English and Welsh bishops prepare new document on Church’s social doctrine

London, England, Mar 30, 2009 / 21:36 pm

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has announced it’s drafting a new document on the Church’s social teaching in response to concern over the global financial crisis. The bishops plan to explain how the Church’s social teaching springs from the message of the Gospel.

“The document we are about to write has great importance for our Church in England and Wales,” said Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, who, as leader of the group is charged with drafting the document.  The archbishop said that the document will not only help “to set out in a creative and constructive way the Church’s contribution to the debate about the sort of society we want to make, but also to give our own people confidence in their generous work for the common good which is part of the Kingdom of Christ.”

According to a press release, the document will have four sections: “the current social and cultural context (with globalisation, the need for a moral ecology of the markets and the changing meaning of family life being, among others, areas for exploration); the theological context; possible topics and crowd of witnesses – a section which would look at contemporary examples of men and women, and organisations and communities whose life and work are inspired and sustained by the Gospel.”