The Joy of Catholic Social Teaching

Evangelii Gaudium

The 21st Century taking up of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching

General Audience, 27 March 2013

Following Jesus means learning to come out of ourselves in order to go to meet others, to go towards the outskirts of existence, to be the first to take a step towards our brothers and our sisters, especially those who are the most distant, those who are forgotten, those who are most in need of understanding, comfort and help. There is such a great need to bring the living presence of Jesus, merciful and full of love! Pope Francis

What is Catholic Social Teaching?

Catholic Social Teaching sums up the teachings of the Church on social justice issues.

It promotes a vision of a just society that is grounded in the Bible and in the wisdom gathered from experience by the Christian community as it has responded to social justice issues through history.

Biblical Phase

Catholic social teaching is not new; it is as ancient as the scriptures. Yet Catholic social teaching is ever new; it is a living tradition that has grown throughout the centuries as God’s people have encountered new social realities and challenges.

Deuteronomy 30: 19 - 20

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.

Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.”

God’s way of life is both a personal call to integrity and a social call to fashion a society that respects human life and dignity.

The Psalmist reminds us of the glory of human dignity:

Psalm 8: 4 - 5

“What are humans that you are mindful of them,

mere mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them little less than a god,

crowned them with glory and honour.”

Catholic social teaching finds its beginning and end in the person of Jesus. In the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, we find God’s presence embodied in human history.

In the mission and teaching of Jesus, we find revealed God’s plan for each of us individually, for humanity, and indeed for all creation as a whole.

Luke 4: 18 – 19 (Isaiah 61)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me to bring

good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives,

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Modern Phase

Catholic social teaching is documented in a repository of the writings and teachings of popes since the late 19th century. As the Church has confronted the rapidly changing social realities of the industrial revolution and modern life there has been extraordinary growth in its social teaching. Most theologians trace the modern phase of Catholic social teaching to Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical On the Condition of Workers (Rerum Novarum)

See Judge Act

Since the Vatican Council of the Catholic Church in 1962 this teaching has been promoted, asking us to read the ‘signs of the times’ using the ‘see, ‘judge’, ‘act’ method. It asks us to work systematically, looking first at the social justice issues as they exist in our communities (see), before assessing what is happening, and what is at stake (judge). Finally we need to discern what action to undertake in response (act).

Joseph Cardinal Cardijn

Joseph Cardijn was

the founder of the

Young Christian Workers

(YCW) and the initial

motivator of young people

‘to see, judge and act..

A Developing Tradition …

3 Momentums

This body of writings, has three major thrusts.

Prophetic

Pedagogical

Practical

Compassion is a Living Prophecy

“the one thing dominant culture cannot tolerate or co-opt is compassion, the ability to stand in solidarity with the victims of the present order. It can

manage charity and good intentions but it has no way to resist solidarity with pain or grief”. Walter Brueggemann

Jesus was not especially dangerous to the standing social order because of any properties of divinity per se but because of how his ministry subverted the values and assumptions the imperial reality relied upon. His active ministry exemplified subversion through service. He witnessed the suffering of the marginal, took it as his own experience, and spoke to its cause as well as its alternative. http://www.auburnseminary.org/grief-compassion-and-vision-reflections-brueggemann%E2%80%99s-prophetic-imagination

A teaching tradition

Particularly in the past 120 years or so, a specific Pope has written letters and published sermons on various social issues. Over time this has contributed to an ongoing dialogue around global issues as they have manifested themselves during different periods of history.

Pope Pius XI wrote a letter (1931) on the dignity of work and the right to form unions. This was a papal teaching about labour. There is no teaching in scripture about labour unions, but Jesus and the Apostles taught about work and human dignity and over time the Church has reviewed the times and made prior statements about work.

Human Person

Dignity of

the

Human Dignity

“It is not just a question of eliminating hunger and reducing poverty. It is not just a question of fighting wretched conditions, though this is an urgent and necessary task. It involves building a human community where men can live truly human lives, free from discrimination on account of race, religion or nationality, free from servitude to other men or to natural forces which they cannot yet control satisfactorily Pope Paul VI, On the Development of Peoples [Populorum Progressio], 1967, no.47

Human Dignity Each and every human being has a fundamental

dignity and worth.

