There must be no doubt,
that we, who must speak the
message of Jesus,
can only become
advocates of the poor.

This is not to be simplistic,
to see all in black and white,
to be ignorant of economics
and the contributions
of other human sciences,
but in a profound sense
the choices are simple and stark:

death or life; injustice or justice; idolatry or Living God.

We must choose life. We must choose justice. We must choose the Living God.

More and more people recognize
that a new social order is being born.
Indeed,
the Spirit of God
presses us to this recognition.
We do not understand it all,
but we know we are part of it,

in this community, in our nation, across the world.

We urge all of you
not to stop living,
to be a part of the rebirth of utopias,
to recover and defend the struggling dream
of this country and her people.
For it is the weak things of this world,
which seem like folly,
that the Spirit takes up
and makes its own.

The dream of the land’s struggle,
the dream of simplicity
and of justice,
like so many other repressed visions,
is, we believe,
the voice of God among us.

"The Voice of God Among Us" is from This Land Is Home to Me,
1975 pastoral letter by the U.S. Catholic Bishops of the Appalachia area (adapted)