Everyone Has a Part to Play

Promoting participation means recognising we each have something unique and important to contribute to society.

As human beings we live in community with others, growing together. We are called to be active members of our local, national and global communities to improve the well-being of all people.

We have a responsibility to be inclusive in our churches, our workplaces, our neighbourhoods and our decision-making processes. As communities we can work creatively to provide opportunities for all people to participate.

Searching the Scriptures...

Social Justice teaching is founded on firm scriptural foundations.

• And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day
  approaching.
  Hebrews 10:24-25

• Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
  1 John 3:18

• So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
  Romans 12:5

...And in the light of Catholic social teaching.

• ‘Participation is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility and with a view to the common good...it becomes absolutely necessary to encourage participation above all of the most
  disadvantaged...’
  Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (#189)

• ‘...the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction. True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from selfgiving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.’
  Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, #88, 2013

• 'Each of us has a part to play, a gift to share, a service to offer, for building up the Body of Christ in love.'
  Pope Francis, June 19, 2013

• ‘Be assertive. Be a participant in life at all levels. The future will be what you make of today.’
  New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference: Love Life, Give Life, 1985

• ‘Participation’ is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange. It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.’
  Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1913)

Great Examples: New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference Election Statement

In the lead up to every General Election, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC) release a statement with the aim of getting people to ‘guide people in looking to the wellbeing of everyone’
and ‘reflect beyond party policies and political personalities and consider what sort of a nation we want Aotearoa New Zealand to be.’

Voting is one way that New Zealanders aged 18 and above can participate and have an influence in the way our society operates. The principle of participation reminds us all that we have a right to participate in society but also a duty to get involved too. As we have come out of a nationwide lockdown as a result of COVID-19, this year’s election statement from the NZCBC, rightly challenges us all to reflect on what we have learnt, what we desire for our country, and how we can be a part of it.

You can read the full statement here: New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference