Do the Words "Social Justice" Make you Cringe?

As both a Catholic and American, I have come to feel uneasy when I hear the phrase Social Justice. The words, when coupled, were initially intended to draw to mind a moral obligation to help one another. In American politics, and sadly many Catholic circles, the meaning is changed into Socialist Justice. Here is some balm for your wounds, but do not spend much time with its application. Spread the word.

Learn more about Fr. Robert A. Sirico, and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.

Interested in free online American History courses at Hillsdale College? Click HERE. 

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CCHD: Yessiree, it is that time again folks!

Throughout the United States, parishes typically participate in the fund raising collection every year at Thanksgiving time.  See other Ponderings over the past few years HERE.  Before you discern whether to give or not, please be certain you are making an informed decision. 

Bishop Morin at USCCB Fall Conference on CCHD

Some quotes (and 'tweets' via USCCB Media) from Bishop Morin during today's afternoon session at the Fall Conference of US Bishops:

"Two years ago with the ACORN problem, bad PR, call it whatever you want ... our action was as swift and as thorough as it possibly could be."--Bp. Morin at Press Conference following afternoon session

Tweets:

• Morin says some attacks of CCHD have concern for poor and legitimate concerns. We welcome questions and concerns. Others don't seem to understand Church's teaching on justice, care for poor and addressing root causes of poverty.
• Those with ideological and political agendas spread outrageous claims that bishops fund groups who promote abortion.
• Says critics say bishops not committed to caring for life of unborn. Says bishops are absolutely pro-life.
• We do not ever grant funds to any group that is ever involved in any activity contrary to Church teaching.
• CCHD is Gospel at work and faith in action.

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Pondering:

I do not doubt Bishop Morin's sincere intention to purge all of the unworthy recipients from the CCHD. I take the man at his word. I also understand from listening to the post conference presser that the vast majority of US Bishops have good things to say about the positive impact they have personally witnessed while observing CCHD grantees. After reading Bishop Morin's document For the Record - The Truth about CCHD Funding I found myself puzzled by the line of defense the Bishop is using. I personally have not been under the impression that anyone believes the Bishops themselves support anti-life groups or their teachings. Either those of us who are concerned about the CCHD are not being heard or are being ignored. Those are the only possibilities in explaining the chasm between those who are deeply concerned about the purpose and process used to vet grantees and the CCHD.

No one is saying that the Church should not help the poor. I would like to hear less defensiveness and see examples of exactly how the CCHD helps the poor become self-sufficient. After nearly forty years of funding, there should be a whole lot of self-sufficiency. In For the Record, it is stated that "[CCHD] has distributed more than $400 million in grants to more
than 4,000 community groups throughout the United States. An independent study
conducted at The Catholic University of America in 1994 concluded CCHD has funded
projects that have affected fully half of America's poor." Telling the faithful who fund the campaign how many millions you have given on our behalf does not really help to convince the skeptic; it makes one wonder what good the money has done if it meant to merely compliment other Catholic charitable groups.

If you feed the homeless 20 million meals, I hear that you fed the hungry. If you provide clothing for 2 million inner-city children, I hear that you clothed the naked. If you provide hospital care for 20 million Americans, I hear that you cared for the sick. If you tell me you gave $400 million to community organizers, I hear nothing but a busy signal on the phone. If you want money put in the basket when the CCHD collection rolls around, let us know that it will indeed help the poor to become self-sufficient as your mission indicates. Show us. If you tell us that plenty of the Bishops support it, the words mean very little.

Mark 14:7 "The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me."

! Catholic Campaign for Human Development! - Reform Needed Now!

Last year, many Catholics put a cut-out picture of an acorn in the basket; this year some are clipping coupons and dropping them in. The collection will take place on November 22 this year and I ask that you prayerfully discern whether or not you wish to participate this year. Previous +Ponderings+ on the topic of the CCHD may be found HERE.

To be fair, it appears that Bishop Roger Morin, Chairman of the CCHD is working to reform the campaign. Read the memo he issued to all US Bishops HERE. In it, he assures the Bishops that the organizations which promoted programs contrary to Church teaching have been defunded. That is an excellent first step, yet a deep trust has been broken and cannot be healed this easily. First millions to ACORN, then the three organizations supporting intrinsic evil. What will it be this year? What surprises may be in store for Americans who are facing an above 10% unemployment rate and must be extremely careful with every penny they can afford to donate?

According to the USCCB, "The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. Catholic bishops." As of late, the term 'social justice' has been painted much differently than when the CCHD was founded in 1970. The CCHD says that 'it is time to end poverty in America once and for all. How does the CCHD end poverty? I really would like to know and do not intend it as a trick question.

