Global Human Rights Network-

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 "Releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on you own."

(Isaiah 58: 6-7)

"The most disaster of our times is indifference."

(St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe)

ST. MAXIMILIAN MARY KOLBE:

(8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941)

a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of another war prisoner, who had family at home but selected to death row randomly without any legitimate reason, in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

Pope John Paul II declared him "The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century".

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe is the patron saint for for the poor and vulnerable, including "all who are marginalized in our nation and beyond—unborn children, persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression."

(From Catholic Social Teaching)

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, pray for sanctity of human life-- especially for each person to save from 

 "abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, capital punishment, genocide, torture, the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war, and every deliberate taking of innocent human life."

(From Catholic Social Teaching) 

Global Human Rights Network is working based on the following Catholic Social Teaching:

 Catholic Social Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church concerns about poverty, economics, social organization and the role of the state. The Holy Bible provides the roots, foundations, and concepts for this teaching, and Catholic thinkers such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas developed those in their writings. Especially, the Gospel gives us the clear foundation of Catholic Social Teaching: “Whatever you have done for one of these least brothers of Mine, you have done for Me.” (Matthew 25:40) The prophetic books of the Old Testament also provide the foundation of this teaching through many of God’s prophets.  

Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes the role of the Church—“The Church has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy for justice.” Pope John Paul II states that the foundation of Catholic social teaching rests on the threefold cornerstone of human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity.

 Global Human Rights Network is an advocate, educator and an international public charity, which is a not for profit and non governmental organization under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States of America.

Especailly, we focus on implementation of the following Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teachings:

   Sanctity of human life and dignity of the person

   Call to family, community, and participation

   Rights and responsibilities

   Preferential Option for the poor and vulnerable

   Dignity of work

   Solidarity

   Care for God's creation

• Rerum Novarum (1891)
• Quadragesimo Anno (1931)
• Mater et Magistra (1961)
• Pacem in Terris (1963)
• Dignitatis Humanae (1965)
• Populorum Progressio (1967)
• Humanae Vitae (1968)
• Octogesima Adveniens (1971)
• Laborem Exercens (1981)
• Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987)
• Centesimus Annus (1991)
• Evangelium Vitae (1995)
• Deus Caritas Est (2005)
• Caritas in Veritate (2009)

Special Report:

MCC testifies against assisted suicide at statehouse 

BOSTON -- The Massachusetts Catholic Conference opposed physician-assisted suicide at a packed Committee on the Judiciary hearing at the statehouse March 6 on "An Act Relative to Death With Dignity."

The MCC, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts, submitted written and oral testimony that day, outlining the Church's continued opposition to the bill and the ballot initiative.

"The Church teaches us that life itself is a gift from God. Life is to be cherished, nurtured, protected, and finally, cared for with the help of others until the time of natural death -- not self-administered death, not assisted death," MCC executive director James Driscoll testified at the hearing.

He went on to advocate for hospice and palliative care as a valid alternative to extended suffering or immediate death as proposed in the bill and the ballot initiative.

"Hospice and Palliative care professionals offer a proven and effective pain management program to patients -- no matter the level of pain. Through this care, patients are comforted in the last months, weeks, and days of their lives," Driscoll said.

According to Statehouse News Service, Rep. Louis Kafka (D-Stoughton), sponsor of the legislation, also spoke at the hearing.

"Everyone must be allowed to make their own choice with their own beliefs," he said.

Opposition to the bill and ballot initiative pointed to the emotional state of a terminally ill patient, whom the MCC and others said might be depressed before making a decision to take their own life.

"Terminally ill, dying patients should not be permitted to make or be encouraged to make a choice that ends all choices. Terminally ill, dying patients do not need the so-called compassion that supports the idea that one is better off dead," Driscoll said.

"When we grow old or sick, we are tempted to lose heart. In those cases we should be surrounded by people who say 'How can I help you?' -- We deserve to grow old in a society that views our cares and needs with compassion -- grounded in respect, offering genuine support, not 'so-called compassion,'" Driscoll said, quoting Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley.

Currently, only Oregon and Washington allow physician-assisted suicide. According to advocates, 65 people in Oregon ended their lives under the law in 2010.

Speaking with The Pilot after the hearing, Peter McNulty, associate director for policy and research at MCC, explained the history of the effort to legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts and its dangers.

