What is Catholic Social Teaching?

Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice.

It holds that God has a special plan for every single one of us, whoever we are. Our part in this plan isn’t just limited to things ‘spiritual’, or times when we do “religious things.” It involves every aspect of our lives, from the things we pray about, to how we live as a responsible global citizen.

Our part in this is a vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as our brothers and sisters. It is something that we all share.

The Catholic Church has principles of social teaching that we share with our children through all that we do, through the curriculum, special events and activity and through our ordinary actions in school.

There are nine principles of Catholic Social Teaching:

As a school, and with the help of the RE Ambassadors, we have decided to initially focus on four of the nine areas.  These are Stewardship, Option for the Poor, Solidarity and Promoting Peace.

Each of these are represented by a key and an animal:                           

Daisy The Dove

Promoting Peace

                Through the work of our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and our use of Restorative Justice we are                                                                                                promoting peace.

                                                             Poppy the Popokotea

                                                                Option for the Poor

Through our many events to raise money for charity, we think of the poor and needy.

One of our Year Four pupils shared how she had considered the poor:

‘I have put the poor first when I was at Greenwich, I saw a man living on the street so I bought him a warm sausage roll from Greggs.’

                                                                                                      Shristi the Sun bear

                                                            Solidarity

Each week the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors choose different children and adults to receive the kindness award.  This area of Catholic Social Teaching is about showing we care.

Sofia the Sloth

Stewardship

After hearing about Catholic Social Teaching and Laudato Si, the Pope’s letter to us about caring for God’s world, one of our Year Five pupils asked Mrs Seal if they could start an Eco Club.  The Eco Club held it’s first meeting this week and next week they will come together again to discuss what they would like to do to show Stewardship to God’s Earth.  They will be known as our Eco Stewards!

Food Boxes Appeal

As part of living our lives through the Catholic Social Teaching, we would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who contributed to the School Council’s food boxes appeal; this was a wonderful reflection on Stewardship and Solidarity. 

Joshua, Freya, Miss Holmes and Mrs Seal delivered the food boxes to the St James Centre, East Malling on Thursday last week. The team at the centre were very happy and grateful for the amount of food we had collected and it will now be distributed to families in our local area.

One Bread, One Body

On Thursday, Year 6 pupils visited the beautiful Aylesford Priory for the ‘One Bread, One Body’ liturgical event; a link into Participation and Human Dignaty. 

Joined by pupils from primary schools across the Archdiocese of Southwark to celebrate their unique place within God’s global family. They sang fantastically with the gospel choir at the Priory and got to explore the amazing gardens there! Well done to Nnameka who volunteered to sing in front of the whole congregation and was cheered and applauded at his performance.

Rosary

Along with the RE Ambassadors, Mrs Ward has led Rosary Club each morning this week; a link to participation

Thank you to Jemima in Year Four who made sure everything was organised for the Club this week. Each class joined the club on different days, in the Prayer Garden, with readings from the Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. The children all prayed a decade of the rosary and reflected on the stories they were told.

Muddy Race for Life

This is Grace. Grace in one of our Year 3 pupils and Grace has decided to take part in a Muddy Race for Life and below, she has explained why she will be taking part.

“My name is Grace and I asked my mummy if I could raise some money for charity. I decided to take part in a muddy race for life to raise money for cancer. I want to help old people and young people with cancer. When I was young the first person that died in my life was my nanny and even though she never died of cancer when she died I felt like I wanted to help people so they never felt the feelings I had losing someone they loved. Now I have lost my ga ga too I want to raise money even more. So please donate if you can and I will get extra muddy if you do! Love Grace xx”

Grace has already raised over £2,000 for Cancer Research UK!

Fratelli Tutti: Brothers and Sisters All

The RE Ambassadors prepared and delivered an Act of Worship explaining Pope Francis' eyncyclical Fratelli Tutti.  They read and enacted the story of the Good Samaritan, shared and explored the Pope's message on fraternal love and invited pupils to reflect on how they could live out his message.

Oscar Romero Award 

As part of our commitment to the church's teaching on social justice, we have enrolled for the Oscar Romero Award.  We shall be demonstrating how we live our mission as a Catholic community, promoting social justice and awareness. See the link below for more details: 

Who was Oscar Romero?

Archbishop Oscar Romero is a 20th century martyr of the Church. He was the archbishop of San Salvador in Central America. On 24 March 1980, in the chapel of the cancer hospital where he lived, he was shot dead at the altar by a death squad marksman as he was about to offer the bread and wine in the middle of Mass. He was canonised (recognised as a saint) on 14 October 2018 by Pope Francis in Rome, having been beatified on 23 May 2015.