This document presents quotes from early Catholic thinkers and saints spanning from the 1st century AD to the 16th century AD on the topics of justice, peace, and care for creation. The quotes discuss concepts like sharing possessions communally, balancing abundance and need, showing faith through works, greed destroying equality, justice for the poor and vulnerable, nonviolence, compassion for all creatures, becoming vessels of love, distributive justice, preventing harm to the poor, charity as a duty, interdependence, and embodying Christ's work in the world through our actions.

1. On Justice, Peace and the
Integrity of Creation
THE EARLY CATHOLIC
TRADITION

2.  All who believed were together and
had all things in common; they
would sell their possessions and
goods and distribute the proceeds to
all, as any had need. Day by day, as
they spent much time together in
the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad
and generous hearts, praising God
and having the goodwill of all the
people. And day by day the Lord
added to their number those who
were being saved.
– Acts 2: 44-47

3. PAUL; 2 COR. 8:13-15
 I do not mean that there
should be relief for others and
pressure on you, but it is a
question of a fair balance
between your present
abundance and their need, so
that their abundance may be
for your need, in order that
there may be a fair balance.
As it is written, "The one who
had much did not have too
much, and the one who had
little did not have too little."
JAMES; JAS. 2:15-18
 If a brother or sister is naked
and lacks daily food, and one
of you says to them, "Go in
peace; keep warm and eat
your fill," and yet you do not
supply their bodily
needs, what is the good of
that? So faith by itself, if it has
no works, is dead. But
someone will say, "You have
faith and I have works." Show
me your faith apart from your
works, and I by my works will
show you my faith.

4.  We who valued above all things
the acquisition of wealth and
possessions, now bring what we
have into a common stock, and
communicate to every one in
need;…
 And we afterwards continually
remind each other of these
things. And the wealthy among
us help the needy; and we
always keep together; and for all
things wherewith we are
supplied, we bless the Maker of
all through His Son Jesus
Christ, and through the Holy
Spirit.
– 157 AD

5. Basil the Great
• “The bread which you do not use
is the bread of the hungry; the
garment hanging in your
wardrobe is the garment of him
who is naked; the shoes that you
do not wear are the shoes of the
one who is barefoot; the money
that you keep locked away is the
money of the poor; the acts of
charity that you do not perform
are so many injustices that you
commit.” – 364 AD

6. Basil the Great
“At this very moment, what
prevents you from giving?
Are not the needy near at
hand? Are not your barns
already full? Is not your
heavenly reward waiting? Is
not the commandment
crystal clear? The hungry
are perishing, the naked are
freezing to death, the
debtors are unable to
breathe, and will you put off
showing mercy until
tomorrow?” – 364 AD

7. Gregory
Nazianzen
After sin came into the world, greed destroyed the
original nobility of nature, and turned law into the
handmaiden of the powerful. But you, do look to the
original equality, not to the latter distinction; not to the
law of the powerful, but to the law of the Creator.
After sin came into the
world, greed destroyed the
original nobility of
nature, and turned law into
the handmaiden of the
powerful. But you, do look
to the original equality, not
to the latter distinction; not
to the law of the
powerful, but to the law of
the Creator. -378 AD

8. Ambrose of Milan
“God ordered all things to
be produced so that there
would be common food for
all, and so that the earth
would be common
inheritance of all.
Thus, nature has
produced a common
right, but greed has made
it the right of a few.” – 390
AD

9. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
“How think you that you obey
Christ’s
commandments, when you
spend your time collecting
interest, piling up
loans, buying slaves like
livestock, and merging
business with business?... And
that is not all. Upon all this
you heap injustice, taking
possession of lands and
houses, and multiplying
poverty and hunger.” -405 AD

10. “In the
absence of
justice,
what is
sovereignty
but
organized
robbery?”
- 410 AD
Augustine of Hippo

11. Augustine of Hippo
“Some think to justify what
they do. They give a little in
charity of the lot they stole
from the poor; or give a
pittance to the one, out of
what they took from the
many. One mouth eats the
food of the many. Many are
stripped so one can dress.
God does not want charity to
be like that.” – 425 AD

