Learning

Year 11 General Unit 2, Mod 3 - Social Justice Issues

How a religion responds to a current social justice issue.

For Catholics, restoring God’s justice in the world is an important part of being a follower of Jesus. Justice has to do with behaving in responsible ways towards others by respecting their rights. People are usually willing to respect the rights of family and friends, but find it more difficult to accept that they have responsibilities to other people.

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Social Justice and Relationships

Every relationship involves some ex-change of rights, for example:

  • parents ensure the rights of their children;
  • children respect the rights of their parents as different from those of other people;
  • married people have responsibilities towards each other;
  • teachers and students have responsibilities towards each other; or
  • other responsibilities go with different human relationships.

Catholic Response to Social Justice

Worldwide and in Australia Social Justice is one of the highest priorities of the Catholic Church. The Pope and bishops constantly call on Catholics to become involved in fostering Social Justice in the world.

There are many examples that illustrate how the Catholic Church responds to specific social justice issues, locally, nationally and internationally.

In Australia, as in other parts of the world, the bishops of the nation develop responses to a variety of social justice issues.

The body that oversees this work is known as the Bishops Commission for Justice, Ecology and Development. One of the organisations this commission is responsible for is The Australian Catholic.

To understand how the Catholic Church in Australia responds to particular social justice issues involves a number of steps.

  1. Identify those areas where the Church expresses a concern for social justice.

  2. Review what bodies such as those provided above plus other Church groups or writings teach about such issues.

  3. Study how Catholic individuals, groups, and organisations formally and informally respond to social justice issue.