Where does my own commitment to justice and peace come from? Growing up in London, I was sensitized by my parents, inspired by their Catholic faith, showing compassion to people in need. My father often brought a lonely person home for Christmas Day lunch. My mother lamented poverty amidst food waste and what Pope Francis has called our “throw-away culture.” My husband Gerry introduced me to work in Africa in the early 1980s, which provided direct experience of extreme poverty and the Church’s wonderful missionary outreach. Interest in environmental justice was sparked at this time, amidst concerns in Northern Nigeria about desertification and changing rainfall patterns. In fact, we heard from missionary priests and Sisters that the Sahara Desert was expanding southwards by about three miles a year, increasingly impoverishing farmers and nomadic peoples.
Upon return to the United Kingdom, I learned about structural injustice that was rooted in the Church’s Social Teaching while working for CAFOD, which is Caritas in England and Wales. Charity is vital, but so too is the mission for justice. I ran CAFOD’s Development Education campaign and met such inspirational Church figures as Dom Helder Camara from Brazil and Archbishop Denis Hurley from South Africa. Both challenged poverty and injustice in their countries. In the mid-1980s I first met the Columbans and collaborated with Fr. Sean McDonagh on care for creation events, after reading his book, “To Care for the Earth.” The book was based on his experiences of environmental crises while on mission in the Philippines and particularly on the suffering of tribal people that resulted from unsustainable development.
Since 1990 I have been a Columban co-worker in the Justice, Peace and Ecology team in Britain, and am daily inspired by Columban work around the world– from reconciliation work in Korea to reforestation in Pakistan, to supporting migrants at the US/Mexico border, to divestment from fossil fuels in order to tackle climate change and extinction of species. Columban mission priorities are Migrants and Protecting Biodiversity.
Back in the 1980s, I thought that once people — particularly people of faith — learned about the causes of suffering they would transform behavior. In this new century, we see clearly how the corporate world is largely unwilling to sacrifice financial benefit to halt such things as rainforest destruction and extracting conflict minerals. Unjust economic structures that tolerate ever-widening gaps between the rich and the poor are as dominant as ever. Equality, Sustainability and Peace are not serious goals for everyone.
But they are for the Church, backed up by a considerable body of Catholic Social Teaching going back to the late 19th century. In 2015, Pope Francis published his encyclical, Laudato Si’, and instructed that it be added to the Church’s Social Teaching. Subtitled, “On Care for our Common Home,” it called for humanity to hear “the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.” It has been a huge inspiration for all Columban missionaries and indeed for the whole Church. It highlighted that, “there has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation.” There is an imperative not only to undertake charitable giving but to work for justice for our generation and future generations.
How do Columban missionaries follow this teaching to work for social justice in today’s world?
We have an international network of Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology workers and here in Britain, we have a dedicated team working in Catholic parishes and schools. Our newsletter, “Vocation for Justice,” helps us maintain Columban contacts and raise awareness of social justice issues. The two most recent issues have focused on Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope, linking in with the Church’s Jubilee Year. A significant Columban initiative for schools is the annual schools competition, now in its 8th year. In line with the Jubilee theme, young people are invited this year to highlight one community or group bringing hope in the world today, either local, national or global.
Discussing the mission priorities of migrants and biodiversity set out by last year’s Columban General Assembly, hearing a theologian speak about Biodiversity and Catholic Social Teaching, and attending a Climate Vigil at Westminster’s Parliament, were all part of an “away day” for the team in London last November, focusing on the Columban mission for Justice, Peace and Ecology. Columban missionaries network closely with such groups as the National Justice and Peace Network, Laudato Si’ Network, Caritas agencies and various refugee groups.
We are also involved in advocacy. In 2021 the team in Britain lobbied world leaders — including then U.S. President Joe Biden — at that year’s UN climate talks in Scotland. We joined people of faith in calling for more assistance to poor countries suffering the impacts of climate change and for an energy transition away from fossil fuels which are warming the planet. Columban missionaries helped write study materials and produce liturgy material on the issues involved. In 2022 and 2024 we advertised the UN Biodiversity talks in Canada and Colombia, where a Columban co-worker in the United States, Amy Echeverria, was part of an interfaith lobby.
