Social Justice

Over the past decade Rome has been marked with sharp, and often unwarranted, criticism of the Church in the United States and American Catholic life.  But very few of the critics have taken the time to talk, systematically, with a wide range of U.S. Catholics to understand their concerns.  True Confessions is unique for its frank and in-depth interviews with 103 bishops, clergy, religious, and lay men and women from various backgrounds over a 17-month period, December 2020 through May 2022. 

The wide-ranging subject matter includes the unseen challenges of life as a bishop; the pressures and satisfactions of the priesthood, the diaconate, and the consecrated life; the structural and leadership ingredients of diocesan success and failure; fallout from the Church' sex-abuse scandals; problems in Catholic universities; attitudes toward the Vatican; the role of Catholics in the academy and the secular culture; the witness of parents who have children with special needs; and the testimony of immigrant Americans as they assess their new homeland.

Finally, the book presents the reasons why so many U.S. Catholics, despite today's challenges, continue to love the Church and cherish their faith with joy and energy. 

What does the Catholic Church teach about racism? What should Catholics think about Critical Race Theory, which is currently being widely promoted in the name of antiracism

All One in Christ lucidly explains the Church's clear and consistent condemnation of racism, showing that the condemnation is not a recent development but deeply rooted in centuries of papal teaching and Scholastic theology.

This book also demonstrates that Critical Race Theory, far from being a remedy for racism, is, in fact, a new and insidious form of racism that cannot be reconciled with the social teaching of the Church and the call of Christ. Edward Feser exhorts Catholics to oppose Critical Race Theory�precisely because they are opposed to racial injustice. They must reaffirm that all human beings are rational creatures capable of knowledge and charity and redemption from sin through grace.

More than four years in the making and published with the permission and cooperation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, this large format 224 page book offers the most comprehensive photographic documentation of the apostolic work and prayer life of the Missionaries of Charity yet published. Destined to serve as an important historical record, this "illustrated prayer book" vividly portrays the peace and joy that can come when "small things" are done with great love.

The more than 180 fine art quality tri-tone photographs, along with spiritual counsel from Mother Teresa, will provide a lifetime of rich material for prayer and meditation. Also included and published for the first time ever, with Mother Teresa's special permission, is an appendix containing the contents of the Missionaries of Charity daily prayer book as well as a most personal and profound letter on the interior life written by Mother Teresa during Holy Week of 1993 and addressed to her entire order. Though meant originally as an instruction and appeal to those in her order, this "I Thirst" letter is certain to become a source of spiritual light and encouragement, drawing innumerable hearts and souls closer to God.

Special Highlights of this Unique Volume:

• 187 fine art, high quality, original tri-tone photos
• Previously unpublished private prayers of the Missionaries of Charity
• Mother's profound, personal "I Thirst" letter on prayer never before published
• Other quotes and spiritual counsel from Mother Teresa
• The ideal gift book as a lasting keep-sake

Author: Michael Collopy

Hardback 224 pages

Size: 10.5 x 9 

Publication Date: June 1, 2016

ISBN:  9781621641292

How to Fight Racism:  Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby is a handbook for fighting racism that provides readers with practical tools and suggestions, along with real-world examples of change, to enable them to become proactive initiators of racial justice.

Chapter One - Introduction - Courageous Christianity Part One - Awareness Chapter 2 - Discovering What the Bible Says about Race and Ethnicity Chapter 3 - Unpacking Your Racial Experiences Chapter 4 - Learning about Race in U.S. History Chapter 5 - All Reconciliation is Relational Chapter 6 - Can I Be Your Friend? Chapter 7 - Building Diverse Communities Part Three - Commitment Chapter 8 - Searching the Bible for Justice Chapter 9 - Doing Justice in Public Chapter 10 - Orienting Your Life to Anti-Racism Conclusion - Hope in the Midst of Persecution

In The Meal That Reconnects, Dr. Mary McGann, RSCJ, invites readers to a more profound appreciation of the sacredness of eating, the planetary interdependence that food and the sharing of food entails, and the destructiveness of the industrial food system that is supplying food to tables globally. She presents the food crisis as a spiritual crisis-a call to rediscover the theological, ecological, and spiritual significance of eating and to probe its challenge to Christian eucharistic practice. Drawing on the origins of Eucharist in Jesus's meal fellowship and the worship of early Christians, McGann invites communities to reclaim the foundational meal character of eucharistic celebration while offering pertinent strategies for this renewal.

Author: Mary E. McGann

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814660317
Details: 256 pgs , 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Publication Date: 03/15/2020

Recent decades have seen a steady trend in Roman Catholic teaching toward a commitment to active nonviolence that could qualify the church as a "peace church." As a moral theologian specializing in social ethics, Schlabach explores how this trend in Catholic social teaching will need to take shape if Catholics are to follow through. Globalization, he argues, is an invitation to recognize what was always supposed to be true in Catholic ecclesiology: Christ gives Christians an identity that crosses borders. To become a truly catholic global peace church in which peacemaking is church-wide and parish-deep, Catholics should recognize that they have always properly been a diaspora people with an identity that transcends tribe and nation-state.

