Catholic Social Teaching 1


Catholic Social Teaching 1



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Catholic Social Teaching

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Copyright ⓒ2011 by Labor Pastoral Commission of The Archidiocese of Seoul
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the written permission of the Labor Pastoral Commission of The
Archidiocese of Seoul.
ISBN 978-89-321-1234-3 03230 (CIP2011001594)
Published in 2011 by Catholic Publishing House
Printed in the Republic of Korea
Catholic Publishing House
149-2 Jungnim-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, SEOUL 100-858 KOREA
400-8 Osan-ri, Jori-eup, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, SEOUL 413-821 KOREA
Father Jack Trisolini
Catholic Social Teaching

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The Popes who had proclaimed the Catholic Social Teaching

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CONTENTS
Foreword
6
What Is Catholic Social Teaching?
10
Ⅰ Introduction
13
II Sources of Catholic Social Teaching in the Tradition of the Church 20
III A Brief Historical Overview of the Events Leading
to the 20th Century Formulation of Catholic Social Thought
42
IV The 19th Century Origins of the Social Encyclicals
and Other Papal Pronouncements on Social Issues
57
V Catholic Social Teaching in the First Half of the 20th Century
70
VI Shifts in Attitude after Vatican II
80
VII The Post Vatican II Popes
87
VIII Sources of Catholic Social Teaching
in the Latter Half of the 20th Century
104
IX Challenges to Catholic Social Teaching in the 21st Century
117

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Foreword
Father John Trisolini, SDB came to Korea in 1959. Since his
arrival in Korea, he was involved in various pastoral works in
many areas for 51 years. He regarded education and formation
of young people as most important. For many years he has
been teaching Social Doctrine with all his energy and zeal. He
started teaching the social doctrine of the Church from 1990. In
those days, there were no text books published in the Korean
language. Even now it is still the same. In order to teach,
Father Trisolini had to summarize related Church Documents
according to their themes and had to add his own interpretation
coming from his own experience.
While he was teaching many years, students increased. Not
only the number of students increased but different kind of
people came to learn from him. Therefore he had to continue
to extend and synthesize his teaching material. He did this until
the moment of his death. We, the Labor Pastoral Commission of
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the Archdiocese of Seoul, planned to publish Fr. John Trisolini’s
commentary on Social Doctrine in order to commemorate
the 40 year anniversary of foundation of the Labor Pastoral
Commission of the Archdiocese of Seoul. Fr. Trisolini died
while he was writing on the issues of bioethics, which are
currently causing many problems in the society in many ways.
He died while writing on these issues. When we found him
dead, he was sitting in front of his computer and the computer
was on. He could not complete his writing. Although he could
not finish this work, we want to publish as much as he has
written.
Fr. Trisolini is not the original writer of the content of this
book. He tried to help people to understand the social teaching
of the Church as much as possible. In order to help, he
summarized the historical development of the social doctrine
of the Church and tried to explain the teaching and position of
the Church on the issues which cause sharp controversies and
conflicts in the society. Whenever any issue cause conflict, he
explained it in a very easy way to understand. Some people will
be satisfied, and some people will not be satisfied with this book
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Foreword

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according to each person’s viewpoint. But we know that there
are not many books on the social doctrines of the Church which
are easy to understand. Therefore, we decided to publish this
book.
Archbishop Choi Chang Moo who oversaw this book told
us to publish it in two languages within one book, English
and Korean, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings.
Since Fr. Trisolini wrote the book in English, there could
be misunderstandings and conflicts because of problems
of language and cultural elements for those who study this
book. By publishing this book in two languages, a clearer
understanding can be provided. People who read this book
can have a variety of views and opinions. But this book will
surely help many Christians to understand the Church’s social
teaching properly and to accept it willingly. These Christians
will contribute in making the society brighter and peaceful with
the light and hope of the Lord.
I want to give thanks to those who in many ways helped Fr.
Trisolini in writing this book during the past twenty years. I
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am especially grateful to Archbishop Choi Chang Moo, who
read the original English text and the translated manuscript. He
pointed out some very important points and gave us valuable
advice. With this help, we could use correct terminology. We
tried to avoid possible misunderstanding and confusion.
On Labor Day, 2010
Fr. Yoon Jin Huh (Andrea)
Chairman of the Labor Pastoral Commission
of the Archdiocese of Seoul
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Foreword

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What Is Catholic Social Teaching?
The Church's social doctrine is not a "third way" between
liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism, nor even a possible
alternative to other solutions less radically opposed to one
another: rather, it constitutes a category of its own. Nor is it an
ideology, but rather the accurate formulation of the results of a
careful reflection on the complex realities of human existence,
in society and in the international order, in the light of faith
and of the Church's tradition. Its main aim is to interpret these
realities, determining their conformity with or divergence from
the lines of the Gospel teaching on man and his vocation, a
vocation which is at once earthly and transcendent; its aim is
thus to guide Christian behavior. It therefore belongs to the
field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral
theology.
The teaching and spreading of her social doctrine are part of
the Church's evangelizing mission. And since it is a doctrine
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aimed at guiding people's behavior, it consequently gives rise to
a "commitment to justice," according to each individual's role,
vocation and circumstances.
The condemnation of evils and injustices is also part of that
ministry of evangelization in the social field which is an aspect
of the Church's prophetic role. But it should be made clear that
proclamation is always more important than condemnation, and
the latter cannot ignore the former, which gives it true solidity
and the force of higher motivation.
(Sollicitudo Rei Socialis #41)
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What Is Catholic Social Teaching?

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Ⅰ
Introduction

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Some years ago Fr. Peter Henriot of the Center for Concern
in Washington when speaking on the Church’s Social Teaching
referred to it as the church’s best kept secret. His talk eventually
became a widely diffused pamphlet using that catchy phrase as
its title. Unfortunately for many years and until very recently
we heard surprisingly very little about the Social Teaching of
the Church. We hardly even touched on it in doctrine classes.
Nevertheless this was not always so.
In the first part of the 20th century, Catholic social teaching
inspired by Pope Leo’s famous 1891 Encyclical, Rerum
Novarum, was the object of intense interest and study in the
industrialized countries of Europe and North America. The few
social encyclicals then existing were printed in pamphlet form
with study outlines and questionnaires for discussion circles
and ardently studied. Catholic social teaching inspired some
of the greatest minds of the first half of the 20th century to
think and act for social change. In fact the social encyclicals
were an essential element in the process for the changes in the
church that led to Vatican II. The social encyclicals energized
Catholics to work for societal change by founding and acting
through Catholic Action of the Milieu movements (Cf. #’s 13
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and 14, Apostolicam Actuositatem—On the Apostolate of the Laity) and the
cooperative movement.
How did Catholic social teaching lose its appeal? The reasons
are multiple. An exhaustive or methodical research on this
subject would be too academic for the purposes of this writing
project. Without explaining in detail, the following seem to be the
main reasons for the loss of appeal of Catholic social teaching.
Vatican II made such revolutionary and profound changes in
the life of the Church that some people thought that encyclicals
would go out of style. At the same time technology caused rapid
changes in society and this coupled with a highly ideological
atmosphere created by the tensions between capitalism and
communism led to social upheaval in the 1960’s and 70’s. Many
Catholics felt the carefully expressed tenets of the church’s
social teaching were out of tune with the times. Certainly the
discontent over Paul VI’s 1968 Encyclical Humanae Vitae, a
social encyclical on birth control, contributed greatly in pushing
the church’s social teaching into the background. Humanae Vitae
led many inside and outside the church to feel that Catholic
social teaching was out of touch with contemporary reality.
Moreover, the Church usually formulates its social teaching in
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Introduction

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language that, at first sight, makes it seem inaccessible unless
a person makes a commitment to read and try to understand
it. Finally, Catholic social teaching is always an “a posteriori”
reflection on social issues as they arise and for this very reason
always gives the impression of being late on arrival.
Catholic Social Teaching—What Is It?
How does it come about?
The expression “encyclical letter” means a circular letter.
The Church has used this formula of contacting various church
communities since the early centuries. However since the
middle of the 18th century encyclicals have taken on a fixed
form and are now usually reserved among the numerous types
of papal letters to the more solemn treatment of more important
problems (Cf. The Church and the Reconstruction of the Modern World, Image
Books, 1957, p 18).
The social encyclicals are the Church’s institutional response
to the social problems of a given time period. Some refer to
social encyclicals as practical or praxis theology. Others even
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consider them as strategic theology (Cf. Modern Catholic Social
Teaching, Joe Holland, Paulist Press, 2003). Encyclicals usually deal with
the evolution of current problems of a given period of time in
history.
The first such encyclical Ubi Primum was issued by Pope
Benedict XIV in 1740. Encyclicals can be divided into 3
strategies:
① The Anti-Modern Papal Strategy: 1740-1878 (Against
Liberalism)
② The Modern Papal Strategy: 1878-1958 (The Catholic Reform of
Liberalism)
③ The Postmodern Papal Strategy 1958 (Meeting up with the
challenges of the emerging “world church!”)
The social teaching of the church is a rich heritage of
ethical reflections and insights on the social, economic and
political questions of our contemporary world. In a sense
these ethical reflections and insights actually begin on the
grass roots level when we as Christians and members of the
church experience what goes on around us. Expressed more
simply, it’s the collective way we as Catholic Christians react
morally to the interrelated events and situations that have
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Introduction

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arisen due to industrialization and urbanization and more
recently to globalization, the development of cyber space and
Information Technology (IT). Eventually what people feel about
the phenomena of industrialization and the ethical reflections
they make are somehow processed and enter into discussions on
moral issues. At a certain point when these social, economic and
political issues become social problems affecting large groups
of people, the Church then begins to speak out about them more
broadly, more forcefully and in a more official way. Here it
might be good to mention the fact that advances in medicine,
biology and other sciences have also created new situations and
problems calling for continued ethical reflections and moral
judgments.
At times some people, even fervent Catholics, attack the
Church claiming that church authorities are making statements
on issues clearly outside their field and competence. When
social, political and economic issues threaten the livelihood
of large segments of people, not only does the Church have
the obligation to speak out about these problems but the
magisterium or the official teaching agency of the universal
church gets involved. The Church’s social teaching begins to be
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formulated in local church statements and documents and then
gradually finds its way into the universal church’s teaching in
the form of encyclicals.
There is a long tradition in the Catholic Church of speaking
out on and tackling social, economic and political issues.
Paraphrasing John Paul II, we might say that Catholic social
doctrine is based on a set of principles for reflection, criteria
for judgment and directives for action proposed by the church’s
teaching. This is another way of saying that Catholic social
doctrine uses the see, judge and act method to promote a better
understanding of the problems people are facing and to search
out the best solution for them (Cf. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, No. 41.5). In
fact John XXIII even insisted that young people especially try
to grasp the sense of the see, judge, act method and put it into
practice so that the knowledge they acquire not merely remains
abstract but be turned into action (Cf. Mater et Magistra, Nos. 236-237).
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Introduction

