Children from Warmi Huasi in Peru participate in the “Transforming Our Communities” campaign. Photo: Fr Ed O'Connell SSC/Warmi Huasi.
The World Day of Social Justice has been observed annually since 2008, when the United Nations allocated February 20th as its global observance date to mark the urgent need to address poverty, exclusion, unemployment, gender inequality, and human rights. Past themes have included “If You Want Peace and Development, Work for Social Justice” (2019) and “A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy” (2021). This year, the social justice theme focuses on “Promoting Equality, Inclusion, and Human Rights,” calling on governments, organisations, and individuals to create and sustain inclusive societies, especially those who are marginalised.
For Catholics, social justice is based on Catholic Social Teachings about human dignity, the call to family/community/participation, rights and responsibilities, and options for the poor and vulnerable, to name a few examples. More broadly speaking, Catholic social justice also proclaims and practises the teachings of Christ and calls for the Church to address social and economic problems since it is the responsibility of every Catholic to critically examine the signs of the times and understand them in the light of the Gospels (Gaudium et Spes 4).
Pope Francis writes in Evangelii Gaudium that realities are greater than ideas, meaning that Catholic Social Justice must be responsive to the realities of the people who suffer injustice and are systematically denied their dignity due to gender, race, social/economic status, etc. According to Biblical and Church teachings, every person is created in God’s image and therefore sacred (possesses inherent dignity), demonstrating the profound truth of Christ’s all-encompassing command to love God and to love one’s neighbour as themselves (Matt 22:37-39).
Responding to the realities of the poor and marginalised has been at the core of the Columban mission in countries like Peru, where the realities of the people require action that is fuelled by love to help liberate them from the impacts of poverty, violence, and constraints on education and capacity building. In Lima (Peru), Columban Father Ed O’Connell founded Warmi Huasi, an educational centre assisting women from poor communities to help look after their well-being, family life, capacity building, and for their children; the centre promotes education and safe spaces for their development.
Most recently, Fr. Ed O’Connell accompanied children and youth from Warmi Huasi to have their voices heard by the local Mayor and his Councillors on the needs of young people. While there, the group contributed ideas on how to help improve their lives and the future of the communities they stand to inherit.
Fr. Ed comments that, slowly, the local leaders were beginning to see the value of listening to the youth and harnessing their insights and energy for fresh solutions to their everyday struggles with employment, education, and other social issues. These young people, along with the support of Fr. Ed, demonstrate the profound impact of inter-generational synodality and how social justice is not just a matter of helping uphold the dignity of the poor or marginalised, but perhaps even more so, it is the ability to develop the agency of people to speak up and advocate solutions towards their daily lived realities.
Catholic Social Justice promotes equality, inclusion, and human rights based on the inherent dignity of every human person to live safely within their families and have access to basic needs such as shelter, education, employment, medical care, and sustainable sources of food and clean water. When these needs are not being met for individuals or groups of people, Catholics everywhere are called to respond through their prayers, advocacy work at Parish level, supporting organisations that address social justice issues, or by simply providing a meal for the homeless, delivering groceries to a single parent family, or helping a young person find a job. We are called to love God and our neighbours, so we must uphold the sacredness and inherent dignity of human life by doing good, seeking justice for the weak (Isaiah 1:17), and maintaining the rights of the afflicted (Psalm 82:3).
Adi Mariana Waqa
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin
