Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action Thomas Massaro, S.J. Franklin, WI: Sheed

1
Living Justice Catholic Social Teaching in
ActionThomas Massaro, S.J.(Franklin, WI Sheed
Ward, 2000)

• The Tradition of Catholic Social Teaching
• Revelation of God in history
• Old Testament Law
• The Prophets
• JESUS CHRIST
• The Scriptures
• The Church
• The Saints
• Doctrine

The primary source for Catholic social teaching
is specific revelation.
2
Living Justice Catholic Social Teaching in
ActionThomas Massaro, S.J.(Franklin, WI Sheed
Ward, 2000)

• The Tradition of Catholic Social Teaching
• Conscience
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Psychology

Catholic social teaching also depends upon
general revelation as found in reason and
philosophy.
3
Chapter 3 How we inherited the tradition of
Catholic Social Teaching

• The Challenges of Living a Just Life
• Experience shows us that balancing moral goals
  and practical considerations is quite difficult.
• How should I interpret events in the light of the
  gospel?
• What key problems should I focus upon?
• What is the right balance for me between charity
  and justice?
• Am I too much of a crusader, or too apathetic?

4
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Churchs Response to Challenges of Justice
• How should I interpret events in the light of the
  gospel?

• Biblical Interpretation
• Bible Study
• Sermons
• High school courses
• Catechism

5
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Churchs Response
• There is a great variety of formal and informal
  ways in which the Church guides the faithful.
• What key problems should I focus upon?

• Papal Encyclicals
• Bishops Conference/Synod Statements
• Vatican Commissions (Offices)
• Commission on Justice and Peace
• Catholic Newsletters
• Lay Groups
• Pax Christi
• Pro-Life

6
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Papal Encyclicals
• Letters from the Pope to the Church
• Formal Documents
• Generally address universal issues of concern to
  all the Church
• Social Encyclicals
• Address Social issues
• Beginning with Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, 1891
• Have strong authority, but are not considered
  infallible definitions of faith
• Attempt to apply the faith to concrete issues of
  the present day

7
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Papal Encyclicals
• Have Latin titles
• usually the first two words of the document
• the document then makes sure the first two words
  sum up the content of the encyclical
• e.g. Rerum novarum of new things, since this
  encyclical was covering social justice theology
  in a new way, and was addressing the current ills
  of the late 19th century the 1800s, that is!
• The English title is often not a translation of
  the Latin

8
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Conciliar Documents
• Issued by an ecumenical council, a universal
  council of all the bishops and cardinals of the
  Church in union with the Pope
• Vatican Council II (1961-1965)
• Gaudium et Spes (Joy and hope) The Pastoral
  Constitution of the Church in the Modern World
• Synodal Documents
• Issued by local, national, continental, or
  universal gatherings of bishops
• World Synod of Bishops, 1971
• Justititia in Mundo (Justice in the World)

9
Twelve Important Encyclicals

• Rerum novarum, 1891
• Quadragesimo anno, 1931
• Mater et magistra, 1961
• Pacem in terris, 1963
• Gaudium et spes, 1965
• Popolorum progressio, 1967
• Octogesima adveniens, 1971
• Justitia in mundo, 1975
• Evangelii nuntiandi, 1975
• Laborem exercens, 1981
• Sollicitudo rei socialis, 1987
• Centesimus Annus, 1991

The Condition of Labor The Reconstruction of the
Social Order Christianity and Social
Progress Peace on Earth Pastoral Constitution on
the Church in the Modern World The Development of
Peoples A Call to Action Justice in the
World Evangelization in the Modern World On Human
Work On Social Concern On the 100th Anniversary
of Rerum Novarum
10
Twelve Important Encyclicals
Major Challenge Industrialization,
urbanization Depression, Communism, Fascism
Technological advances Arms race, threat of
nuclear war Questioning of traditional values Gap
between rich and poor nations Marginalization by
urbanization Structural injustices, liberation
Atheism, secularism, consumerism Workers,
instruments of production Underdevelopment of 3rd
world Collapse of communism in E. Europe

• Rerum novarum, 1891
• Quadragesimo anno, 1931
• Mater et magistra, 1961
• Pacem in terris, 1963
• Gaudium et spes, 1965
• Popolorum progressio, 1967
• Octogesima adveniens, 1971
• Justitia in mundo, 1975
• Evangelii nuntiandi, 1975
• Laborem exercens, 1981
• Sollicitudo rei socialis, 1987
• Centesimus Annus, 1991

11
Twelve Important Encyclicals
Major New Idea Family wage, workers
rights Subsidiarity, guide to government Global
justice for rich and poor Human rights, social
responsibilities Church sees signs of the
times Development, new word for peace Lay
Catholics combat political injustice Justice is
preached by the gospel Jesus offers liberation
from oppression Work is key to human
dignity Structures of sin global
injustice Knowledge economy, consumerism

