St. Mary's Church, Los Gatos, CA
PEACE & JUSTICE COUNCIL

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." — Luke 4:18-19

Notices & Events

"If you want peace, work for justice." —Pope Paul VI

Current topics

The Bishops of the United States remind us that “one of the greatest blessings in the US is our right and responsibility to participate in civic life. Everyone can and should participate.” To aid us, every 4 years since 1975, as we approach the Presidential election, the Bishops have updated a document titled “Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility”.

The stated purpose of the document is “to help Catholics form their conscience in accordance with the truth so they can make sound moral choices in addressing major new challenges. They do not tell Catholics how to vote. The responsibility to make political choices rests with each person and his or her properly formed conscience.”

The content of this document is based on Catholic Social Teaching. “In light of Catholic Teaching, as Bishops we vigorously repeat our call for renewed politics that focuses on moral principles, the defense of life, the needs of the weak, and the pursuit of common good. This kind of political participation reflects the social teaching of our Church and the best traditions of the nation.” More .

“A Place at the Table”

Putting Catholic social teaching into action

Jesus welcomed all people to his table. When there was not enough food, he invited his disciples to share what they had. When they shared, there was plenty.

Catholic teaching affirms that all persons, even those on the margins of society, have basic human rights: the right to life and to those things that are necessary to the proper development of life, including faith and family, work and education, and a peaceful and healthy world.

 

The Mission of the St. Mary’s Peace & Justice Council

St. Mary’s Peace & Justice Council puts Catholic social teaching into action by creating opportunities for parishioners to learn, advocate and contribute to a peaceful, loving and just world.

The council's vision is to build an organization, through lay leadership, to foster a community increasingly engaged in living the themes of Catholic social teaching.

What is Catholic social teaching?

Drawing on the gospel message of Jesus as well as the wisdom expressed by the popes and church leaders across many years, Catholic social teaching emphasizes the call to put faith into action on behalf of the poor, vulnerable, and powerless in our country and in our world. The U.S. Catholic Bishops have distilled the church's long tradition in this area into seven themes of Catholic social teaching; the St. Mary's Peace and Justice Council has adopted these themes as its focus.

Why emphasize Catholic social teaching?

The St. Mary's Parish mission statement focuses on the parish as a community centered on God's love. How is God's love concretely expressed in our world? Through our actions on behalf of the poor and vulnerable, through our work to build a more just society, and through our efforts to make peace take root in our world — in all of these ways, we express God's uncoditional love. These are the themes of Catholic social teaching. These themes call us not just to charitable giving, but also to advocating and working together to create a just and peaceful global community.

Outreach opportunities

There are a wide variety of programs at St. Mary's to get involved in helping those in need. These programs are built on the efforts of individual parishioners who have answered the call to take action and address a specific issue or need. Read more about outreach opporutnities at St. Mary's.

St. Mary's Peace and Justice Council: Catholic Social Teaching