Dignity and respect for the human person.

 Family, community participation and the common good

 Rights and responsibilities such as:
   Life
   Employment
   Health care
   Education
   Religious freedom
   Freedom of conscience
   Private property
   "The social mortgage"

 A preferential option for the poor

 The dignity of work and the rights of workers including:
   Productive work
   A living wage
   Form trade unions
   Safe working conditions

 Solidarity with the rest of the world

 Care for creation

 Subsidiary

CHARITY (WORKS OF MERCY)		JUSTICE (WORKS OF SOCIAL ACTION)
Involves social service		Involves social change
Typically private/individual acts		Often public actions in communities
Looks for solutions for to meet immediate needs		Seeks a long-term, self-help solutions
Provides direct service such as food, clothing, shelter		Promotes institutional & social changes
Requires repeated actions		Resolves structural injustices
Aimed at the present symptoms of injustice		Is concerned with the underlying root causes of injustice
Focus on individual needs		Focuses on changing social structures
Provides direct service with temporary results		Provides indirect help that is aimed at permanent change
Involves "haves" sharing with "have-nots"		Involves "haves" and "have-nots" working together
Requires no change in social structure		Requires working toward changes in the social structures
Calms things down		Stirs things up
EXAMPLES OF CHARITY		EXAMPLES OF JUSTICE
Serving in a soup kitchen Sponsoring a refugee family Mentoring and tutoring Donating to homeless shelters, food pantries, clothing drives & Emergency services Mother Teresa The Good Samaritan		Educational programs Advocacy for just public policies  Seek just corporate practices Community-based organizations Martin Luther King, Jr. Archbishop Oscar Romero Bishop Desmond Tutu Making the Road to Jericho Safe from Robbers

• Charity & justice are not two discreet categories, but more of a continuum and both are important. If a hungry person comes to our door asking for food, we would not tell them "We are working on legislation to end hunger in the United States and we think we will have the problem licked in ten years."  He or she is hungry now and the immediate need must be addressed. At the same time, we need to work on getting at the structural issues that cause hunger (poverty, underfunded welfare programs, food policy, budget priorities, etc.) or else we will only be able to provide temporary aid.
  
  
• Most people are familiar and comfortable with the concept of charity, but often need to be stretched in order to become familiar with the structural issues that impact a problem. It's a good exercise to identify the possible causes in any direct service program.
  
  
• Justice stirs things up. Jesus did not get into trouble by doing acts of charity (feeding the hungry) but by challenging the religious establishment. He performed miracles on the Sabbath and attacked the temple economics by driving the money changers from the temple. "What would Jesus do?" goes beyond being "nice" to challenging unjust structures that oppress people.
  
  
• Justice is always going to be harder, not only because it is long-term, but also because a true awareness of justice leads to ongoing conversion. This may also involve an awareness of the relationship between our wealth and other's poverty. It is hard to own this and to move to change it. Many times charity does not call for a change in our lifestyle ("serial charity" may even be a form of injustice), but a commitment to justice does call for change. Justice requires sacrifice.