#Catholic Social Teaching

[disgruntledexplainer]

I love how Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum can pretty much be summed up as "Yes, socialism is awful (here are quite a few paragraphs detailing exactly why), but MAYBE if you started TREATING YOUR WORKERS RIGHT, people would STOP TRYING TO IMPLEMENT IT".

[intrinsicallydisordered]

A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented.

— Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (no. 14)

[ffcrazy15]

Amazing. Amazing how quickly it went from "We just want people to come here legally! Just follow the rules! We're fine with legal immigrants!" to "Just because a Democrat-run government lets them come here legally, that doesn't make them not illegals."

But that's what legality is! It's the government! Making laws! The government makes the laws! That's what makes things legal!

Those people are in Springfield on the basis of being granted Temporary Protected Status—a designation created by Congress in 1990. But does that matter to you? No. You'll redefine the word "illegal" to mean any brown person you don't like, won't you?

Because it was never about if they were here "legally," was it. These people are here legally. And you still hate them. Because you were told to, and that was all the permission you needed. It was always about you getting an opportunity to feel self-righteous and proud and like a big warrior fighting for a cause. To hell with the innocent people you might crush under your boot, right? They're here "illegally." And if they're not, who cares? They may as well be.

You brood of vipers. You pit of snakes.

[cealtrachs]

“ The duty of the moment is what you should be doing at any given time, in whatever place God has put you. You may not have Christ in a homeless person at your door, but you may have a little child. If you have a child, your duty of the moment may be to change a dirty diaper. So you do it. But you don't just change that diaper, you change it to the best of your ability, with great love for both God and that child. ... There are all kinds of good Catholic things you can do, but whatever they are, you have to realize that there is always the duty of the moment to be done. And it must be done, because the duty of the moment is the duty of God. ”

Catherine Doherty

[tonreihe]

Rowan Williams, “Creating an Ideal: Solidarity and Catholic Social Thought,” the first of the 2024 Bampton Lectures

[a-really-big-cat]

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

a. Importance of the family for the person

212. The family has central importance in reference to the person. It is in this cradle of life and love that people are born and grow; when a child is conceived, society receives the gift of a new person who is called “from the innermost depths of self to communion with others and to the giving of self to others”[465]. It is in the family, therefore, that the mutual giving of self on the part of man and woman united in marriage creates an environment of life in which children “develop their potentialities, become aware of their dignity and prepare to face their unique and individual destiny”[466].

In the climate of natural affection which unites the members of a family unit, persons are recognized and learn responsibility in the wholeness of their personhood. “The first and fundamental structure for ‘human ecology' is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person”[467]. The obligations of its members, in fact, are not limited by the terms of a contract but derive from the very essence of the family, founded on the irrevocable marriage covenant and given structure in the relationships that arise within it following the generation or adoption of children.

b. Importance of the family for society

213. The family, the natural community in which human social nature is experienced, makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the good of society. The family unit, in fact, is born from the communion of persons. “‘Communion' has to do with the personal relationship between the ‘I' and the ‘thou'. ‘Community' on the other hand transcends this framework and moves towards a ‘society', a ‘we'. The family, as a community of persons, is thus the first human ‘society'“[468].

A society built on a family scale is the best guarantee against drifting off course into individualism or collectivism, because within the family the person is always at the centre of attention as an end and never as a means. It is patently clear that the good of persons and the proper functioning of society are closely connected “with the healthy state of conjugal and family life”[469]. Without families that are strong in their communion and stable in their commitment peoples grow weak. In the family, moral values are taught starting from the very first years of life, the spiritual heritage of the religious community and the cultural legacy of the nation are transmitted. In the family one learns social responsibility and solidarity[470].

214. The priority of the family over society and over the State must be affirmed. The family in fact, at least in its procreative function, is the condition itself for their existence. With regard to other functions that benefit each of its members, it proceeds in importance and value the functions that society and the State are called to perform[471]. The family possesses inviolable rights and finds its legitimization in human nature and not in being recognized by the State. The family, then, does not exist for society or the State, but society and the State exist for the family.

Every social model that intends to serve the good of man must not overlook the centrality and social responsibility of the family. In their relationship to the family, society and the State are seriously obligated to observe the principle of subsidiarity. In virtue of this principle, public authorities may not take away from the family tasks which it can accomplish well by itself or in free association with other families; on the other hand, these same authorities have the duty to sustain the family, ensuring that it has all the assistance that it needs to fulfil properly its responsibilities[472].

[politicalmamaduck]

do you supported wga strike ?

Dear Anonymous,

Yes! I believe that all people have the right to: fair wages and benefits, decent and safe working conditions, join a union or other associations, and dignity at work.

I am grateful for all those workers who came before us and fought for all of those things.

I fully support unions and strikes and think that we should have more of both in the US.

