Service and Justice Ministries

The Catholic Community of St. Charles Borromeo is committed to parish social ministry as an expression of our faith.  Our outreach and charity efforts speak to the message of Christ to serve the least among us.  Further, in recognizing the solidarity of the human family, we commit ourselves to advocacy work and justice education.

PROGRAMS FOR WINTER/SPRING 2013 OPERATION RICE BOWL Did You Know? Operation Rice Bowl (ORB) is Catholic Relief Services' Lenten program that helps us learn about and contribute to their work. 75% of the donations we collect go directly to CRS to help fund development programs. You can learn more about these programs at www.crs.org, or through ORB. The other 25% stays within our Diocese, and this Lent, we will be highlighting the six local programs that received ORB grants last year. More information to follow!! HEIFER INTERNATIONAL LIVING GIFT MARKET On Wednesday, March 20th from 6 - 8 p.m., the St. Charles community will host its third Heifer International Living Gift Market! This event in St. Francis Hall, will resemble a market where families will have stalls selling food and income producing animals like goats, bees, chicks and heifers. The animals you buy on that day will go to resource-poor families working to improve their lives and communities. This will be a fun event with music, food and a few live animals!!! To make it a success we will need cashiers, booth vendors, decorators and more! More information to come!! NIGHT OF 1,000 LUNCHES The Night of 1,000 Lunches is scheduled for Thursday, April 25th at 6pm. This is a fun night of building community, making sandwiches and assembling lunch bags to bring to the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen that following Saturday. Please contact Donna Sileo: sdsileo@comcast.net or Tracy Sonner: at tracy1201@gmail.com to sign up to bring supplies and/or participate in the Night. There will also be a table in the gathering space for sign-ups before and after masses, the weekends prior to the event. LOAVES AND FISHES On the last two Saturdays of every month, dinner is served to the Trenton community in the basement of Saint Mary's Cathedral. Loaves & Fishes is largely dependent upon the charity of the many schools, churches, and community groups who volunteer to prepare and serve the meals throughout the year. St. Charles will be hosting the dinner on Saturday, April 27, 2013. We will have tables in the gathering space several weeks prior to the event  in order to volunteer. There are many areas where we need your help: cooking, serving, driving, purchasing supplies, etc. Loaves and Fishes is a wonderful way we can serve our community and reach out to those most in need. FEED THY NEIGHBOR MINISTRIES Our parish helps at the Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick the second Monday of each month from 9:30am-1:00pm.We will be going on:   Monday, February 11th,    Monday, March 11th                                                                                        Monday, April 8th,    Monday, May 13th If interested, please contact Jim Bahr at jtbahr@verizon.net We also assist at T.A.S.K. (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen) the second Thursday of each month from 9:30am-1:30pm. We will be going on: Thursday, February 14th, Thursday, March 14th, Thursday, April 11th  and Thursday, May 9th If interested, please contact Debbie Valazza at dvalazza@comcast.net. Please contact Trish Scalese at pscalese@borromeo.org or                           609-466-0300, ext. 23 with any questions about the Service and Justice programs here at St. Charles.

 

Our work is guided and shaped by our Catholic social teaching--a body of principles and values that draw upon the Gospel and biblical traditions.  The U.S. Bishops have arranged these principles under seven main themes:

The Life and Dignity of the Human Person

The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching.  We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The person is not only sacred but also social. How we organize our society—in economics and politics, in law and policy—directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community.  Marriage and the family are the central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined.  We believe people have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.

Rights and Responsibilities

The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities--to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.

Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.

The Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers

The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected--the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.

Solidarity

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace.  The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.

Care for God’s Creation

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.

For more information on these principles, please visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' website, or participate in one of our justice education ministries.