B
Bartolome_Casas
Guest
Hello. Based on my further study of Catholic Social Doctrine, I made a discovery, or what seems like a discovery to me. I think I have always been like most Catholics, in that when I thought of Catholic Social Teachings, I thought of Catholic charitable organizations, such as St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Charities, and Mother Teresa’s order Missionaries of Charity. But the more I read the official documents of the Church, more I see that Catholic Social Doctrine is about JOBS for workers, not about charity.
Consider that the first papal encyclical that teaches Social Doctrine, Rerum Novarum, states, near its beginning, in paragraph two, “We thought it expedient now to speak on the condition of the working classes.” Thus, it is clear that Catholic Social Doctrine pertains mainly to the lower paid WORKERS. It does not pertain at all to drug addicts, drunks, bums, or other who refuse to work for a living. The whole of Catholic Social Doctrine is concerned with the “condition of the working classes” (again, quoting Rerum Novarum). Thus, we call also see that Catholic Social Doctrine recognizes the existence of economic classes, and the economic class structure. Unlike Marxist thought, it does not condemn the existence of the class system, or call for its abolition. Yet, unlike certain American philosophers and activists, Catholic Social Teaching does not forbid the acknowledgment of the existence of the economic class structure. The subtitle of Rerum Novarum is “The Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor.” There again is a plain recognition of the class system. Strictly speaking, “capital” cannot have rights or duties. It is rather “Capitalists” who have rights and duties. Thus, Rerum Novarum discusses the respective rights of Capitalists and Workers and sees them as distinct classes. If Catholic Social Doctrine states the rights and duties of both those in the Owner Class and those in the Worker Class, why then does the pope say, at the beginning of Rerum Novarum, “We thought it expedient now to speak on the condition of the working classes”? I think the answer is obvious. The people in the Owner Class were not half starving to death from overwork and recurring involuntary unemployment or underemployment. So, it was “the condition of the working classes,” the unjust and unnecessary suffering of workers, that mainly drew the pope to pronounce doctrine on this subject.
Here is a summary of my conclusions so far from my study of Catholic Social Teaching:
(1) Full Employment and a Just Wage for every worker is the heart of Catholic Social Doctrine, not Charity.
(2) It is not the will of God that there be a permanently destitute underclass of low paid workers.
(3) Only Full Employment and a Just Wage for every worker can bring all the workers (and their families) in the world out of destitution.
(4) Only secular governments can create Full Employment and a Just Wage for all. Private charitable organizations can never do that.
(5) Pure Laissez Faire economic systems create many jobs, but also always always create a permanently destitute underclass of low paid workers.
(6) Catholic Social Teaching calls for the preservation of market-based, private property-based, private business-based economies.
(7) But Catholic Social Teaching forbids pure Laissez Faire economic systems, and instead calls for the government interventions in the economy as necessary to create Full Employment and a Just Wage for all.
(8) Christian Charity will always be a moral mandate, and will always be practiced and necessary. The need for individuals to exercise the discipline and exert the effort to be honest at work and at home, to be forgiving at work and at home, to be patient with one’s fellow sinners at work and at home, to be faithful to one’s spouse and children and parents, and so on, all these needs for Christian “agape” love (caritas, charity) will always be there. Also, in cases of unforeseeable natural disasters and man-made disasters (e.g., terrorist acts), the need for the many to be charitable with their money and time to those who’ve suffered in the disaster will be there.
But as soon as Catholic Social Doctrine is implemented, workers, and their children and elderly, will no longer perpetually depend on private charities (“charity handouts”) for their economic survival. Likewise, workers will no longer perpetually rely on “government handouts” for their economic survival.
(9) The dispute and argument over transferring poor workers from dependence on government agencies to dependence on private charities is not a matter of one group of loving, freedom-promoting people fighting and arguing with another group of unloving, tyranny-promoting people. It is rather a fight between two different groups of unloving and unjust people, both of whom want to keep poor workers in a state of powerlessness, dependence, and destitution. The only issue at stake between these two rival groups is whether the working poor will be under the control of Group A or Group B.
