Our featured ministry this issue is Trusted Mentors, an existing program that has expanded to our community through the efforts of our local St. Vincent de Paul organization, in response to a need for a more personal approach to case management.

In the words of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity calls us to recognize that "We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be...At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that 'if you want peace, work for justice.' The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict."

     The love of God in us is witnessed to by our willingness to lay down our lives for others as Christ did for us.

In the present condition of global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters. This option entails recognizing the implications of the universal destination of the world's goods, but, as I mentioned in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, it demands before all else an appreciation of the immense dignity of the poor in the light of our deepest convictions as believers. We need only look around us to see that, today, this option is in fact an ethical imperative essential for effectively attaining the common good.

Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home Laudato Si'