Wonderful atmosphere at Assembly (15 Jun 2009)

The Southwark Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission’s Spring Assembly was held at Aylesford Priory on Saturday 30th May.

Bishop Pat Lynch and Fr Michael Scanlon, Chair of the Commission welcomed members of Justice & Peace groups from across the diocese.

The lively morning session was taken up by group discussions on the Justice and Peace work in parishes, on racial justice and “The Changing face of Britain” and on the CAFOD climate change campaign.

During the lunch break Archbishop Kevin McDonald took time out from his busy schedule to visit the meeting and chat with the people attending.

In the afternoon the keynote speaker was Dr Patrick Riordan SJ, from Heythrop College, who gave a thought provoking and enlightening talk on “Catholic Social Thought in Troubled Times”.

He asked three main questions: Is greed to blame?  Has capitalism failed? and Is the Common Good the Answer? A show of hands around the room at the start of the talk showed that most were in agreement with the first and third questions. Dr Riordan then went on to show, with quotations from various Papal documents, that these were not simple questions and that, on reflection, he would agree to no more than “maybe a little”.

The meeting was marked by a good turnout and wonderful atmosphere with display stands from many organisations. The feedback received has been very positive with a large proportion commenting on how much they had learned from Dr Riordan’s talk.

Click on attachment  to read more on Dr. Pat Riordan's talk.