Strand: Christian Ethics – Personal and Social (CEL3-4E1)

Levels 3 and 4

God’s love calls people to live justly and peacefully; to serve others with respect, sensitivity, compassion and love.

Generate and justify ways in which Christians respond to the call to be active witnesses to God’s love in the world.

Elaborations

A Christian way of life draws on the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments. The teachings of the prophets present a call to live in a particular way (e.g. Micah 6:8), while in the New Testament the teachings and lived example of Jesus and the early Christians demonstrate this (e.g. Jn 13: 1-20, The washing of the feet, Acts of the Apostles).

In contemporary times, Catholic social teaching (CST) promotes the Dignity of the Human Person.

CST began with Pope Leo XIII who in 1891, as the Industrial Revolution began to unfold, urged society to always put people before machines. Since that time many popes have used their writing in encyclicals (Church documents) to develop CST as a basis to place the dignity of humans above that of other social forces of the time. Catholic Social Justice Teaching)

Catholic Christian Organisations such as Caritas, St Vincent de Paul, and Catholic Mission supports the poor and marginalised locally, nationally and internationally. The dignity of the human person, an integral element of CST, is given meaning by the work of these organisations. This dignity is independent of ethnicity, creed, gender, sexuality, age or ability. No human being should have their dignity or freedom compromised. Poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice make it impossible to live a life commensurate with this dignity. At Caritas Australia, all programs are person-centred with empowerment at their heart. People are treated neither as commodities nor as mere recipients of aid. See Caritas Site; Caritas

Stewards of Creation: A Change of Heart (Ballarat Diocesan Sustainability document). Download document under Curriculum Resouces on Awakenings website

See Learning Lites: Right Relationships

More Information

Stewards of Creation

See Learning Lites: Right Relationships

External Links

Catholic Social justice Teaching

Caritas