Politically Trapped

[holyrood]

In my opinion, the democRATS are not even concerned about helping those who are down on their luck; for them, it’s all about buying votes from the sick, lame and lazy with other people’s money, to keep them in power.

For better or worse, I’ve become cynical enough to believe the same.

 

[aspirant]

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone.

This is the foundation of the universal destination of the earth’s goods. The earth, by reason of its fruitfulness and its capacity to satisfy human needs, is God’s first gift for the sustenance of human life”. The human person cannot do without the material goods that correspond to his primary needs and constitute the basic conditions for his existence; these goods are absolutely indispensable if he is to feed himself, grow, communicate, associate with others, and attain the highest purposes to which he is called.

The universal right to use the goods of the earth is based on the principle of the universal destination of goods. Each person must have access to the level of well-being necessary for his full development. The right to the common use of goods is the “first principle of the whole ethical and social order” and “the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine”… It is first of all a natural right, inscribed in human nature and not merely a positive right connected with changing historical circumstances; moreover it is an “inherent” right. It is innate in individual persons, in every person, and has priority with regard to any human intervention concerning goods, to any legal system concerning the same, to any economic or social system or method: “All other rights, whatever they are, including property rights and the right of free trade must be subordinated to this norm {the universal destination of goods}; they must not hinder it, but must rather expedite its application. It must be considered a serious and urgent social obligation to refer these rights to their original purpose”…

Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: “On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone”. The principle of the universal destination of goods is an affirmation both of God’s full and perennial lordship over every reality and of the requirement that the goods of creation remain ever destined to the development of the whole person and of all humanity. This principle is not opposed to the right to private property but indicates the need to regulate it. Private property, in fact, regardless of the concrete forms of the regulations and juridical norms relative to it, is in its essence only an instrument for respecting the principle of the universal destination of goods; in the final analysis, therefore, it is not an end but a means…

Man “should regard the external things that he legitimately possesses not only as his own but also as common in the sense that they should be able to benefit not only him but also others”. The universal destination of goods entails obligations on how goods are to be used by their legitimate owners. Individual persons may not use their resources without considering the effects that this use will have, rather they must act in a way that benefits not only themselves and their family but also the common good…

Goods, even when legitimately owned, always have a universal destination; any type of improper accumulation is immoral, because it openly contradicts the universal destination assigned to all goods by the Creator. Christian salvation is an integral liberation of man, which means being freed not only from need but also in respect to possessions. “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith” (1 Tim 6:10)…

Riches fulfil their function of service to man when they are destined to produce benefits for others and for society. “How could we ever do good to our neighbour,” asks St. Clement of Alexandria, “if none of us possessed anything?” In the perspective of St. John Chrysostom, riches belong to some people so that they can gain merit by sharing them with others. Wealth is a good that comes from God and is to be used by its owner and made to circulate so that even the needy may enjoy it. Evil is seen in the immoderate attachment to riches and the desire to hoard. St. Basil the Great invites the wealthy to open the doors of their storehouses and he exhorts them: “A great torrent rushes, in thousands of channels, through the fertile land: thus, by a thousand different paths, make your riches reach the homes of the poor”… The rich man — Saint Gregory the Great will later say — is only an administrator of what he possesses; giving what is required to the needy is a task that is to be performed with humility because the goods do not belong to the one who distributes them. He who retains riches only for himself is not innocent; giving to those in need means paying a debt.

 

[aspirant]

Pope Benedict XVI:

Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine” to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “his”, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI’s words, “the minimum measure” of it, an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us. On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving. The earthly city is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world.

Another important consideration is 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. It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it. To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally, making it the pólis, or “city”. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them. Every Christian is called to practise this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis. This is the institutional path — we might also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbour directly, outside the institutional mediation of the pólis. When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have. Like all commitment to justice, it has a place within the testimony of divine charity that paves the way for eternity through temporal action. Man’s earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family. In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God.

 

[CrossofChrist]

I’m sorry, I disagree that Democrats are more in tune with social justice issues. If the issue is caring for the poor, etc., we, personally are commanded to do that. We are not commanded to vote in politicians to take $1,000 of our money in order to use $700 to pay the salaries and bureaucratic and office expenses required to hand over the remaining $300 to someone who has fallen on hard times. (I’m making up the numbers; I don’t know the ratio, but obviously it costs a great deal to support the many thousands of civil servants, offices, paperwork, computers, etc. that go into providing and handing out all these checks.)

I don’t see the Democratic party taking money by taxation from one group in order to disperse it as charity at all. Charity is something freely given, and when it’s given by the politicians, well, it was never theirs to give; if you regard it as ‘given’ by the people from whom it was taxed/taken, it’s still not freely given.

The OP said more in tune, not in tune. Neoliberalism is way out of touch with social justice. Unless you can prove that Republicans as a whole don’t support neoliberalism a la Reagan.

 

[aspirant]

Neoliberalism is way out of touch with social justice.

As far as I can tell, all the economic liberalism promoted by Republicans and Libertarians is way out of touch with social justice. Of course, plenty of Dems are economic liberals too.

 

[CrossofChrist]

As far as I can tell, all the economic liberalism promoted by Republicans and Libertarians is way out of touch with social justice. Of course, plenty of Dems are economic liberals too.

This is true.

 

[Vigilant]

As far as I can tell, all the economic liberalism promoted by Republicans and Libertarians is way out of touch with social justice. Of course, plenty of Dems are economic liberals too.

Social justice, baloney. How about a level playing field, more self-help programs to help people to succeed, and welfare, food stamps, etc. only for those who are in no way capable of supporting themselves?

The bleeding heart liberals and their ‘social justice’ are flushing this country down the drain, and sucking the life out of the people they think they are helping, at the expense of the working class.

 

[aspirant]

Social justice, baloney… The bleeding heart liberals and their ‘social justice’ are flushing this country down the drain, and sucking the life out of the people they think they are helping, at the expense of the working class.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m talking about the teaching of the Catholic Church.