Social Manners for a Better Society

Caritas is putting ‘people on the margins’ in the centre of its campaign for 2009. With this motto, Caritas wants to promote social manners for a better society. By social manners, we do not mean that homeless men should shave or clean up their mess of empty bottles.

We are talking about respect, communication and openness, and how we should behave toward the poorest of the poor. All human beings are part of society, regardless of their race, class or income. At Caritas, we feel we need to point out this obvious fact, because it is not a given.

Fight Against Resignation, Hopelessness and Escapism

In our highly competitive society, people on the margin are mirror images of failure. Their problems of unemployment, separation and divorce, illness, debt or homelessness accumulate over time. Their social relations have become more and more fragile. They are all too familiar with loneliness, violence and getting knocked down and picking themselves back up again. They often lack courage and strength, and their lives revolve around resignation, hopelessness and escapism.

Face Failure and Problem Situations That are Difficult to Change

This is not easy, and we are confronted with the problems we ourselves sometimes have with people on the margins. In many cases, there are no easy solutions. Many people will not get a job, and many will stay addicted or continue to live on the street. Through our campaign, we want to encourage people to treat those on the margins as human beings with dignity, regardless of all their problems and setbacks.

Social Manners in Politics

We need to make policies that are not at the expense of the poorest members of society. We need a basic consensus that dignity and justice are inextricably linked. Human equality should not just be part of the constitution; it has to be actively worked for in everyday life and in politics. All of us must work to close the gap between those of us who have a secure livelihood and those who live on the margins. Caritas calls for establishing fundamental socio-political conditions that contribute to reintegrating people into society. To achieve this, we need more investments in education, qualification and training schemes, as well as job placements for low-skilled workers.

Campaign-Website: www.soziale-manieren.de (only german)