The J&P Finances are in relatively good shape, considering the considerable re-orientation of our activities in the last 12 months. The key factors that have led to this situation are:-• We have had grant money for some work and a steady amount of regular income through Standing Orders. Our income will have decreased but not […]
Catholic Social Thought
aspects of catholic social thought
08 Mar – SVP Response to the Budget
By Elizabeth Palmer, CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society (England and Wales) We reproduce, and endorse, all that the SVP say in the press statement below. Today’s Budget delivered by Chancellor Rishi Sunak represents one of the most important political statements of recent times and comes at a critical time for the nation. […]
Stations of the Cross
The wayside pulpit in our neighbourhood says during Covid19 “God still does home visits”! In other words, a shut Church and limited services does not mean the end of our prayer life. The traditional Lenten practice, the Stations of the Cross, could always be a private meditation on Jesus’s final journey to his Crucifixion as […]
09 Jan – SPARK Social Justice Project Update
By Aoibheann Kelly – Project Director In March 2020, we were looking forward to continuing to deliver a number of interactive workshop sessions to our partner settings, up until July. However, lockdown meant we needed to re-assess these plans – each of the school settings very much wished to continue to set up social justice […]
16 Dec – A Year To Reflect
By Helen Hayden, Justice and Peace CommissionAs the year draws to its end, we reflect on what we have lived through in these last twelve months. In January we began to hear of a mysterious virus in Wuhan, China, it felt very far away and we’d seen SARS and Bird Flu, there was no reason […]
08 Dec – Living Laudato Si’: Your Planet and Your Parish.
Sr Margaret Atkins, Boarbank Hall. Around fifty people were involved in a recent Zoom weekend from Boarbank Hall on the theme Living Laudato Si’: Your Planet and Your Parish. It aimed to inspire, inform, connect and encourage anyone wanting to engage in practical and prayerful projects in response to the encyclical, especially through parish groups […]
New Economic Relationships?
In a recent video message to a forum of young people in Assisi, Pope Francis said the worst reaction to the Coronavirus crisis would be to “fall even more deeply into feverish consumerism and forms of selfish self-protection “. He called instead for the world’s poor to be involved in creating a “different economic narrative” […]
19 Nov – Leeds J&P Commission online
Leeds J&P continues to provide opportunity to reflect, pray and take action on our three priorities. These activities now take place online through Zoom primarily. This medium has its challenges, praying together can be done but we can’t hear each other but we can be together to share ideas and reflect on the issues we […]
A Reflection on Creation
ONIONHere is an onion – just come back from the Onion Catechism class. I asked if it could remember the questions and answers – It has a fantastic memory: ‘Who made you? God made me. How did God make me? God made me with earth, air, fire and water. Fire? Why did God make you? […]
16 Oct – J&P Sponsors Film and Discussion event as part of Film Festival
The Leeds Palestinian Film Festival provides an opportunity to find out about the Palestine Israel conflict from various angles – and with stories that are rarely told in the mainstream media.Last year we took the step of sponsoring a film called ‘Voices Across the Divide – with voices of Palestinian and Jewish people who had […]
09 Sep – Catholic Schools, the Pandemic and the Climate Emergency
By David Jackson, ShipleySeveral J&P members in the diocese have just finished an on-line programme presented by the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM – based in Rome) to ‘graduate’ as LAUDATO SI ADVOCATES in October. As part of the course, Dr Lorna Gold (Trócaire and GCCM) presented a sobering assessment of the growing existential threat […]
25 Jun – Imaginative work about Refugee Week
Schools may have been in lockdown but children from the Faith in Action group at St Benedict’s primary school in Garforth had already decided to do some work on International Days. The idea is to broaden out the childrens’ views of what it might mean to take action because of their faith: that it is […]
17 Jun – News from the Refugee Support Group in Lockdown
By Lucy Irven, Diocesan Refugee Support Group FacilitatorSince the start of the lockdown response to the COVID-19 pandemic eleven weeks ago, the work of the Diocesan Refugee Support Group has been paused. However, we continue to be concerned for the welfare of those who are seeking sanctuary as refugees and asylum seekers here in the UK. […]
A Just wage? Courage is what is needed
While many injustices have been brought to light and laid bare in front of us during this Covid-19 pandemic, the role of front-line workers is perhaps one of the most prominent. Whether we are watching the news, reading updates on social media, or just doing our weekly shopping for essential supplies, it is clear that […]
22 Apr – Charitable Action?
By John Battle, chair of the Commission The Easter Alleluia hymn for morning prayer could not be more prescient in these times: “Then Life and Death together fought, alleluia, Each to a strange extreme were brought, alleluia”. Certainly, the coronavirus pandemic is not allowing us to move too quickly through the Paschal Mysteries this year. […]
15 Apr – SPARK Social Justice goes Virtual
It was only last month that we were reporting on the 300 or so young people who have attended SPARK workshops in the last few months – using drama to explore issues of social justice such as UK poverty and the devastating impact that it can have on people’s lives.With the lockdown, of course, all […]