[spiritualdirections]

"What you cannot do is speak prophetically by arguing for the lesser of two evils."

--Ed Condon, The Pillar

[locustheologicus]

Human Dignity and Work

On March 26, 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed when a container ship crashed into it. Six workers lost their lives when this happened, six immigrant workers who were pursuing the American dream. They were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. 

The loss of these immigrants demonstrates the role that the immigrant communities continue to have building the infrastructure of our great nation. The following excerpt from a Reuters news story covering this incident offers a narrative on the plight of our immigrant workforce.

Hispanic workers are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to die on the job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with construction being a particularly deadly industry. “The only choice is to work, when you don’t have the same salary that a citizen might earn,” said Carlos Crespo, 53, a mechanic from Mexico. “Many don’t value our Hispanic community. They see us as animals or think that we live off the government. But that is not true, we pay our taxes too,” he said.

This incident is part of our American narrative. This nation has been built by immigrant hands who tragically suffered in the economic development of this nation. On March 22, 1911 one hundred and forty six immigrant women, tragically died in Manhattan during the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This truth is memorialized in our popular culture and it has spurred good working conditions and regulations. But as you can see, the story continues to this very day.

The dignity of work is seen as a social principle of the Catholic Church. For the Church, the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected--the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative. This was expressed early on as Pope Leo XIII gave rise to what we now call the social teachings of the Church.

The working man, too, has interests in which he should be protected by the State… We may lay it down as a general and lasting law that working men's associations should be so organized and governed as to furnish the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property. - Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891

Pope Francis reminds us of this sacred value as he expresses his concern for those who are unemployed or who are exploited in their workplace. “labor is often a hostage to social injustice and, rather than being a means of humanization, it becomes an existential periphery.” Labor that is just and fair allows to further develop our God given dignity by participating in the development of our communities. This social principle of course assumes and recognizes a truth that society does not often reveal to us, that we, by our very nature, are people imbued with dignity. The Catholic Church has always professed this truth as a fundamental tenant of our faith. This was recently expressed by Pope Francis:

Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter. This principle, which is fully recognizable even by reason alone, underlies the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights. - Pope Francis, Dignitas Infinitum, 2024

Labor is then a fundamental way of expressing our dignity. Pope Francis explored this in his book "Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future" when he suggested that three social issues must be addressed as we look to the future of our Catholic social priorities: Land/Tierra, Lodging/Techo, and Labor/Trabajo.

God gave us the land to till and keep. Our work is the basic condition of our dignity and well-being... That is why, as a society, we have to ensure that labor be a means not just of earning but of self-expression, of taking part in society, and of contributing to the common good. Prioritizing access to work must become a core goal of national public policies. (Francis, pg. 131)

These are the values we must keep in mind as we consider issues such as access to employment and just wage. Pope Francis also has us consider the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), reduced working hours and adjusted salaries. America has a history of taking advantage of migrant and minority communities but we know that has never been just or fair. This nation struggled with slavery and forced labor. We knew that it was not consistent with our American values, eventually our history will testify to the fact that we cannot accept these social injustices. In a similar way we cannot allow any group to continue being victims of the market's greed. Catholics have the benefit of our social teaching to remind us that these social injustices cannot be tolerated. But we just need to take the time to reflect on them.

[dilutedh2so4]

Seven Days of Catholic Social Teaching

DAY 4: Option For The Poor

The option for the poor reminds us of God’s preferential love for the poorest and most vulnerable people. God’s love is universal; he does not side with oppressors, but loves the humble. As St Mary says in the Gospel of Luke, "[The Lord] has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty."

This principle is believed to have originated from the Liberation Theology movement in Latin America. For the first time, people living in poverty in the slums were holding the Bible in their own hands and imagining a world free from injustice. This radical thinking shaped CAFOD’s early work in the 1960s. More recently, some Catholic theologians have spoken about an ‘option for the earth’. Pope Francis writes, “the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor” Laudato Si’ #2.

-> Taken from the CAFOD website

A Prayer

[rivage-seulm]

American Politics Realigning? Walz and Vance Might Be More Similar Than You Think

Something important and promising might well be happening in American politics. At the popular level, working class folks are expressing their deep discontent with a system run by octogenarians who serve their donors rather than the American taxpayer. The latter has come to realize that Democrats and Republicans have formed a kind of Uni-party beholden to the rich and powerful rather than to…

[ffcrazy15]

I think one of my favorite things about the Catholic marriage rite is that in the concluding blessing over the couple we find the following words:

"May you be witnesses in the world to God's charity, so that the afflicted and needy who have known your kindness may one day receive you thankfully into the eternal dwelling of God."

