The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission is an agency and tool of the church on the front line and on all frontiers of evangelization (Gaudium et spes No. 90)

The Kenyan Catholic Bishops have said that “The Two Feet of Social Action” are “Charity” (direct service) and “Justice” (change): Social Justice “concerns the social, political, and economic aspects and, above all, the structural dimension of problems and their respective solutions” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 201). We step with this foot when we work to address the root causes of problems facing our communities by advocating for just public policies and helping to change the social structures that contribute to suffering and injustice at home and around the world.

For example, while it’s important that we donate money, food and clothing (it is equally important that we at the same time advocate for just policies and solutions to larger issues and problems. On behalf of the good of all, we are passionate about Christ-centered action and advocacy — in harmony with the Holy Bible and Catholic Social Teaching.

Organisational Structure

The Parish Priest, Fr. Bosco Kamau, is the chaplain of the Parish Catholic Justice and Peace Commission at Holy family Utawala.
Membership in the Parish CJPC is by nomination/election by the Parish Council/volunteering and commissioning by the Parish Priest / appropriate Ecclesiastical authority. The Ecclesiastical authority can veto a nomination and demand the nomination of another person.

Members must be practicing Catholic faithful, loyal to the church; volunteers who are prepared to suffer and accept abuse for what they believe to be just and right in the defense and pursuit of Justice and Peace for all, especially the weak and oppressed.

Each small Christian community can propose at least one person to represent them in the commission. Also, church groups (CMA, CWA, and Youth) should select persons to represent three categories of people in the community; a man, a woman, male youth and female youth (mzee, mama, mvulana, msichana). Religious associations, Institutions and other relevant special interests in a parish can be invited to nominate representatives into the CJPC.
A parish co-ordinating Committee is formed with the required officials who will include the Parish CJPC Coordinator/Chair person.

PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Our activities include;
-Formation and Training of the members of the CJPC.
-Promotion of awareness of issues of Justice and Peace in the community.
-Advocacy and lobbying in cases of oppression and exploitation of the weak.
-Reconciliation and conflict resolution in the community (c.f 1 Cor. 6:1-9).
Contributing towards good governance by providing integrated and on-going civic education which includes:
Good and responsible citizenship

• Voter registration
• Voter education
• Monitoring of elections
• Accountability of elected leaders
• Constitutional review
• Equitable distributions of national resources.

– Environment/Integral Ecology

N/B: The aforesaid activities must be done in light of the gospel.Also prior to carrying out any activities, the Parish Priest’s consent is always paramount.

Holy Family Utawala Parish Justice and Peace Committee

The committee has mainly focused on seven areas in the last few years it has been in existence, namely: good governance, networking with authorities and disadvantaged residents, conflict resolution, environmental care, charity and counselling. We have over thirty five members fully commissioned.

Before the last General Election, Justice and Peace organised a very successful awareness and together with the youth group, educative works of art were conducted in our masses to promote justice and peace.

Justice and Peace also embarked on a scheme to conduct civic education using small Christian community leaders and a seminar was conducted in our parish to train small Christian community leaders on how to conduct civic education. J&P views civic education as a continuous process. Come Election Day most of our members participated as election observers under CJPC Archdiocese of Nairobi and did their best towards that exercise.

Justice and peace have been very proactive in promoting security and order in parish stations. This has been happening during masses/ services with our parish and the even in the Deanery when called upon to do so. In our masses, it is evident that you shall always find not less than five commissioners taking up that mandate responsibly. In addition, the commission went through first aid training done by Kenya Red cross, thus making it easier to work with our health fellows to provide such services appropriately.

So far, for the last two years, we have distributed over two thousand trees(seedlings) through a campaign dubbed ‘greening of Utawala’, to our Christians/small Christian communities and our representatives ensure that they are planted, and well taken care of accordingly. The Parish Priest also went ahead to invite an environmental expert to enlighten us on Environmental care, especially POPE Francis, call for a common home vide ‘Laudeto Si’.

Fr. Sean supportively led us in launching of plastic bottles collection point for proper disposal as way of taking care of our mother earth (Laudeto Si). He has always participated in our tree planting activities within the church. We greatly appreciate our former Parish CJPC chaplain, Fr. Nail, who really gave the group a proper grounding on environmental matters, social justice and acts of charity.

The priests have also been very supportive to the group as we lead the yearly Lenten Campaigns in our Small Christian communities and the stations too. We have always involved the youth to dramatize the themes and present in the masses during the Lenten period.

Finally, we have been visiting the prisoners and offering counseling services to them. The counseling support has also been well embraced by the Christians. Currently, the parish priest is assisting us in having counseling rooms for it to be more effective.

Recruitment of New Members

There is need for more members to join the J&P Committee, especially professionals like lawyers, and counselors/psychologists. It would be appreciated if the Parish Council members can suggest parishioners who would be willing to serve in this committee.