of Catholic Talk, a Sydney based group which offers a clear and charitable Catholic view on local and international news items. She has practised as a corporate lawyer in Sydney and the United Kingdom, and also holds a Masters of Bioethics.

It was 25 years ago this month that communism ceased to be a threat to the west and to the free market.

When sledgehammers started to dismantle the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an experiment with the command economy begun in St Petersburg more than 70 years before was in effect over, even before the Soviet Union fell apart.

The immediate cause for the collapse of communism was that Moscow could not keep pace with Washington in the arms race of the 1980s.

Higher defence spending put pressure on an ossifying Soviet economy.

Consumer goods were scarce. Living standards suffered.

But the problems went deeper.

The Soviet Union came to grief because of a lack of trust.

The economy delivered only for a small, privileged elite who had access to imported western goods.

What started with the best of intentions in 1917 ended tarnished by corruption.

The Soviet Union was eaten away from within.

As it turned out, the end of the cold war was not unbridled good news for the citizens of the west.

For a large part of the postwar era, the Soviet Union was seen as a real threat and even in the 1980s there was little inkling that it would disappear so quickly.

A powerful country with a rival ideology and a strong military acted as a restraint on the west.

The fear that workers could "go red" meant they had to be kept happy.

The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high. Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: ieaTV

These are among the resources Caritas has created for the annual Social Justice Week, which runs from September 14-20 this year.

The campaign focuses on Catholic social teaching and the Church's tradition of justice.

One of the videos shows the joint work in Rotorua of St Vincent de Paul, St Michael's parish and John Paul College, which run the Full Fill community van taking food to vulnerable communities.

"Our hope is that this focus during Social Justice Week will lead to a renewed understanding and commitment to the ways in which each of us can put Catholic social teaching into practice, in our homes, families and communities," said Caritas director Julianne Hickey.

This year, the New Zealand General Election falls on the last day of Social Justice Week.

Rather than telling New Zealanders how to vote in the election, the Social Justice Week materials aim to inspire Catholics and the wider community to consider what ethical principles underlie responses to economic and social issues.

Continue reading

Te Roopu Haurongo receive referrals from the Police, Child Youth and Family and the local community of young people who are getting into trouble or facing difficulties and hardship.

Whanau advocates and kaumatua supporters walk alongside whanau and youth to work out a plan to help them reach their potentials.

Te Roopu Hauranga is one of the seven groups Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has made videos about to showcase examples of how different communities are practicing principles of Catholic social teaching in daily life.

The resource pack is being distributed to schools, parishes and media around the country this week.

"We are inspired by the examples across Aotearoa New Zealand, where members of our Catholic community put into practice our tradition of justice in their daily lives," says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey.

"Our hope is that this focus during Social Justice Week will lead to a renewed understanding and commitment to the ways in which each of us can put Catholic social teaching into practice, in our homes, families and communities."

This year, the New Zealand General Election falls on the last day of Social Justice Week.

It is hoped that the Social Justice Week materials will inspire Catholics and the wider community to consider what ethical principles underlie our response to economic and social issues in the lead-up to the election

Other groups included in the resource pack are:

• Hutt Valley Benefit Education Service Trust
• Cyclone Haiyan Philippines Emergency Response
• L'Arche Kapiti
• St Vincent de Paul Full Fill Van Rotorua
• Caritas Challenge - Marian College and Catholic Cathedral College
• Papatuanuku ki Taurangi - Earth Promise Centre

Source

Supplied by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Speaking in Washington on June 2, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga also defended Pope Francis's critiques of free market capitalism.

Cardinal Maradiaga was speaking at an event titled "Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism".

The cardinal, who heads the so-called "C8" papal advisory panel, critiqued global inaction in the face of poverty around the world.

"A system has been built now as a new idolatry and it's only the true God that has to be served and not worshipping idols, even if that idol is called market economy . . . or the idol of libertarianism," the cardinal said.

"The libertarianism deregulation of the market is much to the disadvantage of the poor," Cardinal Maradiaga continued.

"This economy kills. This is what the Pope is saying."