By contrast, Full Employment and a Just Wage enables workers at the bottom of the economy to be free citizens with full human dignity who earn all their necessities by working, and who, like all citizens of the earth, have a reasonable level of economic security. That is the beautiful, good and true teaching of God’s Church.
Consider that the first papal encyclical that teaches Social Doctrine, Rerum Novarum, states, near its beginning, in paragraph two, “We thought it expedient now to speak on the condition of the working classes.” Thus, it is clear that Catholic Social Doctrine pertains mainly to the lower paid WORKERS. It does not pertain at all to drug addicts, drunks, bums, or other who refuse to work for a living. The whole of Catholic Social Doctrine is concerned with the “condition of the working classes” (again, quoting Rerum Novarum). Thus, we call also see that Catholic Social Doctrine recognizes the existence of economic classes, and the economic class structure. Unlike Marxist thought, it does not condemn the existence of the class system, or call for its abolition. Yet, unlike certain American philosophers and activists, Catholic Social Teaching does not forbid the acknowledgment of the existence of the economic class structure. The subtitle of Rerum Novarum is “The Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor.” There again is a plain recognition of the class system. Strictly speaking, “capital” cannot have rights or duties. It is rather “Capitalists” who have rights and duties. Thus, Rerum Novarum discusses the respective rights of Capitalists and Workers and sees them as distinct classes. If Catholic Social Doctrine states the rights and duties of both those in the Owner Class and those in the Worker Class, why then does the pope say, at the beginning of Rerum Novarum, “We thought it expedient now to speak on the condition of the working classes”? I think the answer is obvious. The people in the Owner Class were not half starving to death from overwork and recurring involuntary unemployment or underemployment. So, it was “the condition of the working classes,” the unjust and unnecessary suffering of workers, that mainly drew the pope to pronounce doctrine on this subject.
Here is a summary of my conclusions so far from my study of Catholic Social Teaching:
(1) Full Employment and a Just Wage for every worker is the heart of Catholic Social Doctrine, not Charity.
(2) It is not the will of God that there be a permanently destitute underclass of low paid workers.
(3) Only Full Employment and a Just Wage for every worker can bring all the workers (and their families) in the world out of destitution.
(4) Only secular governments can create Full Employment and a Just Wage for all. Private charitable organizations can never do that.
(5) Pure Laissez Faire economic systems create many jobs, but also always always create a permanently destitute underclass of low paid workers.
(6) Catholic Social Teaching calls for the preservation of market-based, private property-based, private business-based economies.
(7) But Catholic Social Teaching forbids pure Laissez Faire economic systems, and instead calls for the government interventions in the economy as necessary to create Full Employment and a Just Wage for all.
(8) Christian Charity will always be a moral mandate, and will always be practiced and necessary. The need for individuals to exercise the discipline and exert the effort to be honest at work and at home, to be forgiving at work and at home, to be patient with one’s fellow sinners at work and at home, to be faithful to one’s spouse and children and parents, and so on, all these needs for Christian “agape” love (caritas, charity) will always be there. Also, in cases of unforeseeable natural disasters and man-made disasters (e.g., terrorist acts), the need for the many to be charitable with their money and time to those who’ve suffered in the disaster will be there.
But as soon as Catholic Social Doctrine is implemented, workers, and their children and elderly, will no longer perpetually depend on private charities (“charity handouts”) for their economic survival. Likewise, workers will no longer perpetually rely on “government handouts” for their economic survival.
(9) The dispute and argument over transferring poor workers from dependence on government agencies to dependence on private charities is not a matter of one group of loving, freedom-promoting people fighting and arguing with another group of unloving, tyranny-promoting people. It is rather a fight between two different groups of unloving and unjust people, both of whom want to keep poor workers in a state of powerlessness, dependence, and destitution. The only issue at stake between these two rival groups is whether the working poor will be under the control of Group A or Group B.
By contrast, Full Employment and a Just Wage enables workers at the bottom of the economy to be free citizens with full human dignity who earn all their necessities by working, and who, like all citizens of the earth, have a reasonable level of economic security. That is the beautiful, good and true teaching of God’s Church.