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II
Sources of Catholic Social Teaching
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Catholic social teaching has become a very important part of
the life of the church in modern times. At the onset we need to
understand the sources of Catholic social teaching, see where
it came from as well as how it evolved through historical
situations over the centuries into the form we now know. To do
this we should first of all make a kind of review or overview of
the evolution of Catholic social teaching to situate its origins,
put it into historical perspective and by so doing discover its
sources. Probably the best way to do this will be by making
a very brief trip through the scriptures and the history of the
church in regard to social problems.
1. Scriptural Sources of Social Teaching
1) The Old Testament
Holy Scripture is the very first source of Catholic social
teaching and the first place we discover human beings who
believe in God becoming aware of and responding to social
problems. Biblical revelation is very social. One of the most
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central themes of the Old Testament is the covenant and how
God related to the people of Israel. Israel was God’s chosen
people. A people, is an interrelated group. As the people related
to each other they also began to function as a group and became
a nation. As God’s chosen people the Israelites also had to relate
to God! God wanted the people of Israel to relate to each other
in the way God related to them. In various ways the reality of
just who God is, was gradually revealed to the people of Israel
and they developed their understanding of God.
We might express their understanding of God as follows:
- God is the Creator of the universe and as such God is at the
service of the people because God creates
and sustains life!
- God is just!
- God is merciful!
- God loves the poor, the weak, the outcasts and the
marginalized! Biblical revelation expresses this as caring for
the poor, the foreigners, the widows, the orphans and those
who suffer.
- God is a liberator of the oppressed!
The Old Testament prophets continually reminded the Jewish
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People that as God’s chosen people they were obliged to treat
each other with justice and equality. They were to be ever ready
to liberate the weak and the oppressed. The prophets wanted the
People of Israel to have a particular care for the poor because
that is how God related to them. God wanted the chosen people
to demonstrate God’s very own concern for the poor and the
weak in the actions of their daily life. The prophets constantly
reminded the People of Israel that respect for justice was a
central concern of their religious faith. They were to construct
a society with just political structures, economics and social
relationships. The concepts of sabbatical years and jubilee years
were in fact structures put in place periodically to assure that no
person or group of persons would have a long term monopoly of
material goods.
2) The Gospels
In the New Testament God makes a new covenant with all of
mankind. All are invited to enter the reign of God proclaimed
by Jesus—a kingdom in which we relate to each other as sisters
and brothers because we are all daughters and sons of Abba, a
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loving parent. Jesus calls us not only to relate to each other in
justice, fairness and equality, but as his own sisters and brothers
or members of the same family. Jesus calls us, his followers, to
liberate those held as captives, the weak and the oppressed. As
we follow Jesus into the Kingdom of God, we should concern
ourselves with the plight of the poor, the weak, the destitute and
the people who fall between the cracks of our society precisely
because they are our sisters and brothers in the Lord.
The New Testament teaching of Jesus, especially the Sermon
on the Mount, calls us not only to justice but to love and
concern for one another, to purity of heart and intention. Purity
of heart means we refuse to use people just for our personal
pleasure, for economic gain or for “pecking order” gain. Jesus’
parables point out how we should relate to God and to each
other. Jesus’ gospel is a veritable call to action. Jesus commands
his followers to love God above all but to do so concretely by
loving our neighbors. We all try to do this on an individual basis
but we also have to do so collectively by working for justice or,
as Dorothy Day expresses it, “…for a world in which it’s easier
for people to do good.”
The gospels are full of social wisdom. From Chapter 19 of St.
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Matthew’s gospel onward, we discover the gentle and loving
Jesus is also capable of getting very tough with the leaders
of Israel. At the beginning of Chapter 19 Jesus leaves Galilee
and goes to Judea and Jerusalem. Jesus somehow knows he
will have to struggle with the Jewish leadership. The parable
concerning the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20, 1-16), the
parable of the two sons (Matthew 21, 28-32) and the parable of the
evil tenants (Matthew 21, 33-46) were all very open attacks on the
incongruities and hypocrisy of the political and religious leaders
of the Jewish people. The Jewish leaders did not hesitate to
fight back. Their counterattacks on Jesus led to the tragedy of
his passion and death—a tragedy that is ongoing all over the
world. In fact, Jesus’ death and resurrection proclaim justice
and the need to build the Kingdom of God. Nevertheless, we
must always bear in mind that although Jesus preached justice
and equality, justice is always tempered by mercy, love and
forgiveness. As one proponent of Christian values expressed it;
absolute justice would leave us all toothless and sightless! (Cf.
Matthew 5, 38-42)
In Matthew 22, 15-22, on paying taxes to Caesar, Jesus did
something very important. He dethroned political power. Jesus
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turns the situation upside down. He tells the Pharisees and
the Herodians first of all to give God what belongs to God.
The very first obligation of every human being and the Ten
Commandments’ first tenet is recognizing God’s supremacy.
Jesus in no way denies that politicians have power but he clearly
demonstrates that that power comes ultimately from God, the
Supreme Power and thus the source of all power.
As Christians we must all do our duty as citizens of the
commonwealth. Each and every lowly citizen pays taxes but
every large earner and big companies should pay their fair share
of the tax burden as well. Contributing to civic life and the
common good, respecting civil authority and observing the laws
of the land are everyone’s duty. Every follower of Jesus has the
duty of working to transform unfair situations and change unjust
laws to bring about God’s Kingdom. Jesus takes the divinity out
of political power (Cf. John 18, 32-40)! Jesus declares himself a king
but not a political king. He is the king of truth, justice, love and
mercy and the Church’s Social Teaching deals with precisely
those issues: truth, justice, love and mercy.
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3) The Epistles
St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians dates back to the
years 55 or 56 but Paul probably arrived in Corinth for the
first time in the years 50 to 52. Thus in 1 Corinthians Paul
gives us the very first scriptural description of how the early
Christian community gathered weekly in observance of God’s
command to worship by gathering to celebrate the Eucharist on
Sundays as a remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and
his resurrection from the dead. Right from the beginning of the
Church, the faithful believed the Holy Eucharist renders Jesus
present in the body of the Church and in everyone who believed
in him.
Nevertheless, in 1 Corinthians 11, 23-26 Paul describes the
Eucharistic celebration in a Christian community marked by
divisions; one that had drifted away from Jesus’ teaching that
all human beings are equal in the eyes of the Lord. Paul’s
description of the Corinthians as a community composed of
sinners full of ambitions in which some even vaunt their social
standing over others is blistering. Paul reminds the Corinthians
and us that to be truly Christian we must make every effort to
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remove what divides us and temper ambitions so that everyone
has the necessary to live a human life. The Eucharist described
by Paul is not only a spiritualized effort but must be a truly
concrete sign of human solidarity that reaches even the weakest
and humblest of our sisters and brothers.
The Epistle of St. James warns against the sin of partiality or
judging people by their fine appearances and urges the faithful
to love their neighbors as themselves. He encourages the faithful
to not only profess their faith but to demonstrate it by living and
acting as Jesus taught (Cf. James, 2).
4) The Acts of the Apostles
Sharing possessions and food was one of the signs of the
first Christian community (Cf. Acts of the Apostles 2, 42-47; 4, 32-37).
The early church propagated the belief that all persons were
sisters and brothers of the Lord Jesus and thus God’s beloved
and precious children. Dealing justly and mercifully with each
other is a principal value of social relations in the Christian
perspective. As Christianity spread, this idea of all persons as
sisters and brothers of Jesus and children of God penetrated into
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the structures of civil society. Right from its origins Christianity
always tried to make society more just and more fraternal for
all, but especially for the poorest and the weakest.
When we read through the Acts of the Apostles we sometimes
get the impression that the first Christian communities lived
in great harmony. We know from Paul’s epistles that, in fact,
various kinds of serious divisions and dissensions existed in the
first non-Jewish Christian communities. Luke certainly knew
this but he chose to show us an ideal way of how Christians
should live together and work out their difficulties.
Luke’s formula for being a good Christian insisted on
thanking God for the gratuitous gift of salvation and on the
need to pass this gift on to others. For Luke, attaching oneself to
money or to the jealousy, maliciousness and deceitful behavior
of those who persecuted Christians was out of place in a truly
Christian community.
Luke presents us with a rather idealized portrait of Christian
life in the first apostolic communities. There people gathered to
pray, celebrate meals taken together and share their belongings
with the poor. He introduces us to the fundamental elements
of Christian community as lived in the early church—
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teaching(didache and kerygma), the true sign of fellowship which
meant giving to the poor(koinonia), breaking bread(eucharistia),
and praying together. Nevertheless amidst all these signs and
wonders, we read about Ananias and Saphira’s deceit in selling
land and pretending to give everything to the poor(Acts of the
Apostles 5, 1-11) We also read about how the disputes concerning
dividing up material help between the Hebrew and Hellenist
widows threatened to divide this idealized community(Cf. Acts of
the Apostles 6, 1-7).
The Acts of the Apostles relate that St. Paul was converted
when he realized that by persecuting the believers of the Risen
Christ, he was persecuting Jesus, the Son of God. In his epistle
to the Romans St. Paul already reflected and touched on the
delicate problem of the relationship of Christians with the state.
Stated very briefly, the Church’s social teaching by striving
first of all to communicate the basic messages and social
teachings of the bible gets its inspiration and strength from
scripture. God calls us to reveal to all peoples that as God’s
children each and every person is precious in God’s sight and
everyone has value and worth.
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2. Social Teaching in the History of the Church
1) The End of the Persecutions and the Fathers of the Church
At the end of the persecutions the first Christians struggled
with the problems of having to live in the Roman Empire
that for so long adored the state as a god and enslaved
conquered peoples. Christians in the first centuries of the first
millennium dealt with many of the same issues that plague
us today: the issues of riches and poverty, war and peace and
social relationships lived out in a society devoid of Christian
values. The bible faith of the early Christians taught respect
for individuals, the dignity of the human person and the need
to share the goods of the earth in the social atmosphere of the
Roman Empire where the accumulation of wealth and the power
of the strongest were the paramount and most sought after
values.
The Fathers of the Church made the basic Christian message
more explicit especially in regard to the morality of warfare and
the ownership of property. In the western church St. Ambrose
and St. Augustine were conspicuous for their preaching and
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writing on behalf of the poor and the weak. St. Clement of
Alexandria, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa and other
revered eastern church leaders also protected the poor and the
oppressed by preaching and writing on their behalf. St. John
Chrysostom made it quite clear to the rich people of his time
that since the goods of this earth were meant for all, should they
not use their riches to help the poor they would be guilty of
robbery!
2) The Patristic Age
In his reflection on the Church, Long Have I Loved You
(Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y., 2000, Cf. especially Chapter Nine, pages 268-
274) Fr. Walter J. Burghardt, a scholar in patristic theology
claims “ the miraculous triumph of early Christianity was due
in large measure to a radical sense of community.” The first
Christians put into practice their conviction about the proper
use of material possessions by their impressive and practical
way of aiding the needy. Fr. Burghardt points out 5 themes of
paramount importance to Christians in the patristic age.
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① First, Christianity had to transform the values of the
Greco-Roman world it inhabited—specifically, an attitude
toward property, possessions. Listen to one early document,
the Didache: “Do not turn away from the needy; rather, share
everything with your brother, and do not say, ‘It is private
property.’ If you are sharers in what is imperishable, how much
more so in the things that perish!”(Didache 4.8) For the first
Christians sharing was more important than possessing.
② Second, to attain that attitude, a conversion of the human
heart is indispensable. To become genuine Christians, the rich
must become detached from their riches. Particularly impressive
in this regard is Clement of Alexandria, the head of the
catechetical school in that cosmopolitan city about the year 200.
His homily, The Rich Man’s Salvation , attempts to confront
difficulties faced by the prosperous among the faithful in a
narrow interpretation of such Gospel commands as “If you wish
to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money
to the poor” (Mt 19:21). He insists that the text cannot intend to
exclude the wealthy from God’s kingdom. What, then does it
mean? Simply, banish from your soul your “attachment” to
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wealth, your “excessive desire for it,” your “diseased excitement
over it.” “Wealth is an instrument….You can use it justly; then
it will serve justice. If it is used unjustly, it will be the servant
of injustice. So what is to be destroyed is not one’s possessions
but the passions of the soul, which hinder the right use of one’s
belongings….” (Clement of Alexandria, The Rich Man’s Salvation 11-17)
What can motivate men and women to be at once affluent and
poor in spirit? Love of God, love of Christ, love of one’s sisters
and brothers. Here a remarkably original thinker and writer,
Origen, waxed passionate in his effort to liberate the rich from
the acquisitiveness, the greed that the early Church regarded as
a form of idolatry: “God…knows that what a man loves with all
his heart and soul and might—this for him is God. Let each one
of us now examine himself and silently in his own heart decide
which is the flame of love that chiefly and above all else is afire
within him, which is the passion that he finds he cherishes more
keenly than all others…. Whatever it is that weighs the heaviest
in the balance of your affection, that for you is God. But I fear
that with very many the love of gold will turn the scale, that
down will come the weight of covetousness lying heavy in the
balance.” (Origen, Homily on the Book of Judges 2.3.)
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③ Third, basic to the fresh Christian attitude is a traditional
patristic belief: God created the material universe for all
humankind; the rich are essentially earth’s stewards. Listen
to a remarkably pastoral fourth-century bishop, Ambrose of
Milan: “God has ordered all things to be produced so that there
should be food in common for all, and that the earth should be
the common possession of all. Nature, therefore, has produced
a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for the
few.”(Ambrose, Duties of the Clergy 1.132.) To Ambrose, the Old
Testament tale of Ahab and Naboth (1 Kings 21: 1-29) is a human
constant: “Ahab is not one person, someone born long ago;
every day, alas, the world sees Ahabs reborn, never to die out….
Neither is Naboth one person, a poor man once murdered;
every day some Naboth is done to death, every day the poor are
murdered.” (Ambrose, Naboth 1).
Significantly, the Fathers denied not the right to private
property but its greedy misuse. In John Chrysostom’s words,
the rich they attacked “are not the rich as such, only those
who misuse their wealth.” (John Chrysostom, The Fall of Eutropius
2.3) Still, many of the fourth-century Church Fathers saw in
private property a root of human dissension; in the struggle for
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possessions they found a subversion of God’s original order.
Listen to Chrysostom again: “When one attempts to possess
himself of anything, to make it his own, then contention is
introduced, as if nature herself were indignant, that when God
brings us together in every way, we are eager to divide and
separate ourselves by appropriating things, and by using those