Repeatedly citing Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium, Cardinal Maradiaga said the pontiff "analyses the economy from the point of view of the poor, which is in line with Jesus' perspective".

The cardinal said the main point of this apostolic exhortation is that a wrong anthropology is creating a wrong distribution of wealth.

As someone who has lived with the poor, Francis "does not let himself be deceived by trickle down economics", the cardinal added.

"Elimination of the structural causes of poverty is a matter of urgency that can no longer be postponed," he continued.

"The hungry or sick child of the poor cannot wait."

The cardinal argued that personal charity was insufficient to solve global problems.

"Solidarity is more than a few sporadic acts of generosity," he said.

The cardinal stressed that the Church "by no means despises the rich", and he said Francis "is also not against the efforts of business to increase the goods of the earth".

"The basic condition, however, is that it serves the common good," he said.

Cardinal Maradiaga called on Catholics to "hold the government responsible and accountable in the years between the elections".

The cardinal also called on Catholics to educate their children in the principles of Catholic social teachings at a young age, and not to wait until teenage years or later.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Religion News Service
• Image: ABC News

"He so quickly got us," said Andrew Lyke, a participant in the meeting who is now the director of the Chicago Archdiocese's Office for Black Catholics.

The group succeeded in inserting its priorities into the congress's plan for churches, Mr Lyke said, and "Barack Obama was key in helping us do that."

By the time of that session in the spring of 1987, Mr Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago's black Catholic circles.

He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organising position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations.

In this often overlooked period of the president's life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.

On Thursday, Mr Obama met with Pope Francis at the Vatican after a three-decade divergence with the church.

By the late 1980s, the Catholic hierarchy had taken a conservative turn that de-emphasised social engagement and elevated the culture wars that would eventually cast Mr Obama as an abortion-supporting enemy. Continue reading.

Source: The New York Times

Image: Joe Wrinn, Harvard University/AP Photo

Catholic social teaching is being quoted as the death toll in the Bangladesh tragedy of a collapsed garment factory rises above 1100. Bangladesh is the second or third largest exporter of garments in the world, behind only China and possibly Vietnam.

In the United States, government officials, investors and religious groups are warning major retailers like Walmart, Benetton and Gap that they could face a financial backlash from consumers, damage to their share value or sustained public protests if they do not adopt stricter standards.

The New York Times reports growing impatience with American and European retailers and apparel brands because only two companies — PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Tchibo, a German retailer — have signed a binding agreement on safety standards for factories.

Edward J. O'Boyle, senior research associate with Mayo Research Institute in the US, cited Pope John Paul II's 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens, which said labour's effect on the worker is more important than both its effect on the product and on profits.

"We cannot purchase imported goods at the price of the lives of people in other countries simply because they live in other countries where working conditions are deplorable; we have an obligation to intervene," O'Brien said.

Christopher Westley, an economics professor at Jacksonville State University, said economic and social systems "have to be based upon the primacy of the human person", as Catholic social teaching says.

Father Seamus P. Finn, representing shareholders from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, has been circulating a letter among religious organisations to express displeasure with the American retailers.

He says the retailers have not done nearly enough to improve workplace safety for the more than three million garment workers in Bangladesh.

"What happened in Bangladesh is a game-changer because of the gravity of the situation and the tremendous loss of life," Father Finn said. "People are really coming to life about this and saying, ‘We need to do something'. "

Sources:

New York Times

Catholic News Agency

Image: New York Times

In 1961, William F. Buckley published a critique of Blessed Pope John XXIII's encyclical, Mater et Magistra, Mother and Teacher. Buckley's article was entitled, "Going the rounds in conservative circles: 'Mater, si, Magistra, no.'"

The phrase came from a not-yet converted Garry Wills in a telephone conversation with Buckley. It was the first significant instance of public dissent from the magisterium of the Church by an American public intellectual.

Note the date: 1961. Before the Second Vatican Council. John XXIII's encyclical was not a fruit of the Council. It was based on a long line of Church teachings, rooted in the anthropology and ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas, and explicitly applied to modern social, economic and political circumstances beginning in 1891, with Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum.

