Viewpoint: Does charity overshadow justice?

Anne O'Connor

On 4 May Westminster Diocese enthusiastically announced the appointment of its first Director for the newly formed Caritas Westminster, a new initiative set up to enable the diocese to work with parishes and the wider community to coordinate social action projects to help the most vulnerable in society. A great deal of funding has been put into Caritas Westminster, including a Director whose salary is significantly higher than most Diocesan J&P workers plus additional paid support staff. By contrast many dioceses in England and Wales have no paid J&P staff at all and rely entirely on lay volunteers or clergy who are almost certainly over-stretched with little quality time available.

My own diocese of Shrewsbury recently lost its worker, Joan Sharples, who was greatly valued not only by J&P groups throughout the diocese but at national level too. Lack of funds was given as the reason for Joan's enforced redundancy and yet there was enough in the J&P Commission's account to have kept the post going for a further year. The Marriage and Family Life worker was also let go. A new Commission seems to be in the pipeline but what form it will take has yet to be announced. The neighbouring diocese of Salford did not replace its J&P Worker when the post was vacated a few years back but has set up Caritas Salford. Obviously it is encouraging to see diocesan funding for projects to help those in need, but does this come at the expense of Justice and Peace?

The long-awaited first project for Caritas Westminster, announced on 20 September, will develop a befriending model aimed at elderly and isolated people in partnership with the charity Contact the Elderly. The initiative will be launched in six parishes in the diocese: Pinner, Kensington, Enfield, Hayes, Ruislip and Tottenham, all chosen because they have high numbers of people over the age of 75 living on their own. An additional project will involve setting up a food bank in Borehamwood. Whilst these are admirable schemes and will no doubt greatly benefit the recipients and the wider community it's difficult to differentiate between this and SVP/public sector charity work. J&P activists agree that charity, whilst undoubtedly important, is in danger of merely plastering over the cracks if it is exercised without close attention to justice: if we seek solely to make things better without asking why they are unjust in the first place then the lack of justice will continue unchecked and may even escalate.

The late Mildred Nevile, the guiding force behind the Catholic Institute for International Relations and an inspiration for many who are active nationally in J&P today, wrote when recalling her visit to the Far East in 1973: "What the Vietnamese wanted and needed was solidarity: justice, not charity. I became aware that aid without solidarity can be very untruthful: destructive to the giver and probably to the receiver too".

In an interesting coincidence Mildred Nevile died within days of Cardinal Carlo Martini at exactly the same age. In his last interview, three weeks before his death Martini asked, "Where are our heroes to inspire us? ... I advise the Pope and the bishops to seek twelve people who work outside the box to point the way. Men (I would add 'and women') who are close to the poor and are surrounded by young and who experience things in a new way. We need the comparison with men (and women) who are passionate so that the spirit can spread everywhere."

As a broad umbrella movement Justice and Peace operates outside the box in a way that single focus charity work cannot. Its many and varied strands spread in all directions drawing together social need, human rights, peace, care for creation and so much more, rooting these diverse issues at the heart of the Gospel message and Catholic Social Teaching to weave a kingdom of love and justice and peace. Activists and groups are inspired with a passion to bring about a better, fairer world where all creation can flourish. Social Justice Formation is key to getting young people involved and active but an extensive programme is impossible with limited resources.

My concern, and it is shared by many in J&P, is that the Caritas model will gradually take over from J&P and erode much of the work achieved since Vatican II. It is much more palatable to do good works than to oppose unjust structures. Of course we need charity, of course we need to be caring and compassionate, of course we need practical action, but we also need to challenge and confront, we need to raise awareness, we need to be a voice for the voiceless, we need to speak uncomfortable truths, we need to look at the bigger picture and seek long-term solutions rather than a quick fix that fails to address the root cause; in short, we need both charity and justice. But if justice becomes sidelined by bringing charity to the forefront and skewing the balance, then its effectiveness will be diminished and we will all be the poorer for it.