"Una sociedad que es capaz de censar aves rapaces y sin embargo cuestiona censar a sus iguales, es decir, a personas que por ser emigrantes no pierden su dignidad humana, es una sociedad equivocada", Maria Aurora de Santiago, Rev. Sagrada Familia.

"Cuando doy limosna a los pobres me dicen que soy santo, pero cuando pregunto por qué hay pobres me dicen que soy comunista", Helder Camara

The Catholic Work Movement

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The general aim of the Catholic Worker Movement is to realize in the individual and in society the expressed and implied teachings of Christ. It must, therefore, begin with an analysis of our present society to determine whether we already have an order that meets with the requirements of justice and charity of Christ.
The society in which we live and which is generally called capitalist (because of its method of producing wealth) and bourgeois (because of the prevalent mentality) is not in accord with justice and charity –

IN ECONOMICS – because the guiding principles is production for profit and because production determines needs. A just order would provide the necessities of life for all, and needs would determine what would be produced. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Today we have a non-producing class which is maintained by the labor of others with the consequence that the laborer is systematically robbed of that wealth which he produces over and above what is need for his bare maintenance.

IN PSYCHOLOGY – because capitalist society fails to take in the whole nature of man but rather regards him as an economic factor in production. He is an item in the expense sheet of the employer. Profit determines what type of work he shall do. Hence, the deadly routine of assembly lines and the whole mode of factory production. In a just order the question will be whether a certain type of work is in accord with human values, not whether it will bring a profit to the exploiters of labor.

IN MORALS – because capitalism is maintained by class war. Since the aim of the capitalist employer is to obtain labor as cheaply as possible and the aim of labor is to sell itself as dearly as possible and buy the products produced as cheaply as possible there is an inevitable and persistent conflict which can only be overcome when the capitalist ceases to exist as a class. When there is but one class the members perform different functions but there is no longer an employer-wage-earner relationship.

TO ACHIEVE THIS SOCIETY WE ADVOCATE:

A complete rejection of the present social order and a non-violent revolution to establish an order more in accord with Christian values. This can only be done by direct action since political means have failed as a method for bringing about this society. Therefore we advocate a personalism which takes on ourselves responsibility for changing conditions to the extent that we are able to do so. By establishing Houses of Hospitality we can take care of as many of those in need as we can rather than turn them over to the impersonal "charity" of the State. We do not do this in order to patch up the wrecks of the capitalist system but rather because there is always a shared responsibility in these things and the call to minister to our brother transcends any consideration of economics. We feel that what anyone possesses beyond basic needs does not belong to him but rather to the poor who are without it.

We believe in a withdrawal from the capitalist system so far as each one is able to do so. Toward this end we favor the establishment of a Distributist economy wherein those who have a vocation to the land will work on the farms surrounding the village and those who have other vocations will work in the village itself. In this way we will have a decentralized economy which will dispense with the State as we know it and will be federationist in character as was society during certain periods that preceded the rise of national states.

We believe in worker-ownership of the means of production and distribution, as distinguished from nationalization. This to be accomplished by decentralized co-operatives and the elimination of a distinct employer class. It is revolution from below and not (as political revolutions are) from above. It calls for widespread and universal ownership by all men of property as a stepping stone to a communism that will be in accord with the Christian teaching of detachment from material goods and which, when realized, will express itself in common ownership. "Property, the more common it is, the more holy it is," St. Gertrude writes.

We believe in the complete equality of all men as brothers under the Fatherhood of God. Racism in any form is blasphemy against God who created all mankind in His image and who offers redemption to all. Man comes to God freely or not at all and it is not the function of any man or institution to force the Faith on anyone. Persecution of any people is therefore a serious sin and denial of free will.

We believe further that the revolution that is to be pursued in ourselves and in society must be pacifist. Otherwise it will proceed by force and use means that are evil and which will never be outgrown, so that they will determine the END of the revolution and that end will again be tyranny. We believe that Christ went beyond natural ethics and the Old Dispensation in this matter of force and war and taught non-violence as a way of life. So that when we fight tyranny and injustice and the class war we must do so by spiritual weapons and by non-cooperation. Refusal to pay taxes, refusal to register for conscription, refusal to take part in civil-defense drills, non-violent strikes, withdrawal from the system are all methods that can be employed in this fight for justice.

We believe that success, as the world determines it, is not the criterion by which a movement should be judged. We must be prepared and ready to face seeming failure. The most important thing is that we adhere to these values which transcend time and for which we will be asked a personal accounting, not as to whether they succeeded (though we should hope that they do) but as to whether we remained true to them even though the whole world go otherwise.