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary now has a both a bill and a ballot initiative before it to legalize physician assisted suicide in Massachusetts.

McNulty said Kafka has filed the house bill repeatedly over the last five years.

"Obviously it never gained any traction, the bill always died in committee. So, the proponents decided that their best route was through initiative petition," McNulty said.

(From the Pilot, 3/9/2012)

Professor Dwight G. Duncan's
Reviewing the revised contraceptive mandate

All hell broke loose when the Obama administration required employers, including religious hospitals, Catholic universities and faith-based social service agencies, to provide free contraceptive and morning-after and sterilization insurance for employees as part of Obamacare. And so President Obama announced on Feb. 10 that the religious employers wouldn't have to provide the free coverage; their insurance companies would, however. 

Obama, in addition to being president, is also a lawyer (as am I). So we shouldn't be surprised to find him "thinking like a lawyer." As Columbia law professor Karl Llewellyn famously told a first-year class at the law school in 1930 how to think like a lawyer, "The hardest part of the first year is to lop off your common sense, to knock your ethics into temporary anesthesia."

I say this because there are several problems with the revised mandate, whose promised revision at this date is just talk, albeit presidential talk. After all, the previous regulation has since been promulgated in the Federal Register, and is thus the applicable legal rule until properly withdrawn or amended; neither of which has been done.

Common sense, for example, would say that if there's free contraceptive coverage, someone's gotta pay for it. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Obama now says that the religious employers don't have to provide free coverage, but the insurance companies do. Here's the rub:

1) Insurance companies set their rates based on their costs. If their costs increase because of government mandate, their premiums will go up. If the employee isn't going to pay the increase (after all, this is free, no-co-pay, no-deductible coverage), then the employer will. The U.S. Constitution prohibits government from taking private property for public use without the payment of just compensation, so it can't just order companies to pay for something without compensating them somehow. This is essentially a shell game in which people get stuck paying for other people's condoms, if not worse.

2) Many Catholic dioceses are self-insured, like Boston, when it comes to health coverage for employees. Presumably, they will have to directly pay for things that the Church teaches are intrinsically evil, like the morning-after pill which can cause abortions. Sounds like "knocking one's ethics into temporary (or not so temporary) anesthesia."

3) There's also the serious matter of religious freedom protected by the U.S. Constitution and by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The government mandate to cover contraception is not a rule of general applicability since it exempts a very narrow category of religious organizations like parish churches. It also substantially burdens religious practice (anyone acting in accordance with Church teaching on contraception, abortion, and sterilization). Thus the government must show a compelling government interest to justify the regulation, and must demonstrate that the regulation is no more restrictive of religious freedom than necessary to achieve its goal.

I doubt very seriously that the government can establish that there is a compelling interest in free contraceptives. Why is it so important to disassociate sex from procreation anyway? Further, what interest is that of government? If anything, government, if sincerely concerned about the common good, should be concerned about the birth dearth of future citizens and taxpayers that a contraceptive culture entails. Who is going to pay for these record deficits, after all? Put differently, why is pregnancy being viewed as a disease which it is the business of government to prevent? And, if it's cheaper to not have children than to have them, then the same logic would justify free abortion coverage, plus assisted suicide coverage. (It's cheaper to poison patients than to care for them, too.)

But even if the federal government could establish that there's some kind of compelling interest in free contraceptives, surely forcing religious and other conscientiously opposed individuals and organizations to provide them is not necessary to achieve that end. Just have government provide them, out of general tax revenue. That is, government could provide free contraceptives directly. (Don't get me wrong. I'm against that too. It's just that the legal argument won't justify forcing private parties to do the dirty work.)

The government is most likely going to lose the lawsuit brought by Belmont Abbey College against the Obama administration over this mandate. According to the Becket Fund, which is representing Belmont Abbey, the administration, in a court filing on Thursday, Feb. 16, said, "Not that the mandate is legal; not that the mandate is constitutional. Instead, it asked the court to duck the key issues because the administration has 'indicated that they will propose and finalize changes to the regulations' at some unspecified date in the future.

"'Apparently, the administration has decided that the mandate, as written and finalized, is constitutionally indefensible,' said Hannah Smith, senior counsel at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. 'Its only hope is to ask the court to look the other way based on an empty promise to possibly change the rules in the future.'"

