Catholic Social Teaching is sometimes referred to as the Church's 'best kept secret'. In order to make it better known, we have chosen quotations would be suitable for copying into parish bulletins to give people a 'taster'.
Among our tasks as witnesses to the love of Christ is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor, so that they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at times to treat people as mere consumers.
Pope Francis, Address to Archbishop Justin Welby, 14 June
(Nearest Sunday to World Day for eradication of poverty (17 Oct))
When I fed the poor, they called me a Saint. When I asked why the poor had no food, they called me a Communist.
Archbishop Hélder Câmara
Do we realize that something is wrong in a world where there are so many farm workers without land, so many families without a home, so many laborers without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected? …So let’s not be afraid to say it: we need change; we want change.
Pope Francis, Address to the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Bolivia, 9 July2015
In short, we are called to show mercy because mercy has first been shown to us. Pardoning offences becomes the clearest expression of merciful love, and for us Christians it is an imperative from which we cannot excuse ourselves.
Pope Francis, Proclamation of the Year of Mercy
(Nearest Sunday to World Day against the Trafficking in People (26 Sep))
Therefore, as we fix our gaze on the Holy Family of Nazareth as they were forced to become refugees, let us think of the tragedy of those migrants and refugees who are victims of rejection and exploitation, who are victims of human trafficking and of slave labour.
Pope Francis, Angelus, 29 December 2013
(Nearest Sunday to UN International Day for Peace (21st September)
The only path is to renounce violence, to begin anew with dialogue, with the attempt to find peace together, with a new concern for one another, a new willingness to be open to one another.
Pope Benedict XVI, Good Friday, 2011
We need to go forth from our own communities and be bold enough to go to the existential outskirts that need to feel the closeness of God. He abandons no one, and he always shows his unfailing tenderness and mercy; this, therefore, is what we need to take to all people.
Pope Francis, Message to Pilgrims gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 16 November 2013
The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.
St Basil the Great