https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.ukJustice and Peace, Scotlanden-GBCopyright © 2011-2026 Justice & Peace Scotlandtaqthost-justiceandpeacescotland@taqt.co.uk   We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat. Saint Óscar Romero Sun, 25 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/630https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/630   Rejoice and be glad that so great and good a Lord, … willed to appear despised, needy, and poor in this world, so that men who were in dire poverty and suffering great need of heavenly food might be made rich in him. Saint Clare of Assisi Sun, 18 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/629https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/629   It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts. Servant of God Dorothy Day Sun, 11 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/628https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/628   (International Human Rights Day is observed on 10th December) Since rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from human interaction, it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples. Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, 18 April 2008 Sun, 04 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/627https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/627   (World AIDS Day is observed on 1st December) We must look carefully for the unjust structures that make HIV and AIDS possible. We need to combat the racist, sexist, homophobic, “classist‟, self-righteous, colonialist and economic unjust system. A lot of energy is lost by faith traditions when they fail to address these issues. Fr. Robert Kaggwa M. Afr., Response in the debate ‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink? HIV/AIDS: Meeting the Challenges, Exploring the Questions’ Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/626https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/626   (Feast of Christ the King) The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the gospel if it stopped being . . . a defender of the rights of the poor . . . a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society . . . that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history. Saint Óscar Romero Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/625https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/625   (Remembrance Sunday 2022) Peace cannot be limited to a mere absence of war, the result of an ever precarious balance of forces. No, peace is something that is built up day after day, in the pursuit of an order intended by God, which implies a more perfect form of justice among men. Pope Saint Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, para.76 Sun, 13 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/624https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/624   I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.  Servant of God Dorothy Day Sun, 06 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/623https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/623   Because the church has opted for the truly poor, not for the fictitiously poor, because it has opted for those who really are oppressed and repressed, the church lives in a political world, and it fulfils itself as church also through politics. It cannot be otherwise if the church, like Jesus, is to turn itself towards the poor. Saint Óscar Romero, The Political Dimension of the Faith from the Perspective of the Option for the Poor, University of Louvain, Belgium, 2 February 1980 Sat, 29 Oct 2022 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/622https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/622   If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you. Saint Thomas of Villanova Sat, 22 Oct 2022 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/621https://www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/Campaigns/Catholic-Social-Teaching/ItemId/621