There's a lot of talk in the marriage rite about receiving children gratefully as gifts from God and raising them faithfully, as well there should be. But this line here, this line gets to me. Because it indicates something really essential about the founding of a Catholic home together: that it isn't just for you or even just your particular family, but that a Christian home becomes a sort of sign and shelter for the whole world. That you have a duty, as a married couple, to go out into the world and share the love God has given you by providing out of your excess for the whole human family.

[copela4692]

Fratelli Tutti - Dialogue and Friendship in Society

In order to mark the 30th anniversary of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, Pope Francis requested that CAPP members and friends read, study, and promote his encyclical letter Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship. In response to this request, CAPP-Canada organized a series of monthly Fratelli Tutti Study Sessions, running from September 2023 to April 16, led by Dr.…

[many-sparrows]

I love you social justice oriented Christians. I love you Gary (my pastor) who presided over gay weddings before they were legally binding and before the church had come to a decision on it. I love you Conrad (old pastor I work with) for getting arrested for protesting the Iraq war and performing a lesbian wedding the minute it became legal for a couple who'd been together for decades. I love you Dr Donald Hertz for your sermons on Acts 20:27 and your life spent living out that verse and for causing trouble when you were still a student assigned to a segregated church in Birmingham and for spontaneously joining a grape boycott picket line outside of a Safeway in Berkeley because that verse says we cannot shrink away from our duty to each other. I love you Martin Luther's common chest. I love you Charles de Foucauld. I love you Oscar Romero. I love you Dorothy Day. I love you for giving me a legacy to carry on.

[locustheologicus]

The Global Human Family: Embracing Solidarity and Subsidiarity

The second principle of Catholic Social Teaching is on the value of family, community, and participation. If the first principle highlight the individual dignity that we all have as humans made in the image and likeness of God, the second principle highlights that, for Christians, God own existence is defined within a dynamic of relationships and likewise our own dignity can only be expressed in a social dynamic of relationships to one another. That is why the value of family is so important for us Christians. 

In his 2008 World Day of Peace Message Pope Benedict XVI offered the following reflection on the family and its role in promoting justice and peace.

Indeed, in a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them. For this reason, the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.

Of course one needs to notice Pope Benedict XVI use of the word “healthy” when describing a family that can be a conduit for justice and peace. Pope Francis addressed this reality in his exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” where the Church recognized that many family dynamics are far from “healthy.” This is where the Church, under Pope Francis, addressed the idea of a wounded family, and recalled the notion of the Church as a “Field Hospital” to recognize the importance of being attentive to the wounds that many families suffer.    

‘The Church must accompany with attention and care the weakest of her children, who show signs of a wounded and troubled love, by restoring in them hope and confidence, like the beacon of a lighthouse in a port or a torch carried among the people to enlighten those who have lost their way or who are in the midst of a storm’. Let us not forget that the Church’s task is often like that of a field hospital. - Pope Francis, AL #291

Pope Benedict challenged us to strive for a healthy familial role and Pope Francis placed it within the scope of the Church to promote this service. Both Popes have also wanted us to recognize how we need to also look upon our social community as a global human family and strive to be healthy and responsible members of such a community.

We do not live alongside one another purely by chance; all of us are progressing along a common path as men and women, and thus as brothers and sisters. Consequently, it is essential that we should all be committed to living our lives in an attitude of responsibility before God, acknowledging him as the deepest source of our own existence and that of others. By going back to this supreme principle we are able to perceive the unconditional worth of each human being, and thus to lay the premises for building a humanity at peace. Without this transcendent foundation society is a mere aggregation of neighbours, not a community of brothers and sisters called to form one great family.

The image of of a global human family brings to life the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. In paragraph 187 of the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” Pope Francis tells us that the principle of subsidiarity is inseparable from the principle of solidarity. It is through the concrete experience of the local that we can respond pragmatically to values and principles while responding to similar global situations. The family is the local authority that has the authority to dispense justice and peace, this local unit must be supported by the wider community only insofar as it does not have access to basic human needs. But as a global human family we must also be ready to respond to the needs of our wounded family who suffers from social injustices. Pope Benedict XVI tells us that what we need to reflect on (at the local and global level) is a common standard. Families should strive for this in their own dynamic and the global human family should also be guided by a common standard.  

A family lives in peace if all its members submit to a common standard: this is what prevents selfish individualism and brings individuals together, fostering their harmonious coexistence and giving direction to their work. This principle, obvious as it is, also holds true for wider communities: from local and national communities to the international community itself. For the sake of peace, a common law is needed, one which would foster true freedom rather than blind caprice, and protect the weak from oppression by the strong.

The principles of subsidiarity and solidarity appear to be in tension, do we empower the local community or the global society? Should we emphasize a standard for the local or global? The answer is found with the idea that we are a global human family, it is not an either/or question but a both/and reality. We have our local responsibilities that must be supported but we are also part of a global society and we are expected to be responsible for one another, especially those who are in need.