Catholic Tradition & Political Life

"The church calls for a different kind of political engagement; one shaped by the moral convictions of well formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable."

"The virtues of citizenship are an expression of Christian love more crucial in today's interdependent world than ever before. These virtues grow out of a lively sense of one's dependence on the commonweal and obligations to it."

"The manner and means for achieving a public life, which has true human development as its goal, is solidarity. This concerns the active and responsible participation of all in public life, from individual citizens to various groups. All of us, each and everyone are the goal of public life as well as its leading participants."

"Men, families and the various groups which make up the civil community are aware that they cannot achieve a truly human life by their own unaided efforts. They see the need for a wider community, within which each one makes his specific contribution every day toward an ever-broader realization of the common good."

"A sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary man, and the demand is increasingly made that men should act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a responsible freedom, not driven by coercion but motivated by a sense of duty. The demand is likewise made that constitutional limits should be set to the powers of government, in order that there may be no encroachment on the rightful freedom of the person and of associations…It regards, in the first place, the free exercise of religion in society."

Catholic Tradition & Human/Nature Coexistence

"The church has a responsibility toward creation, and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In doing so she must defend not only earth, water, and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction. There is a need for what might be called a human ecology, correctly understood. The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: When "human ecology" is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits."

"The earth is not a human possession but rather a fellow creature. It is not an object to be manipulated simply for human gratification, a plaything or a factory for us alone, but a gift that is given moment by moment."

"At the root of the senseless destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropological error, which unfortunately is widespread in our day. Man, who discovers his capacity to transform and in a certain sense create the world through his own work, forgets that this is always based on God's prior and original gift. Instead of carrying out his role as cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, which is more tyrannized than governed by him."

"We see quite clearly that what happens to the nonhuman happens to the human. What happens to the outer world happens to the inner world. If the outer world is diminished in its grandeur then the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual life of the human is diminished or extinguished. Without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars by night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human."

"Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of the other."

Catholic Tradition & the Economy

"The church's social doctrine has always maintained that justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity because this is always concerned with man and his needs. Locating resources, financing, production, consumption and all other phases of the economic cycle inevitably have moral implications. Thus every economic decision has a moral consequence."

"As individuals and as a nation, therefore, we are called to make a fundamental "option for the poor." The obligation to evaluate social and economic activity from the viewpoint of the poor and the powerless arises from the radical command to love one's neighbor as one's self."

"Development cannot be limited to mere economic growth. In order to be authentic, it must be complete: integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man."

"The virtues of citizenship are an expression of Christian love more crucial in today's interdependent world than ever before. These virtues grow out of a lively sense of one's dependence on the commonweal and obligations to it. This civic commitment must also guide the economic institutions of society. In the absence of a vital sense of citizenship among the businesses, corporations, labor unions, and other groups that shape economic life, society as a whole is endangered. Solidarity is another name for this social friendship and civic commitment that make human moral and economic life possible."

"The economic sphere is neither ethically neutral, nor inherently inhuman and opposed to society. It is part and parcel of human activity and precisely because it is human it must be structured and governed in an ethical manner."

Catholic Tradition & Environmental Justice

"The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole."

"People are beginning to grasp a new and more radical dimension of unity; for they perceive that their resources, as well as the precious treasures of air and water - without which there cannot be life - and the small delicate biosphere of the whole complex of life on earth, are not infinite, but on the contrary must be saved and preserved as a unique patrimony belonging to all human beings.

"It is becoming more and more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view. We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles, in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments."

I pledge to pray and reflect on the duty to care for God's Creation and protect the poor and the vulnerable.
I pledge to learn about and educate others on the causes and moral dimensions of climate change.
I pledge to assess how we - as individuals and in our families, parishes and other affiliations - contribute to climate change by our own energy use, consumption, waste
I pledge to act to change our choices and behaviors to reduce the ways we contribute to climate change
I pledge to advocate for Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact those who are poor and vulnerable.

Catholic Tradition & Digital Citizenship

"Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development and democracy for all. To achieve goals of this kind, they need to focus on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity... The media can make an important contribution towards growth in communion of the human family and the ethos of society when they are used to promote universal participation in the common search for what is just."

"Social media have become the pamphlets of the 21st century, a way that people who are frustrated with the status quo can organize themselves and coordinate protest, and in the case of Egypt, revolution."

"The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human… In this light, reflecting on the significance of the new technologies, it is important to focus not just on their undoubted capacity to foster contact between people, but on the quality of the content that is put into circulation using these means. I would encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship."

"With the explosion of online technologies and social media, religious institutions across the spectrum are finding more and more creative ways to connect with their members and reach out to new audiences. The Vatican, for example, has its own channel on YouTube, while the Dalai Lama tweets updates through Twitter."

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