• Rerum novarum, 1891
• Quadragesimo anno, 1931
• Mater et magistra, 1961
• Pacem in terris, 1963
• Gaudium et spes, 1965
• Popolorum progressio, 1967
• Octogesima adveniens, 1971
• Justitia in mundo, 1975
• Evangelii nuntiandi, 1975
• Laborem exercens, 1981
• Sollicitudo rei socialis, 1987
• Centesimus Annus, 1991

12
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Synodal or Episcopal Conferences
• USCCB U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (The
  conference formerly known as the NCCB)
• http//www.usccb.org/index.shtml
• The USCCB is an assembly of the Catholic Church
  hierarchy who work together to unify, coordinate,
  promote, and carry on Catholic activities in the
  United States to organize and conduct religious,
  charitable, and social welfare work at home and
  abroad to aid in education and to care for
  immigrants. The bishops themselves constitute the
  membership of the Conference and are served by a
  staff of over 350 lay people, priests, deacons,
  and religious.

13
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• USCCB Pastoral Letters
• The Challenge of Peace, 1983
• As Americans, citizens of the nation which was
  first to produce atomic weapons, which has been
  the only one to use them and which today is one
  of the handful of nations capable of decisively
  influencing the course of the nuclear age, we
  have grave human, moral and political
  responsibilities to see that a "conscious choice"
  is made to save humanity.

14
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• USCCB Pastoral Letters
• Economic Justice for All, 1986
• This letter is a personal invitation to
  Catholics to use the resources of our faith, the
  strength of our economy, and the opportunities of
  our democracy to shape a society that better
  protects the dignity and basic rights of our
  sisters and brothers, both in this land and
  around the world.

15
The Development of Catholic Social Teaching
Semper Idem

• The Church in 1841
• Though we may consider the Churchs teaching to
  be always the same, there has been a tremendous
  development in Catholic social teaching since the
  early 19th century. The concerns and viewpoints
  of the Church have changed, some would say
  radically, since that time. Though we would
  still consider the ideals of the time to be in
  harmony with the gospel, we might now consider
  their evaluation of the modern changes in society
  to be frequently off the mark and overly fearful
  and condemnatory.

16
The Development of Catholic Social Teaching
Semper Idem

• The Church in 1841
• European dominated
• Latin spoken in liturgy
• Little sensitivity to non-Western cultures or to
  colonies
• Associated with the political authorities of
  traditional Europe
• estranged from U.S., democracy
• Suspicious of modern ideas and philosophies
• Outspoken opponent of social change

17
The Development of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Church in 1841
• Distrusted
• human rights
• Labor unions
• Freedom of speech
• Human equalitty
• Religious toleration
• Interreligious dialogue

18
The Development of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Syllabus of Errors, 1864 condemns the
  following
• 15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that
  religion which, guided by the light of reason, he
  shall consider true.
• 16. Man may, in the observance of any religion
  whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and
  arrive at eternal salvation.
• 17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of
  the eternal salvation of all those who are not at
  all in the true Church of Christ.
• 24. The Church has not the power of using force,
  nor has she any temporal power, direct or
  indirect.
• 30. The immunity of the Church and of
  ecclesiastical persons derived its origin from
  civil law.
• 42. In the case of conflicting laws enacted by
  the two powers, the civil law prevails.

19
The Syllabus of Errors, 1864 condemns the
following

• 45. The entire government of public schools in
  which the youth- of a Christian state is
  educated, except (to a certain extent) in the
  case of episcopal seminaries, may and ought to
  appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so
  far that no other authority whatsoever shall be
  recognized as having any right to interfere in
  the discipline of the schools, the arrangement of
  the studies, the conferring of degrees, in the
  choice or approval of the teachers.
• 47. The best theory of civil society requires
  that popular schools open to children of every
  class of the people,
• 55. The Church ought to be separated from the
  .State, and the State from the Church.
• 77. In the present day it is no longer expedient
  that the Catholic religion should be held as the
  only religion of the State, to the exclusion of
  all other forms of worship.
• 78. Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in
  some Catholic countries, that persons coming to
  reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of
  their own peculiar worship.

20
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching
Nevertheless, in the 19th century, there were
strong advances in social teaching, whose later
fruit were the social encyclicals of Leo XIII and
his successors.

• Pioneers of Social Catholicism
• Archbishop Wilhelm von Ketteler (1811-1877)
• Contemplated the value of new industrial systems,
  new capitalist order, and technological advances
• Concerned about
• Urbanization
• Industrialization
• Overcrowded, unsanitary slums
• No access to schooling or upward mobility
• Low wages
• Appalling work conditions

21
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Archbishop Wilhelm von Ketteler
• Poverty should not be viewed as a punishment for
  laziness and sin, but is a result of systemic
  injustice
• Subsistence wages trap hardworking people in a
  cycle of desperate poverty
• Crime, violence, disease and family break-up were
  the result of the root cause of poverty.
• Catholic Church should be an agent of social
  change
• Encouraged Catholics to form labor unions
• Denounced unlimited property rights

