Right on Matthew!  Personally, I prefer using “charity” to the term “Social Justice” because Christ calls us to go beyond simple justice (giving another their due).  He calls us to pour forth and give in selfless charity…. and that can only be done from the freedom of the will.  This is why we need to work at evangelization, which will free human hearts to enact social justice and go beyond.

First of all how is “Social Justice” different from Justice? Sorry to say but the far left have used the term “Social Justice” for decades as a code word for Socialism/Marxism. I heard the term for years all through school and beyond…long before I heard it used in the Catholic context. And I must admit I bristle at hearing the term because it is, when misused, such an obvious reference to Marxism and wealth distribution. Sorry to say but when O’Reilly uses the term he is not talking about the Catholic understanding of it but the leftist political use.

Frederich Hayak wrote an amazing essay about this and it’s included in his book “The Fatal Conciet”...here is an article discussing it as well.
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/06/060205-3.htm

Great article Matthew. I’m a young Catholic who works full-time in evangelization work, christlife.org and I def lean away from “social justice” crowds (because it has been associated with the “left”) - but have seen more and more in my personal life that being committed to justice should have nothing to do with being “left” or “right.”

“He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”?
Micah 6:8

Keep up the good work, in Jesus.

I personally know a lot of people who have been able to survive and thrive because of government programs. And I thank God for that.

After a divorce that left me alone to care for my two children, I was able to get government support while I finished my college education. I got help with day care, a Pell grant for tuition, and welfare for rent,  and food stamps. There were no luxuries and plenty of necessities, such as warm clothing for my children, were in short supply. When I went on to graduate school, I started making my own way as a writing instructor,  except for the rent subsidy. When I got my first job as a technical writer, all the government support stopped, and I have been paying taxes,since then. I now pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes a year. You could think of it this way. The government invested in me. And the investment brought dividends.

I have a sister who has kidney failure and the government pays for her living, a cab to the dialysis center, her medical care, and some nursing and other help.

What would have happened to either of us will the government programs would not have been pretty. My sister might be homeless or dead. You people who came from good families got an entitlement because of the circumstances of your birth. Don’t regret government programs that give people like me a chance for a better life.

Thanks for the great thoughts, all!

Roseanne, Thank you for sharing your touching story. I’m not suggesting that the “State” on some level doesn’t have some type of obligation to serve the common good. It does. The “ends” that you describe in your story are wonderful. But the means of accomplishing those ends must also be taken into consideration and are just as important in terms of justice. And they are perhaps more important in terms of sanctification and charity.

And certainly the help/aid you speak of could come from many different sources (as it commonly does), not solely the federal gov or the State. In fact, the State is perhaps the worst means of accomplishing it.

Yes, social justice has a bad name. It may be from the far left, I do not know, but it also is from many Catholics, more sprecifially nuns and priests, who have misused and abused it, both in word and practice.  Many nuns have left what really is their calling from the prospectives orders, gone off by themselves and fought for this in ways that are not truly what social justice means in the Church, making it a polictical action, instead of the charitable action it should be.

I pray for the day when the sisters and priests with this mind set come back to doing what God wants them to do and not what they want to do….our schools, hospitals, parishes, etc will all benefit from this.

Christ’s peace,

Judy

A lot of evil has been perpetuated under the title of ‘Social Justice’. Let’s make birth control readily available to the poor so that they can limit the amount of kids they have therefore having more money in pocket to spend. Let’s push poor countries to steralizations in exchange for milk for their kids. So many evils. Also so many orders of religous have left their original charism to pursue social justice when they were more effective at bringing about social justice by charisms such as teaching. You feed a man a fish or teach him to fish. Which brings about the improvement in the man’s life in a more permanant and useful way?

Your commentary leaves me somewhat confused as to your true opinion. I didn’t see the particular O’Reilly comments but he is generally on target. As a Libertarian he believes that Communism and anything else that smacks of big government forcing wise, free people to do something against their will is wrong. I know Liberals use the “social justice” argument as a way to advance big government policies that amount to forced wealth redistribution. The popes have spoke against communism and socialism as well. The political liberals in no way believe in social justice the way the popes have described it.

