Author: Web administrator

columns2018

Caring for Creation

Post author By Web administrator
Post date August 19, 2018

by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI

“The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. (n 217, Laudato Si, On Care for our Common Home).

If we are committed to ecological conversion/healing our wounded creation, we must demonstrate that, as Pope Francis said, the effects of our encounter with Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us.

Tags environment, Laudato Si

columns2018

Euthanasia – a crime against life

Post author By Web administrator
Post date August 12, 2018

I am in London at the moment and have been involved in discussions about an official report that has revealed that “the annual number of euthanasia cases across all age groups has multiplied almost fivefold in ten years. The practice was legalised in Belgium in 2003—a year after the Netherlands. While the Netherlands does not allow children under 12 to choose death, Belgium’s decision in 2014 to extend its euthanasia laws to all minors provoked outrage in the country and internationally. Many religious groups argued the country’s laws ‘trivialise’ death and went a ‘step too far’.”

Tags euthanasia

columns2018

We need the Eucharist to live lives of service

Post author By Web administrator
Post date August 5, 2018

Today’s gospel, John 6:24–35, offers us an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a disciple of the “true bread”; “the bread of life”. In the gospel Jesus tells us: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.”

For Catholics Jesus, the bread of life, is literally present—body, blood, soul and divinity—in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine. This is what we refer to as the doctrine of the Real Presence. Our catechism tells us that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC, 1324).

Tags ecumenism, Eucharist

Press Release

CCSJ, GCL welcome Pope’s decision to revise Church’s teaching on Death Penalty

Post author By Web administrator
Post date August 3, 2018

The Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) and The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) welcome Pope Francis’ decision to revise the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Death Penalty.

This decision is clearly linked to the Catholic Church’s belief that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of the Church’s social doctrine. It is important to note that a number of other faith communities/Christian denominations are also opposed to the death penalty.

columns2018

What we can do to stop human trafficking

Post author By Web administrator
Post date July 29, 2018

Tomorrow, July 30, the world will observe World Day against Trafficking in Persons. Around the world, human traffickers continue to exploit people for profit, and to violate their human rights.

Pope Francis rightly says that human trafficking is “an open wound on the body of humanity…a crime against humanity and a form of slavery which is unfortunately increasingly widespread; it involves every country, even the most developed, and touches the most vulnerable people in society: women and young girls, children, the disabled, the most poor [sic], whoever comes from situations of familial or social disintegration. We need a common responsibility and a stronger political will to succeed on this front” (February 12, 2018).

Tags human trafficking