Introduction
to Catholic Social Teaching and Development of the Catholic
Church's Thinking on Human Rights — These two pdf
documents are from the Australian Catholic Social Justice
Council.
A Handbook of Catholic Social Teaching by Gerald Darring.
Originally published in 1987: Social
Justice — Economic
Justice — Political
Justice — Discrimination — War
and Peace — Criminal
Justice
Catholic Studies Database — This database of institutes
and organizations working in Catholic Social Thought is a
result of a collaborative effort between the John A. Ryan
Institute for Catholic Social Thought and the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace.
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USCCB - Education
for Justice:
The situation today points to an ever increasing urgency for
a doctrinal formation of the lay faithful, not simply in a better
under standing which is natural to faith's dynamism, but also
in enabling them `to give a reason for their hoping' in view
of the world and its grave and complex problems.... This is
especially true for the lay faithful who have responsibilities
in various fields of society and public life. Above all, it
is indispensable that they have a more exact knowledge and this
demands a more widespread and precise presentation of the Church's
social doctrine, as repeatedly stressed by the Synod Fathers
in their presentations. (Christifideles
Laici, n. 60) |
The
Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church by Dr. Javier
Hervada, chair in Canon Law and the title of Professor of the Philosophy
of Law and of Natural Law in the University of Navarre, Pamplona,
Spain. |
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The
Social Agenda - Presentation — " Students, teachers,
and all those who seek a better knowledge of the social doctrine
of the Church will find contained within this collection the central
statements of the Roman Pontiffs from a range of texts, including
papal encyclicals, apostolic letters, and Conciliar documents, on
matters relating to politics, economics, and culture.
The selections are arranged thematically according to the significant
subject areas of Catholic social doctrine. Under each subject heading,
the quotations appear in pedagogical—as opposed to chronological
or magisterial—order, with each subject area opening with
a quotation that explains the issue at hand."
Prophetic
Justice Principles for America - Questions to test public policy
against the principle of justice (pdf)
Social
Justice Sunday Statement 2005: "Jesus the Light of the
World - Living the Gospel Today" — This unit of work
for schools combines Garner's Multiple Intelligence and Blooms'
Revised Taxonomy of cognitive process. The unit does not focus on
specific year levels, but has a wide range of strategies suitable
for students from Kindergarten to year 12.
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Web Sites Worth Exploring
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The Web site Papal Encyclicals
Online contains recent official Church documents but also contains
a section providing access to encyclicals of popes from the Middle
Ages till now. It also gives access to other papal writings. Popes
are listed chronologically from Pope Honorious III (August 31, 1216
- March 18, 1227) to Pope Benedict XVI and documents are listed
alphabetically and chronologically. The search function makes it
possible to search for encyclicals containing specific words or
phrases. This is a useful reference tool.
Larry Broding, a Director of Religious Education in San Diego, at
St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, Carlsbad, CA who supervises
the children's program and adult education.
He is the creator of word-sunday.com,
a wonderfully rich resource focusing on the sunday readings. I have
been linking to these resources on my Catholic
Educators Newsletter for several years because I believe they
should be widely known and used by teachers and catechists. The
site offers bible study for the Sunday's first reading and the gospel
as well a children's story and a family activity for the gospel
each week.
One feature that I want to draw attention
to here is Larry's Index
for Children's Catechism Pages. This section contains a series
of articles under four headings corresponding to the sections of
the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Each article under these headings
- there are now 36 in all and others are forthcoming - explains
a Catholic teaching in a language and with illustrations that a
child can understand.
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There are a growing number of online digital libraries that give
access to a large number of church documents, writings of the Fathers,
versions of the Bible, and so on. The InterText Digital Library
does this as well, but it also provides additional features which
can be very useful. For example, the complete edition of the New
American Bible is available in the library. You can click on a specific
word and instantly get a concordance showing other instances of
this word elsewhere in the entire Bible. Footnotes are also just
a click away. In these, if a reference is made to a specific passage
elsewhere in the Bible, simply click on the biblical notation to
read the passage. Even the words in the footnotes are in the concordance
so that if you are interested in exploring a specific theme, you
can do so. There is even an index of footnotes. For scholars, there
are statistics and graphs for word frequency, word lists by frequency,
length, or in alphabetical order. The help section on the site provides
an overview of what IntraText is and odes;
IntraText
is a text converted into a "lexical hypertext", an interactive hypertext
system consisting of:
- text,
which you access from the index or from the concordances.
