Background Article

Our Church teaches that we are one human family. As children of God, we are brothers and sisters called to be responsible for one another. Loving our brothers and sisters throughout the world requires that we work for peace and justice.

“A change of attitude towards migrants and refugees is needed on the part of everyone, moving away from attitudes of defensiveness and fear, indifference and marginalization – all typical of a throwaway culture – towards attitudes based on a culture of encounter, the only culture capable of building a better, more just and fraternal world.”

Pope Francis, Mexico/Holy See Colloquium on Migration and Development, 7/14/2014

These brothers and sisters include immigrants to our country, both legal and illegal. Our U.S. bishops have advocated a viable path to citizenship for the undocumented, more generous family reunification policies, and a temporary worker program. In “Strangers No Longer,” the bishops state that nations have the right to control their borders. They also state that this right must be balanced against the right of persons to migrate so that they can realize their God-given rights. It all comes down to a matter of balancing. A nation has a responsibility to the common good of its own people and this must be balanced against a need for universal common good.

Additionally, the bishops recognize that there are conditions that compel people to leave their homes out of desperation and lack of opportunities to provide for themselves and their families. These issues must be addressed if an effective and comprehensive response to migration is to be achieved in our country.

• What do I know about the immigration issues in the United States?
• Do I pray that there be justice for all who migrate to our country?

Links
Brothers and Sisters to Us
USCCB’s Pastoral Letter on Racism, 1979

Migrant and Refugee Children Resources
Downloadable fact sheets from the USCCB

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Background Article

As the Church continually states in her teachings on stewardship, we have an obligation to respect and care for God’s creation. There is, fortunately, a growing awareness that we need to make greater efforts to conserve our natural resources, recycle what we can, and be less wasteful in general. God calls us to be good stewards of every gift has has given us. Stewardship involves governments, corporations, communities, families, and individuals.

“I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be ‘protectors’ of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”

Pope Francis, Inauguration, 3/19/13

One of the greatest gifts of creation is the tremendous variety of animal and plant life on our planet. We are finally learning that these, too, should be used prudently. Many medicines are derived from rare plants, and the benefits we gain from these plants, are important to human life. We need to be concerned not only about people, but all living things, because all of God’s creation is a gift.

• Do I appreciate and respect the beauty of various kinds of plants and animals?
• How do I show this respect and live out the call to protect God’s creation?

Links
Environment Justice Program
From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

CST 101 | Care for God’s Creation
From Catholic Relief Services YouTube

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Unit Activity

Discuss the immigrant experience of the Holy Family as they fled Bethlehem for Egypt to live among strangers until it was safe to return to their homeland. Compare their experience with that of a refugee family from another country fleeing to the United States to seek asylum. Have participants role-play the two experiences, or share their reflections through a poem or in a drawing.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick reminds us:

We must never forget the Gospel call of Jesus – to welcome the stranger – for in the face of this stranger, we see the face of Christ.” Discuss what this means for the young people in your group.

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Unit Activity

Have participants select one school day during the coming week to keep track of items that make up their own lunch. Have them list the items and how each could be reused or recycled (e.g., reuse lunch bag, take home apple core for composting, recycle juice/milk box, plastic, paper). During follow-up discussion, find out how many actually did reuse or recycle their lunch items. Discuss the experience.

To the motto “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse,” Catholics can add a fourth, “Respect.” Respect for God’s creation urges us to follow through with being good stewards. Consider problems such as littering, polluting the air, dumping hazardous waste, wasting electricity or water. Have participants describe one action your family, group, or community can take to become better stewards of God’s creation. Invite the group to create and design their own motto.

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Background Article

The Church recognizes the dignity of work and the reality that workers have rights. Among these rights is a just wage. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a just wage the “legitimate fruit of work” (2434). Such wages allow workers to provide a healthy livelihood for themselves and their families. Proper compensation for work connects to the common good. When hard-working people do not receive just wages, all of society suffers. The family is affected negatively in terms of relationships and health.

Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner.

Rerum Novarum (“On the Condition of Labor and the Working Classes”), Pope Leo XIII, 45

Profits are never more important than people. Yet sometimes people are marginalized for the sake of the bottom line. Businesses, corporations, and all economic activity are good in as much as they serve the needs of people (CCC 2432). Work, a form of continuing our participation in God’s creation, is our way of providing for a dignified livelihood.

• How does another worker’s unjust wage affect me?
• What prices am I willing to pay to support those companies and business who place people over profits?
• What responsibility do I have to help others seek a dignified livelihood?

Links
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Catholic Campaign for Human Development
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Unit Activity

A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.
Romans 4:4

In 1938 the US Congress passed (and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed) the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), establishing child labor laws, a minimum hourly wage, and maximum workweek. Have the young people review the US Department of Labor’s Minimum Wage Chart. Then have them find out the minimum wage in your state. How does it compare with the federal minimum wage? Discuss the importance of minimum wages, keeping in mind that a minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer may legally pay workers, and the need for just wages.

Set up a debate involving members of your group with the topic: Should the minimum wage be a just wage? To take sides, participants will need to research the pros and cons of the issue. At the end of the debate, note that the US Bishops have long supported a just economy through decent work and decent wages.

Links
Just Wage and the Federal Minimum Wage, February 2014 (PDF)
from the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development

Selected Quotations from Catholic Social Thought on the Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Labor Unions (PDF)
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Background Article

In some corners of the earth, especially in the poorest countries, children and adolescents are the victims of a terrible form of violence: they are enlisted to fight in the so-called “forgotten wars.” Indeed, they suffer a doubly scandalous aggression: they are made victims of war, and at the same time forced to play the lead in it, swept away in the hatred of adults. Stripped of everything, they see their future threatened by a nightmare difficult to dispel. Our youngest “brothers and sisters” who suffer from hunger, war and diseases are launching an anguished appeal to the adult world. May their cry of pain not go unheard!

Pope John Paul II, Angelus, March 28, 2004

UNICEF estimates that yearly more than 300,000 children (under the age of 18) are suffering from involvement in armed conflicts around the world (see US State Department’s Fact Sheet). Such sufferings violate the dignity of these children. Many of these children endure human trafficking, labor exploitation, military recruitment, and forced combatants (see the UN’s Six Grave Violations). Some of the worse violators include the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

In 2007, more than 50 countries approved “The Paris Commitments,” to end the use of child soldiers. The US Federal Government actively works to address the needs of children in armed conflict. Various bureaus and agencies (such as USAID) within different departments, like State Department, work on reporting and preventing violations of human rights. In 2008 Congress passed the Child Soldier Prevention Act, which restricts funding and assistance to those governments known for human trafficking and child soldier recruitment.

Children living in countries where wars are taking place need to be protected. The children need to be healed and comforted, then returned to normal society. Some of the countries do not have enough money to help the children on their own. Various organizations and groups within the Catholic Church work to protect children and help them recover. Catholic missions have special recovery homes for children who were forced to fight or who were harmed by war. With the help of Catholic Relief Services, the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate have helped rehabilitate former child soldiers in Uganda (see the Baltimore Archdiocese’s Catholic Review’s article).

• How much am I aware of the rights of others? Rights I myself have?
• How do I fulfill my responsibilities related to these rights?

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Unit Activity

Identify basic rights that all people including children, should have: life, family, shelter, food, etc. Ask the young people to identify responsibilities they have that accompany these rights.

To exercise one of these responsibilities to advocate for the basic rights of others, have them draft letters advocating for the dignity of every human person, including children. Have each young person write a letter to a US government official, asking them to support a worldwide ban on child soldiers. Consider also writing letters to the United Nations, asking them to stop the armies from forcing children to become soldiers. Letters to newspaper and magazine editors can also be effective. To begin, work as a group to create a basic letter that states the intent of the letter.

Links
Find your US Representative
How to Contact your US Senator
Write or Call the White House

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