Advocacy, Faith & Justice

September 23, 2023

Contributed by: John Battle, Commission Chair

As Church, we need to re-examine and re-define what we mean by ‘advocacy’

A “ Discussion Paper for the Decade of Evangelisation: From Charity to Empowerment “ published by the Catholic Bishops Conference in 1992 set out a relationship between “ Welfare Charity”-” Advocacy”- and “ Empowerment “.

“Welfare charity” is social provision for the immediate relief of poverty – notably practiced by our parish SVP conferences over the years. “

Empowerment” gives priority to enabling the poor themselves to be shapers of their own destiny, running their own communities and local economies.

“ Advocacy” attempts to understand the causes of poverty and to work on behalf of the poor and voiceless to tackle them. It leads naturally to getting engaged in the struggle for justice but does not displace welfare action or pre-empt empowerment.

Welfare action, advocacy and empowerment are not mutually exclusive, rather they should be “ integrated on the basis of effective Christian love expressed as ‘solidarity’”.

The regular work of the SVP and parish groups, not least during the Covid crisis, providing food banks and visits was the hallmark of the Catholic welfare contribution. Church Action on poverty ( and CAFOD projects internationally) has for the past decade worked with local communities on empowerment strategies.

And while there is not a direct sequence or linear progression in time from welfare action to empowerment, focus on these two themes has tended to squeeze out any practical understanding and development of Catholic “ Advocacy “ practices.

diagram summarising advocacy, empowerment and welfare action

In our UK context , still suffering from the original sin of “austerity” and a short termist negative political culture, the question is increasingly that of how can “ Advocacy”” be part of the Church’s mission? In a political culture of “ fear-politics and manipulation of information in which truth is sacrificed to expediency, how can the practices of Advocacy make any difference? In an increasingly divided and polarising society in which the poor pay the highest price how can Advocacy be effective against power “ lobbying” dominating the political decision making of laws and budgets?