Bishop Earl Boyea is establishing a new Diocese of Lansing Commission on Catholic Social Teaching and is looking for suitably qualified nominees to serve on the committee. Could that be you?
“More than ever, we need faithful lay Catholics who are capable of bringing the love of Jesus Christ and the social doctrine of his Holy Church into all aspects of civil society so as to advance the common good of all,” said Bishop Boyea, May 6.
“My prayer is that our new Commission on Catholic Social Teaching will help us better to do that across the Diocese of Lansing.”
The Catholic Church has always applied its teaching on matters of faith and morals to social questions. The development of this doctrine since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, however, is rooted in the 1891 encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum.
The inaugural meeting of the new commission is likely to be scheduled during the Fall of 2020. The mission and responsibilities of the members are described in the statutes of the commission thus:
“The Commission on Catholic Social Teaching (CCST) exists to assist the Bishop in his ministry to catechize all the baptized in the Diocese of Lansing on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, advance the dignity of the human person, and to promote the common good of society.” The functions of the Commission are the following:
- Serve as counsel to the Bishop on matters of Catholic Social Teaching.
- Help to catechize the faithful throughout the diocese that living out Catholic Social Teaching is constitutive to lived faith by virtue of our Baptism.
- Help to catechize the faithful throughout the diocese to recognize Jesus Christ in vulnerable, oppressed, victimized and marginalized children, families and individuals, and to be for them the face, the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ.
- Through group catechesis and formation, become well-formed in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, integrating respect for the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death into all of the principles, always with Scripture and Church Tradition as the foundation.
Members of the Commission on Catholic Social Teaching must agree to participate actively in the functions of the Commission, in the scheduled meetings of the Commission, and in the work of the committees to which they are assigned outside of the scheduled Commission meetings. The work of the new Commission will be funded by an annual collection each November.
Do you feel called to serve on the new Commission on Catholic Social Teaching? Or do you think you know somebody suitable? Find out more about the nomination and vetting process click here