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To Establish a Kingdom of Justice
Publisher: Atlantic Episcopal AssemblyYear Published: 1981 Pages: 21pp Price: 2.00 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX2298 Following and in response to the 1977 pastoral message of the Canadian Bishops, "A Society to Be Transformed," the Roman Catholic Bishops of the Atlantic provinces have issued this pastoral statement "to promote fundamental changes" in Canada's social structures and economic order. Abstract: Following and in response to the 1977 pastoral message of the Canadian Bishops, "A Society to Be Transformed," the Roman Catholic Bishops of the Atlantic provinces have issued this pastoral statement "to promote fundamental changes" in Canada's social structures and economic order. They ground the causes of regional disparity in the concentration of wealth and power in the few with surpluses from the production of goods accruing to the minority of the population. The result is a crippling dependency in which the region exports raw material and imports transfer payments and high cost consumer goods. The unequal distribution of goods has a number of effects, the most serious of which is "a people rendered fatalistic by years of unequal exchange for their products." The Bishops continue to find hope, however, in the region's resources, both material and human but with the caution that not even all the important and critical history of the region including trade unionism, farmers' organizations and Maritime rights' movements "could defeat the forces of big money and burgeoning bureaucracy." Concluding that the present profit-oriented system and a just social order are not compatible, the Bishops urge programs of involvement, reflection and action in their own dioceses. The document offers an analysis of regional disparity while leaving the solutions to local churches and individuals. The following resources can serve as aids for local church use of the above statement: 1) "Atlantic Bishops' Statement Discussion Guide" (available at above address); 2) "Situating the Atlantic Bishops' Statement" (available at above address) - This book contains summaries of major papal social encyclicals (since 1965) as well as summaries of the Canadian Bishops' Labour Day Statements; 3) "General background document on Atlantic Regional Disparity" - by Social Action Commission, P.O. Box 1689, Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown, Charlottetown, P.E.I.; 4) "Our Church and Our Economic System" - a social justice program on Regional Disparity - available from J. Duncan McIntyre, St. Francis Xavier University (St. F.X.U.), Extension Department, Antigonish, Nova Scotia; 5) "Social Justice Program for the Diocese of Antigonish" - available from St. F.X.U., Extension Department, Antigonish, Nova Scotia; 6) "Guidelines for Setting up a Parish-based Social Action Committee" - Thomas McIllwraithe, Social Action Commission, Diocese of St. John, 39 Cliff Street, St. John, New Brunswick. |