cold words ‘mine and thine.’” (John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on 1
Timothy4 Patrologia graeca [PG])
④ Fourth, an especially powerful motive: the presence
of Christ in—Christ identified with—the impoverished and
disadvantaged. Here Chrysostom and Augustine wed practical
theology and impassioned rhetoric. Chrysostom declares that
the poor are more venerable an altar than the altar of stone on
which the Sacrifice is offered, on which the body of Christ rests.
“The altar [of stone] becomes holy because it receives the body
of Christ; the altar [of the poor] because it is the Body of Christ.
Therefore it is more awesome than the altar near which you, a
layperson, are standing.” (John Chrysostom, Homily 20 on 1 Corinthians
3). [PG 61, 450] Little wonder that Chrysostom urged his people
to cover the naked Christ before they ornamented his table,
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forbade them to make a golden cup for Christ while they were
refusing him a cup of cold water. “Don’t neglect your brother in
his distress while you decorate his house. Your brother is more
truly his temple than any church building.” (John Chrysostom, Homily
50 on Matthew 4)
For Augustine, “love cannot be divided.” Love the children
of God, and you love the Son of God; love the Son of God, and
you love the Father. Conversely, you dare not say, you cannot
say, that you love Christ if you love not the members of Christ—
all his members, without discrimination. And lest we think he
is limiting our love to orthodox believers, Augustine insists that
the love of Catholics must be utterly catholic—offered, that is,
as the grace of God is offered, to all. Even to our enemies—“not
because they are your brothers, but that they may become your
brothers.” (Augustine, Treatises on the First Letter of John 10.7) [Patrologia
Latina 35, 2059] Some, Augustine sorrows, “would limit love to
the land of Africa!” No, he protests. “Extend your love over the
entire earth, if you would love Christ; for the members of Christ
lie all over the earth.” (Augustine, Treatises on the First Letter of John 10.7)
[Patrologia Latina 35, 2060]
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⑤ Fifth, the Church of Christ is a community of support
and sharing, It is not only the poor, the disadvantaged, the
marginalized that benefit from the generosity of the materially
fortunate. The orphan and the aged and the widow, wearing
what Clement of Alexandria called “the uniform of love,”
become “the spiritual bodyguard” of the rich—a return of love
that could take many forms: nursing care, intercessory prayer,
a kindly word of counsel, even a stinging word of protest. (See
Clement’s homily on Mark 10: 17-31, The Rich Man’s Salvation)
The early Church as community made possible the gradual
ethical, religious, and political transformation of the Roman
Empire by integrating Christian culture with Greco-Roman
culture’s more admirable elements. This was not only and
primarily an effort made by the Church’s clergy, bishops and
priests, pastors and teachers but the effort and response of the
entire early Christian community. The role the laity played can
hardly be exaggerated. Four ways laypersons gave life to the
early Church and helped transform the temporal order were
martyrdom, political power, monasticism and theology.
Martyrs: In every province of the Roman Empire men,
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women and children were put to death or died in prison. Even
high-ranking officials of the Roman Senate and knights were
threatened with loss of rank and possessions if they refused to
sacrifice to the emperor as a god figure.
Political Power: At times Christians held influential positions
under some emperors and made known their convictions.
Monastacism: When the church was being persecuted the
martyr was the perfect imitator of Christ, the genuine disciple;
martyrdom was the palpable proof of love. As persecution
slackened, martyrdom of blood became a specialized vocation
reserved for a few. In the search for perfection, the emphasis
shifted from a sacrifice of life to a life of sacrifice, a spiritual,
day-to-day martyrdom where one renounced not life but the
world, fought not beasts but the flesh, defied not an emperor
but the devil. Monks became a protest to a culture that extolled
having over being, possessing over sharing.
Theology: Many of the Fathers of the Church were priests and
bishops but some were lay people. Women, now called “Mothers
of the Church” also played an important role in showing how
to live the Christian life. They formed early monastic and
other types of communities for women and also wrote unique
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documents on Christian living.
3) Middle Ages
Medieval schoolmen debated on the morality of charging
interest for loans. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), probably the
most famous medieval scholar, formulated a systematic moral
theology in his great work the Summa Theologica in which he
discussed the problems of justice and law. His example inspired
other religious, especially Dominicans and Franciscans to
elaborate a moral theology that could be applied to social and
political life.
Probably because of the crusades, by the end of the Middle
Ages Byzantine and Saracenic culture made its influence felt in
Western Europe. Europeans became more and more attracted
to the teachings of the ancient Greeks and Romans that had
found their way into the monastic schools, as a result of contact
with Arabic culture. Gradually they became less attracted to
the ascetic and otherworldly atmosphere preached by the friars.
Humanism, optimism, hedonism and individualism came into
vogue and contrasted with the collectivism of the Middle Ages
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that submerged individuals in the guild, in the church and in
the social order to which they belonged. This cultural change
made way for a rabid egoism that glorified every form of self-
assertiveness. Human pride was no longer a cardinal sin but
a virtue. Nevertheless the medieval universities that rose up
as a result of monastic schools and the study of scholastic
philosophy and theology prepared the way for this evolution.
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III
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1. The Commercial Revolution
and the Fifteenth Sixteenth Centuries
The economic changes marking the transition from the semi-
static, localized, non-profit economy of the late Middle-Ages
in Europe to a dynamic, world-wide capitalistic regime are
referred to as the Commercial Revolution (1400-1700). At this
point in European history Italian cities like Venice and Genoa
monopolized trade in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italians and
the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe gradually set up a
very profitable commerce among themselves. These commercial
ties necessitated using a common currency. The ducat from
Venice and florins from Florence were widely circulated and
used. This led to an accumulation of surplus capital from
trading, shipping and mining. European monarchs encouraged
commerce in order to levy taxes and gather war materials to
strengthen their regimes.
In addition better knowledge of geography and the
introduction of the compass and the astrolabe from the
Moslem world permitted mariners to courageously venture
further out to sea and open trade routes from Europe to the Far
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East. Europeans were willing to pay high prices for oriental
silk and spices. Columbus discovered the New World when
he was trying to find a new route to India and the Far East.
Trading, shipping and mining not only created new wealth
but new social problems as well. Despite the desire of the
Spaniards to evangelize newly discovered nations, the Spanish
“conquistadores” were mostly motivated by greed. In fact,
many in the so-called Christian nations of Europe also began
practicing slavery and stealing from indigenous peoples. This
new situation pushed the popes to publish social documents on
slavery (e.g. Pius II in 1462) and the treatment of native peoples (e.g.
Paul III in 1537). The Spanish Dominicans, Bartolome’ de las Casas
and Francisco Vitoria, wrote vigorously about the problems
of colonization. They strongly denounced the treatment of
indigenous peoples in territories conquered by Spain.
Just a few years after the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation in 1534, St. Ignatius of Loyola recruited a small
band of men in Paris. Compared to the religious of medieval
times, Loyola’s Jesuits were not monastic. They lived more
closely with the people, especially the young and developed a
more contemporary life style. Their spirituality and the education
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methods they devised for their schools insisted on a sense of
service, a desire to discover new knowledge and openness to the
spirit of enterprise of the times. Jesuit spirituality and methods
of education made a great contribution to the modernization of
culture in Europe. Later on in the Seventeenth Century Great
preachers like Bossuet and St. Vincent de Paul had a very strong
influence on the social behavior of their times.
2. The Intellectual Revolution
and the Enlightenment
When the decentralized feudal regime of the Middle-Ages
broke down, it was replaced by dynastic states with governments
holding absolute power. The Commercial Revolution and the
founding of colonial empires reinforced the power of absolute
monarchs. Commerce between Europe and the Far East and
between the mother countries in Europe and their colonies had
to be defended against pirates and brigands. Infant industries
needed to be protected. The absolute monarchs and the nation
state provided this protection. The Protestant Revolution broke
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the unity of the Christian church, abolished papal over-lordship
over secular rulers, fostered nationalism and reinforced the
growth of royal omnipotence.
The Intellectual Revolution came about because the middle
and lower classes enjoyed increased prosperity and the discovery
of new knowledge from distant lands and hitherto unknown
peoples created an atmosphere in which people yearned to know
more. The achievements in science and philosophy upset former
and more static ways of thinking. The Enlightenment followed
the Intellectual Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. The
basic concepts underlying the Enlightenment seem to be the
following:
① Reason is the unique guide to obtaining wisdom.
② Inflexible laws guide the universe.
③ Natural society is the best.
④ There is no such thing as original sin. Humanity is basically
good.
In France the Enlightenment gave birth to the Encyclopedists
who tried to make a complete summation of all philosophic and
scientific knowledge.
Religious persecutions, wars of religion, the Church’s
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condemnation of Galileo in 1633, church bureaucracy,
fundamentalism, authoritarianism and other short-sighted
church policies alienated the newly arising scientists and
thinkers of the Enlightenment and this in turn led to the French
Revolution. The revolutionaries in France replaced the Christian
God with deism, agnosticism or atheism that shocked the church
establishment at the end of the 18th century. This gathering and
storing of knowledge led to the Industrial Revolution.
3. The Industrial Revolution
Most historians divide the Industrial Revolution into two
phases: Phase I from 1760 to 1860; and Phase II from 1860
to 1950. The main characteristics of the Industrial Revolution
were:
① The mechanization of industry and agriculture;
② The application of power to industry;
③ The development of the factory system;
④ The speeding up of transportation and communication;
⑤ The increase of capitalistic control over economic
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activities.
Strangely enough the Industrial Revolution began in Britain,
probably the poorest nation in Europe. Perhaps it was because
Britain’s government was comparatively free from corruption;
taxes were collected efficiently; the military establishment
cost less than that of the French and trading in securities was
organized as a legitimate business. Moreover Britain had the
best banking system in Europe and business leaders carried on
their activities unhindered by fear of national bankruptcy or
ruinous inflation.
4. Adam Smith
In addition, Adam Smith, the greatest economist of the age of
Enlightenment was a native of Scotland. In 1776 he published
his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
one of the most influential treatises on economics ever written.
Smith believed labor, rather than agriculture or the bounty of
nature is the real source of wealth. Individuals should pursue
their own interests. Nevertheless Smith believed the state should
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intervene to prevent injustice and oppression, advance education
and protect public health and to establish and maintain
necessary enterprises that could never be established by private
capital. Although Smith’s very broad principles put limitations
on laissez faire economics, the bourgeoisie used his theories
to propose absolute economic freedom. The initial stage of the
Industrial Revolution (1760-1860) saw a phenomenal development
of the application of machinery to industry that laid down the
foundations for a mechanical civilization.
5. The Marxist Socialists
Karl Marx (1818-1883), the son of a Jewish lawyer who had
turned Christian for professional reasons, was born at Trier
(Treves) nearby Coblenz in Germany’s Rhineland. Marx attended
the University of Bonn to become a lawyer in accordance to his
father’s wishes but preferred studying philosophy and history. At
the University of Berlin he was influenced by a group of Hegel’s
disciples who were much more radical than their master. Marx
became a doctor of philosophy at the University of Jena in 1841
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but his critical views prevented him from becoming a professor.
He became a journalist, editing various radical periodicals and
contributing articles to others. He was arrested in 1848 of high
treason for participating in the revolutionary movement in
Prussia. He was acquitted but expelled from the country.
Marx formed an intimate friendship with Friedrich Engels
(1820-95). Engels was Marx’s lifelong disciple. Together they
issued the Communist Manifesto, the birth cry of modern
socialism in 1848. From then on till his death in 1883 Marx
lived and worked in London. He spent most of his time writing
the first volume of his famous work Das Kapital . Marx’s
teachings owed much to Hegel and to the French socialist, Louis
Blanc (1811-82) and probably to David Ricardo as well. However,
Marx brilliantly formed their ideas into a comprehensive system
and gave them meaning as a possible explanation of the facts of
political economy.
The fundamental points of Marx’s theory are as follows:
① The economic interpretation of history: All the great
political, social and intellectual movements of history have
been determined by the economic environment from which
they arose. Marx did not insist that the economic motive is
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the sole explanation of human behavior, but he did maintain
that every fundamental historical development, regardless of
its character on the surface, has been the result of alterations
in methods of producing and exchanging goods. Thus the
Protestant Revolution was essentially an economic movement;
the disagreements over religious belief were mere “ideological
veils” concealing the actual causes.
② Dialectical materialism: Every distinct economic system,
based upon a definite pattern of production and exchange
grows to a point of maximum efficiency, then, develops
contradictions or weaknesses within it which produce its rapid
decay. Meanwhile the foundations of an opposing system are
being gradually laid, and eventually this new system displaces
the old, at the same time absorbing its most valuable elements.
This dynamic process of historical evolution will continue by
a series of victories of the new over the old, until the perfect
goal of communism has been attained. After that there will
doubtless still be change, but it will be change within the limits
of communism itself.
③ The class struggle: All history as been made up of struggles
between classes. In ancient times it was a struggle between
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masters and slaves and between patricians and plebeians; in
the Middle Ages it was a conflict between the guild masters
and journeymen and between lords and serfs; now it has been
narrowed down to a struggle between the class of capitalists
and the proletariat. The former includes those who derive their
chief income from owning the means of production and from
exploiting the labor of others. The proletariat includes those
who are dependent for their living primarily upon a wage, who
must sell their labor power in order to exist.
④ The doctrine of surplus value: All wealth is created by the
worker. Capital creates nothing, but is itself created by labor.
The value of all commodities is determined by the quantity of
labor power necessary to produce them. But the worker does
not receive the full value which his labor creates; instead he
receives a wage, which ordinarily is just enough to enable him
to subsist and reproduce his kind. The difference between the
value the worker produces and what he receives is surplus
value, which goes to the capitalist. In general, it consists of three
different elements; interest, rent, and profits. Since the capitalist
creates none of these things, it follows that he is a robber, who
appropriates the fruits of the laborer’s toil.
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⑤ The theory of socialist evolution: After capitalism has
received its death blow at the hands of the workers, it will
be followed by the stage of socialism. This will have three
characteristics: the dictatorship of the proletariat; payment in
accordance with work performed; and ownership and operation
by the state of all means of production, distribution, and
exchange. But socialism is intended to be merely a transition to
something higher. In time it will be succeeded by communism,
the perfect goal of historical evolution. Communism will mean,
first of all, the classless society. No one will live by owning, but
all men solely by working. The state will now disappear; it will
