Catholic Social Thought Leaders
So by now you have an idea of what Catholic Social Thought means and some ideas on how you can get involved in your community. But working for social justice and upholding Catholic Social Thought principles is more difficult than it sounds. It is easy to get discouraged in the face of so must injustice and oppression. So here are the stories of a few selected leaders in the area of Catholic Social Thought to demonstrate that, with God, all things are possible, and you are not alone.
Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)
Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977 and is a leading figure associated with Catholic Social Thought and the Latin American liberation theology movement. Less than a month after his appointment, his long-time friend Rutilio Grande was assassinated because of his work with farm cooperatives. His death was the trigger for Romero’s action. He began to speak out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, disappearances, and torture. He argued against support of the Salvadoran government because it supported assassinations and terror. In 1980, Romero wrote a letter to then President Jimmy Carter asking him to stop sending arms to the oppressive government. His appeals went unheeded. On March 23, 1980, he called on soldiers to obey God and stop facilitating the government’s oppression and human rights violations. He was assassinated the next day while celebrating mass. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have said publicly that Romero was a martyr for the faith, and he is being considered for canonization.
Selected Writings:
The Church is All of You: Thoughts of Archbishop Oscar Romero
The Church, Political Organization, and Violence: Third Pastoral Letter of Oscar Arnulfo Romero
The Violence of Love
Voice of the Voiceless: the Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements
Jean Vanier (1928-present)
Jean Vanier was born in 1928 in Geneva, Switzerland where his father was serving as a Canadian diplomat. He joined the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth at the age of 13 and served in both the British and Royal Canadian Navies until 1950 when he resigned to begin his spiritual journey. He received a doctorate in philosophy from Institut Catholique in Paris and taught at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto before returning to France. In 1964, he welcomed two men from an institution to live with him, thus creating the first of what has become a worldwide network of 160 L’Arche communities across 30 countries and 6 continents. In these communities, developmentally disabled people live in solidarity and community with able-bodied people. The communities integrate small work projects and creative studios. Through his writings, conferences, and founding of L’Arche communities, Jean Vanier has been at the forefront of the movement to de-institutionalize people with developmental disabilities. Jean Vanier has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada, the Legion of Honour (France), the Pope Paul VI International Prize, the International Peace Award (Community of Christ), the Rabbi Gunther Plaut Humanitarian Award, and the Gaudium et Spes Award.
Selected Writings:
Our Life Together: a Memoir in Letters
Jean Vanier: Essential Writings
Our Journey Home: Rediscovering a Common Humanity Beyond our Differences
Man and Woman He Made Them
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John
Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
Dorothy Day was born in New York in 1897. From a young age, she was drawn to literature and writing. She decided early on that the social order was unjust and strived to work against it. In 1922, she roomed with three young practicing Catholic women in Chicago who showed her the merits of thanksgiving, worship, adoration, and supplication. But it was not until the baptism of her daughter, Tamar, in 1927, that she became a member of the Catholic Church. In 1933, she co-founded The Catholic Worker Movement newspaper. Its purpose was (and still is) to publicize Catholic Social Thought and promote steps to bring about the transformation of society. Originally published in May with 2,500 copies, by December the number had increased to 100,000 each month. The paper voiced discontent with the social order, sided with labor unions, and challenged urbanization and industrialism. It was radical and religious, and called on readers to make personal responses in their own lives. The editors of the paper were themselves challenged when homeless people began knocking on their door. The Movement made the decision to rent an apartment to provide housing for these people. By 1936 there were 33 Catholic Worker houses across the country. Her pacifist views got her in trouble during WWII, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War, but she continued to preach nonviolence. She also gave support to the civil rights movement and was nearly shot during a visit to a farm where people from both races lived and worked together. She is currently a candidate for sainthood.
Click here to visit The Catholic Worker Movement website.
Selected Writings:
By Little and By Little: the Selected Writings of Dorothy Day
From Union Square to Rome
House of Hospitality
Loaves and Fishes
The Long Loneliness: the Autobiography of Dorothy Day
Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Dorothy Day
Dr. Paul Farmer (1959-present)
Paul Farmer is a medical anthropologist and physician who has dedicated his life to treating the world’s poor populations in an effort to raise the standard of healthcare in the world. In 1983, he travelled to Haiti as a student and began working with communities there. In 1987, he founded a non-profit organization called Partners in Health whose mission is both medical and moral, grounded in solidarity rather than charity alone, to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. Today, Partners in Health serves thousands of people a day in Haiti and eight other countries. He is currently Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Farmer has both taught in and served as a course director for social-medicine courses in the Department. He also trains medical students, residents, and fellows at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has been a visiting professor at institutions throughout the U.S. as well as in France, Canada, Peru, the Netherlands, Russia, and Central Asia. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, and the American Medical Association's International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition.
Dr. Farmer will be speaking at the University of San Diego as part of the 20th Annual Social Issues Conference on October 8, 2009.
Selected Writings:
AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup
Infections and Inequalities: the Modern Plagues
Women, Poverty, and AIDS: Sex, Drugs, and Structural Violence
Pathologies of Power Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor
Sr. Helen Prejean (1939-present)
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1939, Sr Helen Prejean joined the Sisters of St. Joseph de Medaille in 1957. She is most famous for her prison work with death row inmates. This ministry began for her in 1981 when, working in a housing project in New Orleans, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who had been sentenced to execution by electric chair. At his request, Sr Helen began to visit him and serve as his spiritual director. It was her experience with Sonnier and her horror with the American the execution process that led to the writing of her famous book Dead Man Walking which later became a major motion picture directed by Tim Robbins and starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon (get it from the USD Library today!). In 1999, she formed Moratorium 2000, a petition that collected 2.5 million signatures calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty that was presented to then U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Today, she continues to serve death row inmates as well as educating the public about the death penalty, advocating against its practice, and reaching out to murder victims through the organization Survive which she founded.
Writings:
Dead Man Walking: an Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States
The Death of Innocents: an Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910. She joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns in India, at the age of eighteen. In 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948, she taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta, but the plight of the poor affected her so deeply that in 1948 she sought and received permission from her superiors to leave the school and work in the slums of the area. She founded an open-air school for slum children, and in 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. The Society of Missionaries is now an international network serving the poor and marginalized across the globe. During her life, she received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize the 1971 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 among other awards and recognitions. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.”