The basic threads of Catholic Social teaching were developed further by Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII. All before the Council, all before "dissent" became a phenomenon associated with the Catholic Left.

The teachings from which Buckley then, and Congressman Ryan now, dissent are traditional teachings, rooted deeply in an understanding of the human vocation.

Buckley, of course, would not go as far as Ryan. One has a hard time imagining Buckley heaping praise on Ayn Rand as Paul Ryan has done. Continue reading

Image: The Telegraph

Yet whenever the church tries to say something on economics, it faces a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" dilemma about whether or not to get concrete.

If the church sticks to abstract principles, it's accused of being pie in the sky and irrelevant. If it endorses specific policy proposals, it's accused of exceeding its competence, blurring the lines between church and state, and confusing prudential judgment with dogmatic certainty.

Too much specificity courts other risks too:

• Ideological criticism from the left or the right, depending upon whose ox is being gored. (A variant is ideological cherry-picking; sort of like Kennedy and the Khrushchev letter, both conservatives and liberals tend to focus on what they like in Catholic social teaching and pretend the other stuff doesn't exist.)
• Media focus on the most sensational policy stance, usually distorting the big picture. (Remember reaction to Benedict XVI's call for global governance in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate? To read paranoid anti-globalist blogs, you might have started scanning the horizon for black helicopters bearing the papal coat of arms.)

Given that this briar patch seems basically unavoidable, what's the church to do? As it happens, a new document from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, entitled "Vocation of the Business Leader", hints at an intriguing solution.

In a sound-bite, the idea is to be didactic on principle but interrogatory on policy. The church may not have to offer specific answers; perhaps it's enough to frame the right questions. Think of it as Catholic social teaching, Socrates-style.

The 32-page document is designed as a vade-mecum, or practical handbook, for business leaders trying to integrate their faith with their work. It was presented on March 30 by Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Ghanian who serves as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, at an assembly of 2,000 Catholic businesspeople in Lyon, France. Continue reading

Sources

• John L Allen Jr. in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The Wellington Archdiocesan Catholic Commission for Justice, Peace and Development Commission has expressed concern about the government's welfare reform package with a particular focus on 3 areas:

1. Legislation and social policy that devalues the role of parents as care providers

2. The narrow focus on "work" as "paid employment"

3. Youth training being taken out of the education system and placed in the hands of private providers.

Mrs Homan said the Commission was deeply concerned that at a time when current tax policy has given more money to the better off in our society, those most economically and socially vulnerable are being ever more controlled. "The possibility of gainful employment and the importance of work are central concerns of Catholic Social Teaching but so is the safeguarding of the family unit."

The bill is designed to reduce the number of young people on welfare benefits and toughen up work tests for sole parents .

It also establishes a new work test obligation for women on the widow's benefit or on the woman alone benefit.

Other laws will be changed to allow Government departments to track young people at risk of becoming dependent on welfare, said Social Development Minister, Paula Bennett.

Source

• Voxy.co.nz
• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Liberation.typepad.com

The leaflet gives an overview of Catholic social teaching as a guide in considering the rights of both employers and workers in industrial relations. It states that media reports have not done justice to either side of the Ports of Auckland dispute, and believes it is important to look beyond the headlines to understand what the impact of the proposed changes will mean.

The distribution of this leaflet follows an offer made earlier to both parties in the Ports of Auckland dispute by Bishop Dunn and Bishops Ross Bay and Kito Pikaahu of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland, in which they offered to help, by sitting down with the Maritime Union and the Ports Company.

There has been another twist in the Ports of Auckland dispute: the port company has agreed to go back into mediation with the Maritime Union. Although both sides have welcomed the resumption of mediation, the Ports company has indicated that it still intends to contract out the stevedoring and hours after the agreement was reached, issued another lock-out notice to take effect in two weeks.

Read Leaflet

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• Catholic Diocese of Auckland
• Image: saveourport.com

Archbishop John Dew kicked off Social Justice Week on Wednesday with a pep talk for a group of students from wellington's St Patrick's and St Catherine's Colleges at the St Catherine's gymnasium. As Head Coach for the Catholic team, he urged them to keep their eyes on the ball, in working together to achieve the goal of a fair and just society.

