The Social Justice Program of the Canadian Catholic Church: An International Case-Comparative Analysis

This study offers an examination of the Canadian Catholic social justice program in light of that operating within the Brazilian Church - long thought to be the most progressive national institution within Catholicism. Upon review of relevant Church statements and activities, the study reveals a Canadian justice agenda which, when compared to the environmentally rooted and more highly developed Brazilian program, has largely failed to marry rhetoric to concrete action. This condition is explained with reference to the intellectual origins of the social justice stance in Canada, and the resultant failure of the Canadian Church to institutionalize justice initiatives in the manner so effectively undertaken in the Brazilian case. The quality of Roman Catholic Church involvement with the cause of social justice in the countries of the developing world has of late come under considerable scrutiny. Since at least the early 1970s, a good number of studies have in fact appeared which attempt to describe and understand the process by which formerly rather conservative national churches (especially in Latin America) have come to the ardent defence of the socially disadvantaged (see, for example, Bruneau 1974, 1982; Cleary, 1985; Levine, 1980, 1986; Maduro, 1982; Mainwaring, 1986). Yet, rather interestingly, much less analysis of justice-related church activity in the industrialized countries has to date been undertaken. The situation of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada provides an interesting case in point. The Canadian Church has unquestionably attracted a good deal of attention for its attempts to forge a coherent stance with respect to social justice issues. Nevertheless, while a handful of authors have commented upon specific episcopal