Author: Gerald W. Schlabach

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814644546
Details: 416 pgs , 6 x 9
Publication Date: 10/15/2019

Catholic health care is one of the key places where the church lives Catholic social teaching (CST). Yet the individualistic methodology of Catholic bioethics inherited from the manualist tradition has yet to incorporate this critical component of the Catholic moral tradition. Informed by the places where Catholic health care intersects with the diverse societal injustices embodied in the patients it encounters, this book brings the lens of CST to bear on Catholic health care, illuminating a new spectrum of ethical issues and practical recommendations from social determinants of health, immigration, diversity and disparities, behavioral health, gender-questioning patients, and environmental and global health issues.

Edited by M. Therese Lysaught and Michael McCarthy

Paper back 6 x 9

Pages 458

ISBN: 978-0-8146-8455-9

Publication Date: 01/10/2019

The available literature on the new evangelization is wide-ranging and focused on issues of ecclesial renewal. In The Truth Will Make You Free, Fr. Robert Leavitt adopts a different approach to the subject. From Paul VI until Pope Francis, the nature and challenges of modern secularism have become a recurring factor in the agenda of the new evangelization, yet often without historical perspective and philosophical balance. Few popular works bother to examine in such depth and scope, as this book does, what the history, nature, and implications of the secular age are for revitalizing ministry in an age of optional belief. Written for the interested layperson, seminarian, theology student, and pastor, The Truth Will Make You Free is an indispensable catechism for rethinking our understanding of the secular world in proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.

Author: Robert F. Leavitt, PSS

Paperback 6 x 9

332 Pages

ISBN: 978-08146-4668-7

Publication Date: 03/15/2019

We all know people who struggle with addictions. Sometimes they are our dearest loved ones. We often feel helpless in the face of their struggle, and yet our prayers are the best weapons we have to help them break free. Anne Costa shows us that we can cooperate with God's grace as we wait in hope for healing to come. And as we wait, our prayers will help us as well. 

As someone who struggled with an addiction for ten years, Anne Costa writes with wisdom, experience, and conviction and helps us to view our prayers of intercession as a mission of love, mercy, and hope.

Features a weekly Scripture verse that readers can pray, claim, and reflect on, as well as two simple prayers to pray that same week.
A powerful message that will resonate with readers.

Author: Anne Costa

ISBN: 978-1-59325-295-3

176 pages

Paperback -8 x 5.25

Where Justice and Mercy Meet: Catholic Opposition to the Death Penalty comprehensively explores the Catholic stance against capital punishment in new and important ways. The broad perspective of this book has been shaped in conversation with the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty, as well as through the witness of family members of murder victims and the spiritual advisors of condemned inmates.

The book offers the reader new insight into the debates about capital punishment; provides revealing, and sometimes surprising, information about methods of execution; and explores national and international trends and movements related to the death penalty. It also addresses how the death penalty has been intertwined with racism, the high percentage of the mentally disabled on death row, and how the death penalty disproportionately affects the poor.

The foundation for the church's position on the death penalty is illuminated by discussion of the life and death of Jesus, Scripture, the Mass, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Written for concerned Catholics and other interested readers, the book contains contemporary stories and examples, as well as discussion questions to engage groups in exploring complex issues.

Author: Vicki Schieber, Trudy D. Conway, and David Matzko McCarthy, editors Foreword by Helen Prejean, CSJ

Details: 248 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/01/2013

David Matzko McCarthy's Death Penalty and Discipleship is a faith formation resource to help communities and individuals reflect more deeply on capital punishment. It incorporates Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching, and contemporary issues that focus on the meaning of God's self-giving in Jesus Christ and the implications of God's redemptive work in our lives. McCarthy shows how the church's stance against the death penalty fits with Scripture, even passages such as "an eye for an eye..." (Lev 24:19-20); he attends to the teachings of Jesus and draws out themes of restorative justice; and he concludes by locating work to end the death penalty within St. John Paul II's call for a new evangelization.

God loves the world and gives himself to the world, and we are called to share God's justice and mercy with others. In this insightful and challenging resource, McCarthy encourages us to follow the call of Pope Francis to live out the love and mercy of God for all the world.

Author: David Matzko McCarthy

Details: 68 pgs, 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/05/2016

The Catholic Church teaches that punishment must have a constructive and redemptive purpose and that it be coupled with treatment and, when possible, restitution. Rehabilitation and restoration must include the spiritual dimension of healing and hope. Since the publication of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2000 pastoral statement on restorative justice, the conversation surrounding the need for criminal justice reform and restorative justice has moved forward. Redemption and Restoration responds from a Catholic perspective to help form an educational campaign to equip Catholics and their leaders to participate in the national conversation on this issue, create the programs needed to assist in healing the harm caused by crime, and restore our communities.

The book develops the traditional Catholic understanding of justice, offers a theological understanding of restorative justice, explains how it can be implemented, and reflects on the practical arguments for restorative justice. Grounded in the stories of real people, Redemption and Restoration helps readers gain a deeper understanding of how this affects us all as a country and a church. It includes discussion questions to engage groups in exploring issues related to restorative justice.

Author: Edited by Trudy D. Conway, David Matzko McCarthy, and Vicki Schieber

Details: 306 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 12/04/2017