be relegated to the museum of antiquities “along with the bronze
ax and the spinning wheel.” Nothing will replace it except
voluntary associations to operate the means of production and
provide for social necessities. But the essence of communism
is payment in accordance with needs. The wage system will be
completely abolished. Each citizen will be expected to work
in accordance with his faculties and will be entitled to receive
from the total fund of wealth produced an amount in proportion
to his needs. This is the acme of justice according to the Marxist
conception. (Cf. Western Civilization, pp.668-670).
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The second phase of the Industrial Revolution is distinguished
from the first phase not only by technological advances but
by the development of new forms of capitalistic organization.
Finance capitalism replaced industrial capitalism. The
organization of industrial capitalism was marked by partnership.
A number of people formed partnerships to conduct business on
a large scale. Capital made from profits was reinvested into the
business. Owners usually actively managed their companies.
Companies from the industrial capitalism era did business in
manufacturing, mining or transportation.
The second phase of the Industrial Revolution is the era of
Finance capitalism. Finance capitalism has four outstanding
characteristics:
① the domination of industry by investment banks and
insurance companies;
② the formation of huge aggregations of capital;
③ the separation of ownership from management;
④ the growth of holding companies (Cf. Western Civilizations p.651).
The Industrial Revolution created the proletariat because
it concentrated large numbers of workers in the cities. At the
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beginning of the 19th century cities with a population of 100,000
inhabitants or more accounted for only 2% of the population of
Europe. By the beginning of the 20th century cities of 100,000 or
more accounted for 15% of Europe’s population. During the 19th
century the population of London, Paris and Vienna multiplied
by four and during this same period Berlin’s population
multiplied eight times! This mass of workers suffered similar
abuses that welded them into the worker class, a group of people
conscious of their situation and identity. Gradually this mass of
workers became infused with a high degree of solidarity that
led to the beginnings of a worker movement to fight against the
abuses of bad air, suffocating heat, lack of sanitation in the work
place and long working hours.
6. Christian Socialists
Christian socialism was much less radical in its criticism
of capitalist economics. Many historians look on Robert de
Lamennais (1782-1854), a French Catholic priest, as the founder
of Christian socialism but actually he only carried on a long
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tradition of Christian socialism. Robert de Lamennais wanted
the Christian religion to be an aid in reforming society and
bringing about social justice. Count Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-
1825) expressed similar ideas. From France this movement spread
to England and was adopted by many Protestant intellectuals.
Christian socialism carried on the tradition of applying Jesus’
teachings to the problems created by the Industrial Revolution.
Initially Rome discouraged the work of the Christian socialists.
Early 19th century Christian socialism was an important current
that prepared the way for Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum.
During the 19th and 20th centuries the Catholic parties that
issued from Christian socialism in combination with more
moderate socialists played an active role in furthering social
legislation in many European countries.
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IV
The 19th Century Origins
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From the 19th century onwards the problems caused by the
Industrial Revolution pushed the Popes to speak out periodically
on social problems. We usually refer to the more important of
these papal documents as encyclicals. “’Encyclical letter means
a circular letter. It has been used since the early centuries but
since the middle of the eighteenth century has taken on a certain
fixed form and is reserved among the numerous types of papal
letters to the more solemn treatment of the more important
problems.” (Cf. The Church and the Reconstruction of the Modern World ,
Image Books, September 1957, Introduction, page 18)
Most commentators consider Pope Leo XIII’s epoch making
encyclical, Rerum Novarum as the first important social
encyclical. The social encyclicals usually deal with what is
referred to as the “social question.” The term “social question”
will appear frequently when studying Catholic social teaching.
The term “social question” means the ensemble of interrelated
problems that have arisen in relation to industrialization and
urbanization. The social question deals with how an industrial
and urbanized society should structure and organize itself. When
industrialization has not occurred, the questions of social justice
remain at a very individual level. When society industrializes,
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its problems become social problems on a massive scale.
However, Pope Leo’s predecessors who governed the church
for the greatest part of the 19th century and set the stage for the
20th century were Gregory XVI (1831-46 and Pius IX (1846-78). Both
were hardworking, morally upright, and of strong character. They
rejected many of the social, economic, and political movements
of the time and were unfriendly to those Catholic intellectuals,
especially the so-called Christian socialists, who were open
to new scientific and historical developments. They spoke out
negatively on the issues of liberalism and denied civil rights
One of the main reasons why the 19th century popes took on
this attitude was because they felt traditional Catholic teaching
highlighted the integration of the individual and society.
According to their view of Catholic teaching, the private good
of the individual is subordinate to the common good. The task
of the government was to enhance the common good. Gregory
XVI and Pius IX complained that 19th century liberal political
philosophy elevated the individual to such great heights it
undermined the common good and destroyed the traditional
order of society. Classical liberalism claimed government
should govern as little as possible and allow maximum liberty
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in all spheres of activity such as industrial production and trade,
religion, thought, speech, press, assembly, and so on.
The 19th century popes wanted Catholicism to be the religion
of the state wherever possible because otherwise, they felt
people would fall into indifferentism. By so doing they related
political liberalism to economic liberalism and argued that in an
unbridled free market system the rich could suppress the poor!
(Cf. The Catholic Tradition, by Timothy G. McCarthy, Loyola Press, 1998, page
40) The historical impression made by these two popes is one of
authoritarianism. Despite a seeming unconcern with the social
condition of working people, their denunciation of liberalism
nevertheless demonstrates that in many ways the Christian
instincts of these popes were correct. Pope Leo XIII at the end
of the 19th century would in many ways affirm the best aspects
of his predecessors’ teaching, discard other aspects, and move
social teaching ahead.
1. A Brief Survey of the Origins of Rerum Novarum
Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum published in
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1891 is a very important document and milestone in the history
of the social teaching of the church. Leo XIII’s landmark
encyclical should not have been a very revolutionary document.
After all 1860 years had passed since Jesus Christ had reminded
us all that our reactions to poverty will ultimately determine
whether we are saved or damned (Cf. Christian Socialism, by John Cort,
Orbis Books, p 284). However Rerum Novarum had an explosive
impact not only on the church but the way society in large
would look on the so-called “social question.” Rerum Novarum
came forty-three years after the publication of Karl Marx’s 1848
Communist Manifesto which was an important document but
“which itself certainly did not represent the full development of
either the idea or the fact of European socialism” (ibid. Cort page
284).
Rerum Novarum was the result of a long process of thought
and debate within the 19th century Catholic Church. Already in
1848 Fr. Wilhelm Von Ketteler, (1811-1877), then a parish priest
in Berlin, delivered six Advent sermons on behalf of workers
in the Mainz Cathedral that rocked the conscience of German
Catholicism. Years later on September 5, 1869 Von Ketteler
had become the Bishop of Mainz and during the assembly of
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German bishops he spoke out clearly for the prohibition rights
of child labor in factories, and against low wages, long work
hours, inadequate time for rest and vacation, the question of
working women, the obligation to care for workers who are
temporarily or permanently disabled, and the appointment
by the state of factory inspectors. (Cf. Catholic Social Teaching And
Movements by Marvin L. Krier Mich, Twenty-Third Publications, 1998, pages 6-8)
Kettler’s solution pointed out “the dangers in both the
unlimited competition of liberal capitalism and the exaggerated
state control of the socialists. He defended the right of state
intervention against the liberal capitalists and the right of private
property against the totalitarian tendencies of the socialists. (ibid.
Bokenkotter, p.335). During an 1869 trip to Germany Marx wrote
a letter to Engels in which he made mention of the activity of
Bishop Von Kettler and other socially active priests labeling
it, according to his mentality as reactionary. (Cf. K. Marx Brief an
F. Engels vom 29.9.1869 in MEGA 3 . Abt. N. 227.) However Kettler’s
approach impacted German social legislation far more than
Marx’s radical approach.
On October 18, 1884 Prince Karl von Lowenstein and Count
Franz Kuefstein of Austria, along with Rene de la Tour du
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Pin and Louis Milcent of France first met in the residence of
Bishop Gaspard Mermillod of Lausanne, Switzerland. They
organized the Fribourg Union and considered Bishop Ketteler
as their spiritual father but Bishop Mermillod was their guiding
force. The Fribourg Union, a predominantly lay group of
20 to 32 persons that included theologians, political leaders
and aristocrats, met every October from 1885 to 1891. This
theological and social think tank of concerned laity and clergy
worked out their ideas in small groups and presented their
findings to the full body. Although the group reported their
findings to Pope Leo XIII every year, because of their conflicts
with “laissez-faire liberal economic theorists, Bishop Mermillod
suggested they work in secret until they could present a well-
formed body of doctrine to the Pope.
The members of the Fribourg Union realized that:
① charity was not enough to solve the social problems of
society;
② just wages must be paid to the workers who should not be
considered a mere commodity;
③ social Catholics believed that state intervention was
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necessary when free contracts on wages were oppressive
to the worker and correct abuses so that workers would
receive what is necessary for their subsistence. The
Fribourg Union emphasized the right of each person to
subsist and this right
limited and tempered
④ the right to private property.
⑤ The Fribourg Union members also wanted a corporatively
organized society or an organic model of society in which
people would be organized according to their common
interests and common social function
Unfortunately in the first part of the 20th century, Fascism
used this concept of a corporately organized society to defend
totalitarianism.
In England Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, a convert
from Anglicanism, successfully identified the English Roman
Catholic Church with the cause of labor. In an 1874 lecture, “The
Rights and Dignity of Labour”, Manning forcefully defended
the right of the worker to organize, called for laws to regulate
the hours of work, and made a plea for people to look into the
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horrible abuses associated with child labor. The 1889 London
dock strike was a big turning point in the history of the English
labor movement. The 82 year-old Manning took the lead in
forming an arbitration committee and brought about a settlement
satisfactory to the workers. They showed their gratitude by
organizing a huge cortege at his funeral which, according to
some, even rivaled the funeral of Queen Victoria.
Manning also helped the American Cardinal Gibbons of
Baltimore save the most influential American labor union of
the time, the Knights of Labor, from a Roman condemnation
because they had organized themselves as a secret society.
They did this to avoid the infiltration of elements hostile
to labor. Cardinal Gibbons persuaded the Knights of Labor
to drop the secrecy of their organization. Two thirds of the
Knights of Labor, including the president, Terence Powderly,
were Catholics. England’s Cardinal Manning provided
Gibbons with valuable information about curia politics.
The success of the Catholic Church in the United States in
maintaining the loyalty of the working class was a major
influence on Pope Leo’s decision to issue an encyclical.
While the Europeans were a powerful theoretical influence in
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shaping the first social encyclical, the practical success of the
American church with labor also exerted a very practical and
positive influence.
In Italy the Opera dei Congressi, a union of Italian Catholic
organizations having as its scope to study and resolve the
Roman question, had a very developed section dealing with
social matters. At first they focused their attention on Italy’s
rural problems and in the North developed the casse rurali.
Gradually they began to discuss the issues facing groups
in other countries like the question of individual or family
wages, state intervention in social affairs and whether workers
organizations should be composed only of workers or as
groups with employers and managers. Italians attended the
1889 Fribourg meetings and Msgr. Talamo, a very intelligent
and talented social thinker who was very much aware of social
issues in Italy founded the Catholic Union for Social Studies in
Italy to further the social activity already undertaken within the
Opera dei Congressi.
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2. The Essential Teaching of Pope Leo XIII’s 1891
Encyclical Rerum Novarum
Pope Leo’s encyclical calls attention to the suffering of
workers. He condemns the socialist solution to the poverty of
the workers because, among other reasons, it denies the right
to private property. Leo insists the state has a role to play by
intervening when necessary to protect the weak and reform
unjust institutions. He insists on a living wage for workers and
their families. He also teaches that workers have the natural and
God-given right to organize and that the state must protect the
right of people to create organizations because that natural right
of human beings to organize themselves for their mutual profit
is the very basis of the state itself (Cf. Rerum Novarum #50)!
Pope Leo XIII wrote his encyclical Rerum Novarum as a
response to the new problems caused by the abuses that came
to the surface during the 19th century industrial revolution.
Pope Leo saw the newly evolving work environment as
dehumanizing. Materialistic capitalism was spreading in Europe
and North America. Pope Leo felt that this form of capitalism
made human labor just one more commodity to be bought
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and sold on the market. As a result human labor had become
commercialized according to the laws of supply and demand.
This robbed the working man and woman of their dignity. It
lowered work to something that could merely be bought and
sold according to the needs of supply and demand.
Such a situation also put worker families in peril. If work
simply became one more material element in the industrial
process, it was then just a part of the material process. In
so doing materialistic capitalism risked making work only
one more part of the process of production. That meant the
destruction of the social dimension of human work. Workers no
longer contributed to the common good. They were simply just
one more step in the manufacturing process.
The needs of a free market should not and could not be the
only gauge to the value of work. Workers needed a living
wage to live decent human lives and raise their families. They
needed what was necessary to feed, clothe, house and educate
their families. Employers had no right to higher profits if their
workers did not have what was necessary for their safety on
the job and everyday livelihood. Nevertheless Pope Leo knew
wages could vary from nation to nation and might not be the
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same everywhere.
Pope Leo wanted to imbue a social sense of community and
not a warlike struggle between employers and workers. He
believed that unions and workers organizations were necessary
to obtain a living wage so that families would not only survive
but thrive. Pope Leo, therefore, insisted on the workers’ natural
and God-given right to form unions and other associations to
protect the dignity of the worker. Mutual cooperation between
labor and capitalists was necessary to humanize the worker
environment.
Leo’s encyclical, very much a product of its times and the
people who wrote it, has its strengths and weaknesses and
as such demonstrates that the church’s social teaching is a
dynamic living tradition that is constantly developing. Was
Rerum Novarum too timid or too bold? It all depends on the
point of view. Conservatives saw it as breaking with tradition.
More radically minded people then and now look on Rerum
Novarum as too little too late. The encyclical certainly gave
strong impetus to the labor union movement and gave Catholics
a fairly coherent body of moral and social teachings to guide
social activism.
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V
Catholic Social Teaching
in the First Half of the 20th Century

