Cajilig, Rizza Gem M.
3AHR
Catholic responses to Injustices
This chapter is about how social action responds to the reality of domestic and international injustices that we are facing. Christians are called to work in collaboration with all people of good will, through the institutions of civil society to promote human flourishing, enhance human dignity, the common good and solidarity between all God’s people and the integrity of the whole of God’s creation. Christians need to work out their responses to these in the light of His teaching and the cumulative reflections of the Church in constant dialogue with critical thinkers and changing circumstances of the times.
According to John Fuellenbach, the ‘‘kingdom-process” is God’s intervention is to be received as a gift and human cooperation is to be understood as a task. In other words, justice-seeking is primarily the Christian’s openness and response to God’s call to realize His Kingdom, here on earth as in heaven. The Church’s social teaching is a dynamic creation and seeks to address the different moral questions which emerge in each age.
Johan Verstraeten has drawn attention to the importance of embodying the developing tradition of Catholic social thought in community institutions which are ‘carriers’ of that tradition. But in changed social circumstances there is a need to create ‘a new bearer of that tradition. In other words, when the social context in which Catholic social tradition concretizes itself becomes radically different from the past, when the classic forms of Catholic social movements disappear or become secularized, Catholic social teaching would become meaningless if it refused to adapt and reinterpret its original form and content.
Political Opportunities e gave rise to the issues around which collective action might be needed and determined whether or not an organized movement could be established. Mobilizing structures s included factors such as the availability of resources,...