Catholic Social Teaching and Labour Law explores the contribution that religious ethics makes to debates on justice in working life. Many faiths include beliefs about the significance of work to human development and the need for work to be performed under conditions that uphold dignity, equality, and solidarity . This book considers how the substantive provisions of labour law reflect prior ethical choices about how workers should be treated, and how beliefs from Catholicism infl...

Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities.For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated...

In the forthright style that has earned him a reputation for controversy, theologian Gregory Baum presents the Faith and Justice movement in the churches -- especially the Roman Catholic Church -- together with the considerable opposition to it. He discusses why many Christians are becoming activists, turning their faith into deeds by working for the liberation of the poor, not only in South America and the Third World but in Canada, as well.Baum argues for a new ecumenism, permitt...

How will the Millennial generation shape the future of gay and lesbian rights in America? Public Religion Research Institute's 2011 survey, Generations at Odds, profiles the great shift between the attitudes of seniors and college-age Millennials in the United States regarding gay and lesbian issues, including support for same-sex marriage.

Inequality is skyrocketing. In this world of vast riches, millions of people live in extreme poverty, barely surviving from day to day. All over the world, the wealthy's increasing political power is biasing policy away from the public interest and toward the financial interests of the rich. At the same time, many countries are facing financial fragility and diminished well-being. On top of it all, the global economy, driven by fossil fuels, has proven to be a collective act of self-sabota...

Move beyond the rhetoric and into the heart of one of the most contentious social questions facing America today. This 2011 survey from Public Religion Research Institute explores the nation's conflicted views on abortion, discovering that majorities of Americans simultaneously believe that abortion should be legal and accessible, but also think it is immoral.

HIV/AIDS constitutes a global problem. A good number of scholars from different nationalities, multiple rationalities, religious sensibilities, theological intelligibilities and ethical, cultural, and ecclesiastical backgrounds have affirmed that this worldwide quagmire constitutes a global health problem and social malady which does not have a well-defined geographically limited spread. The global nature of HIV/AIDS as seen in the statistics does not however undermine the fact that the ef...

As a people of faith inspired by the belief that every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, Catholics have a responsibility to be champions for racial justice. Racism and Structural Sin invites readers to not only confront racism on a personal level but also to examine the root causes and perpetuated structures of this sin. Grounded in church teaching and pastoral practice, this book is a resource for Catholics—especially White Catholics—looking to wrestle wit...

Nursing is often called a helping profession: Nursing’s Social Policy Statement is about the many ways that nursing helps others. It is about the relationship—the social contract—between the nursing profession and society and their reciprocal expectations. This arrangement authorizes nurses as professionals to meet the needs involved in the care, and health of patients and clients and the health of society. It helps nurses engage in the political and legislative action that supports nursin...

Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures equality regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in Canada. Despite this, gay, lesbian, and gender-nonconforming teachers in publicly-funded Catholic schools in Ontario and Alberta are being fired for living lives that Church leaders claim run contrary to Catholic doctrine about non-heterosexuality. Meanwhile, requests from students to establish Gay/Straight Alliances are often denied.In

Among the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century is that of sustaining a healthy civil society, which depends upon managing the tension between individual and collective interests. Bruce R. Sievers explores this issue by investigating ways to balance the public and private sides of modern life in a manner that allows realization of the ideal of individual freedom and, at the same time, makes possible the effective pursuit of the common good. He traces the developme...

The last few decades have seen huge reductions in global poverty; improvements in education and healthcare; and, perhaps surprisingly to some, dramatic reductions in global inequality. We now seem to be entering a different era. Economic progress in richer countries seems to have stalled – not least because of the onset of what Pope Francis has described as the ‘demographic winter’. Even more worryingly, in many parts of the world, the progress of the last forty years has halted. The autho...