I think “Social Justice” has a bad rap from those within the Church that are part of the Social, Justice and Peace groups.  Personally, I have listened to the people in these groups speak out in anger over war, especially the lose of innocent life, and then speak fervently in favor of abortion.  I have watched my local group give money to organizations that do not support Church teaching.  I have witnessed them wearing “Catholics for Marriage Equality” buttons (supporting gay marriage) while participating in the Mass as Eucharistic Ministers.  I know that all the Social, Justice and Peace groups are not like what I have experienced.  But maybe we should start within our churches to rectify the bad impression being given to these words.

For me “social justice” became a bad name when catholic groups used “social justice” as an excuse to justify their position to vote for abortion (pro choice) candidates.  At the very least, it raises a red flag.  Other terms that also raise a red flag are diversity, common ground, human rights (which usually fronts for gay activism these days).  As Father Corapi has said (and I paraphrase) one needs to understand the difference between tolerance and permissiveness and between freedom and license.

I talked to my pastor a while back about voting for a personal friend of mine who was Catholic and a Notre Dame and Georgetown Unv. law degree graduate, a prolife six-term Congressman, a prolife two-term State Attorney General, who was the unopposed nominee for Governor on the Republican ticket.  I asked if he would vote for him.  I never expected to hear what I heard.  He said, “I can’t vote for him!  I’m a Democrat.”  (The Democrat candidate for Governor was pro-abortion.)  I said to my pastor, “What about abortion?”  He said, “I don’t worry about the babies – they’re in heaven.” 
What would cause a strong speaking pastor against abortion on Respect Life Sunday to continue to give his name and vote to the pro-abortion party – if he didn’t care more about the so-called “social justice” issues of the Church?  If the Church is getting a “bad rap” about her “social justice” position, she has nobody else to blame than her bishops who have written Pastorial Letters and adopted and lobby Congress and State Legislatures for the same things the socialist and leftist do.  That is also why half the Catholics, including the bishops and clergy continue to give their name and votes to the pro-abortion Democrat Party and why 50,000,000+ babies have been aborted, with no end in sight.  And we have non other thanCardinal Bernardin to thank for all of this.

I hate having the last word.

The world can’t take this pat-a-cake handling of this aweful position toward mankind. I’ve traveled and studied in Central America where liberation theology is rampant and the poor are being abused by such teachings. I can’t understand how any human being with any intelligence and a morsal of compassion can encourage people to reproduce knowing full well what circumstances their child is going to be born into and how the parents will be further oppressed by the moral responsibility to care for that life. To me, a physician, it is the greatest expression of hypocracy for the Church to dis-allow wide spread contraception in the name of allowing the will of God to be expressed and then ask for, or demand, medical care for diseases throughout life, especially near the end, in the name of “social justice.” Withholding contraception is THE ultimate social injustice perpetrated on the people of Central America.

@CAM: Contraception is against natural law, and it represses the true fulfillment of human sexual expression that was built into the human person by God. To narrow the focus of this powerful creative force to be only a means of satisfaction without the possibility of fertility has consequences that people who think they are smart cannot fully grasp. We encourage people to copulate without commitment,  to deny the fullness of what that union means psychologically, physically, and morally. Normal relations are thwarted by barriers or by hormones that put the woman in a permanent state of mock pregnancy, and that expose her to many health problems, not to mention emotional and psychological ones. If the attempt to deny the new life that can be created fails, the human child is treated as a “byproduct of conception,” and often killed or left with only one parent to raise. I could go on. The ultimate social injustice is to foster the worship of sexual freedom above all with all the evils that come from it, including human sacrifice. Two parent families with the parents leading moral lives are able to care for their children. Sexual immorality is what leads to the social evils you wish to prevent, not chaste families who accept with joy and love the number of children that God sends them.  I know many big families and they all are happier than the neurotic one or two or three child contracepting families. They don’t have as much stuff, but they have more sanity, peace, innocence and health in mind and body.