Human beings are not judged to be worthwhile because of their capacity to earn money, or their physical capability, or their good or even their criminal behaviour, or their gender or their sexuality or their religion or their race.

As human beings each one of us is worthwhile because we are a human being created by God. No one has to earn his or her worth-while-ness.

Francis says…….

“It is essential to draw near to new forms of poverty and vulnerability, in which we are called to recognise the suffering Christ, even if this appears to bring us no tangible and immediate benefits.” Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium #210

Human Dignity

© Sandie Cornish, Australian Jesuits, October 2009.

Key Question: What is happening to people? Will what I’m about to do or say increase or improve this person’s sense of self worth, self respect and proper pride?

Principle of the Common Good

The Common Good

To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society ...”

Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n 7

.

Common Good

The principle of the Common Good reminds us that we are all really responsible for each other – we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers – and must work for social conditions which ensure that every person and every group in society is able to meet their needs and realise their potential.

It follows that every group in society must take into account the rights and aspirations of other groups, and the well being of the whole human family.

Common good does not simply value the greatest good for the greatest number it values the greatest good for each and every one. No one gets left out.

Francis says…..

“There is a place for the poor and their culture, their aspirations and their potential. Even people who can be considered dubious on account of their errors have something to offer which must not be overlooked. It is the convergence of peoples who, within the the universal order, maintain their own individuality; it is the sum total of persons within a society which pursues the common good, which truly has a place for everyone.” Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium #236

The Common Good

© Sandie Cornish, Australian Jesuits, October 2009.

Key Questions:

Is every group able to share in the benefits of life in society?

Are some groups excluded?

Do some groups benefit disproportionately?

3. Principle of

solidarity

Solidarity

“Solidarity helps us to see the ‘other’ - whether a person, people, or nation - not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our neighbour, a helper (cf Gn 2:18-20), to be a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God.”

John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, n 39

Solidarity

The principle of solidarity means basically that we are all really responsible for each other. It is not about a vague sort of compassion or shallow distress at others’ misfortune, but involves a determination to commit oneself to working for change so that everyone will be able to reach their potential. It is about respect for and the promotion of the dignity and rights of our sisters and brothers.

Solidarity can also be understood as a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.

Francis says…..

“To face conflict head on makes it possible to build communion amid disagreement, but this can only be achieved by those great persons who are willing to go beyond the surface of the conflict and to see others in their deepest dignity. This requires acknowledging a principle indispensible to the building of friendship in society; namely, that unity is greater than conflict. Solidarity, in its deepest and most challenging sense, thus becomes a way of making history in a life setting where conflicts, tensions and oppositions can achieve a diversified and life-giving unity.” Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium # 228

Solidarity

© Sandie Cornish, Australian Jesuits, October 2009.

Key Questions: Who do we really care about? Would we like this to happen to us? Have I considered how others’ actions assist the client to meet their own responsibilities?

4. Principle of

subsidiarity

Subsidiarity

“Subsidiarity is first and foremost a form of assistance to the human person ... Such assistance is offered when individuals or groups are unable to accomplish something on their own, and it is always to achieve their emancipation, because it fosters freedom and participation through assumption of responsibility.”

Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n 57

Subsidiarity

Responsibility should be kept as close as possible to the grassroots.

The people or groups most directly affected by a decision or policy should have a key decision-making role.

More encompassing groups should only intervene to support smaller, more local groups in order to promote the common good by empowering the most vulnerable.

Francis says….

“Any Church community, if it thinks it can comfortably go its own way without creative concern and effective cooperation in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone, will also risk breaking down, however much it may talk about social issues or criticise governments. It will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings and empty talk.” Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium # 207

Subsidiarity

© Sandie Cornish, Australian Jesuits, October 2009.

Key Questions: Who is making the decisions? Can everyone participate? Is everyone pulling their weight? Have I considered how others’ actions assist the client to meet their own responsibilities?

“Respectful conversation”

These writings are progressively presented through history and

“help to inform our ideas and fire our imagination and form a

basis for respectful conversation”

They are a synthesis of

Ideas

Imagination

Passion

Conversation

Celebration

(Frank Brennan sj)

Other Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

Association Human Equality

Participation Preferential Option for Poor

Respect for Human Life Stewardship

Francis says….

“An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers thus take on the ‘smell of the sheep’ and the sheep are willing to hear their voice…..

Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of time.”

Evangelii Gaudium # 24