We are among British charities calling for major Debt Cancellation in this Jubilee Year. Pope Francis has made achieving debt cancellation one of his key priorities for the year. We highlight that high debt servicing costs are preventing Global South governments from spending on vital public services such as education and health and making investments to limit the impact of the climate emergency. The campaign calls on the UK government to champion a debt cancellation program that brings debt payments down to a genuinely sustainable level.
For the last four years, we have supported a monthly vigil at the home office in calling for more compassionate policies for migrants forced from their homes and seeking sanctuary. We stress that Catholic Social Teaching urges us to “welcome the stranger.” The January 2025 vigil prayed for those who have died trying to reach the U.K., noting that in 2024 at least 69 people lost their lives attempting to cross the English Channel. In Birmingham, Columban missionaries run Fatima House, a partnership project offering shelter to up to nine female asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and homeless.
In September, we will be actively involved in celebrating the Season of Creation, a time when Christians renew our relationship with the Creator and with creation, through celebration, conversion and commitment. It begins on September 1, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. But throughout the year the team here has been involved in rewilding at St. Columban’s in Solihull, organizing three tree planting days in February, installing bee hives and nurturing biodiversity. Lifestyle, Awareness-Raising, Political/Commercial Action and Liturgy are all elements of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology mission.
Catholic Social Teaching
The Church has developed its Catholic Social Teaching for more than a century, with an emphasis on social and economic justice for poor, oppressed and working people. It provides a vision for a just society in which all people are respected, and where the most vulnerable are cared for. The teaching has its roots in Scripture and the teachings of Church leaders.
The encyclical Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor), written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, addressed the dehumanizing conditions of many working people and the responsibilities of wider society to protect the rights of workers. Since 1891, many popes and bishop’s Conferences have written letters about issues facing society, for example, migration, poverty, hunger, injustice, conflict and climate change.
Core principles are:
Human Dignity: Catholics believe that every human being is made in God’s image and likeness. Because of this, every person has an innate dignity that must be honored with fundamental freedom, dignity and human rights.
When the dignity of the human person is respected, and his or her rights recognized and guaranteed, creativity and interdependence thrive, and the creativity of the human personality is released through actions that further the common good. (Fratelli Tutti, 22).
The Common Good: Human beings exist as part of society. Every individual has a duty and right to take part in community life and a right to benefit from that community.
Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. (Caritas in Veritate, 7).
Solidarity: Solidarity is the fundamental bond of unity between peoples. We are called to address injustices suffered by others.
Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same Earth, which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all. (Fratelli Tutti, 1).
Subsidiarity: All people have the right to be involved in society, and in making decisions that directly affect their life and community. Subsidiarity requires that decisions and laws are made at the lowest level possible. When it cannot, higher levels of government must intervene to promote human dignity, protect human rights and advance the common good.
It is clearly laid down that the paramount task assigned to government officials is that of recognizing, respecting, reconciling, protecting and promoting the rights and duties of citizens. (Pacem in Terris, 77)
Option for the Poor: The Option for the Poor places the needs of the poor and most vulnerable as the highest priority. It is the conscious choice to stand in solidarity with those who live in poverty, who are marginalized, who suffer injustice.
In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. (Octogesima Adveniens, 23).
Peace: As Christians, we are called to live in right relationship with God and with our fellow human beings. Peace is more than the absence of war or conflict; it involves ensuring that all can “have life and live it to the fullest.” (John 10:10).
If you want peace, work for justice! (Pope Paul VI in Pacem in Terris)
Care of Creation: Our Common Home — Planet Earth — is God’s Creation, and it has a value of its own that demands our respect and care. We are responsible for preserving it for future generations. In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis said that the Earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor’ (Laudato Si’, 1). He called on human society to “hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. (Laudato Si, 46).
Ellen Teague has worked with the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team in Britain for three decades.