Resources for Social Justice Issues
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Capital Punishment
To learn about the Church’s teaching on the Death Penalty, visit the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website, Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. There you will find the Bishops’ 2005 statement, “The Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death.”
Join the Catholics Mobilizing Network for the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty to receive regular updates and information on what you can do to bring an end to the death penalty in the United States.
The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP) has been working to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut since 1986. We stand strongly opposed to the death penalty as a poor public policy. The death penalty does not deter crime, it is not cost efficient, it kills the mentally ill, it is economically and racially biased, it kills the innocent, and it does not provide closure to the families of victims – it is simply revenge, not justice.
Other resources to consider:
- The Catholic Church and the Death Penalty
- Bishop Peter Rosazza’s Testimony
- Death Penalty Campaign
- What is Restorative Justice?
Global Solidarity
Four or five times each year, the calendar offers us a month with FIVE Sundays. Our newly formed Archdiocesan Global Solidarity Team has decided to take advantage of these “extra” Sundays, by focusing on a particular social justice issue quarterly when these Sundays occur, and providing a packet of resources for use by individuals and/or the parish community. Our own “Catholic Social Teaching” will provide the grounding for each issue that is addressed.”
Global Solidarity Sunday Packet One: Human Trafficking – January 29, 2012
- Cover Letter on Human Trafficking
- Bulletin Quotes and Prayers
- CRS Background Handout
- CRS Petitions and Prayer
- Resource Suggestions
See the Human Trafficking topic below for additional resources on this topic.
Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.
UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
For information on how you and your faith community can help combat human trafficking, visit Catholics Confront Global Poverty or the USCCB Response to Human Trafficking website.
At the October, 2011 Annual Dinner of the Office for Catholic Social Justice Ministry, keynote speaker Mary DeLorey, a Catholic Relief Services issues specialist, offered her insights on and experiences of the horrors of international human trafficking. A transcript of her talk is available here: “Human Trafficking, Human Rights - Creating a Safer World for the Most Vulnerable.”
For more information on how you can take action, Catholic Charities offers these resources:
Immigration
In June, 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) Board of Directors resolved to make comprehensive immigration reform, with special emphasis on legalization, a major public policy priority within the Church. Many other national Catholic institutions have also made legalization a policy priority.
As part of the Church’s response, a diverse group of Catholic organizations with national networks have decided to join the USCCB’s Justice for Immigrants: A Journey of Hope campaign. The campaign was designed to unite and mobilize a growing network of Catholic Institutions, individuals and other persons of good faith in support of a broad legalization program and comprehensive immigration reform. Learn more about the Justice for Immigrants campaign.
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For a more comprehensive list of social justice issues that are of concern to the Church, visit:
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