Catholic Social TeachingOur tradition of justice

Caritas study and discussion programme

Introduction:This is one of seven 90 min sessions on principles of Catholic Social Teaching. They can be used as an individual one-off session on a particular Catholic social teaching principle or as a series of seven sessions. They are designed to be used by a group of 4-10 people, but can also be adapted for individual study and reflection. They are based on a set of seven posters and videos, available from the Caritas office and also provided on the Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand website: www.caritas.org.nz/resources/cst

If used as a group, it is suggested that participants gather around a table with a focal point, such as a cross and candle as a centre. It will help to have facilitator to lead the sessions and encourage full participation, and a timekeeper to light the candle at the beginning, assist in keeping the group on track time-wise and set up the video.

Each session are framed around the SEE-TIROHIA – JUDGE-WĀNANGATIA – ACT-MAHIA model of reflection and action. Times are approximate only but it is important that the whole session concludes after 90 minutes.

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Opening PrayerOpen with the sign of the cross in English, Te Reo Māori and other languages of the group:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ki te ingoa o te Matua, o te Tamaiti, o te Wairua Tapu. Āmene.

Father, your truth is made known in your Word.

Guide us to seek the truth of the human person.

Teach us the way to love because you are Love.

Jesus, you embody Love and Truth.

Help us to recognize your face in the poor.

Enable us to live out our vocation to bring love and justice to your people.

Holy Spirit, you inspire us to transform our world.

Empower us to seek the common good for all persons.

Give us a spirit of solidarity and make us one human family.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Based on Pope Benedict XVI: Caritas in Veritate)

IntroductionsIf this is the first time the group has met, or if there are new people in the group, allow time for brief introductions.

SEE - TIROHIA (30 mins)

1. Pondering the poster

Spend some time looking at the Caritas Common good poster.

Catholic Social Teaching Our tradition of justice

The Good of Each& All

COMMON GOOD

The Good of Each& All

COMMON GOOD

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Different members read out a paragraph each from the poster pausing after each one.

• Commitment to the common good means respecting the rights and responsibilities of all people.

• Our actions have an impact on wider society. It is up to every one of us – governments, communities and individuals – to promote the common good. When we make decisions, we choose to consider the good of all – he painga mā te katoa.

• No one should miss out on the opportunity to grow and fulfil their potential. Each and every person deserves to have what they need to survive and to flourish.

• ‘The common good...the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.’ Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes - The Church in the Modern World

Questions for Group reflection and discussion

• What does the picture tell you about the context of the life of the group featured in the poster?

• Which statement from the poster best illustrates for you the way we need to work with others for the good of each person and of all people?

2. Viewing the video Watch the Caritas Common good video on Te Roopu Haurongo in the Bay of Plenty1.

In the whole group read out the following explanation:

Te Roopu Haurongo works for the common good by supporting the whānau of at-risk youths in Whakatane region. No one should miss out on the opportunity to grow and fulfil their potential. Te Roopu Haurongo receive referrals from the Police, Child Youth and Family and the local community of young people who are getting into trouble or facing difficulties and hardship. Whānau advocates and Kaumātua walk alongside whānau and youth to work out a plan to help them reach their potential.

Ask each person in the group to share with their neighbour: How do the people in the video seek to work together to achieve the common good?

Questions for Group reflection and discussion

• What inspired you in watching the video of Te Roopu Haurongo working in Te Teko and Taneatua?

• How are they helping people facing difficulties and hardship?

5 minute break

1. available on-line at http://www.caritas.org.nz/resources/catholic-social-teaching/common-good or on DVD from Caritas

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JUDGE - WĀNANGATIA (40 minutes)

1. Searching the ScripturesCommitment to the common good is a central part of our Scriptural tradition. Group members take it in turns to read out quotes from Scripture from this Discussion outline or from a Bible, pausing after each one.

• Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers... Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

• All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. Acts 2:43-47

• Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Acts 4:32-35

• Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

• ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?’ Luke 15:4

Questions for Group reflection and discussion

• How does the example of the early Christian community challenge us to live today?

• Why does the lost sheep in Luke 15:4 warrant special attention and care?

• What does James mean by us needing to be ‘doers of the word’?

2. Learning in the light of Catholic social teaching:Group members take turns to read out each of the following passages, pausing after each:

• To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Beside the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is a good that is sought not only for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and can only

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really and effectively pursue their good within in. To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity.

Pope Benedict XVI: Caritas in Veritate (paragraph 7), 2009

• The common good…the good of all of us, the good which includes but also reaches beyond our individual needs and desires to the good of all the people, families and groups that make up our society. An excessive emphasis on individual self-sufficiency leads to resenting our inter-dependency, and too easily judges that when people sometimes have to depend on others – whether through disability, illness or unemployment – they are unworthy or undeserving of our collective support. In contrast…allowing ourselves to think we are self-sufficient is a way of closing in on ourselves, and closing ourselves off from God’s love which wants to flow through us to others. Sharing God’s love involves sharing the resources which God intends for all. Traditional Māori wisdom gives us this explanation of the same vision: Ehara taku toa I te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini – my strength is not mine alone, but that of the many.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: Introduction to Social Justice Week 2011.

• The whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts. There is no need, then, to be overly obsessed with limited and particular questions. We constantly have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good which will benefit us all. But this has to be done without evasion or uprooting. We need to sink our roots deeper into the fertile soil and history of our native place, which is a gift of God. We can work on a small scale, in our own neighbourhood, but with a larger perspective. Nor do people who wholeheartedly enter into the life of a community need to lose their individualism or hide their identity; instead, they receive new impulses to personal growth. The global need not stifle, nor the particular prove barren.

Pope Francis: Evangelii Gaudium - The joy of the Gospel (paragraph 235), 2013

• Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together. St Barnabas, quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1905)

Questions for Group reflection and discussion

• Why does the Catholic Catechism challenge us to ‘seek the common good together’?

• Why is the common good so central to Catholic social teaching and our understanding of how we live our faith as a community?

• Why do our Bishops warn that an excessive emphasis on individual self-sufficiency may be damaging to the common good?

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ACT - MAHIA (15 minutes)

Reflect personally on the following questions:

• What are some practical ways I can make seeking the common good central to my life?

• How do I bring reflection on the common good into my decisions about who do vote for?

• How are tāngata whenua of Aotearoa working for the common good of all? How can other New Zealanders show solidarity?

• What is one thing I will do differently in the next week?

Choose one of these to share briefly with the whole group.

CLOSING Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, harmony;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

(Prayer of St Francis)

Close with the sign of the cross in English, Te Reo Māori and other languages of the group:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ki te ingoa o te Matua, o te Tamaiti, o te Wairua Tapu. Āmene.