Bishop Vincent Long – Australian Cardijn Institute

The church’s current social teaching is profoundly rooted in the Second Vatican Council and oriented to the urgent needs of today said Cardinal Michael Czerny in an annual lecture for the Australian Cardijn Institute on 15 November.

Cardinal Czerny is the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. In March Pope Francis sent him with humanitarian aid to Ukraine, along with the papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.

In the Cardijn lecture which the cardinal delivered online from Rome, he discussed his book, co-authored with Fr Christian Barone, Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teaching of St Francis, which is a guide to Pope Francis’ latest encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

“Pope Francis teaches us to interpret, embrace and implement the most important sign of the times and that is the urgent vocation to behave like the siblings that we really are… to develop the social friendship necessary to care for one another and to care for our common home,” Cardinal Czerny said.

The cardinal said that ‘sign of the times’ was key to understanding the Council including its “rediscovery of the synodal nature of the Church” and “probably the most memorable expression that came to us from Vatican II” but added that the phrase was also misunderstood. Rather than a purely secular understanding of the ‘sign of the times’ as precursors of future social, economic and cultural realities, the Church is called to a different view, he said.

“The Council doesn’t see the sign of the times sociologically but in relationship to our life as followers of Jesus, as the Church, as the living people of God.

Responding to the lecture, Susan Pascoe, chair of Catholic Emergency Relief Australia and one of the drafters of the Document for the Continental Stage of the Synod on Synodality said that part of the “genius” of Pope Francis’s communication is his constant invitation to all of the people of God, not only the hierarchy.

FULL STORY

Cardinal delivers Cardijn Lecture to Aussies (Catholic Weekly)

VIDEO

Siblings All, Sign of the Times – The Social Teaching of Pope Francis (ACI/YouTube)

PHOTO

Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary for the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section, stands on the terrace of the Jesuit residence in Rome April 22, 2020, where he lives and, during the coronavirus lockdown, works. (CNS photo/courtesy Cardinal Czerny) See VATICAN-LETTER-RESOLUTIONS April 22, 2020.

In a message for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv has highlighted the challenges many people face in working more than one job to make ends meet – and the flow-on effects of that decision.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference publishes a message each year for the May 1 feast, with this year’s message focusing on low-paid workers who can’t cover the cost of living through a single job.

Bishop Long, chair of the Bishops Commission for Social Justice, Mission and Service, acknowledged in the message that working more than one job is a positive choice for some people.

“But for others it is a matter of economic necessity,” he said.

“They are cobbling together multiple part-time or casual jobs to try to make ends meet.

“This work is usually poorly paid and insecure. There is little career progression. Casual and seasonal workers are not entitled to paid leave even when they are sick or must care for others. It is a stressful and uncertain way to live.

“Much of this work is undertaken by women. This type of work is hard on family life. It makes it difficult for young people to get a start in life.”

Bishop Long noted that the need to work more than one job is common for workers who have played critical roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: cleaners, health and aged care workers, childcare staff and social assistance workers.

“These and other workers in the care economy have been such heroes during this pandemic,” he explained.

“Yet they are often underpaid or placed in intolerable working conditions. It is scandalous that people who do such essential work are left in situations of scarcity and insecurity. Surely the pandemic has taught us to value this work and those who do it more highly?”

With May 1 this year falling in the middle of the federal election campaign, Bishop Long urged whoever forms the next government to have a policy focus on “decent work – work that is safe, secure, and fairly paid”.

“Stable, secure jobs are needed to power a recovery that actually works for working people and their families,” Bishop Long said.

SOURCE

Bishop Vincent: Workers need secure jobs, fair pay (Catholic Outlook)

Feast of St Joseph the Worker 2022 (Justice, Ecology and Peace)