Justice and Peace Priorities

"Only through charity, sustained by hope and illuminated by the light of faith and reason, can we achieve the goals of integral human freedom and universal justice." Those were Pope Benedict's words to members of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Council who are meeting for a two day plenary assembly, looking at some of the key human rights challenges facing the Church on the different continents. Under the leadership of Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana, who took over as president almost a year ago, council members will reflect on ways in which the rich social teaching of the Church - contained in the annual peace messages, the Compendium and above all the Pope's recent encyclicals - can be made more accessible and put to the service of local communities.
Fr Michael Czerny works at the Pontifical Council and tells Philippa Hitchen the plenary will focus above all on listening to the wealth of local justice and peace experience brought by its members, while also aiming to draw up a vision for the coming years......

Listen.......

"How do we think political, economic, environmental justice these days, with the background of the economic crisis, but also with the more permanent background of globalisation?"

"One of the things that scandalises people is that there is such insistent and devastating poverty in some of the richest countries on earth, so that to say there's 'first world' and 'third world' or 'developed' and 'under-developed', those are already becoming out-of-date clichés."

"It is a huge challenge and I feel that's where the encyclical 'Caritas In Veritate' opened new frontiers for us because I think the Holy Father clarified what we, as Church, can contribute to these issues......."