To Be A Catholic Steward

According to the 1992 U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response, a steward is defined as a disciple of Jesus who "receives God's gifts gratefully, cultivates them responsibly, shares them lovingly in justice with others and returns them with increase to the Lord."

The pastoral letter’s challenge that we embrace stewardship as an expression of discipleship with the “power to change how we understand and live out our lives” continues to engage lay people, religious men and women, priests, deacons, and bishops.  This challenge is just as powerful today as in 1992, as a new generation of Catholics is introduced to the biblical concept of stewardship and embraces “the call to follow Jesus and imitate his way of life.”

This pastoral letter has served as an indispensable way to communicate a vision and extend an invitation to Christian people to “grasp the fact that they are no less than ‘God’s co-workers’ (1 Corinthians 3:9), with their own particular share in his creative, redemptive, and sanctifying work.”

We encourage you to read in its entirety the U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response.

The above introduction and the following summary and excerpts are taken from the texts of the 10^th Anniversary of this pastoral letter.
 

The Bible contains a profound message about the stewardship of material creation: God created the world, but entrusts it to human beings. Caring for and cultivating the world involves the following: 

• Joyful appreciation for the God-given beauty and wonder of nature; 

• Protection and preservation of the environment, which would be the stewardship of ecological concern;

• Respect for human life—shielding life from threat and assault, doing everything that can be done to enhance this gift and make life flourish; and 

• Development of this world through noble human effort—physical labor, the trades and professions, the arts and sciences. We call such effort “work.”  Work is a fulfilling human vocation. The Second Vatican Council points out that, through work, we build up not only our world but the Kingdom of God, already present among us. Work is a partnership with God—our share in a divine human collaboration in creation. It occupies a central place in our lives as Catholic stewards. 

Stewards of God’s gifts are not passive beneficiaries. We cooperate with God in our own redemption and in the redemption of others.
 
We are also obliged to be stewards of the Church—collaborators and cooperators in continuing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which is the Church’s essential mission. This mission—proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying—is our task.  It is the personal responsibility of each one of us as stewards of the Church. 

All members of the Church have their own roles to play in carrying out its mission:

• Parents, who nurture their children in the light of faith;
 
• Parishioners, who work in concrete ways to make their parishes true communities of faith and vibrant sources of service to the larger community; 

• All Catholics, who give generous support—time, money, prayers, and personal service according to their circumstances—to parish and diocesan programs and to the universal Church.