As for me and my family, we will once again give all money we would have given to the CCHD to Catholic Charities of Western New York. We know where the money will be used and have seen the direct impact they have upon families first-hand. From their website:

Catholic Charities of Buffalo is the most comprehensive human service provider in Western New York, reaching all eight counties with professionally staffed locations. Each year, Catholic Charities serves more than 160,000 Western New Yorkers without regard to age, race or religious affiliation. Today’s Catholic Charities leads the way for an integrated human service delivery system.

In 2007, the agency voluntarily sought and received its first four-year accreditation from the Council on Accreditation, attesting to its adherence to the highest national professional standards and delivery of the best quality services.

Catholic Charities offers programs that strive to empower individuals, children and families. Among them are comprehensive counseling services for all ages, basic emergency assistance and referrals, child and adult mental health services, chemical dependency treatment, educational and vocational services, services to the aging, parish outreach and advocacy, marriage counseling, foster care and adoption services, child and adult day care, and a variety of programs that address prevention and treatment of a number of family issues.

Consider donating to Catholic Charities in Buffalo or your local Catholic Charities office.

Caritas In Veritate

POPE ANNOUNCES HIS NEW ENCYCLICAL "CARITAS IN VERITATE"

VATICAN CITY, 29 JUN 2009 (VIS) - At midday today, the Holy Father appeared at the window of his private study overlooking St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims gathered below.

On this Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Benedict XVI addressed a special greeting to faithful of his own diocese of Rome, assuring them of his constant prayers "that Rome may uphold its Christian vocation by maintaining unadulterated its immense spiritual and cultural heritage", and "that its inhabitants may translate the beauty of the faith they have received into concrete forms of thought and action, thus offering those who ... come to this city, an atmosphere charged with humanity and evangelical values".

"Today's Solemnity also has a universal aspect", he went on. "It expresses the unity and catholicity of the Church. That is why every year on this day, the new metropolitan archbishops come to Rome to receive the pallium, symbol of their communion with Peter's Successor".

"May the shared veneration of these martyrs [Peter and Paul] be a sign of an ever greater and more deeply felt communion among Christians all over the world".

Following the Angelus prayer, Benedict XVI indicated that "the publication of my third Encyclical, entitled 'Caritas in veritate', is now imminent. Returning to the social themes contained in 'Populorum progressio' written by Servant of God Paul VI in 1967, this document - dated today 29 June, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles - aims to delve more deeply into certain aspects of the integral development of our age, in the light of charity and of truth.

"To your prayers I entrust this latest contribution made by the Church to mankind, in her commitment to sustainable development while fully respecting human dignity and the real needs of everyone", he concluded.
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Pre-order your copy HERE.

Fr. Jenkins: Feed Hungry, Educate, Provide Abortions and Push Condoms?

Lifesitenews broke the story and I did some digging of my own. It has come to my attention that Fr. Jenkins, President of Notre Dame University, is on the board of directors of Millennium Promise. The group has eight goals as listed on their website which anyone would/should be supportive of:

	GOAL 1 Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
	GOAL 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education
	GOAL 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
	GOAL 4 Reduce Child Mortality
	GOAL 5 Improve Maternal Health
	GOAL 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
	GOAL 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability
	GOAL 8 Develop a Global Partnership for Development

That Goal #6 is a stickler for Fr. Jenkins, or at least his vocation. How do they fight HIV/AIDS? They distribute condoms, birth control pills and other types of artificial birth control as part of their 'core intervention'. I suppose Goals #3 and 5 are in direct conflict with Goal #4 - you see dear reader, they also pay for and provide abortions.

In a recent conference aboard the papal plane enroute to Africa, the Holy Father said this about AIDS and the distribution of condoms, emphasis mine:

“I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

“Therefore, I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person’s body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.

“I believe that this is the first response [to AIDS] and that this is what the Church does, and thus, she offers a great and important contribution. And we are grateful to those that do this.”

Need I mention what the Church teaches about abortion?

Why is it that good actions by these radical heretics always contain the undergarments of evil? Yes, he wants to feed the hungry, care for the needs of the poor, provide education, improve living conditions - all things any Christian would agree must be done. But then to mingle love with the intrinsically evil is akin to someone using a swimming pool as a toilet but assuring everyone that the water is fine. Their message: if the child is able to survive an abortifacent birth control pill, condoms and abortion - they'll educate them and give them food. Wake up, people!