22
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching
Archbishop Wilhelm von Ketteler You see, my
brethren, what answer Christ gives to those who,
like the man in the Gospel. wish to become rich
by a division of property, or who wish to better
their social condition by purely exterior means.
He is also in favor of a just distribution of
goods, not by force however, but by the interior
regeneration of the heart. That is the essential
difference between the doctrine of Christianity
and the doctrine of the world. The world has only
external remedies, which do not reach down to the
source of the evil Christianity heals the
disease in its source, which is the human heart.
Not poverty, but corruption of heart, is the
source of our social misery.
from a homily found in Christian Social Reform a
program outlined by its pioneer, William
Emmanuel, baron von Ketteler, bishop of Mainz, by
John Laux
23
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Pioneers of Social Catholicism
• Frederick Ozanam (1813-1853)
• Founder of St. Vincent de Paul Society (1833)
• Concerned about
• Charity to the poor of Paris and France
• Change in social structures to benefit the poor

24
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching
Frederick Ozanam (1813-1853) The order of
society is based on two virtues justice and
charity. However, justice presupposes a lot of
love already, for one needs to love a man a great
deal in order to respect his rights, which limit
our rights, and his liberty, which hampers our
liberty. Justice has its limits whereas charity
knows none. Exploitation occurs when the master
considers his workers not as a partner nor even
as an assistant, but as an instrument out of
which he must extract as much service as possible
at the smallest possible price. Yet the
exploitation of a man by another man is slavery.
The worker-machine is nothing more than part of
capital like the slaves of the ancients. Service
becomes servitude. http//www.vincenter.org/res/w
ord/fowords.html
25
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Pioneers of Social Catholicism
• Henry Cardinal Manning (1808-1892) Archbishop of
  Westminster
• Supported
• Labor unions
• Workers rights
• Social legislation
• Concerned about
• Catholic lack of concern for the poor and
  exploited workers
• Atheistic socialism and its attraction for
  workers

Handsome devil, wasnt he?
26
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Henry Cardinal Manning (1808-1892)
• Spoke out against social injustices
• Attempted to wake up rich Catholics out of apathy
• Used money for a new Cathedral to open schools
  for children in poor families
• Every man has a right to bread
• Sat on two royal commissions, on housing of the
  working class (1884) and on primary education

27
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Writing of the Social Encyclicals
• First major encyclical, Rerum novarum, 1891
• Future encyclicals have come about on
  anniversaries of this date
• The encyclical tradition has built up over the
  last 115 years
• As the tradition has continued, the authority of
  the documents has increased, making them not
  merely the considerations of one Pope, but a
  living and authoritative word of Christ in the
  Church

The Good Samaritan
28
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Writing of the Social Encyclicals
• Response to historical situations
• Quadragesimo Anno responded to the great
  world-wide economic crisis engendered by the
  Great Depression and the stock market crash of
  1929
• 54. Property, that is, "capital," has undoubtedly
  long been able to appropriate too much to itself.
  Whatever was produced, whatever returns accrued,
  capital claimed for itself, hardly leaving to the
  worker enough to restore and renew his strength.

The Great Crash
29
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Writing of the Social Encyclicals
• Response to historical situations
• Pacem in Terris included a plea for peace and
  disarmament just months after the Cuban Missile
  Crisis of 1962
• 109. On the other hand, We are deeply distressed
  to see the enormous stocks of armaments that have
  been, and continue to be, manufactured in the
  economically more developed countries. This
  policy is involving a vast outlay of intellectual
  and material resources, with the result that the
  people of these countries are saddled with a
  great burden, while other countries lack the help
  they need for their economic and social
  development.

30
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Writing of the Social Encyclicals
• Response to historical situations
• Centesimus Annus commented on the events of the
  fall of the Berlin Wall
• In situations strongly influenced by ideology, in
  which polarization obscured the awareness of a
  human dignity common to all, the Church affirmed
  clearly and forcefully that every individual
  whatever his or her personal convictions bears
  the image of God and therefore deserves respect.
  Often, the vast majority of people identified
  themselves with this kind of affirmation, and
  this led to a search for forms of protest and for
  political solutions more respectful of the
  dignity of the person.

31
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• The Writing of the Social Encyclicals
• To understand encyclicals, we must understand the
  historical situation to which they responded
• We must understand the philosophical and cultural
  and worldview in which they were written
• We must see how the encyclical is building upon
  its predecessors
• In harmony with Catholic theological method,
  these documents are both traditional and include
  new ideas
• These encyclicals are neither completely in
  harmony with each other, nor are they individual
  personal statements of the Popes, completely
  unrelated to each other.

Benedict XVI
Benedict XVIII
32
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Contemporary Standards of Social Encyclicals
• Universal Human Rights
• Equality between all peoples
• Social Justice
• Peace and Reconciliation
• Denunciation of the injustice of extreme
  inequalities in wealth and opportunity
• Dignity of Women
• Dignity of Workers and Laborers

John XXIII
33
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching

• Contemporary Standards of Social Encyclicals
• Gaudium et spes, no. 29
• With respect to the fundamental rights of the
  person, every type of discrimination, whether
  social or cultural, whether based on race, sex,
  color, social condition, language, or religion,
  is to be overcome or eradicated as contrary to
  Gods intent.

Paul VI