If the text contains footnotes, these will appear at the foot
of the text page and the general index will also contain an index
of the footnotes;
- word
lists: these are ordered alphabetically, by frequency
of occurrence, in inverse order and by length. The words in the
lists are linked to the concordances;
- concordances:
lists comprising every occurrence of a particular word in the
text. Each occurrence is displayed in the centre of a short extract
from the text;
- statistics:
word and occurrence statistics plus other features of the text
There are thousands of documents in this library available in several
languages and in dozens of fields of study. Over 1100 of these are
in English. Of interest to Catholics are the following:
For other Church document see the Encheridion
Vaticanum section and explore the Bibliotheca
Catholica section.
Vatican
II at 40: Legacy and Hope is a special feature on the Catholic
News Service Web site. It provides interesting historical notes
on the Council, a series of articles on the impact Vatican II has
had on the Catholic Church to the present and present continued
efforts to implement its teachings. |
The
Myth of Pope Joan by Patrick Madrid, Holy Spirit Interactive,
January 08, 2006
"A lot of things are said about the alleged "Pope Joan."
Depending on who is telling the story, she was a courageous feminist,
a clever opportunist, a brilliant scholar who couldn't make it
as a woman in a man's world. She is said to have been a wise ruler
and an astute theologian, though, oddly, no decree or theological
teaching purporting to have come from her has made its way down
to our day.
In any case, the fact is, there was no Pope Joan. She exists
only as pure legend, but one that makes for a sexy story. And
when it comes to sexy stories, you know Hollywood will try its
hand at making a blockbuster out of this piece of pope fiction."
Don't Worship Your Emotions by Ron Rolheiser, OMI, December
11, 2005 — Article on capital punishment.
The
Ass and the Ox by Jeanne Heiberg, Catechist Magazine,
2005
"With Symbol Talk you can help your students understand
the meaning of Christian symbols through discussion, craftmaking,
and prayer."
Making
Doctrine Dance: Why Lewis defied convention and opposition in
order to bring Christian truth into the public arena. By Christopher
Mitchell, Christian History, Summer 2005
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GrapeVine
Online - The Magazine About Catholic Performing Artists
GrapeVine has a dual mission:
- Its first is to support the community of Catholic artists. Recognizing
that proclaiming the Gospel through music can be challenging and
at times isolating, GrapeVine seeks to build fellowship and friendship
amongst all Christian artists which would then encourage a generous
sharing of talents and knowledge, leading to further growth and
excellence.
- Recognizing the power of music to encourage and evangelize,
GrapeVine’s second mission is to expose this music to as
many people as possible, that their hearts may be touched and
encouraged by the Gospel message it proclaims.
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I was at a stop light,
behind a car with a bumper sticker that said "Honk if you love
Jesus."
So I honked. The driver leaned out his window, gave me an very impolite
gesture, and yelled, "Can't you see the light is still red,
you MORON!?"
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After a power failure in church, the choir leader
re-fused to play the electric organ.
Priest at a funeral service, "Friends, let us say goodbye
to our beloved, departed friend. Let us remember that here lies
only the shell -- the nut has gone!"
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Hard To Believe
A little girl came home from Sunday School and was
greeted by her mother. "What did you learn in class today,
dear?" the mother asked.
"Well, we learned that the Israel Ikes were running away from
the Gypsies and when they came to the Read See, Moses told them
to build a big bridge across it. Then when the Gypsies tried to
follow after them, the kids of Israel used dynamite to blow the
bridge up, and..."
"The Sunday School teacher told you THAT!"
"No, but if I told you what she really told us--you would never
believe it.
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At our adult Sunday-school class, the teacher asked
us to think of everyday ways in which we could practice our religion.
The topic of driving courtesy came up first. "How do you respond
to the driver who rudely cuts you off?" the teacher asked.
A woman piped up, "Turn the other fender?" |
The Reporter's Confession
A reporter from CNN was sent to interview a Catholic
priest about the practice of Confession for Holy Week. When he
arrived at the church, he found that the priest was already in
the confessional, so the reporter thought that it would be a good
idea to interview him at the confessional grill.
Accordingly he waited until the last of the penitents had gone,
then went up to the confessional box and said, "May I speak
to you for a moment, father? I work for CNN."
The priest replied, "I'm glad you came to me my son, it must
have taken a lot of courage to make a confession like that."
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A priest was teaching a lesson to the Sunday school.
On this particular Sunday, he was using squirrels for an object
lesson on industry and preparation. He started out by saying,
"I'm going to describe something, and I want you to raise
your hand when you know what it is." The children nodded
eagerly.
"This thing lives in trees (pause) and eats nuts (pause)..."
No hands went up. "And it is gray (pause) and has a long
bushy tail (pause)..." The children were looking at each
other, but still no hands raised. "And it jumps from branch
to branch (pause) and chatters and flips its tail when it's excited
(pause)..."
Finally one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The priest
breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. "Well, Father"
said the boy, "I KNOW the answer must be Jesus... but it
sure sounds like a squirrel to me!"
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