Sudanese Bishop Shares Picture of Little Progress

Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum, Sudan (Photo: ACN)

ACN News, Tuesday, 7th April 2009 – SUDAN

No end to the suffering
Bishop’s bleak assessment of progress since 2005 peace agreement
• Government in Khartoum still insists on Islamisation
• South Sudan’s insecurity prevents return of displaced people

By John Pontifex


A BISHOP in Sudan has given a damning indictment of progress for Christians more than four years on from an historic peace agreement which promised the country a fresh start after decades of war. In a message underlining the need to step-up help for displaced Christians in the north of the country, Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur stated that the national government’s treatment of non-Muslims remains unchanged. The Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, went on to state that, with the continuing outbreak of conflict in many parts of the south, initiatives to move the refugees back to the south of the country have so far been sporadic.

'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' -- Matthew 25

In his interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Adwok said that, despite conciliatory gestures, the government in Khartoum remained wedded to the spread of Islam and the promotion of one religious and cultural identity. His comments represent a damning indictment of progress since January 2005 when the Khartoum government and southern-based rebels the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) put a formal end to 20 years of civil war by signing the landmark Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And with only two years remaining until the all-important referendum on possible independence for the south, as agreed in the CPA, the bishop’s bleak assessment bodes ill for the resolution of political issues left undecided in the 2005 deal – not least land disputes in areas where mineral resources have been discovered.

For Bishop Adwok, who is based in Kosti, 200 miles (320km) south of Khartoum, the key issue is that the Khartoum Government has not honoured its commitment to address the grievances of non-Muslims in Khartoum. A commission ‘for the rights of non-Muslims’ was envisaged by the CPA but as yet has not been established. The bishop said: “The government has always focused on the Islamisation process. I do not see any change on the part of the authorities.”

The bishop highlighted his frustration at efforts to enable the displaced people to return to their original homelands in the south, saying that security problems remained acute. He bemoaned the lack of adequate infrastructure for displaced people returning to the south. He said: “It is yet more insecurity that is deterring people from moving down to the south. There are on-going conflicts involving forces linked to the SPLA and the government in Khartoum. “It gives a picture of a land where people can only exist if they have a gun.”

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Aid to the Church in Need - "An international Catholic charity dependent on the Holy See, providing pastoral relief to needy and oppressed churches."

The Horror of Child Warriors in the Congo

In the mineral-rich Congo region of Africa, children as young as ten years old have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, drugged and forced into a senseless ethnic war for years. In recent weeks, hundreds of these children have returned to their homes broken and brainwashed, often rejected by their own families.

Following the atrocities in Rwanda, those who took part in the slaughter sought refuge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The methods of murder which left a world stunned in Rwanda were evident just months ago as reported in a Catholic News Service story released in December 2008:

Sister Marie-Bernard told Catholic News Service Dec. 29 that 50 bodies were found in the courtyard of a Catholic church in Doruma Christmas morning.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, has been blamed for the church massacre as well as continued tensions in northeastern Congo. In early December, Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese forces launched an offensive on the group.

Sister Marie-Bernard said the local justice and peace commission currently is taking scores of people to the local hospital.

"There are many people who were wounded by machete in the attacks; several people suffered amputations. The priority of the justice and peace workers is to ensure that these people now receive medical attention," she said.

"The situation in the Doruma and Faradje region grew very violent" in late December and "several civilians were killed in surrounding villages during these days -- around 200 bodies were found," she said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, deplored the violence in the region. MONUC called on the Congolese army to intervene in a way that "respects humanitarian law and with care to avoid reprisals against the civilian population."

Caritas Congo reported Dec. 29 that during the Christmastime violence 20 children were abducted as child soldiers for the Lord's Resistance Army. Caritas Congo is the local affiliate of the international Catholic umbrella group Caritas Internationalis.

Caritas said 400 people, including two priests, were killed in the violence.

A Catholic church in Duru was burned to the ground and 6,500 people took refuge in another Catholic church in the Doruma region, Caritas said.

Generations of DR Congonese dare not imagine a life without violence and suffering. The nation should be a land of 'milk and honey' due to the natural resources yet malnutrition, murder, rape and vast poverty have been a fact of life for so many. Caritas Internationalis is among several Catholic agencies providing aid to the area and UNICEF has pleaded to have all child soldiers released.

From UNICEF:



What has the world done for the least of these? Obviously not enough. To learn more on what you can do to help, follow the links to Catholic Relief Services in DR of Congo and Caritas Internationalis.

African Catholics like Martin Mande are making a difference in the lives of the former child soldiers and their families. Mr. Mande is a member of the Xaveri Movement in Africa, named after St. Francis Xavier and has devoted his life to the ministry of helping children in the region where he serves as Pastoral Associate in his parish. As a refugee and migrant activist, Mr. Mande is one face among many who knows the difficulties faced by the former child soldiers. Please keep the children of the DR of Congo and those who help them in your prayers. Support these groups financially as you are able and listen to God's call - perhaps you are being called to a mission to help the Congonese or another needy population.