HOAC, Hermandad Obrera de Acción Católica

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Somos y nos sentimos Iglesia. Creemos que esta Iglesia, con sus luces y sus sombras, es la Iglesia de Jesucristo, y deseamos y trabajamos para que seamos cada día más la Iglesia de todos los empobrecidos del mundo, porque sólo así podremos ser la Iglesia de todos.

Somos mujeres y hombres trabajadores que tenemos una experiencia y una aventura. La experiencia de sentirnos amados por Jesucristo. La aventura de vivir esta experiencia construyendo la justicia que brota de ella, procurando que los empobrecidos del mundo obrero lleguen a ser los protagonistas de su vidas.

El trabajo es cada día más escaso y más precario. Las personas son utilizadas como instrumentos de producción y consumo cuyo coste hay que reducir al mínimo. Sin embargo, la persona es lo más importante de todo cuanto existe y sus posibilidades de vida dependen de su trabajo.

Las necesidades básicas de la persona: salud, educación, vivienda, descanso…, se han convertido en un lujo para muchos trabajadores y trabajadoras, y para quienes no pueden acceder a un empleo. Pensamos que el trabajo debe posibilitar los recursos necesarios para vivir con dignidad y formar una familia.

Ante esta situación queremos:

• Construir un proyecto de humanización que nos ayude a vivir en libertad: optando por la comunión frente al individualismo; por la solidaridad frente a la competencia y por el ser frente al tener.

• Compartir la vida con nuestros compañeros y compañeras de trabajo, con nuestros vecinos del barrio…, y plantearnos con ellos qué podemos hacer para que nuestro mundo sea más justo y más humano.

• Transmitir el tesoro de la fe en Jesucristo y su Evangelio, clave para la reconstrucción de la persona y del mundo.

El cambio de nuestro mundo exige nuestra propia transformación personal. La formación, con el método acción-reflexión-acción, nos posibilita actuar con criterios humanizadores e ir forjando en nosotros actitudes liberadoras.

Nos exige el compromiso que, junto con otros, realizamos como aportación real a la toma de conciencia y a la transformación de las personas y del pequeño mundo en que vivimos.

Como fundamento de este proceso reconocemos la acción del Espíritu de Jesús que trabaja en nosotros y en todos. Para percibirlo así y responder adecuadamente, cuidamos la espiritualidad cristiana como dinamismo que posibilita la entrega, fortalece en la lucha y anima la esperanza de la vida comprometida.

Center of Concern

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Our Mission

The Center of Concern researches, educates, and advocates from Catholic social tradition to create a world where economic, political, and cultural systems promote sustainable flourishing of the global community.

Our Vision

We envision a global community that upholds basic human rights and human dignity, fosters just relationships, promotes sustainable livelihoods, and renews Earth.

The Center of Concern is a faith-based organization working in collaboration with ecumenical and interfaith networks to bring a prophetic voice for social and economic justice to a global context. The Center is both a provider of information and analysis as well as a catalyst for launching projects to address issues or opportunities that advance an authentic human development agenda. Through analysis, education, advocacy and capacity building, the Center challenges structural injustice and promotes innovative economic alternatives.

Effective Strategies

To advance our mission, the Center of Concern has adopted three overarching strategic goals:

1.    Influencing Public Policy
•     Give the voiceless a voice at the tables of power
•     Critique policy for those in leadership and for the general public

2.    Exercising leadership in national and international circles
•     Provide leadership and moral vision to advocacy networks working for more just institutions and policies in the U.S. and in the international arena
•     Support grassroots justice movements

3.    Educating for justice and social transformation
•     Develop theological/social reflection
•     Articulate a call to justice for the faith community
•     Provide education on critical domestic and international issues

Our Work

For 40 years, the Center of Concern has been enabling individuals, organizations and coalitions to:

1.    Explore and analyze the global issues and social structures from an ethical perspective based on Catholic Social Teaching
2.    Become involved in strategies and projects that promote the good of the entire global community and the integrity of every individual.

Since 1971, the Center of Concern has offered moral vision and provided effective leadership in the struggle to end hunger, poverty, environmental decline, and injustice in the United States and around the world. Our goal is to provide individuals and organizations with basic tools to addressthese universal questions: What are the root causes of human suffering in the world today? How can we change systems to increase social justice and offer hope? We provide reliable information and analysis on development issues, practical alternatives to current development policies, practical suggestions for personal action, and faith reflections on this work for justice.

Catholic Relief Services

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About Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Since then, we have expanded in size to reach more than 100 million people in 91 countries on five continents.

Our mission is to assist impoverished and disadvantaged people overseas, working in the spirit of Catholic social teaching to promote the sacredness of human life and the dignity of the human person. Although our mission is rooted in the Catholic faith, our operations serve people based solely on need, regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity. Within the United States, CRS engages Catholics to live their faith in solidarity with the poor and suffering people of the world.

