(Click on this Norman Rockwell painting for a larger version.)
I'm adding a new link on the sidebar which will bring you to the site of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
The Church's social teaching is a prophetic voice addressed to all aspects of the human experience. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good seeks to give this rich tradition greater exposure and bring its influence to bear on the common good. I hope that a look at this organization's mission and vision statements will lead you to explore their site.
Our mission is to provide information to Catholics about Church Social Teaching as it relates to public participation in our society, and to advance the prophetic voice of the Catholic Social Tradition.
Our Vision
We envision a society shaped by the values of justice, human dignity and the common good, where faithful American Catholics can embrace the fullness of the Church's social justice teachings when participating in democratic society.
As Catholics, we inherit a rich tradition whose inspiration reaches well beyond our own faith community. The papal encyclicals and letters that make up this tradition are based on Jesus' call to love one's neighbor and serve the least among us, and the Hebrew Scriptures' prophetic commitment to justice and righteousness.
Our Catholic tradition calls us to participate actively in public life in the service of human dignity, social justice and the common good. These teachings – to put community before self, principle before profit, and the public interest before political expediency – are central to our Catholic tradition. Catholics in Alliance is committed to creating the necessary conditions for a culture of life that reverences the life and dignity of the human person over greed, materialism and the politics of division.
I wrote a comment yesterday, but somehow it got blog-booted! I had read the article in Sunday's Globe Magazine about Lawrence, MA. Very alarming statistics. Father O'Brien's Cor Unum meals center was mentioned. Also, the article in Northwest section of Globe about the rising of median incomes in several Massachusetts towns, which is creating, as John Edwards has said over and over, Two Americas - One for the Rich and One for Everyone Else. I am glad that the Alliance will encourage in the parties' platforms inclusion of traditional Catholic social justice issues. These issues have not had the emphasis they should have had in the last several election cycles. As our economy falters, a prime opportunity presents itself to renew our commitment to these values, which have gotten short shrift for too long.
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