Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Department for Social Justice and Bishop of Arundel & Brighton provides the foreword for 'Turning Tables'.
“I am pleased to commend this resource as means to explore the riches of Catholic Social Teaching, grounded in the Scriptures.
While it has often been said that Catholic Social Teaching is a ‘well-kept secret’, this is perhaps no longer the case as increasing numbers of people across society are finding in the Church’s social teaching a response to the challenges of the age.
Thanks go to all those who have been involved in the production of this new resource which will surely open Catholic Social Teaching to a yet wider audience.”
Rt Rev Richard Moth
Bishop of Arundel & Brighton.
Chair, Department for Social Justice of the Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales
“Once again we exhort our children to take an active part in public life, and to contribute towards the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own country. They should endeavour, therefore, in the light of the faith and with the strength of love, to ensure that the various institutions — whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose — should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous humanity’s perfectioning of itself both in the natural order as well as in the supernatural.”
Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) – Pope John XXIII, 1963, sec. 146.
Jesus Teaches at Nazareth
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Who is this Toolkit for?
Turning Tables is a resource designed to help adult Catholics across England and Wales to
understand and engage with their faith, Scripture and social justice in practical ways.
It will do this by covering five core themes:
Government policies influence much of our lives. They lay out what we can and cannot do; how we should relate to, and treat, each other; and how we should treat the earth and its resources. The Bible also has much to say about these issues and that’s why the Catholic Church is concerned with social justice at local, national and international levels. If we understand how the foundations of social justice are developed throughout the Scriptures, and how Jesus modelled social action in His lifestyle and teachings, then we can apply these values and principles in our own times.
As Catholics, building community is important to us. We are a universal Church and our faith is based on relationships with God and with each other. Therefore, we have a common responsibility to help build a culture that upholds the dignity of every human life, especially the most vulnerable. This responsibility works at different levels: local and individual, national and global. Scripture, Tradition and Catholic social teaching provide us with a framework to build a better world, but sometimes this vision seems impossible to achieve or feels out of our reach. This Toolkit shows us how, and helps us to put our faith into social action.
Across our dioceses of England and Wales we have the capacity to create real change in our churches and communities. From small local acts to challenging our governments, we can demonstrate gospel values as individuals and as the Church standing together since
…no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society.
Evangelii Gaudium sec. 183.
__________
Section 1: What is Social Action >
<< Back to ‘Turning Tables: A Toolkit for Scripture and Social Action’
__________