12. Jerome
I agree with the
popular
saying, that one
is rich either
through one’s
own injustice or
by inheriting
from an unjust
person. - 405AD

13. Gregory
the Great
“When we attend to
the needs of those in
want, we give them
what is theirs, not
ours. More than
performing works of
mercy, we are paying
a debt of justice.”
– Homilies: 596 AD

14. “Consider carefully that it is not
the people who call for peace but
those who make peace who are
commended. For there are those
who talk but do nothing (Mt 23:3).
For just as it is not the hearers of
the law but the doers who are
righteous (Rom 2:13), so it is not
those who preach peace but the
authors of peace who are blessed.”
-1121 AD
Bernard Of
Clairvaux

15. Hildegard
of Bingen
“All of creation God
gives to humankind
to use. If this privilege
is misused, God’s
justice permits
creation to punish
humanity.” -1151 AD

16. Francis of Assisi
“If you have men who
will exclude any of God's
creatures from the
shelter of compassion
and pity, you will have
men who will deal
likewise with their fellow
men.” – 1221 AD

17. Claire of Assisi
 "We become what we love and
who we love shapes what we
become. If we love things, we
become a thing. If we love
nothing, we become nothing.
Imitation is not a literal
mimicking of Christ, rather it
means becoming the image of
the beloved, an image
disclosed through
transformation. This means we
are to become vessels of
God´s compassionate love for
others. “
- 1234 AD

18. Thomas Aquinas
“In distributive
justice something
is given to a
private
individual, in so
far as what
belongs to the
whole is due to the
part.” – Summa: 1269 AD

19. “Do not close your eyes to the wrongs
which your officials commit through
bribery or neglect of the poor. Be a
father to the impoverished as an
almoner of what God has given you.
See to it that the crimes committed in
your kingdom are punished and that
the good deeds are exalted and
rewarded. All this is part of divine
justice.” - Letter: 1374 AD
Catherine
of Siena

20. Catherine of
Siena
 Thus have I, [God] given you
reason – necessity, in fact – to
practice mutual charity. For I could
well have supplied each of you with
all your needs, both spiritual and
material. But I wanted to make you
dependent on one another so that
each of you would be my
ministers, dispensing the graces
and gifts you have received from
me.
- 1378 AD

21. Bartolome De Las Casas
• “The Holy Spirit taught the prophet
[Isaiah] the manner and means of
forming the kingdom of Christ, the
Christian people, of spreading it, of
preserving it. Not by war. Not by
force of arms. By the taste of
peace, By an atmosphere of
charity, by the works of kindness, of
mercy, of modesty. This must be the
way of calling and convincing people
to believe in Christ.”
– The Only Way, 1537

22. {
 “The Lord is pleased only by
those who keep to the way of
truth and justice. The Most High
does not accept the gifts of unjust
people, He does not look well
upon their offerings. Their sins
will not be expiated by repeat-
sacrifices. The one whose sacrifice
comes from the goods of the poor
is like one who kills his neighbor.
The one who sheds blood and the
one who defrauds the laborer are
kin and kind.”
– 1522 AD
Bartalome De Las Casas

23. Ignatius
of Loyola “Love ought to manifest itself in
deeds rather than in words.... love
consists in a mutual sharing of
goods, for example, the lover gives
and shares with the beloved what
he possesses, or something of that
which he has or is able to give; and
vice versa, the beloved shares with
the lover. Hence, if one has
knowledge, he shares it with the
one who does not possess it; and
so also if one has honors, or riches.
Thus, one always gives to the
other.”
– Spiritual Exercises 1524 AD

24. "Christ has no body
now, but yours. No
hands, no feet on
earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes
through which Christ
looks compassion
into the world. Yours
are the feet with
which Christ walks to
do good. Yours are
the hands with
which Christ blesses
the world.“
- 1577 AD
Theresa of Avila