Morality/Social Justice

Catholic Social Teaching

• Catholic Social Teaching: the USCCB has a wide range of resources on Catholic teaching on economic life.
• Catholic Social Teaching: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis provides most of the official social teaching documents of the Catholic Church and also a variety of resources to help you explore this rich body of moral teaching.
• Catholic Social Teaching (CRS): videos, lesson plans, and discussion guides.

Ethics/Morality

• Catholic Coalition on Climate Change: What are the moral implications of climate change? Who is most impacted? What should the Catholic community do? The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change helps the Catholic community address these issues.
• Torture is a Moral Issue: A Catholic Study Guide -- this guide examines torture within the larger context of Catholic social teaching.
• Courage and EnCourage Apostolates: supporting those with same-sex attractions and their families, in fidelity to Catholic teaching.
• The Way of the Lord Jesus — a moral theology for today’s Catholic: Germain Grisez, the former Most Rev. Harry J. Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is behind this resource.
• Same-Sex Marriage:
  • Gaudium et Spes: "Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in matters religious." (#26)
  • Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: "In keeping with this conviction, the Church teaches that persons with a homosexual inclination "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity." We recognize that these persons have been, and often continue to be, objects of scorn, hatred, and even violence in some sectors of our society. Sometimes this hatred is manifested clearly; other times, it is masked and gives rise to more disguised forms of hatred. "It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs." (General Principles)
  • Always Our Children: "The purpose of this pastoral message is to reach out to parents trying to cope with the discovery of homosexuality in their adolescent or adult child. It urges families to draw upon the reservoirs of faith, hope, and love as they face uncharted futures. It asks them to recognize that the Church offers enormous spiritual resources to strengthen and support them at this moment in their family's life and in the days to come." (Preface)
  • U.S. Bishop's Pastoral Letter on Marriage: The letter presents the essential points of Catholic teaching on marriage as a natural gift, as a sacrament, and as a public commitment between a man and a woman. It also discusses several contemporary challenges to marriage and how the Church addresses those challenges.
• Natural Family Planning:
  • Natural Family Planning: The Best Worst Thing Ever
  • Diocese of Phoenix Natural Family Planning Promo Video
  • It Takes Two - Naturally: Natural Family
  • Pure Live the Love

Life Issues

• Archdiocesan Public Policy web pages: features resources on the care of creation, assisted suicide, marriage, human trafficking, religious freedom, immigration reform, opposing abortion, persecuted Christians, gender ideology, and more.
• Archdiocesan Family Life + Respect Life Office: provides programs and resources on family and life issues.
• Catholic Health Care Proxy: Downloadable guidance for Catholics with the health care proxy published by the New York State Catholic Conference. 
• Now and at the Hour of Our Death: offers Catholics moral clarity and guidance on the Church’s teachings regarding end-of-life decision making.
• Forty Days for Life: a community-based campaign that draws attention to the evil of abortion through the use of a three-point program: Prayer and fasting, Constant vigil, and Community Outreach.
• Gianna Center: committed to providing high quality, scientifically-based healthcare to all women, regardless of their faith tradition or personal beliefs.
• New Yorkers for Life: a diverse coalition of New Yorkers united in protecting life from its beginning and respecting life until its natural end.
• The National Catholic Bioethics Center: conducts research, consultation, publishing, and education to promote human dignity in health care and the life sciences, deriving its message from the teachings of the Catholic Church.
• Pro-Life Blessings: the Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb was crafted to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for -- and recognition of -- the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society.
• Respect Life Lesson Plans and Resources: an amazing tool available for you, DRE's and Catechists!!  It is meant to help teach your youth a total appreciation for Life from conception to natural death. resources include lesson plans, handouts, and videos.
• Respect Life Program: the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities publishes a program packet each year to call attention to numerous human life issues. These materials are especially helpful for priests, parish groups, and other organizations.
• “Two Feet of Love in Action”: is a handout that describes how love is concretely expressed in action.  A work of the USCCB's Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.  There is also a facilitator's guide.
• Assisted Suicide:
  • Archdiocesan Public Policy Web page on assisted suicide
  • To Live Each Day with Dignity: resources from the USCCB
  • Stop Assisted Suicide: advocacy for the protection of end of life
  • Caring for Loved Ones at Life's End: from the USCCB
  • Catholic End of Life: help you to navigate the end-of-life questions and challenges that you and/or your loved ones face, and bring peace to a stressful situation.

Public Policy

• CatholicVote.com: A website that hopes to provide Catholics and all people of good will with the tools to both educate and inspire them as faithful citizens.
• Faithful Citizenship: Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship -- A Call to Political Responsibility from the Bishops of the United States.
• New York State Catholic Conference: the New York State Catholic Conference represents the Bishops of New York State in matters of Public Policy, seeking justice, fairness, and charity for all, with a particular emphasis on the poor and vulnerable.

Social Justice

• Catholic Relief Services Education: a gateway to activities, lesson plans, simulations, prayer services and other resources that explore global issues through the lens of Catholic Social teaching. Catholic Relief Services Resources.
• Discover your Neighbor: Motivated by love, inspired by the Gospel, and guided by our Catholic identity, the Maryknoll Society’s Discover Your Neighbor program empowers
  young people as agents of encounter to transform our world.
• Education for Justice: created to help teachers, social action directors, parish members, campus ministers, and others in leadership roles to meet the challenge of sharing Catholic Social Teaching and bring greater awareness to social justice issues.
• Justice, Peace and Human Development Committee of the USCCB: offers a variety of resources and tools to support catechists.
• Missionary Childhood Association (formerly Holy Childhood Association): offers resources for teachers and parish staff in mission education.