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1. Pius X (1903-1914) and Benedict XV (1914-1922)
When Pope Leo died in 1903 Pope Pius X succeeded him.
Pius X, a canonized saint, was mainly interested in the reform of
the institutional life of the church—frequent communion, reform
of canon law, restoration of Gregorian chant and the formation
of priests. He was adamant about ecclesiastical discipline and
led the battle against modernist scholars. For progressive minds
this humble and holy churchman seemed like a step backward
in time.
Pius X’s death on August 20 1914 coincided with the outbreak
of World War I. Benedict XV, a former Vatican diplomat and
undersecretary of state, became Pope in September 1914.
He maintained absolute neutrality during the war and was
accused by all sides of favoring their respective proponents.
The situation at the time of his pontificate was such that he
had to deal mainly with the problems caused by the war and its
aftermath. Moreover since the Roman question, or the problem
of relations between Italy and the Vatican after the Kingdom of
Savoy seized the Papal States 1870 and annexed them to make a
united Italy, remain unresolved, the Vatican suffered diplomatic
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isolation.
2. Pius XI and Reconstructing the Social Order
(1922-1939)
Pius XI’s papacy coincided with the rise of dictators to power
in many European states. Pius XI did his best to come to terms
with these dictators in order to further the work of the church.
With Mussolini he signed the Lateran Concordat in which
the Pope surrendered all claims to Italian territory in return
for complete sovereignty over Vatican City and a privileged
status for the Catholic religion in Italy. Nevertheless Pius XI
eventually condemned Fascist ideology and his encyclical Non
Habbiamo Bisgno made Mussolini back down after the dictator
tried to suppress Italian Catholic Action.
In front of Hitler’s belligerence toward the church, Pius XI
met the challenge with a decisiveness that astonished the world.
His encyclical Mit brennender Sorge was the first official public
document to dare confront and criticize Nazism. (Cf. A Concise
History of the Catholic Church by Thomas Bokenkotter, Image Books, 1977, pp
401-405) Secret messengers distributed Mit brennender Sorge ,
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dated March 14, 1937 (Passion Sunday) in Germany only a few
hours before its reading in all churches. Just five days after Pius
XI published the encyclical on the situation in Germany, he also
promulgated an encyclical On Atheistic Communism on March
19, 1937. Then nine days later on March 28, 1937 he issued
another encyclical, Firmissimam, on the religious situation
in Mexico (Nos Es Muy Conocide ). Pius also issued encyclicals
on education and Christian marriage. His most important
contribution to Catholic Social Teaching was his longest
encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, published on May 15, 1931 on
the 40th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum.
Unfortunately, it took forty years after Rerum Novarum and
a major worldwide financial and economic crisis for this major
pronouncement on workers and the conditions under which
they worked to see the light of day. Pius XI made an assessment
of what Pope Leo’s Rerum Novarum had done to change the
worker situation. Pius XI and other popes as well, usually
did a “re-reading” of Rerum Novarum, when writing social
encyclicals. Pius XI again addressed the mistake of considering
the worker as a commodity of production. What workers did in
the workplace had more than just a monetary value. Pius XI’s
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encyclical tried to underline the spiritual and social value of
work.
Pius XI insisted on the need for private property but also
pointed out that God gave the goods of the earth to all peoples
and only secondarily to private individuals (Cf. #s 54 and 56). He
pointed out that a just division of private property was always a
social goal (Cf. Q.A. #s 27 and 28 concerning the principle of just retribution
or distributive justice). Pius XI lamented the fact that “…dead matter
comes forth from the factory ennobled while ‘men’ <sic> there
are corrupted and degraded.” (Cf. Q.A. # 55 last sentence) He also
insisted that “…the first and immediate apostles to the workers
ought to be workers!” (Cf. Q.A. # 141)
3. Pius XII’s Radio Addresses
Pius XII ascended to the papal throne in 1939 while Europe
was engulfed in the beginnings of World War II. Pius XII
used Christmas radio addresses in 1941, 1942 and 1944 to
make strong statements on labor, the conditions for peace, and
international cooperation. These radio addresses were truly well-
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thought out and expressed “mini” encyclicals. In the 1942 radio
address Pius XII insisted on the dignity and rights of human
beings, the necessity of protecting the family and enhancing the
dignity and prerogatives of labor by providing a just wage not
only for the worker and the worker’s family but also to promote
the social order and education.
In his 1944 radio address Pius XII called for the construction
of a social order in which peace would be possible. He wanted a
society based on peace and a social order that respected human
dignity by striving for the solidarity of the human family. Pius
XII’s desire was that the new international structures that would
be put in place at the end of the war should advance the unity
of the human race and the family of nations. These structures
should be real and effective but also recognize the sovereignty
of each state. Wars of aggression should be outlawed and
proscribed.
4. Pope John XXIII—A Time of Transition
Pope John was elected in 1958 a month before his seventy-
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seventh birthday. Since he was already a very old man, most
commentators inside and outside the church had a tendency to
dismiss him as a transition Pope who would do very little and
leave no lasting mark. How mistaken they were! Pope John
XXIII’s style was direct, familiar, positive and realistic—a
marked departure from that of his predecessors. Good Pope
John was the pope with the common touch and an extraordinary
sense of humor!
Nevertheless, Pope John XXIII’s pontificate was a time of
transition. It marked a turning point between two distinct stages
of development in Catholic social teaching. In the first stage
the church was confronted with the process of industrialization
and the social and economic problems that accompanied this
process. In the second stage the church centers its concerns
much more on authentic human development and the
participation of all peoples in this development. After World
War II tremendous changes took place around the globe. New
countries emerging from colonialism wanted to develop their
own national economies in their own way. The way modern
people lived in society, the complex relationships that now
existed in governments and between governments and how
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government institutions related to people called for new ideas
were all new problems that needed new answers. Pope John,
well aware of the “signs of the times,” decided to convoke
Vatican II.
Like Pius XI, John XXIII insisted on the principle of
subsidiarity (Cf. Quadragesimo Anno # 35 and Mater et Magistra #152). He
warned that if an organization destroys the individual’s sense of
responsibility or squashes contributions to the common good,
worker dignity and the principle of subsidiarity are denied.
In Mater et Magistra John XXIII used the word “socialization”
(or socializatio in Latin) This upset many commentators. This
word has a variety of meanings but for American and British
economists it is synonymous with nationalization or the public
control and ownership of production and distribution of goods
and services. In psychology and sociology it refers to the
process by which a child gradually learns to live in society. John
XXIII noted that one of the principal characteristics of our age
made living more complex and demanded an increase in social
relationships or socialization (Cf. Mater et Magistra # 59) To balance
this trend, companies must give workers more education and a
way to participate in establishing the work process (Cf. # 75).
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Later on, however, Vatican II’s In the Pastoral on the Church
in the Modern World(Gaudium et Spes) clearly defined what Pope
John had already expressed in Mater et Magistra when it
declared: “Among those social ties which man needs for his
development some, like the family and the political community,
relate with greater immediacy to his innermost nature. Others
originate from his free decision. In our era, for various reasons,
reciprocal ties and mutual dependencies increase day by day
and give rise to a variety of associations and organizations,
both public and private. This development, which is called
socialization, while certainly not without its dangers, brings
with it many advantages with respect to consolidating and
increasing the qualities of the human person, and safeguarding
his rights (Mater et Magistra #25).”
John XXIII pushed for workers to become owners of the
means of production by, for example, receiving a part of their
salary in the form of company stocks (Cf. Mater et Magistra # 82).
Pope John also insisted on the SEE-JUDGE-ACT method
employed by the YCW in their meetings as a way for young
people to be balanced in their approach to work and life issues
(Cf. Mater et Magistra #’s 236 and 237).
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John XXIII’s pontificate is truly a time of transition between
two stages of Catholic social teaching—the stage leading up
to Vatican II and the stage following Vatican II. In the first
stage the point of reference is that of societies in the process
of industrialization. In this first stage Catholic social teaching
depended mainly on natural law and scholastic philosophy. In
the second stage following Vatican II, Christian inspiration in
the form of quotes from scripture and the Church fathers is far
more evident.
In the first stage, until and including the pontificate of Pius
XII, there is a very strong insistence on maintaining uniform
doctrine. In the second stage this dogmatic tendency gives
way to greater concern for action on social questions and for
developing authentic Christian attitudes. We might say that there
has been a shift in attitude and a shift in methodology.
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VI
Shifts in Attitude after Vatican II

