Justice and Charity

We live our faith through these Two Feet of Love in Action

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is the Catholic Church’s broad vision and official teaching on matters of public life, including politics, society, and economics. It is rooted in discipleship with Christ. It’s how we proclaim the good news to the poor and the captive. There’s “speaking” the Gospel, and there’s “doing” the Gospel. Catholic Social Teaching is about “doing” or “living” the words of Jesus. The following video is a 2-minute primer identifying the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching and how it helps us build a just society and live holy lives in our modern times. (credit: Busted Halo)

Incarnation’s Charity Ministry provide opportunities for parishioners to engage in charity and justice work from the perspective of faith and to reflect critically on social issues in light of Catholic Social Teaching.

In acts of charity or outreach, individuals respond to the needs of others by providing direct assistance, such as food, clothing, or shelter.  Charitable action aims to provide immediate relief and tends to be personally fulfilling and non-controversial.  Through works of charity, we show love and concern for our neighbors. The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) is an example of charity. The parish Coordinator of Charity is Margarita Villacorta.

In justice and solidarity work, groups and communities respond to the needs of others by addressing long-term conditions and promoting social change in institutions, policies, and systems.  Solidarity means that we are all connected to one another and responsible for working for the common good of all people.  Works of justice aim to address the root causes of social problems, such as poverty, homelessness, exploitation, war, and degradation of creation.  Justice work tends to be public and political and is the slow work of transformation–both of social structures and of ourselves–toward God.  The Exodus story (Exodus 5:1-5) is an example of justice. The parish Justice Coordinator is Deacon Jay Boyd.

Charity/Outreach

“Because we cannot see Christ we cannot express our love to him; but our neighbors we can always see, and we can do for them what, if we saw him, we would like to do for Christ.”  [Mother Teresa]

As Catholic Christians, we are called to be the living Body of Christ in a world in need, and that involvement in ministry is a response to our baptismal call.  Our Incarnation community is known throughout Charlottesville for our compassionate and generous response to people in need.  The ministries listed below are some of the ways we reach out to our brothers and sisters within and beyond our parish.  To learn more or get involved, reach out to our Coordinator of Charity, in the office (434-973-4381) or by email.

  • Angelic Gifts: Every year, leading up to Christmas, we work with Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR), the Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia (PCCV), and Region 10 Project LINK, as well as our own parish outreach ministries, to identify individuals or families who could use some extra assistance during the holidays.  After collecting information about clients’ needs and wants, we invite parishioners to “adopt” someone and shop for one or more of the gifts they requested.  In a season of abundance (and always), we believe it is so important to be aware of and reach out to our  brothers and sisters on the margins.

  • Community Garden: We are delighted to celebrate God’s creation through our community garden!  Parishioners can sign up for a plot in early spring, and together we use organic methods and rain water to cultivate bounty using God’s gifts. We want our garden to be a place where our whole community feels welcome and can learn!  Bring kids into the garden too so that they can learn more about where their food comes from and how we can take care of God’s gifts of creation.  However, please do not walk on the beds, and be sure to shut the gate behind you.

  • Emergency financial assistance: We are one family in Christ, and that means taking care of our brothers and sisters experiencing hard times.  If you or someone you know is having trouble paying their bills, please call the office at 434-973-4381 or email the Coordinator of Charity.  You can also check out the United Way Quick Guide for other local resources.

  • ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages): Both the Incarnation teachers and students have commented on how much they benefit from crossing language and cultural differences and getting to know people from different backgrounds than themselves. For more information, please contact Sin Barreras at (434-531-0104).

  • Food Ministry: One of the most important works of mercy is feeding the hungry.  Our parish food ministry distributes food every Sunday from 1:30-3:30pm.  In order to make this work, we need lots of help!  To get involved email Marta Daley!

  • Health Ministry: In partnership with the Latino Health Initiative at UVA, we provide blood pressure screenings and talks about maintaining good health every 3rd Sunday of the month after the Spanish 1:30PM mass.

