Rights & Responsibilities
-
usccb: Rights and Responsibilites
-
Flowing from our God-given dignity, each person has basic rights and responsibilities. These include the rights to freedom of conscience and religious liberty, to raise a family, to immigrate, to live free from unfair discrimination, and to have a share of earthly goods sufficient for oneself and one’s family. People have a fundamental right to life and to those things that make life truly human: food, clothing, housing, health care, education, security, social services, and employment. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities - to one another, to our families, and to the larger society, to respect the rights of others and to work for the common good. ¹
More on Rights and Responsibilities from the USCCB
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:Participation in Social Life
FAITHFUL CITIZENSHIP | ADVOCACY
Click the Title of each section to learn more about the issue on the USCCB website.
-
FAITHFUL CITIZENSHIP
Take action
- Host a Faithful Citizenship workshop at your parish, school, or ministry
- Register to vote
- Vote in accord with Catholic teaching in local, state and national elections
The Church's obligation to participate in shaping the moral character of society is a requirement of our faith, a part of the mission given to us by Jesus Christ. As people of both faith and reason, Catholics are called to bring truth to political life and to practice Christ's commandment to "love one another" (Jn 13:34). We are called to bring together our principles and our political choices, our values and our votes, to help build a better world. At times Catholics may choose different ways to respond to social problems, but we cannot differ on our obligation to protect human life and dignity and help build through moral means a more just and peaceful world.
-
ADVOCACY & LEGISLATIVE AWARENESS
Take action
- Take part in the yearly Catholic Days at the Capitol in Tallahassee
- Sign up to receive Advocacy Alerts from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Write to your legislators on issues of social justice
"As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life. The manner of this participation may vary from one country or culture to another... As with any ethical obligation, the participation of all in realizing the common good calls for a continually renewed conversion of the social partners. Fraud and other subterfuges, by which some people evade the constraints of the law and the prescriptions of societal obligation, must be firmly condemned because they are incompatible with the requirements of justice. Much care should be taken to promote institutions that improve the conditions of human life."
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1915-1916
TOP
-