DORCHESTER -- When Brian Corbin, senior vice president of social policy for Catholic Charities USA, heard that the Trump administration revoked $800 million in funding to Catholic Relief Services, and $200 million in funding to Catholic Charities, he was devastated.

Then, he read Pope Francis's encyclical "Dilexi te," and thought to himself, "We as Christians are called to do way more, regardless of who's paying for it."

Corbin believes that the Catholic Church must not only perform charity work but also oppose all social injustice, regardless of the pressures of the secular world. He and hundreds of clergy and laypeople from throughout the Archdiocese of Boston, representing social issues from hunger to homelessness to Indigenous rights to immigration, filled Boston College High School in Dorchester for the 17th Annual Archdiocese of Boston Social Justice Convocation on March 14.

"Every one of us shares in the ministry of bringing holiness to life and making things holy," Corbin said in his keynote address. "Every one of us shares in the ministry of being a prophet, telling the good news, and denouncing injustice."

The annual convocation calls attention to the Catholic Church's teaching on social justice, and how it relates to the current political and social environment in Boston, the U.S., and beyond. The day began with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Richard G. Henning, followed by Corbin, who began and ended his remarks by repeating the same quote from St. John of the Cross three times: "In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone."

Corbin was on the board of directors for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, by the time he was 16. At 25, he was director of Catholic Charities in Youngstown, Ohio. He was called to support the residents of the steel town, which was hemorrhaging jobs and suffering the effects of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Corbin's first case was an immigrant from Honduras who was dying of AIDS.

"I need you to be the face of Christ with those suffering from that affliction," Bishop Richard Malone, then Bishop of Portland, told Corbin.

Corbin told those at the Social Justice Convocation to pay attention to "the signs of the time," and asked the audience to scan a QR code and type what they felt were signs of the times. Responses included war, fear, discrimination, selfishness, polarization, indifference, and mistreatment of immigrants -- as well as love and hope.

"I'm giving you a set of what you should do as social ministry leaders," Corbin said. "Constantly engage your friends and your community and your parishes and the groups that you're in, constantly scrutinize the signs of the times, but in the light of the Gospel."

Catholic Charities USA has 30,000 volunteers leading 1,500 programs that serve 16 million people in 3,500 communities across the U.S. and its overseas territories. Across the country, Corbin has heard from Catholic Charities outposts decrying greater polarization, a mental health crisis, immigration issues, growing food and housing insecurity, natural disasters, a lack of trust in institutions such as the Church, and a shortage of people working in healthcare and social services.

"This is nothing new," Corbin said, "but we tried together as a group to say, 'What are the signs of the time now and then? How do we look at it in the light of the Gospel?'"

He said the solution to the "signs of the time" is to align with the heart of Jesus and, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, "build a civilization of love."

"That's what we're called to do," Corbin said.

The U.S. Catholic bishops recently voted to dedicate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the country's independence, the bishops have called for parishes and individuals to perform 250 works of mercy and spend 250 hours in prayer.

"You are co-ministers with Jesus the Christ," Corbin told the assembly. "You're a priest, you're a prophet, and you're a king. These are ministries not to be taken lightly. They're responsibilities each one of us has, and I'm proud and grateful for all that you do."

After Corbin's address, conference attendees could attend two of seven breakout sessions, each focusing on a specific aspect of Catholic social teaching: "Caring for Creation in a Time of Crisis," hosted by Fran Ludwig of the Creation Care Ministry of Sacred Heart and St. Brigid parishes in Lexington; "Meeting Basic Needs within an Unraveling Safety Net," hosted by Kelley Tuthill, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Boston; "Living Catholic Social Teaching in Our Parishes," hosted by Father John Currie, special assistant to the vicar general and pastor of St. Peter, St. Patrick, and Holy Family parishes in Dorchester and Roxbury; "Dignity of Work and the Worker," hosted by the Labor Guild and the Lynn Worker Center; "Solidarity with Immigrants, Welcoming New Neighbors," hosted by Marjean Perhot, vice president of refugee and immigrant services for Catholic Charities Boston; "International Humanitarian Aid," hosted by Deacon Tim Donohue, co-chair of the Archdiocese of Boston Social Justice Ministry and a global fellow for Catholic Relief Services; and "Technology, Work, Dignity: We Have (Not?) Been Here Before," hosted by Dr. Aleksandar Tomic, associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology at Boston College.

In the breakout session "Living Catholic Social Teaching in Our Parishes," representatives of several Boston parishes described how they formed social justice ministries, and how other parishes could, too. One was Sam Stover of the young adult ministry of Mission Church in Roxbury. He and his fellow young adults have organized a clothing drive for homeless people in the neighborhood.

"The spiritual formation of that young adult ministry is really key to understanding how we got people together to do a clothing drive," Stover said.

He became Catholic in 2024 and helped establish the young adult ministry last year. Seeing young people who were serious about their faith made him want to learn more.

"Organically out of that, there came a desire to live our faith in a concrete way," he said.

Some of the young adults were volunteers with the parish's Grab and Go ministry, which provides homeless people with meals. After the harsh winter, it was clear that they needed fresh, warm clothing, as well. Stover said parishes should know that they "don't have to reinvent the wheel" to perform effective social justice work.

"You don't have to raise a bunch of money to do real good," he said. "All you really have to do is plug into what's already there and augment that with these people who are going to show up."

Those at the session also heard from Sister Marie-Therese "Tess" Browne and Lorraine Valentine of the Social Justice Committee at St. Katharine Drexel Church in Dorchester.

"It's not so much that we have a Social Justice Committee, but we have a parish that believes that social justice is part of our faith," Sister Tess said.

St. Katharine Drexel's annual Christmas Giving Tree donates gift cards to families in need. The parish partners with Catholic Charities and Nazareth House, a shelter for homeless mothers and their children, while also working to build an affordable housing development called Drexel Village in Roxbury. Recently, the parish has been fundraising for its large immigrant community and giving "know your rights" cards to parishioners.

"We are Church, we are family, we love one another, we care for one another, we sacrifice for one another and for our neighbors," Sister Tess said.

In the "International Humanitarian Aid" session, Deacon Donohue described the work of Catholic Relief Services around the world. When he visited Kenya for his work with CRS, he saw dire poverty in the slums of Nairobi, the country's capital. Children with special needs were considered demonic, abandoned by their fathers and shunned by the rest of society. CRS, in partnership with the Special Olympics, built a meetinghouse for mothers of children with special needs and helped them take care of their children. Families lived in plywood buildings, often next to open sewage."

"This is how some people live," Deacon Donohue said.

In Kenya, he met Pamela and her son, two of the thousands of people in Kenya suffering from AIDS. The PEPFAR program partnered with Catholic Relief Services to provide treatment for Pamela and countless others. There was so little health education that Kenyans needed to be taught how to take the pills and food needed to help the medicine go down. When women like Pamela saw their crops dying, CRS replaced them with new ones. Such work has been severely curtailed by federal funding cuts.

"We are called as a Gospel people to love one another," Deacon Donohue said.

He encouraged people to donate to Catholic Relief Services, spread the word about its existence, and pray for its efforts.

"CRS is your organization, and they do incredible work, saving lives," he said.