Doing Faithjustice: An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought and Action

By Fred Kammer

Book Overview

"I intend not just to promote mutual understanding in a pluralistic society, but to contribute in some small way to the revival of a common language of public or civic virtue that might ground a new and much needed political vision for this new millennium."
--from the introduction

In this fourth edition of a longtime bestseller, lawyer, activist, and Jesuit priest Fred Kammer confronts the challenge of human poverty and injustice in the context of our consumer-driven, economically fragile world.

This user-friendly fourth edition includes new materials on creation theology and the jubilee tradition, integrates the writings and important themes of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, as well as other social teaching documents from the past twenty years, and provides updated economic and social data and analysis. The questions for reflection and renewal at the end of each chapter have been expanded and revised.

Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ, JD, is a priest, an attorney, and a member of the Central and Southern Province of the Jesuits in the United States. Since retiring last year, after twelve years as the director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute JSRI] at Loyola University New Orleans and nine years as the president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, he is now engaged in a combination of social and prison ministries and advocacy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, his home state.
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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809155796
• ISBN13: 9780809155798
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

EITHER 5 STARS OR 1?

I had a hard time deciding whether to give this book a 5 or a 1. I decided on a 5 because the book is so useful if you want a treatise on how one takes selective excerpts from Church documents out of context and turns it into a campaign for the political left. If you are going to read only one book read the enemy's! I have read every Church social document from Rerum Novarum to Centessimun Annus and rather than just give my opinion let me give my own list of quotes: RELATION OF FAMILY DETERORATION TO POVERTY: (not found in this book)"The first and fundamental structure for "human ecology" is the family....... . Here we mean the family founded on marriage" (emphasis in the original text) (Centessimus Annus # 39, The Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Supreme Roman Pontiff, John Paul II, 1991) THE WONDERFUL WELFARE STATE:"In recent years the range of such intervention has vastly expanded, to the point of creating a new type of state, the so-called "Welfare State." This has happened in some countries in order ....... remedying forms of poverty and deprivation unworthy of the human person. .... Malfunctions and defects in the Social Assistance State are the result of an inadequate understanding of the tasks proper to the State. Here again the principle of subsidiarity must be respected: a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions ... By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies .... ..... It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need" (Supreme Roman Pontiff, John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, #48, Hundedth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, 1991) REDISTRIBUTE WHAT WE HAVE - LIMITED RESOURCES:"Truth to tell, we do not seem to be faced with any immediate or imminent world problem arising from the disproportion between the increase of population and the supply of food. Arguments to this effect are based on such unreliable and controversial data that they can only be of very uncertain validity. 189. Besides, the resources which God in His goodness and wisdom has implanted in Nature are well-nigh inexhaustible" (Mater et Magistra, Christianity and Social Progress, His Holiness Pope John XXIII, 15 May 1961) LIMITED WEALTH SO LET'S HELP POOR BY DRAGGING DOWN OTHERS:"It should be noted that in today's world, among other rights, the right of economic initiative is often suppressed. Yet it is a right which is important not only for the individual but also for the common good. Experience shows us that the denial of this right, or its limitation in the name of an alleged "equality" of everyone in society, diminishes, or in practice absolutely destroys the spirit of initiative, that is to say the creative subjecti

One of the strengths of the Catholic Church...

...is its teachings and praxis of social justice. Father Kammer, formerly the head of Catholic Charities USA nicely summarizes in depth (without the highbrow theological talk) Catholic social teaching.If you work with people day in and day out, especially those considered by the cold eyes of society as 'downtrodden' (those with spiritual insight realize that there is no 'we' and 'they'), this book will help provide you with some resolve and help put into perspective the application of faith and why it is we are here.