Simple Ways to Help the World: The Practice of Catholic Social Teaching

Encountering people who have modeled both the works of mercy and the works of justice is another important motivational strategy, whether the encounter is in person or through books, stories, or videos. Studying their lives fleshes out what it means to put Catholic social teaching into practice. Viewing the movie Romero about Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero’s sacrificial embrace of the poor can inspire us to make his "option for the poor and vulnerable" our own.

It was the movie Dead Man Walking, which portrays Sister Helen Prejean’s work with persons on death row, that inspired Dorothy to make a similar decision. Dorothy was seventy-eight years old when she first visited Missouri Eastern Correctional Center as a volunteer in corrections, assigned to the Violent Offender Program. Who could have imagined that a frail eighty-something would become "Mother Dorothy" to these offenders? Certainly not her children and grandchildren! In fact, some of them have opposed her driving some thirty miles to the prison three times a week for six years and counting. Prison visitors and volunteers are always needed, and those who do volunteer all say the same thing: it’s not really dangerous, and it’s always at least as rewarding for the volunteers as it is for the offenders. Dorothy’s commitment to the dignity of human life extends even to prison.

But Dorothy didn’t start her life of Christian service and social action at Missouri Eastern. She and her husband, Wally, began more than fifty years earlier by adopting children with special needs. Her multiracial household gave her lots of opportunities to deal with racism, from challenging racist comments of others to racist policies in schools, businesses, and even the Church. But we don’t have to have multiracial families to challenge racist comments, stories, and policies. Catholic social teaching on the dignity of every person requires us to speak out in such situations. As Martin Luther King, Jr., so rightly observed, it is "the appalling silence of good people" more than "the vitriolic words of racists" that preserves racism in our society.

Catholic social teaching emphasizes the dignity of work and the rights of workers. Dorothy and Wally supported the efforts of the United Farm Workers by participating in long-term consumer boycotts of non-union lettuce and grapes. Farm workers continue to need our support today, like the recent success of the boycott of Taco Bell so that the tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida, would get a more just wage.

Sandy’s concern for exploited workers led her to stop buying most toys for her grandchildren and to substitute books. Catholic social teaching on rights and responsibilities makes it clear that we have a duty to use our money and other resources in ways that respect the rights of others. This also means that we have a responsibility to learn about the policies and practices of those businesses and services that we support through our purchases. The Web site for the Department of Social Development and World Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (www.usccb.org/sdwp) is a good resource in this regard.