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After Vatican II we discover a new attitude in the Church
toward the world and its problems.
1. First of all, there is a rediscovery of a sense
of the public character of the Christian faith.
Many Church leaders, theologians and even friendly critics
of the Church question how the Church remained largely silent
and passive in face of the atrocities committed during World
War II. A very partial answer is that the Church and religion
in general were mainly confined to private life. The Vatican II
Council Fathers recognized that Christian faith has important
consequences for public life, and that the Church shares
responsibility for secular as well as religious history.
2. Secondly, there is recognition of the rightful
autonomy and value of secular activity.
The Church came to the realization that human beings through
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their appropriate secular activity participate in God’s continuing
work of creation and contribute to the carrying out in history of
God’s salvific plan for the world (Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World #36).
3. Thirdly, we see renewed commitment
to world justice.
The Church began to call for justice at all levels of society,
but especially between rich and powerful nations and nations
that are poor and weak. Catholic Christians became more a
more aware that the doing of justice is a constitutive element of
preaching and announcing the gospel message.
4. Fourthly, the Church made
a preferential option for the poor.
The Church always knew that Christ identifies with the
poor and oppressed. In modern times the Church has realized
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concretely that identifying with Christ means giving priority to
the needs of the poor and oppressed not only in her theological
reflection but also in her socio-pastoral action on their behalf (Cf.
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis #39 and Centesimus Annus #57).
5. Shifts in methodology
The above changes in attitude have been accompanied by
changes in methodology.
1) There is a much broader vision of the Church.
Vatican II emphasized the Church as the “People of God.”
This image has important implications not only for ecclesiology
but also for the Church’s approach to social problems. The
Church as “People of God” in a sense encompasses all human
beings of good will. The Catholic Christian faithful as the core
of this “People of God” must cooperate actively with fellow
Christians and all human beings of good will in seeking out
solutions to the pressing social problems of their environment,
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of their times and of the whole world.
2) The Church became more attentive to the “signs of the times”!
Vatican II reaffirmed the basic Christian belief that God
continues to speak in and through human history. Thus the
Church has the duty of examining the signs of the times and of
interpreting them in the light of the gospel. This emphasis and
attentiveness to the “signs of the times” led to the development
of new methods of doing theology. Now Catholics are called
to look at the world and discover God’s presence, activity and
designs in human history. Theology thus goes beyond deduction
and speculation and now begins to inductively learn from the
data of human experience.
3) Social-ethical decision making moved away from a narrow
adherence to natural law morality and toward a more holistic approach.
A holistic and interdisciplinary search for the truth, to the
extent that human beings can know the truth, has replaced the
permanent absolutes of an earlier understanding of natural law.
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We can no longer look for truth only with our heads. Human
decision making now requires an ongoing effort to adequately
grasp the human reality upon which we are called to act. We
have to make broader efforts to correctly grasp what God calls
us to do in the midst of the reality in which we live.
4) Official church documents make greater use of the Christian
sources of social-ethical wisdom.
This shift means we make efforts to return to the basic
elements that Christians of earlier ages used in making ethical
decisions. We do so by making greater use of scripture,
especially the New Testament and in particular the gospels, to
provide the basic meanings and values underpinning authentic
Christian ethical decision making.
5) The primacy of love
For centuries and practically till the beginning of Vatican II,
reason played a large role in shaping Catholic social teaching.
From Vatican II onward the primacy of love has taken an
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increasingly important role in shaping Catholic social teaching.
Now we see love as being at the heart of the virtue of justice;
love as being the motivation for working for justice and the
fundamental option of love as the source of moral action.
6) An orientation toward pastoral planning and action (praxis)
The emerging methodology of the church’s social teaching
is oriented toward action. Action is the result of reflection and
leads back to reflection. In the context of Christian social ethics,
action is the end result of an option made to struggle vigorously
but lovingly for justice. Correct action (orthopraxis) completes and
authenticates correct doctrine (orthodoxy or orthodoxis). In an earlier
era the methodology of Catholic Christian social teaching was
highly deductive and speculative. Then very often it led to
social idealism. Pastoral and social reflection must always begin
from the actions, needs and hopes of people. (Adapted from excerpts
of the notes by Fr. Romeo J. Intengan, SJ, 10 January 1989 entitled Meaning and
Historical Background of the Terms “Social Teaching of the Church” or “Social
Doctrine of the Church” as printed in the September-October 1991 Issue of the
FABC’s Info on Human Development.)
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VII
The Post Vatican II Popes