  • Prayer Shawls: Inspired by nurses in our health ministry, we have parishioners who crochet and knit shawls for people experiencing sickness or loss.  Call the office if you would like a shawl for yourself or a loved one, or to get involved.

  • PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry): We shelter the homeless for two weeks every winter as part of PACEM, a traveling shelter housed in churches.  Check out our ministry

  • St. Vincent de Paul: The St. Vincent de Paul Society is an international confraternity that focuses on helping its members grow in virtue by following Christ’s example of service to the poor. In Charlottesville, the three Catholic parishes have teamed up to form the Holy Trinity conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We are still in the process of putting together our conference, so feel free to come to a meeting or reach out for more details.  For more details, feel free to reach out  Mark Ross, the new president of our conference.  For more details, here is the national web site for the Society and the page for our local Holy Trinity conference.

Community Partnerships:  We collaborate with other organizations in our local area to serve people in need, especially the ones listed below. Feel free to reach out to the office if you’d like to see Incarnation partnering with another organization!

  • Casa Alma, the local Catholic Worker Community with an urban farm and houses of hospitality

  • Alliance for Interfaith Ministries, which provides financial assistance and referrals to non-parishioners

  • Sin Barreras/Without Barriers, an immigrant outreach and advocacy organization

  • LifeSpring (formerly Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia), to help women with reproductive healthcare needs, including pregnancy medical care and counseling

In the past, Incarnation has also hosted an Alternative Giving Fair, offering fair trade items for sale and other non-consumerist purchases for the Christmas season. Do you want to help resurrect this tradition? Reach out to Deacon Jay!

Justice/Solidarity

 “It is necessary not only to relieve the gravest needs but to go to their roots, proposing measures that will give social, political and economic structures a more equitable and solidaristic configuration.” [Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI]

Incarnation parishioners are active in efforts to bring justice and peace to our community and our world.  That is, to address the roots of systems that prevent people from experiencing their full, God-given human dignity.

The ministries listed below are some of the initiatives we participate in to address these injustices, both locally and more broadly.  To learn more or get involved, reach out to our Coordinator of Justice, Deacon Jay.

  • IMPACT (Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together): This community organizing group unites 25 congregations in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area to make our community more like the city of God.  Our goal is to get our whole parish involved in pushing for justice.  Every fall we choose our issue based on stories raised at small group meetings, research it through the winter and spring, and finish with a Nehemiah Action where we hold local officials accountable.  Check out IMPACT’s website

  • Legislative Advocacy: We know that neither political party and no political candidate represents Catholic values, so we as Catholics are called to advocate for laws and policy that promote the common good.  We encourage you to sign up for email updates from the Virginia Catholic Conference and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy for state-wide initiatives, as well as those from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for national issues. 

  • Life Issues: As Catholics, we know life must be protected from conception to natural death.  Therefore, we participate in 40 Days for Life to be a prayerful presence against abortion, and we are also active with Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.  Many of our parishioners support Thrive Women’s Health with finances and volunteer hours.  Reach out to Sheila if you’re interested in getting involved!

  • Haiti Ministry: Solidarity is caring for all of humanity as our brothers and sisters.  Incarnation expresses our solidarity through our twin relationship with the Little Sisters and Little Brothers of the Incarnation in Pandiassou, Haiti.  Together, both communities have the opportunity to grow closer with Christ, through our yearly visits, financial support, and solidarity events.  Check out our Haiti page for more information!

  • Immigrant Rights: Incarnation is the spiritual home to many immigrants and Latino families in the Charlottesville area, and, as such, our parish is well aware of many of the obstacles they face, regardless of their documentation status, as they continually become more integrated into the mosaic of people who comprise the United States.  We draw from the guidance of the Church, as well as the lived realities for many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, to shape our response and action on immigration issues.  (For more on the Catholic campaign for comprehensive immigration reform, including bishops’ letters and statements, go to the USCCB’s Justice for Immigrants website.

