Jesuit Centre For Social Faith and Justice
Organization profile published 1980

Publisher:  Queen Street East Presbyterian Church, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1980
Resource Type:  Organization
Cx Number:  CX2030

Abstract: 
The Canadian Jesuits recently opened a new center in east-end of Toronto. the first director, Father Michael Czerny, describes the purpose of the Center as "a focussed Jesuit effort to collaborate with ecumenical and other action groups in witnessing to justice and furthering social change". Four Jesuits staff the Center and all have experience in relating to various social issues.

The Center has chosen as its first major project, the healthcare delivery system and its relationship to the current disintegration of the Ontario medicare system. The health care focus was chosen because two of the staff have had long involvement in the social and medical aspects of health care, and because the investigation of this issue clearly raises the structural injustices in society.

The Center collaborated with the Ontario Federation of Labor, the Secondary School Teachers' Association and other groups with a common interest in improving the structures of health care delivery especially for economically disadvantaged people. Following on its work on the provincial level, the Center was invited by the national Canadian Labor Congress to collaborate with other religious and socially concerned groups. They are preparing a brief for presentation to the Federal Commission on Medicare.

Through staff contacts with Latin America, the Center hopes to approach health care on the international as well as the national and local levels. One of their goals is to discern the basic health needs of the Third World.