I recently came across the below quote from the former Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Bishop Gumbleton. With the Gospel reading today being the story of Zacchaeus, the senior tax collector who realises after meeting Jesus the importance of living a life that is just, I turn my mind to governance issues and our need to ensure the political, corporate and social governing policies in our country are indeed based around Justice.

“Back in 1986, when the Catholic bishops of the United States published a pastoral letter on the U.S. economy, and how it was working or failing to work in our country, we suggested that every time we make decisions, either as individuals but especially in groups, we must always ask three questions:
1. What does it do to the poor?
2. What does it do for the poor?
3. And how do the poor participate?

What if we asked those questions when we began to work for public policies in our country?”
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

Fr. Tom