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1. Paul VI
Paul VI was probably one of the most cultured and
consequential personalities of the 20th century Church. He
became pope at a critical moment in the history of the Church
and presided over Vatican II at a moment when it could have
failed. Instead he brought the Council to a happy conclusion.
Paul VI’s first encyclical (Ecclesiam Suam, August 6, 1964) was not
a social encyclical but a document laying out the plan for his
pontificate. If the key word for John XXIII’s pontificate was
“aggiornamento,” the key word for Paul VI’s pontificate was
“dialog.” Section III of Ecclesiam Suam deals with dialog and
the word dialog appears over 60 times in this document. Paul VI
was a believer in dialog. He believed that only by dialog could
there be any kind of tranquility in church life.
In article # 81 of Ecclesiam Suam Pope Paul states that
dialog should have four qualities: clarity, meekness, trust
and pedagogical prudence. In his National Catholic Reporter
column “All Things Catholic,” (August 8, 2008) John Allen makes
a synthesis of this article as follows:
① Clarity: every angle of one’s language should be reviewed
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to ensure that it’s understandable, acceptable and well-
chosen.
② Meekness: “Dialog is not proud, it is not bitter, it is not
offensive. Its authority is intrinsic to the truth it explains, to
the charity it communicates, to the example it proposes; it
is not a command, it is not an imposition. It is peaceful; it
avoids violent methods; it is patient; it is generous.”
③ Trust: One should have confidence “not only in the power
of one’s words, but also in an attitude of welcoming the
trust of the interlocutor. Trust promotes confidence and
friendship. It binds hearts in mutual adherence to the good
which excludes all self-seeking.”
④ Pedagogical prudence: “Prudence strives to learn
the sensitivities of the hearer and requires that we
adapt ourselves and the manner of our presentation
in a reasonable way, lest we be displeasing and
incomprehensible.”
Building on John XXIII’s theme of the international common
good, in 1967 Paul VI took on the daunting task of addressing
worldwide underdevelopment and poverty and wrote Populorum
Progressio. In this ground-breaking encyclical he established the
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Justice and Peace Commission (Cf. P.P. # 5) as an agency to assist
in promoting the common good throughout the Catholic world.
Although Paul VI saw all the injustices in the world he also
believed that there very positive changes for the better.
Paul VI also created the synod structure in 1969 to give the
bishops a regular voice in the governance of the universal
church. Episcopal conferences, the Roman Curia, some
representatives from religious congregations and people directly
appointed by the pope attend these synods.
In a 1971 (Four years later in an) Apostolic Letter entitled
“Octagesimo Adveniens ” marking the 80th anniversary of
Rerum Novarum, Paul VI moved the church’s emphasis from
the national level to the international level. Multinational
corporations had emerged on the world scene and problems
such as debt, the environment, population and hunger made
international relationships among nations more complicated.
On the 10th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II, Paul VI
issued Evangelii Nuntiandi. Paul considered pre-evangelization
to already be evangelization (Cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi # 51.1). We can
summarize Paul VI’s attitude by saying that the church promotes
the human by evangelizing, and the church evangelizes by
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promoting the human.
By the end of his life Paul VI was being attacked by
progressives as being too conservative and by conservatives
as being too progressive. Some even called him the Hamlet
pope because they thought him incapable of making clear cut
and bold decisions. Pope Paul VI lived in a period of history
when people were enamored with ideology and their own
powerful opinions. He was a brave and well balanced person
who refused to give simple answers to complex questions and
history will certainly judge him with more equanimity than his
contemporaries did.
2. John Paul II
John Paul II was the great Christian witness of the 20th
century. He made enormous efforts to change the world and
revitalize the Church. He firmly believed that Jesus Christ is
the answer to the question of every human life. At his papal
installation he called on the Church and every Catholic to “Be
not afraid.” His epic pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979 changed
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the course of world history because it marked the beginning
of the end of communism in Eastern Europe. His two U.N.
addresses; his showdowns with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in
1983 and rioters in Chile in 1987 and his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land during the Great Jubilee of 2000 were other milestones in
a brilliant diplomatic career.
The great question for the Catholic Church at the end of the
second millennium of its history was: Could the Church give a
coherent, compelling, comprehensive account of its faith and
its hope? Pope John Paul II tried to answer that question in the
affirmative: through The Catechism of the Catholic Church ,
his own magisterium, and a remarkable capacity to make
Catholic convictions “come alive” in history, e.g. the collapse
of European Communism. George Weigel, John Paul II’s
biographer, lists his three greatest accomplishments in renewing
the Church and its impact on the world as, 1) The Catechism of
the Catholic Church, 2) the June 1979 pilgrimage to Poland, and
3) the Great Jubilee of 2000.
Just before the Great Jubilee of 2000 John Paul II made his
influence felt indirectly at the June 1999 G-8 summit of industrial
democracies held that year in Cologne, Germany. Cologne was
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full of supporters of Jubilee 2000, a campaign to forgive debts
owed by the world’s poorest countries and a movement pushed
by Europe’s churches. Jubilee 2000 had urged its adherents to
push this issue on to the G-8’s agenda. It was a special moment
because for the first time, deeply believing lay people, Catholic
nuns and clergy united with NGO representatives and punk
rockers on this single issue. This was clear evidence of John
Paul II’s considerable clout on an important social issue!
Poland probably has the most intensely Catholic culture in
the world and Polish culture had a marked impact on John Paul
II’s pontificate. Given its geography, history and suffering,
probably no other country but Poland could have produced a
John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla never learned the conventional story
line of modernity—that religious conviction is withering away
and that faith in the God of the Bible is a thing of the past. On
the contrary, Karol Wojtyla learned from Polish history and
Poland’s witness under Nazi and Communist tyranny that, in its
capacity to transform individual lives and change society, the
Gospel is still the most potent proposal in history. In his 2001
Encyclical Centesimus Annus, John Paul II dedicated Chapter
III entitled “The Year 1989” (Cf. Centesimus.Annus, numbers 22 to 29)
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to the earth shaking events connected to the rapid collapse of
Marxism.
After the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s, John Paul II
tried to save Vatican II in his own way. Some Ecumenical
Councils like the reform-minded efforts of the 15th century
had relatively poor success records. Vatican II, unlike former
Councils provided few interpretive “keys” to understanding
its teaching. Other councils wrote creeds, legislated new laws,
or even condemned heresies—all of which provided “keys”
to understanding the Council in question. Vatican II didn’t
do any of that. Consequently John Paul II felt the task of his
pontificate was to provide those “keys”: by providing his own
“magisterium,” and by completing the work of several synods
of bishops.
John Paul II wrote an astounding 16 encyclicals and numerous
apostolic exhortations. He gave us three social encyclicals:
Laborem Exercens in 1981 (for the 90th anniversary of Rerum Novarum)
and Centesimus Annus (for the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum) in
1991. In 1987 for the 20th anniversary of Paul VI’s Populorum
Progressio on the gap between rich and poor nations he wrote
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.
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John Paul II’s three social encyclicals are pervaded with
prophetic humanism. John Paul II thinks that human beings
should be defined as workers whether or not their work is
physical or intellectual because human labor builds society
(Cf. Laborem Exercens, Introduction). Through work human beings
determine their world and by so doing constitute themselves as
persons. John Paul II considers human work as the essential key
to the whole social question (Cf. Laborem Exercens # 3) and that labor
must have priority over capital.
Although John Paul II made continued insistence on the need
for the natural moral law in the world of work and economic
activity, he adds a theological and spiritual dimension to the
discussion. In Laborem Exercens (Cf. Part V #s 24 to 27) he makes
specific mention of the spiritual significance of work and of
work as a sharing in the creative activity of God. He introduces
Jesus as the man of work and insists on “… person (s being) more
precious for what (they) are than what they have.”
John Paul II introduces “personalism” to Catholic Social
Teaching by arguing that workers not only produce things as a
cog in the work process for profit but to also work for oneself
and express one’s creative and personal ability (Cf. Laborem
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Exercens # 15). He also introduces the concept of direct and
indirect employers. Indirect employers are all those groups in
society that influence contract arrangements between labor and
capital: governments, banks, insurance and finance companies,
churches, educational institutions and others (Cf. Laborem Exercens
# 17).
When a Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul
II twice in a 1981 assassination attempt, Agca at first told the
authorities he was acting for the Bulgarian intelligence service.
The Bulgarians were known to do the bidding of the KGB.
Agca later recanted that part of his confession but it mattered
little to John Paul II who was behind the attempt. John Paul II
visited Agca in his cell and forgave him. The astonished Agca
said, “How is it that I could not kill you?” John Paul II always
credited the Blessed Virgin with saving his life on May 18,
1981. His devotion to Mary affected his pontificate in many
ways. He constantly proposed Our Lady as the pattern of all
Christian discipleship—probably his most important Marian
theme.
A final important highlight from John Paul II’s Catholic
Social Teaching efforts would have to be his innovative ideas
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on worker solidarity, not as a closed rank solidarity among
themselves but as a means to dialog with and collaborate with
other social groups (Cf. L.E. # 8 especially #8.4).
3. Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI’s pontificate will have to continue the
compelling proclamation of the Gospel to the masses of which
John Paul II was a master. He will have to give the Church the
opportunity to “digest” the rich magisterium of John Paul II’s
great pontificate. Pope Benedict will have to think very carefully
about the challenge of Islamism and develop the capacity to
distinguish between genuine Islam and radicalized, politicized
Islamic forces; to devise new ways of relating the moral witness
of the papacy to the diplomacy of the Holy See.
The financial crisis of October 2008 coincided with the
opening of the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in
the Life and Mission of the Church. As Pope Benedict opened
the Synod he mentioned in his meditation to those attending
the synod that “now in the fall of great banks” we see “money
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disappears; it is nothing—and in the same way, all things that
lack a true reality to depend on are elements of a secondary
order. The Word of God is the basis of everything, it is the
true reality. And to be realists, we should count on this reality.
We should change our idea that matter, solid things, things we
touch, are the most solid and secure reality…..otherwise we are
building on sand….. Apparently the solid things seem to be the
true realities, but one day they will also pass away.”
In his second encyclical Spe Salvi (2007), Pope Benedict had
already pointed out in a similar vein the materialistic limitations
of Karl Marx’s philosophy in these words. “He thought that
once the economy had been put right, everything would
automatically be put right. His real error is materialism: man, in
fact, is not merely the product of economic conditions, and it is
not possible to redeem him purely from the outside by creating a
favorable economic environment.” (Cf. Spe Salvi # 21—last sentence).
Along with a call to all Catholics for a renewed Catholic
identity, Benedict XVI has announced a very strong
environmental message. He probably feels that this is the best
way to help recover respect for the natural law in Catholic
Social Teaching. His reasoning seems to be that all people can
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be convinced that nature comes with a set of rules we must
observe. If we transgress these rules we risk causing serious
problems and disruptions like climate change and pollution,
etc. This might be an easier way of convincing people of good
will that we should also be open to the natural law of individual
personal morality and more just international relationships
based on mutual solidarity as members of the human family.
On June 29, 2009 in the fifth year of his pontificate and after
almost a two year delay because of the economic crisis that
began erupting in mid-2007, Benedict XVI finally promulgated
a 30,000 word social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in
Truth). Benedict commemorated the 40th anniversary of Paul
VI’s Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) and dedicated
numbers 8 to 20 to a “fresh reading” (Cf. #10) of Paul VI’s
groundbreaking Encyclical on development.
In the introduction to Caritas in Veritate Benedict linked
“caritas” and “veritas,”—love and truth as two complementary
themes. Love and truth are the driving force behind all authentic
human development because they are so deeply rooted in the
human person. Human beings are fundamentally inclined
toward love “enlightened by truth” (Cf. #2). In Caritas in Veritate
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Benedict XVI once again emphasized the importance of the
natural law in Catholic Social Teaching and reached out to non-
believers.
The basic instincts of all human beings are: 1) to preserve and
develop their lives; 2) to reproduce and; 3) as rational beings
to search out the truth and live in families and groups where
love is cherished and cultivated. Human beings endowed with
reason want to know the truth of things, enter into dialog with
others and form social relationships. These are fundamental
anthropological realities shared by all human beings whether or
not they accept divine revelation (Cf. numbers 1 to 7).
By uniting truth and love, Caritas in Veritate has sought to
re-unite some basic points necessary for an integral Catholic
experience of life’s realities. Benedict insists on personal
conversion and a pro-life stance that overflows into social
reform and tends toward the common good. In brief, he urges
Catholics to be pro-life in order to work more effectively for
justice and peace (Cf. #28). In fact, Caritas in Veritate might
be considered as the most comprehensive papal effort yet to
integrate the Church’s pro-life stance with its justice and peace
message. Horizontal spirituality or spirituality coming from
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shared experiences and engagement with the world has to unite
with vertical spirituality that comes down to us from divine
revelation (Cf. #’s 54 to 56). This seems to reflect the “seamless