  • Racial Justice: Racism is an assault on human dignity that we must confront wherever we see, at both the personal and institutional levels.  The Charlottesville Clergy Collective has been standing strong against racism since 2017, and their page has additional resources. We also recommend these Catholic perspectives on racism:

  • Peace & Nonviolence: Working for peace and nonviolence is an important part of our call on earth.  We host prayer services and educational events around these topics, and encourage you to find more resources from Pax Christi and Pace e Bene

    In the past, Incarnation has also had a very active Green Team, which inspired the creation of the Community Garden and encouraged right relationship with God, each other, and all of Creation. If you would like to help re-kindle this group, please email Justice Ministry member Matthew Groves. We also recommend:

Haiti Ministry

Haiti Ministry

“Development cannot be reduced to mere economic growth: it must include the moral and spiritual dimensions. At the same time, an authentic and integral humanism can only consist of solidarity, and solidarity is one of the loftiest expressions of the human spirit; it is one of the natural duties of the human being, applicable to both individuals and peoples; the full development of peace depends on the implementation of this duty.” [Pope Benedict XVI, 2008]

. . .

If you are interested in getting involved with our Haiti Ministry, please contact Tom Campbell, committee chair, at judentom@embarqmail.com, or the office.

Trip to Haiti in April 2016

To learn more about this twin relationship, or to join us on our trip to Haiti, contact Tom Campbell (judentom@embarqmail.com). Watch the bulletin and listen to Parish Family Business for more details!

Faithful Citizenship

“The work for justice requires that the mind and the heart of Catholics be educated and formed to know and practice the whole faith.” [USCCB, Faithful Citizenship]

As a Catholic, are you concerned about legislation around issues like abortion, health care, immigrant’s rights, poverty alleviation, stem cell research and support for low-wage working families?

The issues our communities, country, and world are currently facing are certainly political and societal, but many of them also have moral components that call us to respond from a place of faith.  According to the USCCB document, “Faithful Citizenship”:

“We are a nation founded on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but the right to life itself is not fully protected, especially for unborn children, the most vulnerable members of the American family. We are called to be peacemakers in a nation at war. We are a country pledged to pursue “liberty and justice for all,” but we are too often divided across lines of race, ethnicity, and economic inequality. We are a nation of immigrants, struggling to address the challenges of many new immigrants in our midst. We are a society built on the strength of our families, called to defend marriage and offer moral and economic supports for family life. We are a powerful nation in a violent world, confronting terror and trying to build a safer, more just, more peaceful world. We are an affluent society where too many live in poverty and lack health care and other necessities of life. We are part of a global community facing urgent threats to the environment that must sustain us. These challenges are at the heart of public life and at the center of the pursuit of the common good.”

We must make our voices heard in our quest to bring justice and life to all–and that includes being informed about current issues, legislation, and Catholic Social Teaching so that we can make informed decisions and act in ways that are in accordance with our faith and our morals.  Too often people think that their opinions will not matter or make a difference–but only by joining together and standing strong can we help to make change happen.

How can we do this?

  • Join the email advocacy network of the Virginia Catholic Conference and get updates and action alerts on relevant legislative issues at the state level. Go to www.vacatholic.org and follow the link to input your email address.

  • Join the Virginia Interfaith Center For Public Policy, a group that advocates economic and social justice in Virginia’s policies and practices through education, prayer, and action. To learn more about their mission, visit www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org

  • Join the USCCB’s Advocacy Alert system to find out what we need to push for at the national level.  You can pick which issues you’d like updates on at their website.  Check out www.votervoice.net/USCCB/home to sign up!

  • Join the email advocacy network of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby. This is set up very similarly to the Virginia Catholic Conference, with updates and action alerts, but at the national level.  Visit www.networklobby.org and click on “Join our email list.”

  • Read documents/literature/articles; engage in discussions with those around you; inform yourself about what is happening and what stance the Catholic church encourages you to take. Helpful links include the United States Conference of Catholic (www.usccb.org) and the Faithful Citizenship ministry of the USCCB (www.faithfulcitizenship.org).

  • Vote.  Your voice matters!  Catholic teaching has consistently held that “it is the duty of citizens to contribute…to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom…[and to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2239).