When Doing Good Isn’t Good Enough: How a Commitment to Justice and Solidarity Transformed Catholic Relief Services

A powerful case study demonstrating how principled commitment and strategic vision can fundamentally redefine an organization’s impact and purpose

In the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, humanitarian organizations faced a profound moral reckoning. The devastating failure to address the systemic social, economic, and political inequalities created fertile ground for the mass atrocities and exposed critical gaps in traditional aid approaches. The very foundations of international relief work were challenged.

When Doing Good Isn’t Good Enough offers an unprecedented look at the significance of Catholic Social Teaching, particularly its teaching on justice, for transforming Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in a time of institutional crisis after the Rwanda genocide. Toton traces the process by which CRS arrived at the decision to adopt justice as its operating lens and its methodical effort to integrate justice into every region and level of its operations. It provides a window into CRS’s deep commitment to the people it serves; the challenges of implementing right relationships while working within diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious contexts; the lessons learned; and the institutional changes it catalyzed.

For organizational leaders, relief and development professionals, scholars, and people who belong to faith-based movements, this book provides a powerful case study of institutional transformation across cultures-demonstrating how principled commitment and a strategic vision can fundamentally redefine an organization’s impact and purpose.

Suzanne C. Toton is professor emerita of theology and religious studies at Villanova University. She is the author of World Hunger: The Responsibility of Christian Education and Justice Education--From Service to Solidarity as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals.