Gospel requires justice not charity, says Jesuit writer
-10/05/06
An expert on Christia
Gospel requires justice not charity, says Jesuit writer
-10/05/06
An expert on Christian social action, Fr Peter Henriot, is currently on a tour of Australia for a series of talks and workshops on the relevance of social justice in today’s age of globalisation and terror, reports the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Unit.
Co-author of a Catholic best-seller on the ëpastoral cycleí (see-analyse-act), Henriot will be teaming up with Jesuit lawyer Fr Frank Brennan in Sydney later this week. The book, originally published in the 1980s, is called Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice.
Fr Henriot, has lived for nearly 20 years in Zambia – one of the poorest countries in the world. He argues that to respond effectively to social issues, Christians and people of good will need to move from a model of charity to a model of justice at the core of their living and acting.
ìWe will never deal with the impact of globalisation on poor countries in Africa if we don’t do good social analysis that reveals both the systemic problems and the structural hopes,î he declares.
The writer and activist is also director of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) in Lusaka, Zambia, and former director of the Washington DC-based Center of Concern.
“It is a tremendous honour to have Fr Peter Henriot speaking in Sydney especially at a time when there is debate over the role of the Catholic Church in social justice,” said Uniya Director Mary Bryant.
She continued: ìTogether with co-author Professor Joe Holland, [Heriotís] words have influenced thousands of conscientious Christians worldwide. His ideas are of tremendous value for all those working in social justice, and not just those employed in Catholic organizations.”
Ms Bryant said Fr Brennan will provide an Australian context to the debate, drawing on his vast expertise and knowledge of national successes and failures of the social change agenda. He will also be touring Melbourne and Brisbane.
Uniya, established in 1989, is a social justice research and action centre based in Sydney’s Kings Cross area. It works locally and globally towards justice for marginalized groups. Uniya (pronounced oo – nee – ya) is a word from an Aboriginal language meaning “meeting place”.
It is named after the first Jesuit mission to Aboriginals established in 1886 in the Daly River area of the Northern Territory.
The ëpastoral cycleí has been developed by base-level Christian communities across the developing world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has been used as a tool for evangelization in the liberation theology mode.
A group of Christian leaders in Australia has also just issued a radical ëconfessioní looking at what it means to follow Jesus Christ in todayís world of deception, division and violence.
They argue that the Gospel is a message of both personal and social transformation, and their documentís signatories include people from the Anabaptist, Anglican, Catholic, Weslyan and Baptist traditions.
Gospel requires justice not charity, says Jesuit writer
-10/05/06
An expert on Christian social action, Fr Peter Henriot, is currently on a tour of Australia for a series of talks and workshops on the relevance of social justice in today’s age of globalisation and terror, reports the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Unit.
Co-author of a Catholic best-seller on the ëpastoral cycleí (see-analyse-act), Henriot will be teaming up with Jesuit lawyer Fr Frank Brennan in Sydney later this week. The book, originally published in the 1980s, is called Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice.
Fr Henriot, has lived for nearly 20 years in Zambia – one of the poorest countries in the world. He argues that to respond effectively to social issues, Christians and people of good will need to move from a model of charity to a model of justice at the core of their living and acting.
ìWe will never deal with the impact of globalisation on poor countries in Africa if we don’t do good social analysis that reveals both the systemic problems and the structural hopes,î he declares.
The writer and activist is also director of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) in Lusaka, Zambia, and former director of the Washington DC-based Center of Concern.
“It is a tremendous honour to have Fr Peter Henriot speaking in Sydney especially at a time when there is debate over the role of the Catholic Church in social justice,” said Uniya Director Mary Bryant.
She continued: ìTogether with co-author Professor Joe Holland, [Heriotís] words have influenced thousands of conscientious Christians worldwide. His ideas are of tremendous value for all those working in social justice, and not just those employed in Catholic organizations.”
Ms Bryant said Fr Brennan will provide an Australian context to the debate, drawing on his vast expertise and knowledge of national successes and failures of the social change agenda. He will also be touring Melbourne and Brisbane.
Uniya, established in 1989, is a social justice research and action centre based in Sydney’s Kings Cross area. It works locally and globally towards justice for marginalized groups. Uniya (pronounced oo – nee – ya) is a word from an Aboriginal language meaning “meeting place”.
It is named after the first Jesuit mission to Aboriginals established in 1886 in the Daly River area of the Northern Territory.
The ëpastoral cycleí has been developed by base-level Christian communities across the developing world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has been used as a tool for evangelization in the liberation theology mode.
A group of Christian leaders in Australia has also just issued a radical ëconfessioní looking at what it means to follow Jesus Christ in todayís world of deception, division and violence.
They argue that the Gospel is a message of both personal and social transformation, and their documentís signatories include people from the Anabaptist, Anglican, Catholic, Weslyan and Baptist traditions.