St. Joseph Church
Bristol, Connecticut

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Pastoral Minister

All people are created in the "image of God" (Gn. 1:26-29). People never lose their human dignity despite poverty, disability, age, lack of   accomplishment or race.  In the Catholic social vision, the human person is central, the clearest reflection of God among us. Each person possesses a basic dignity that comes from God, not from human quality or accomplishment, not from race or gender, age or economic status.  The test of every institution or policy is whether it enhances or threatens human life   and human dignity. We believe that people are more important than things.

U.S. Catholic Bishops, A Century of Social Teaching

Rights and Responsibilities

All people have a fundamental and God-given right to life, food, shelter, health care, education and employment. All people have a right and a responsibility to participate in decision that affect their lives and public policy.  Every person has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are necessary and suitable for the proper development of life. These means are primarily food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and finally the necessary social services.  Therefore, a human being also has the right to security in cases of sickness, inability to work, widowhood, old age, unemployment, or in any other case in which the person is deprived of the means of subsistence through no personal fault.

John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, #11

World Synod of Catholic Bishops, Justice in the World, #64

The human person is both individual and social. We realize our dignity and rights in relationships with others, in community. We are called to respect and to nurture the creation in existing in community with all living things. We are called to be good "stewards" of ourselves, one another and the creation(Gn. 1:15).

Participation constitutes a right which is to be applied in the economic, social and political affairs.

World Synod of Catholic Bishops, Justice in the World, #18

Pope Paul VI, Popularum Progressio, #81

All people have the right to gainful and humane employment is safe conditions.  All workers have the right to just wages, private property and economic opportunity and initiative. The economy exists to serve the person. ...It is clear that recognition of the proper position of labor and the worker in the production process demands various adaptations in the sphere of the right to ownership of the means of production.

Pope John Paul II, Laborum Exercens,#14

Preferential Option for the Poor

The moral test for any society is how it treats and cares for its most vulnerable members. The poor, the powerless and the suffering have a claim on the moral conscience of the nation. We are called to charity and justice in responding to their needs.

Love of preference for the poor, and the decisions which it inspires in us, cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and , above all, those without hope for a better future.

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis #42

We are all one human family(Is. 2:1-4). Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological differences. We are called to remove all those things that separate us from our fundamental human solidarity. There can be no progress towards the complete development of man without the simultaneous development of all humanity in the spirit of solidarity. As we said at Bombay ...we must begin to work together to build the common future of the human race.

Pope Paul VI, Popularum Progression,#43

Compiled by Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created 8/14/1998