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vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.htmlThese processes have led to a downsizing of social security systems as the price to be paid for seeking greater competitive advantage in the global market, with consequent grave danger for the rights of workers, for fundamental human rights and for the solidarity associated with the traditional forms of the social State. Systems of social security can lose the capacity to carry out their task, both in emerging countries and in those that were among the earliest to develop, as well as in poor countries.** Here budgetary policies, with cuts in social spending often made under pressure from international financial institutions, can leave citizens powerless in the face of old and new risks;** such powerlessness is increased by the lack of effective protection on the part of workers’ associations.
You oversimplify his meaning. In the last paragraph of his Introduction, which sets the way he means to be understood, he reminds us that "The Church does not have technical solutions to offer[10] and does not claim ‘to interfere in any way in the politics of States.11]’Sort of related:
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html
Seems like the pope writes negatively of cuts in social spending.
(Trying to get this thread going again)
He is just making an observation and expressing a natural concern about “consequent grave danger for the rights of workers, for fundamental human rights and for the solidarity associated with the traditional forms of the social State.” Not to be discounted, but how much social spending is enough, especially with a deficit? He would never attempt an answer to that question.Sort of related:
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html
Seems like the pope writes negatively of cuts in social spending.
(Trying to get this thread going again)
I agree, Michael.He is just making an observation and expressing a natural concern about “consequent grave danger for the rights of workers, for fundamental human rights and for the solidarity associated with the traditional forms of the social State.” Not to be discounted, but how much social spending is enough, especially with a deficit? He would never attempt an answer to that question.
But when was that golden era, how did it prevent ‘dependence’ on the Church and what coordination or system was there to prevent people from going from church to church with their same sad story, true or untrue? Now we are also inundated by telemarketed charities, all with worthy causes. There will always be plenty of opportunity for individuals to help other individuals but a larger better coordinated effort is needed at a higher level also. That is the up side of subsidarity. But then again, how much? It seems a bottomless pit without some larger major structural change in addressing poverty. Our local Family Resource center provides free day care so parents can go to work only because it has the government and private funds to do so. Sounds like money well used to me.I wish that more in the Church would see that the current welfare system is hurting the poor. Helpng the poor is something that used to be done by churches and communities. It used to be that individuals would help each other out when necessary. It needs to be that way again.
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Private organizations or individuals are much more flexible in the amount that they give and in the ways they work. If something isn’t working because it is only creating dependence, they can stop or alter the aid. They aren’t trying to get elected to public office by the people they are helping so they can do things that would be too politically unpopular if done with welfare.But when was that golden era, how did it prevent ‘dependence’ on the Church and what coordination or system was there to prevent people from going from church to church with their same sad story, true or untrue? Now we are also inundated by telemarketed charities, all with worthy causes. There will always be plenty of opportunity for individuals to help other individuals but a larger better coordinated effort is needed at a higher level also. That is the up side of subsidarity. But then again, how much? It seems a bottomless pit without some larger major structural change in addressing poverty. Our local Family Resource center provides free day care so parents can go to work only because it has the government and private funds to do so. Sounds like money well used to me.
Good article. Thanks.
For too long, we have heard from the conservative bishops? Are they kidding? It has been exactly the opposite. For too long, we have NOT heard from them. Until recently, we had hardly heard a peep.
You expected objectivity? The Left is beginning to panic.For too long, we have heard from the conservative bishops? Are they kidding? It has been exactly the opposite. For too long, we have NOT heard from them. Until recently, we had hardly heard a peep.
More like sad.
Centralized Planning and Socialism
CCC 1883 Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.”
CCC 1885 The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism…
CCC 2425 The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with “communism” or “socialism.” …Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds…
CCC 2499 Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider “thought crimes.”
Manipulation of the Economy and the Poor
CCC 2427 Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: “If any one will not work, let him not eat.” Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ. CCC 2444 “The Church’s love for the poor . . . is a part of
her constant tradition.” This love is inspired by the Gospel of the
Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to “be able to give to those in need.” It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty.
Very odd. I don’t know the bishop but when I attended a Mass at the cathedral in Des Moines when I was hope a while back, I experienced one of the odder liturgies I have come across. It wasn’t the manner in which the mass was celebrated so much as the manner in which the faithful in the pews acted.