Social justice means charity plus

By Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM

Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM, sat down this week with The B.C. Catholic to discuss the establishment of the new Vancouver Archdiocesan Office of Social Justice.

Plans for the new office were announced in the document Let Us Act! which was published after the conclusion of the Vancouver Archdiocesan Synod.

Synod Proposition 15 called for a consolidation of the Church's social apostolate by the creation of a new Office of Social Justice to expand the mandate of the former Catholic Charities. The new office will cover human rights advocacy, the prison ministry of the archdiocese, and other corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Archbishop Roussin suggested that, while the reasons behind the creation of the new Office of Social Justice are probably not yet well understood, he expects many questions will be answered as educational programs are set up and consultative committees are struck.

That process, he noted, will begin when the appointment of a new director for the Office of Social Justice is finalized.

The B.C. Catholic: What is the thinking behind the opening of this new Office of Social Justice?

Archbishop Roussin: First and foremost, because we are the Catholic Church, one of the key issues in our lives is always to be "in love," that is, to be in love with others.

Pope Benedict XVI made that very clear in his first letter, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), when he talked about love being both "agape" and "eros."

The new Social Justice Office will be there to remind us that, while prayer is extremely important, love of God doesn't stay in prayer but goes out to others, particularly those less fortunate than ourselves.

We pray and we plan for good liturgies, but at the same time we find ways to serve those in need whom God has put in our path.

This will be the main task of the Office of Social Justice: to help connect us to each other and to where the needs are. We are prayerfully motivated to carry out in practical ways God's love for each of us.

Often the needy are people in our own families as well as our communities. Divorce, family breakdown, and tragedy abound. We don't have to go far to see the hurts in our world. It's out there on our streets. The stories are in our newspapers and on TV every day.

Certainly this week's shootings on the college campus in the U.S. remind us of our responsibility to minister to our fellow human beings because we are one body in Christ. The brokenness of people is everywhere. As Christians we are witnesses to the painful experiences of Christ and to His rejection in the crucifixion. We remember that, as has happened also to many of us, rejection came even from those close to Him.

BCC: Are we moving away from the charitable model?

AB: Charity will always be there for everyone, and it is our response to Christ's telling us that the poor will always be with us. However, we should be looking at ways we can link to others who believe as we do in improving life for our citizens.

For instance, here in Vancouver, the homeless seem to be increasing by the dozens every day; not just in the downtown, but in our surrounding communities. These are big problems and beyond the scope of any one group, so we support efforts in our community to solve some of these problems.

We are called to be more sensitive and be touched by these situations, and to not dismiss people for what they are doing because so often we don't understand the reasons behind the behaviour. We have been remiss in dealing with native people in this regard.

I envision the new Office of Social Justice as an effort to discover how we can inject love into our practical help for the less fortunate.

BCC: How will parishes become involved with the new Office of Social Justice?

AB: The education process is very important at this stage, and I think the very best source of reading right now is to get a copy of the Pope's encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

In this document you will find the basis for almost everything the Pope has said since he was elected. I was astonished at some of the things he has written about love.

Anyone would do well to read this letter several times to make sure they really digest it. It is an easy read, I can promise you, and it builds well on the letters of his predecessors.

After the new director of the Office of Social Justice is hired, committees will begin working with him or her and with people from parishes, as we have done with evangelization. In this way, we will plan for the future.

Because parishes are located in different areas of the archdiocese, there will be different needs to be considered. We want the services to be useful in the area they are created to serve.

BCC: Should we look at ways to become involved with social justice beyond our own families or parishes?

AB: Spiritually, it is a deep truth that, just as our prayers for the dead are heard, so also when we pray for the welfare of someone in another part of the world our prayers are heard. Certainly, we should follow up with more education and more action.