The Australian Catholic Bishops’ 2021-22 Social Justice Statement, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor urges us, as staff and volunteers of Catholic social services and as a part of the Catholic community, to reflect on ‘the bigger picture’ and act together on social, economic and ecological issues.
World Social Justice Day offers an opportunity for broader reflection. As with other events, we normally think locally about social justice. The issues on which we focus and the terms in which we discuss them are those that concern Australia: inequality, the treatment of people who seek protection, the adequacy of support for those who are unemployed, people who are elderly, suffer from mental illness, and discrimination against Indigenous Australians, for example.