Resources for study and reflection

By Br. Steve Herro, O.Praem.

	An Advent series on Catholic Social Teaching

Here are some resources for further study and reflection on the "Consistent Ethic of Life," which includes human dignity, care for the environment and respect for all stages of life from conception to a natural death:

Movies and books

• Dead Man Walking (video available through the Diocesan AV Center)

	A d v e n t
	• Other Everyday People, Everyday Faith articles
	• Other Advent articles

• An Inconvenient Truth

• To Kill a Mockingbird (video available through the Diocesan AV Center)

• Death of Innocents

Websites

• Archdiocese of San Francisco, Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns - Life and Dignity of the Human Person, www.sflifeandjustice.org/Life%20and%20Dignity.html. It offers links to relevant full text documents and websites related to life and dignity of the human person.

• Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty, www.ccedp.org. Official website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' initiative against the death penalty

• U.S. Bishops' Conference Office of Pro-Life Activities, www.usccb.org/prolife. Source for educational and worship materials related to respect for all forms of human life.

• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Environmental Justice Program, www.usccb.org/sdwp/ejp/index.html. It includes useful resources for parishes and dioceses, news alerts, and special projects on global warming and children's health and the environment.

Quotes

"There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life: for example, food, clothing, housing, ... the right to education, and work... (The Church in the Modern World, #26).

"The basis for all that the church believes about the moral dimensions of economic life is its vision of the transcendent worth - the sacredness - of human beings. The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.

"All human beings, therefore, are ends to be served by the institutions that make up the economy, not means to be exploited for more narrowly defined goals. Human personhood must be respected with a reverence that is religious. When we deal with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the presence of something holy and sacred. For that is what human beings are: We are created in the image of God" (Gn 1:27, Economic Justice for All, #28).

"The struggle against destitution, though urgent and necessary, is not enough. It is a question, rather, of building a world where every man, no matter what his race, religion or nationality, can live a fully human life, freed from servitude imposed on him by other men or by natural forces over which he has not sufficient control; a world where freedom is not an empty word and where the poor man Lazarus can sit down at the same table with the rich man" (On the Development of Peoples, #47).

"At the center of all Catholic social teaching are the transcendence of God and the dignity of the human person. The human person is the clearest reflection of God's presence in the world; all of the church's work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person. For each person not only reflects God, but is the expression of God's creative work and the meaning of Christ's redemptive ministry" (The Challenge of Peace, #15).

(Br. Herro is the social concerns consultant for the Green Bay Diocese.)