CRS is motivated by the example of Jesus Christ to ease suffering, provide development assistance, and foster charity and justice. We are committed to a set of Guiding Principles and hold ourselves accountable to each other for them.

As the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States, CRS is governed by a board of directors comprising clergy, most of them bishops elected by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as religious and Catholic lay men and women.

CRS maintains strict standards of efficiency, accountability and transparency: 93% of our expenditures go directly to programs.

CRS' Commitment to Catholic Teaching

Catholic Relief Services is a manifestation of love for our brothers and sisters around the globe by the Catholic community of the United States. We protect, defend and advance human life around the world by directly meeting basic needs and advocating solutions to injustice. CRS is a pro-life organization dedicated to preserving the sacredness and dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Every aspect of our work is to help life flourish. We are resolute in our commitment to the Church and its teaching.

As a part of the Universal Church, we work with local Catholic institutions around the world. As a Catholic agency that provides assistance to people in need in 91 countries without regard to race, religion or nationality, we also participate in humanitarian initiatives undertaken by a range of groups, including governments, other faith communities and secular institutions. Although some positions and practices of these institutions are not always consistent with the full range of Catholic teaching, CRS' work with these institutions always focuses only on activities that are fully consistent with Catholic teachings.

CRS employs Catholics as well as non-Catholics. Membership in professional associations enables our staff to obtain information and technological advances that best prepare us to serve those in our care—and we do so in full accordance with Catholic teachings. Our staff members also belong to coalitions that extend the reach of services to poor people who often live in remote areas where CRS does not operate. These coalitions give CRS a platform to present effective methods and procedures that demonstrate the efficacy of Catholic approaches to health and family planning. These are our opportunities to make space in the public sphere for the Catholic viewpoint and to witness to our faith.

Consejo Pontificio Justicia y Paz

ORIGEN

El Concilio Vaticano II formuló abiertamente el auspicio de que fuera creado “un organismo universal de la Iglesia que tenga como función estimular a la comunidad católica para promover el desarrollo de los países pobres y la justicia social internacional” (Gaudium et Spes n. 90).

Para responder adecuadamente a este deseo Pablo VI instituyó, con un Motu Proprio publicado el 6 de enero de 1967 (Catholicam Christi Ecclesiam), la Pontificia Comisión “Justitia et Pax”.

“Justicia y Paz es su nombre y su programa” escribía el Papa dos meses más tarde en la Populorum Progressio, la Encíclica que, presentándose en cierta maniera “como un documento de aplicación de las enseñanzas del Concilio” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis n. 6), constituye, con la Gaudium et Spes, el punto de partida y de referencia del nuevo Organismo.

Después de un período experimental de diez años de duración, el mismo Pablo VI, con un nuevo Motu Proprio (Justitiam et Pacem), del 10 de diciembre de 1976, dió a la Comisión su mandato definitivo.

Al momento de la reorganización de la Curia Romana, efectuada por la Constitución Apostólica Pastor Bonus del 28 de junio de 1988, el Papa Juan Pablo II transformó la Pontificia Comisión en Pontificio Consejo Justicia y Paz ratificándole a grandes líneas sus funciones.

FINALIDAD y MANDATO

La finalidad y el mandato del Pontificio Consejo están por tanto definidos, en modo sintético y preciso, en la Pastor Bonus, cuyo texto se propone enseguida íntegramente:

“El consejo tiene como finalidad promover la justicia y la paz en el mundo según el Evangelio y la doctrina social de la Iglesia (art. 142).

§ 1. Profundiza la doctrina social de la Iglesia, trabajando para que se difunda ampliamente y se aplique entre los hombres y comunidades, especialmente en lo que se refiere a que las relaciones entre obreros y empresarios se impregnen más y más del espíritu del Evangelio.

§ 2. Recoge informaciones y resultados de encuestas sobre la justicia y la paz, el desarrollo de los pueblos y las violaciones de los derechos humanos, los evalúa y, según los casos, comunica a las asambleas de obispos las conclusiones obtenidas; fomenta las relaciones con las asociaciones católicas internacionales y con otras instituciones existentes, incluso fuera de la Iglesia católica, que trabajen sinceramente por alcanzar los bienes de la justicia y de la paz en el mundo.

§ 3. Trabaja con afán para que se forme entre los pueblos una sensibilidad respecto al deber de promover la paz, especialmente con ocasión de la Jornada para lograr la Paz en el mundo (art. 143). Mantiene particulares relaciones con la Secretaría de Estado, especialmente cada vez que haya que tratar públicamente cuestiones referentes a la justicia y a la paz mediante documentos o declaraciones (art. 144)”.

http://www.justpax.it