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Catholics are not and never have been just a group of people who gather together because they believe the same things. The Church was founded by Jesus Christ as an institution with a definite structure. Over time, obviously, this institution has become much more developed. Today the Church is a highly complex and organized body with its own laws and legal system. However, while the Church has developed since the first century, the fundamental structure remains the same. Jesus founded this institution with one head and a small group of leaders under that head, and the bishops and the Pope today are the successors of Peter and the Apostles.

It is good and necessary to strive to imitate Jesus and follow the teachings of Jesus, but by themselves these things are not enough. First of all, of course, we know that without some teaching authority to speak definitively on behalf of Jesus on earth, there are inevitably many disagreements about how exactly to follow the teachings of Jesus. In each disagreement, someone will be wrong and thus fail to follow the true teaching of Jesus. Furthermore, and even more importantly, it must be recognized that Jesus came to bring not only teaching, but above all redemption and salvation. No matter how carefully we try to live by his teaching, we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is a supernatural gift, which we can only receive from God through Jesus Christ. For that to occur, we need real contact with Jesus, and that is precisely what we can have through the Church in the sacraments. The Apostles and their successors have passed on the sacramental power given to them by Christ to priests in every generation. Without the Church structure instituted by Christ for this purpose, there would be no more sacraments, and our link to Christ would be lost. In addition, when Jesus offers us salvation through the Church, he offers us more than just external contact with him. One of the traditional terms used for the Church is the "Mystical Body of Christ." This is not just a meaningless pious phrase, but rather expresses a crucial truth. By being part of the Church we are incorporated into a mystical Body with Christ as the Head.

A body needs to have structure and the ability to act in a unified way. Jesus Christ himself, as the Head of the Body, is the ultimate unifying principle of the Church. Christ, though, chose to work through human beings, and as a result the structured nature of the Church is a necessary aspect of the Mystical Body of Christ. One can make an analogy between the hierarchy in the Church, and the bones in a physical body: the Church is far more than just the hierarchy, as the body is far more than just its bones, but both are completely necessary and must be present in their entirety to hold the body together properly. One sometimes hears presumably well-meaning people say things such as "You and I are the Church," or occasionally even the more grammatically offensive "We are Church." A real understanding of the Church, however, tells us that this is not exactly true. Individual Catholics are members of the Church, and in a certain sense it can be said that we make up the Church, but without the structure Jesus gave us to hold his Mystical Body together, Catholics would be just a group of individuals devoted to Jesus.

The life and teachings of Jesus Christ call us to work for justice, peace, human rights, and development. All Christians share by their baptism in the mission of Jesus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus describes this mission in the following way: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,Because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to captivesAnd recovery of sight to the blind,To let the oppressed go free,To proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. (Luke 4:18-19) The Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC) was set up by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) in 1987 as the national justice and peace agency of the Catholic Church in Australia. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference mandates the ACSJC to promote research, education, advocacy and action on social justice, peace and human rights, integrating them deeply into the life of the whole Catholic community in Australia, and providing a credible Catholic voice on these matters in Australian society. In this way the ACSJC seeks to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. The ACSJC is accountable to the ACBC through the Bishops' Commission for Justice, Ecology and Development.

The work of the ACSJC is based on Catholic Social Teaching and is a contribution to this living social justice tradition. The ACSJC works in ways that affirm and express the following beliefs: Every human being is made in the image and likeness of God and has an inalienable and transcendent human dignity which gives rise to human rights. People are always more important than things. People are never a means or an instrument to be used for the benefit of another. Every human person is equal in dignity and rights. Every human community, every race and culture is equal in dignity and rights. The human family is one because we are all children of the one God. We are all really responsible for each other and must work for social conditions that ensure that every person and every group in society is able to meet their needs and realize their potential.