About the Program
Pathways to Sustainable Living developed out of the principles of Catholic Social Teachings and the Augustinian principles of dignity, common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity understood within the context of the Augustinian values of Unitas, Caritas and Veritas. These principles form the foundation for our analysis of the critical pathways and allow for the holistic means by which the See, Discern, and Act methodology can be implemented toward a sustainable future. While these principles arose from Catholic Social Teachings, we believe that they are universal values and have enormous applicability to all people, of all faiths, backgrounds, and creeds.
The Heart of See, Discern, and Act
See
Seeing goes beyond first impressions, which tend to yield incomplete pictures as they are often influenced by our expectations or assumptions and are based on limited information. The SEE portion of our methodology is designed to help us face the facts, moving beyond a discussion based on personal opinions.
Social analysis is the effort to obtain a more complete picture of a social situation by exploring its historical and structural relationships. Social analysis also considers who is making decisions affecting people and the values underlying those decisions. Social situations are complex and our analysis is always limited. Despite that, searching together, sharing our observations, can help us see a situation more completely than one based on first impressions. This, in turn, can lead to more effective judgements and actions.
Discern
The second step, discerning, is the crux of the matter and it involves evaluating a situation in light of the guiding principles of the four universal principles: Dignity, Common Good, Subsidiarity, and Solidarity. The goal of this step is to begin to formulate a response to a problematic social situation. Our values shape our judgements, and our values can always be better informed by sharing our personal understanding without being either defensive or imposing. This cannot happen without guidance from our families, communities, and social circles.
This means allowing ourselves to benefit from the collective wisdom of the community, past and present, as consensus emerges from our sharing. The wisdom we share and gain reflects our willingness to take action, driven by community members and in our sharing. A communal discernment, as it turns more practical, will try to take into account all the positive and limiting elements present in each possible activity or direction. That implies that all the community be free enough to examine and consider positive and negative elements.
This stage of consideration of a topic might move members to research the matter further, before defining a way forward. Theory alone will not enable the community to bring about change; we need to consider meaningful actions.
Act
Seeing and discerning together lead to acting. The concepts of charity and justice help distinguish types of action:
CHARITY responds to people’s immediate needs (food, shelter, safety and clothing), and tends to flow from a generous, compassionate or altruistic heart.
JUSTICE seeks to address the causes or reasons why people are without adequate resources; it usually requires long-term collaborative efforts with community members and can involve changing systems, policies and institutions.
Charity and justice are not isolated actions and, consequently, our response to any particular situation might very well involve both. However, distinguishing between charity and justice can serve as a helpful reminder that each aim is important and incomplete without the other.
Charity might be seen as a starting point for fostering solidarity across social divisions. However, charity without justice can ignore the structural inequalities that provoke the need for charity in the first place or might reinforce unjust relationships.
One type of justice-oriented service is advocacy, using one’s voice to speak on behalf of or accompanying another who lacks social, political or economic influence. Justice oriented service can involve empowering persons and communities to create structural change. Ideally, our actions are transformational, responding to the “why” question, addressing the root causes while also responding to immediate needs (give a fish, teach how to fish, but ask why some people know how to fish while others don’t, why some eat fish in abundance while others go hungry).
By applying this methodology of See, Discern, Act to each of the four fundamental sustainability pathways, we hope to not only engage those who read the website, but inspire each of them to reach out to their friends, family, and communities to begin their own journeys.