Spirituality & Justice

One of the objectives of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice is every 2 years or so to bring together around a justice theme representatives of its four constituent partners (Vincentians, Daughters of Charity, Holy Faith Sisters and Society of St Vincent de Paul). At the last such gathering in November 2007 where we were considering Catholic Social Thought, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin encouraged us to think about developing a spirituality for justice.

As an initial response to this suggestion, members of the Board of Management of the VPSJ have prepared a short series of reflections linking spirituality and justice which we are happy to make available to members on our website.

These reflections include short biographical sketches of our founders, (Vincent, Louise, Margaret and Frederic) and contributions on aspects of spirituality and justice.

The first reflection is an extract from a summary written by Fr Myles Rearden CM of a new book "Seeds of Hope - Stories of Systemic Change" produced by the Vincentian Family's Commission for Promoting Systemic Change. Fr Myles' contribution was completed shortly before his death and before he had an opportunity to edit it. It is a reminder for us all who worked with Fr Myles in the VPSJ of his strong commitment to working for a more just and inclusive society and of his contribution to the projects of the VPSJ. May he rest in peace.We hope that these reflections will stimulate a debate on a spirituality for justice within the Vincentian family and we would welcome any comments or suggestions.

Larry Tuomey, Chairperson