A recent web posting gave "Four Strategies to Think like a Lawyer": "1) Accept ambiguity. 2) Don't be emotionally tied to a position. 3) Argue both sides. 4) Question everything." (www.lawnerds.com/guide/mind.html). When it comes to this Administration's contraceptive mandate, I'd recommend skipping its first three strategies and just questioning everything. Judge for yourself.

(from the Pilot 2/24/2012)

Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has identified these seven key themes of Catholic Social Teaching set out here. Other sources identify more or fewer key themes based on their reading of the key documents of the social magisterium.

Sanctity of human life and dignity of the person

The foundational principle of all Catholic social teachings is the sanctity of human life. Catholics believe in an inherent dignity of the human person starting from conception through to natural death. They believe that human life must be valued infinitely above material possessions. Pope John Paul II wrote and spoke extensively on the topic of the inviolability of human life and dignity in his watershed encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, (Latin for "The Gospel of Life").

Catholics oppose acts considered attacks and affronts to human life, including abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, genocide, torture, the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war, and every deliberate taking of innocent human life. In the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes (Latin for "Joy and Hope"), it is written that “from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care.". The Church does not oppose war in all circumstances. The Church's moral theology has generally emphasised just war theory.

In recent years, some Catholics have discouraged application of the death penalty, though even the most opposed must concede that "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor." The Roman Catechism says of capital punishment that a kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which are the legitimate avengers of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.

Related to the same concern of the above quotation from the Roman Catechism, the more recent Catechism of the Catholic Church also says of capital punishment (repetition of some previous text for sake of context):

The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor. "If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. "Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]."

Believing humans are made in the image and likeness of God, Catholic doctrine teaches to respect all humans based on an inherent dignity. According to John Paul II, every human person "is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God." Catholics oppose racism and other forms of discrimination. In 2007, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote:

Catholic teaching about the dignity of life calls us... to prevent genocide and attacks against noncombatants; to oppose racism; and to overcome poverty and suffering. Nations are called to protect the right to life by seeking effective ways to combat evil and terror without resorting to armed conflicts except as a last resort, always seeking first to resolve disputes by peaceful means. We revere the lives of children in the womb, the lives of persons dying in war and from starvation, and indeed the lives of all human beings as children of God.

Call to family, community, and participation

According to the Book of Genesis, the Lord God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone". The Catholic Church teaches that man is now not only a sacred but also a social animal and thatfamilies are the first and most basic units of a society. It advocates a complementarian view of marriage, and family life, religious leadership. Full human development takes place in relationship with others. The family—based on marriage(between a man and a woman)-is the first and fundamental unit of society and is a sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children. Together families formcommunities, communities a state and together all across the world each human is part of the human family. How these communities organize themselves politically, economically and socially is thus of the highest importance. Each institution must be judged by how much it enhances, or is a detriment to, the life and dignity of human persons.

Catholic Social Teaching opposes collectivist approaches such as Communism but at the same time it also rejects unrestricted laissez-faire policies and the notion that a free market automatically produces social justice. The state has a positive moral role to play as no society will achieve a just and equitable distribution of resources with a totally free market. All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society and, under the principle of subsidiarity, state functions should be carried out at the lowest level that is practical.

Rights and responsibilities

Every person has a fundamental right to life and to the necessities of life. In addition, every human has the right to what is required to live a full and decent life, things such as employment, health care,education. The right to exercise religious freedom publicly and privately by individuals and institutions along with freedom of conscience need to be constantly defended. In a fundamental way, the right to free expression of religious beliefs protects all other rights.

The Church supports private property and teaches that “every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own." The right to private property is not absolute, however, and is limited by the concept of the social mortgage. It is theoretically moral and just for its members to destroy property used in an evil way by others, or for the state to redistribute wealth from those who have unjustlyhoarded it.

Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger society. Rights should be understood and exercised in a moral framework rooted in the dignity of the human person

We live our lives by a subconscious philosophy of freedom and work. The encyclical Laborem Exercens (1981) by Pope John Paul II, describes work as the essential key to the whole social question. The very beginning is an aspect of the human vocation. Work includes every form of action by which the world is transformed and shaped or even simply maintained by human beings. It is through work that we achieve fulfilment. So in order to fulfil ourselves we must cooperate and work together to create something good for all of us, a common good. What we call justice is that state of social harmony in which the actions of each person best serve the common good.