Values on the sporting field - fairness, an equal chance of success, unbiased refereeing - are equally important in society, said Archbishop John The vision of all people living as a human family in fullness of life is one that becomes more difficult to achieve in an unequal society, and in a world marked by extremes of wealth and poverty, hw said

"As sports spectators, we will be looking over coming weeks to see that regardless of who wins the Rugby World Cup, it will be a fair competition. We expect rules to be agreed on and enforced by unbiased referees. We expect that sports grounds will allow for an equal chance of success - for example that one side won't be playing up-hill or kicking into the wind for the whole match."

Archbishop John said it was time to blow the whistle on inequality. "It would be great if New Zealanders put as much enthusiasm and effort into ensuring we have a fair society, as we do into cheering for success on the sporting field.

"New Zealand has been a world leader in the growth of inequality, and this leaves people on the fringes of society whose life isn't as good as human life should be. Luke's Gospel talks about compassion for the poor. People who follow the Gospel are obliged to reduce inequality and poverty in our society."

Level with me : Who is the Fairest of them all? - the Social Justice Week blogsite
will be looking at social inequality - nationally and internationally - through the eyes of countries competing in the Rugby World Cup.

They have ranked the countries based on their performance on various social inequality indicators, and are running a light-hearted blog on how they stack up against each other - as well as debating the issues around social inequality.

We all know the All Blacks will take the Cup. But who will win on the social equality stakes?
Find out who they think is the winner - and make your own judgement. Join in the fun and debate, as in a light-hearted, sporting way some of the deeper issues that sometimes divide us and the world.

Level with me is at: www.socialjusticeweek.org.nz or through the Caritas website.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Writing in the New Statesman, Dr Rowan Williams questioned the morality of David Cameron's Conservative party's policies on welfare reform.

Dr Williams attacked changes in the National Health Service and education which he said had left people "baffled and indignant".

He labelled Cameron's "Big Society" as "painfully stale" and something that is viewed with "widespread suspicion".

"With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted. At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context," Williams wrote.

"The anxiety and anger have to do with the feeling that not enough has been exposed to proper public argument."

On welfare reform, he said there had been "a quiet resurgence of the seductive language of 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor" combined with a "steady pressure to increase what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system."

"The Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is around."

An angry PM hit back swiftly at Williams claiming that Jesus would back his "Big Society" plans.

Speaking from Ireland, Cameron said he agreed that the Archbishop was free to express his political views and that the Church is entitled to make political interventions.

However the PM also said he profoundly disagrees with many of the views that the Archbishop expressed, ­particularly on issues like debt and welfare and education.

"I don't think it is good or right for people and our country if we just give up on paying down our debt and just pass that down to our children."

"I don't see anything good or even moral in that approach. I don't think it is good or right for us to pay people to stay on welfare, trapped in poverty, when we should be trying to get them a job."

Catholic support of "Big Society" being tested

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the nation's leading Catholic bishop, has praised Cameron for putting marriage and family stability at the centre of policy-making.

Having previously spoken of the "genuine moral agenda" driving the Government's the "Big Society," as an opportunity to build a stronger society, he fears communities hit by the economic downturn will suffer if they don't get support.

Nichols accused the Government of washing its hands of responsibilities to communities and expecting volunteers to fill the gap.

"It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there needs to be some practical solutions," he said.

"At the moment the Big Society is lacking a cutting edge. It has no teeth."

"Devolving greater power to local authorities should not be used as a cloak for masking central cuts," Archbishop Nichols warned.

"It is not sufficient for the Government, in its localism programme, simply to step back from social need and say this is a local issue."

"We're now at a very critical point, with the philosophy of the Big Society getting clearer, but on the other hand the effects of the cuts are becoming real and there's real pressure about what will happen on the ground," said Archbishop Nichols.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Press Association
• Catholic Herald
• Sky News
• The Guardian
• Image: Mirror