Photo Caption: John Carr, executive director of the USCCB Deparment for Justice, Peace and Human Development, speaks at the Diocese of Peoria’s Institute for Catholic Social Ministry on Oct. 29.

By: By Jennifer Willems

Parishes that are not interested in the social ministry of the church are not truly interested in the faith, according to the executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Our social mission not only helps us to do more, it helps us to be more the body of Christ, more Catholic,” said John Carr, the keynote speaker at the Diocese of Peoria’s Institute for Catholic Social Ministry. Sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, it was held Oct. 29 at the Spalding Pastoral Center in Peoria.

For many people, Catholic social teaching is something they hear about at a conference once a year and then push off to the side while they go about the “real” work of the parish, Carr told conference participants. He reminded them of Jesus’ “mission statement” — to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free.

“His mission on earth is our mission today,” he said. “If it is going to be fulfilled in our midst, we’re going to have to do it.”

In his first talk, “‘Good News’ in Tough Times: Catholic Social Mission and Message,” Carr said this work is more important than ever.

NAVIGATING THE “CURRENTS”
“I think we’re whitewater rafting — there are powerful currents and there are rocks in the way. We have to know the currents,” Carr said. He noted the challenges of raising children in the faith, dealing with an economy in crisis and continuing unemployment that has not only left many people behind but everyone feeling really “squeezed.”

In times like these, people without the right documentation or the right status are often hidden from society and ripe for victimization, he added.
Carr called the United States “a wounded nation” that is still grappling with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as well devastating natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Washington, D.C.

He also talked about a growing “culture of violence” in which the response to a difficult pregnancy is abortion, the response to crime is the death penalty, and the response to trouble between nations is war.

All of this offers “a new moment” for Catholic social teaching to be heard and embraced, Carr said.

“In Washington, assets are assets — money, endorsements, power,” he told conference participants. “We don’t have that.”

What the Catholic Church does bring to the table is a set of ideas, experience, a structure, tools, leaders and people, he said in his second talk, “Putting Faith Into Action: Opportunities and Challenges for Catholics.”

ONE FAMILY
“Who feeds the hungry? Who welcomes refugees? Who shelters the homeless? Who cares for the sick? Who educates the young? The Catholic Church is the largest non-public provider of education, health care and human services in the country,” Carr said. “When we go to Capitol Hill it’s often not what we believe that matters, it’s what we do that matters.”

When it comes to structure, “we’re everywhere. There’s no part of the United States that’s not within the boundaries of a Catholic parish,” he told them. “An organizer friend of mine says, ‘You Catholics are terrific. You divide up the world and call it yours.’ There’s some truth to that. You’re never outside the boundaries of Catholic teaching.”

Strong leaders like Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and the U.S. bishops have made the social dimensions of the faith clear by standing up for human life and dignity, for the unborn and the undocumented and for economic justice in ways that should make Catholics proud,” Carr said.

He encouraged them to continue to look for ways to walk with “The Two Feet of Love in Action” by providing direct assistance to those in need but also trying to address the conditions that leave people in need of that help.

The key is to weave the church’s social mission into what is already being done, Carr explained, adding that their work needs to be anchored in prayer and worship.

It is gathered around the altar for Eucharist that we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread and those without bread, he said.

“The worship that doesn’t call us to charity and justice is not authentic Catholic worship and the service and action that’s not rooted deeply in our faith and in our worship and our prayer can burn itself out. It can become activism for it’s own sake, Carr said.

He urged them to lean on one another, saying, “We’re one family of faith. We belong to one another and we ought to act like it.”

Carr cautioned them that the biggest danger they face in integrating Catholic social teaching into the life of the parish is saying, “It’s not my job.”

“None of us, not one person in this room, no believer, no leader can say that bringing good news to the poor and liberty to captives is not our job,” he said. “We’re going to do it in our own small ways, in our own small place, but we have to do it.”