Freedom according to Natural Law is the empowerment of good. Being free we have responsibilities. With human relationships we have responsibilities towards each other. This is the basis of human rights. The Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, in their document "The Common Good" (1996) stated that, "The study of the evolution of human rights shows that they all flow from the one fundamental right: the right to life. From this derives the right to a society which makes life more truly human: religious liberty, decent work, housing, health care, freedom of speech, education, and the right to raise and provide for a family"(section 37).Having the right to life must mean that everyone else has a responsibility towards me . To help sustain and develop my life. This gives me the right to whatever I need to accomplish without compromising the mission of others, and it lays on others the corresponding responsibility to help me. All justice is the power of God compensated solely in terms of individual relationships.

The Ten Commandments reflect the basic structure of the Natural Law insofar as it applies to humanity. The first three are the foundation for everything that follows: The Love of God, the Worship of God, the sanctity of God and the building of people around God. The other seven Commandments are to do with the love of humanity and describe the different ways in which we must serve the common good : Honor your father and mother, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour (Exodus 20:3-17). Our Lord Jesus Christ Summarised the Commandments with the New Commandment: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34, 15:9-17). The mystery of Jesus is a mystery of love. Our relationship with God is not one of fear, of slavery or oppression; it is a relationship of serene trust born of a free choice motivated by love. Pope John Paul II stated that love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. By his law God does not intend to coerce our will, but to set it free from everything that could compromise it’s authentic dignity and it’s full realisation. (Pope John Paul II to government leaders, 5 November 2000.)

Preferential Option for the poor and vulnerable

Jesus taught that on the Day of Judgement God will ask what each of us did to help the poor and needy: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."This is reflected in the Church's canon law, which states, "The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor from their own resources." (1983 CIC, canon 222 sec. 2)

Through our words, prayers and deeds we must show solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor. When instituting public policy we must always keep the "preferential option for the poor" at the forefront of our minds. The moral test of any society is "how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor." (Option for the Poor, Major themes from Catholic Social Teaching, Office for Social Justice, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.)

Pope Benedict XVI has taught that “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel”. ( Deus Caritas Est §22.) This preferential option for the poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in our nation and beyond—unborn children, persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression.

Dignity of work

Society must pursue economic justice and the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Employers must not "look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but ... respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character." ( Rerum Novarum § 20) Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers.

Workers have a right to work, to earn a living wage, and to form trade unions (Rerum Novarum § 49) to protect their interests. All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. ( Economic Justice, Major themes from Catholic Social Teaching, Office for Social Justice, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.) Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers must "fully and faithfully" perform the work they have agreed to do.

In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It was committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the marginalized and poorest in Society. Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

Solidarity

"Solidarity is undoubtedly a Christian virtue. It seeks to go beyond itself to total gratuity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It leads to a new vision of the unity of humankind, a reflection of God's triune intimate life...." ( Solicitudo Rei Socialis § 40.) It is a unity that binds members of a group together.

All the peoples of the world belong to one human family. We must be our brother's keeper, (see Genesis 4:9) though we may be separated by distance, language or culture. Jesus teaches that we must each love our neighbors as ourselves and in the parable of the Good Samaritan we see that our compassion should extend to all people. (see Luke 10:25-37) Solidarity includes the Scriptural call to welcome the stranger among us—including immigrants seeking work, a safe home, education for their children, and a decent life for their families.

Solidarity at the international level primarily concerns the Global South. For example, the Church has habitually insisted that loans be forgiven on many occasions, particularly during Jubilee years. Charity to individuals or groups must be accompanied by transforming unjust structures.

Care for God's creation

A Biblical vision of justice is much more comprehensive than civil equity; it encompasses right relationships between all members of God’s creation. Stewardship of creation: The world's goods are available for humanity to use only under a "social mortgage" which carries with it the responsibility to protect the environment. The "goods of the earth" are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. Man was given dominion over all creation as sustainer rather than as exploiter, and is commanded to be a good steward of the gifts God has given him. We cannot use and abuse the natural resources God has given us with a destructive consumer mentality. Catholic Social Teaching recognizes that the poor are the most vulnerable to environmental impact and endure disproportional hardship when natural areas are exploited or damaged. US Bishops established an environmental justice program to assist parishes and dioceses who wanted to conduct education, outreach and advocacy about these issues. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops Environmental Justice Program (EJP) calls Catholics to a deeper respect for God’s creation and engages parishes in activities that deal with environmental problems, particularly as they affect the poor.