garment” mentality as Cardinal Bernadin once phrased it.
Pope Benedict XVI calls on contemporary society to supersede
the split between the financial and social spheres. Making the
greatest profit and promoting self-interest cannot be the only
goals of businesses. Business people have to be conscious and
concerned about the repercussions their businesses make on
the social sphere. The market economy, so loved by certain
supporters of capitalism, is not just where wealth and income
are generated but exists in a society where human solidarity
has something to say about the fair distribution of income and
wealth (Cf. #35). Businesses must pursue pro-social aims and
serve the common good. Economic activity cannot and should
not deny the centrality of the human person (Cf. #47), solidarity
(Cf. #43), subsidiarity (Cf. #’s 57 and 58) and the common good.
The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is “man, the
human person in his or her integrity” (Cf. #25).
The encyclical pleads for respect for life, warns against
demographic control, the spread of the anti-birth mentality,
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strong birth control measures, laws permitting euthanasia and
society’s move toward the denial and suppression of life as
measures that ultimately deny the common good (Cf. #28). It
also calls for a bio-ethic of human moral responsibility and not
merely the supremacy of technology (Cf. # 74-77).
The pope insists on a need for efficiency and commercial
logic in business affairs but efficiency is never an end in itself
only a means to attain a goal. Competition should not be
used to destroy or diminish social bonds or a place where the
strong destroy the weak (#36). The Holy Father warns against
“downsizing social security systems” (Cf. #25). Pope Benedict
notes that “the world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms,
but inequalities are on the increase” as well as “new forms of
poverty” (Cf. #22).
The encyclical re-echoes Rerum Novarum ’s call for robust
government intervention in the economy (Cf. # 39). Caritas in
Veritate reiterates the church’s traditionally strong support
of labor unions (Cf. #64) and criticizes governments’ tendency
for reasons of economic utility to limit the freedom and
negotiating capacity of labor unions (Cf. #25). Benedict endorses
and describes the ILO’s definition of “decent work” (Cf.
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#63). Benedict insists that the dignity of the individual and
the demands of justice call for prioritizing access to steady
employment for everyone (Cf. # 32). He also mentions the
phenomenon of the large scale of the migration of peoples to
which not enough attention has been given (Cf. #’s 21 and 62).
Caritas in Veritate once again reminds us of the need for
gratuitousness and gift, even when these are not merited (Cf.
# 34). It urges that a space be created within the market for
economic activity “carried out by subjects who freely choose to
act according to principles other than those of pure profit.” The
profits of these activities are then given to the poor and needy (Cf.
# 37).Benedict again shows he is the “green pope” by strongly
endorsing “stewardship over nature and a keener ecological
sensibility (Cf. #50 and 51)
Benedict cites the need for a reform of international agencies
to make them lest costly and give them more authority (Cf. #67).
This idea has been around since John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris
and been repeated by Paul VI and John Paul II. However the
popes have not said or written concretely very much about how
this might come about.
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The Church Fathers in Vatican II realized it was necessary
to address the social issues posed by the modern world.
In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World(Gaudium et Spes) they attempted to summarize the church’s
position on social issues and give greater impetus to dealing
with social issues at the international, national and local
levels. To promote collegiality between the pope and bishops,
Vatican II’s decree on the pastoral office of the bishops,
Christus Dominus, recommended holding international synods
periodically (Cf. Christus Dominus #5) Paul VI began this process
by having synods on a three year cycle, beginning in 1967. At
the 1971 Synod the bishops dealt with the issue of social justice
and issued a document entitled Justice in the World(Convenientes ex
Universo). The bishops succinctly stated that: “While the church
is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes that anyone
who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just
in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the
modes of acting, of the possessions and lifestyle found within
the church herself” (Cf. 40).
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1. CELAM
The Bishops’ Conferences of Latin America (CELAM) had their
first meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1955 led by Bishops Larrain of
Chile and Helder Camara of Brazil. Pius XII supported this pre-
Vatican II very church centered initiative. The Latin American
Bishops met after Vatican in Medellin (Colombia) in 1968, Puebla
(Mexico) in 1979 and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) in 1992.
They made very important and far reaching statements on the
social issues affecting Latin American and these statements
have had a huge impact on the universal church. In Asia
the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences sponsored a
Colloquium on the Social Doctrine of the Church in the Context
of Asia and published the contents of the colloquium.
2. U.S. Bishops’ Conference Pastoral Letters
Two very masterful documents came from the U.S. Bishops’
Conference during the 1980’s. In 1983 the bishops issued its
piercing document The Challenge of Peace, on the question
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of war and peace. In 1986 the bishops issued Economic
Justice for All, a document on the American economy. These
two documents dealt with explosive issues like political
responsibility, the economic order being imposed by capitalism,
welfare reform, unemployment, racism, capital punishment,
US world policy, gun control, strip mining and conscientious
objection. The bishops asked Catholics to seriously consider the
bishops’ perspectives to form their own opinions in the light of
the gospel.
3. The Common Good
In 1996 the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and
Wales issued an important document entitled The Common
Good and proposed its contents as a study guide on local and
world social problems to parish communities and parish groups
in England and Wales.
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4. Basic Tenets or Principles
of Catholic Social Teaching
At this point I will mention something about the basic tenets
of Catholic social teaching. There are about ten major themes
or catalysts around which Catholic social teaching is organized.
(This is only a list of key emphases and certainly not an exhaustive one! It was
prepared by the Center of Concern in Washington and reprinted in the FABC’s Info
on Human Development, May June 1988. I have made a few minor) changes in
the text.
① The Link of Religious and Social Dimensions of Life
The “social” or the human construction of the world is not
“secular” in the sense of being outside of God’s plan, but is
intimately involved with the dynamic of the Reign of God.
Therefore faith and justice are necessarily linked closely
together. (Cf. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
paragraphs 2 and 72).
② The Dignity of the Human Person
Made in the image of God, women and men have a preeminent
place in the social order, with inalienable rights, both political-
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legal and social-economic. The fundamental question to ask
about any and all social development is: What is happening to
people? How does it affect people? (Cf. Centesimus Annus 61).
③ Option for the Poor
We should have a preferential love for the poor, because
God gives special attention to their needs and rights. “Poor” is
understood to refer to the economically disadvantaged who, as a
consequence of their status, suffer oppression and powerlessness
(Cf. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 42, Centesimus Annus paragraphs 11 and 57).
④ Link of Love and Justice
Love of neighbor is an absolute demand for justice, because
charity manifests itself in actions and structures which respect
human dignity, protect human rights, and facilitate human
development. To promote justice is to transform structures
which block love (Justice in the World 34, Dives in Misericordia 12.2).
⑤ Promotion of the Common Good
The common good is the sum-total of all those conditions
of social living—economic, political, cultural—which make it
possible for women and men to readily achieve the perfection of
their humanity. Individual rights are always experienced within
the context of promotion of the common good (Rerum Novarum
34, The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World 78, Centesimus
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Annus 11.1).
⑥ Political participation
Democratic participation in decision making is the best way
to respect the dignity and liberty of people. The government is
the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to
achieve the common good (Pius XII, Christmas Message 1944, Pacem in
Terris 26, Octagesimo Adveniens 22).
⑦ Economic justice
The economy is for the people and the resources of the earth
are to be equitably shared by all. Human work is the key to
contemporary social questions. Labor takes precedence over
both capital and technology in the production process (Laborem
Exercens paragraphs 13 and 15). Just wages and the right of workers to
organize are to be respected (Laborem Exercens 20).
⑧ Stewardship
All property has a “social mortgage” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
42.6). All people should be respected and share in the resources
of the earth. By our work we are co-creators in the on-going
development of the earth (Centesimus Annus 37).
⑨ Global Solidarity
We belong to one human family and as such have mutual
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obligations to promote the development of all peoples across the
world. In particular, the rich nations have responsibilities toward
the poorer nations and the structures of international order must
reflect justice (Progressio Populorum 44, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 40.2).
⑩ Promotion of Peace
Peace is the fruit of justice and is dependent upon right order
among humans and among nations. The arms race must cease
and progressive disarmament take place if the future is to be
secure. In order to promote peace and the conditions of peace,
an effective international authority is necessary (Pacem in Terris 137,
138, Centesimus Annus 5.2).
We can synthesize all this into seven basic principles:
① The Principle of Our Common Humanity: We always begin
from the human.
② The Principle of Solidarity: To be human means to be in
solidarity and never as an existence isolated from others.
③ The Principle of the Common Good: To be truly human
also means working together for the common good of all.
④ The Principle of Subsidiarity: Human beings do this by
mutually respecting each others talents, situations in life and
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inherent possibilities. Being human means allowing others to
develop their capacities and their creativity.
⑤ The Principle of Participation: They do this by allowing and
urging everyone to involve themselves in the social dimensions
of life—especially the political and economic dimensions.
⑥ The Universal Destination of Material Goods: All human
beings have the right to share in the goods of the earth because
God created the world for everyone and not just for the few.
⑦ The Preferential Option for the Poor: To be human we must
always care for the weakest and the poorest of our sisters and
brothers because taking care of the weak assures the survival of
all. Taking care of the powerful means giving in to our animal
instincts.
─ In other words we always begin from the human because,
─ Human beings are always in solidarity with one another.
─ They are called to work together for the common good of all.
─ They do this by respecting each others situations and
promoting their abilities.
─ They further this respect by participating in society and by
urging and encouraging everyone else to do the same.
─ All can and must share in the goods of the earth because
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they are destined for the use of everyone.
─ Nevertheless to foster life we must always be attentive to
the poorest among us.
However, if people are less inclined to come together to
discuss and reflect, how will we be able to formulate meaningful
Catholic social teaching? Without the participation of many
people this formulation risks becoming a “head trip” or the
intellectual brain child of a few thinkers! Here we should refer
back to the beginning of this text where we mentioned about
how Catholic social teaching is formulated. Catholic social
teaching, has to happen on the grass roots level where it will
sensitize people to act on behalf of themselves and their sisters
and brothers in the workplace, marketplace, neighborhoods and
institutions of learning.
If reflection on social matters happens only in intellectual
circles, it will remain a brain game and the domain of a few
thinkers. Otherwise ordinary people, be they Catholics or not,
will look on religious institutions as being in “ivory towers”
desperately in need of dialog with the reality most people
struggle with! If ordinary people are not reflecting on their
everyday lives in the light of the gospel, social teaching will be
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driven up an ivory tower and give the impression of descending
from on high and having little to do with our everyday
existences! (Cf. Dialogue and Evangelization, Jan Van Bragt, CICM, Japan
Mission Journal, Summer 1998, p. 80)
Most Christians, even those working full time for justice
issues, still have a hard time seeing the link between the
religious and social dimensions of life. They still look on the
“social” or the human construction of the world as “secular.”
The world we live in is somehow either considered as outside
God’s plan or not very much connected with God’s plan. Most
Christian Catholics have yet to see human activity as something
intimately involved with the dynamic of the kingdom of God.
Here allow me to briefly quote and abbreviate some key
passages of Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi , “Christ first of
all proclaims a kingdom, the kingdom of God; and this is so
important that, by comparison, everything else becomes ‘the
rest’ which is ‘given in addition’ (cf. Matt. 6,33). Only the kingdom
is absolute, and it makes everything else relative” (cf. Evangelii
Nuntiandi 8). “As the kernel and center of his good news, Christ
proclaims salvation, this great gift of God which is liberation
from everything that oppresses man (sic) but which is above
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all liberation from sin and the evil one...” (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi
9). “This kingdom and this salvation which are the key words
of Jesus Christ’s evangelization, are available to every human
being as grace and mercy, and yet at the same time each
individual must gain them by force—they belong to the violent,
says the Lord (cf. Matt: 11, 12 and Luke 16, 16), through toil and
suffering, through a life lived according to the gospel, through
abnegation and the cross, through the spirit of the beatitudes.
But above all each individual gains them through a total interior
renewal which the gospel calls metanoia—a radical conversion
(cf. Matt. 4, 17), a profound change of mind and heart” (cf. Evangelii
Nuntiandi 10).
Even Christians actively at work for justice and peace in
the world seem to be unable to link up their actions and their
struggle for justice on behalf of ordinary people with the
proclamation of the kingdom, conversion, and the liberating
words of the gospel. And then from there they seem incapable
of making the link with Catholic Social Teaching or the gospel
reflection the Church makes on social issues. We seem to have
two radically divergent attitudes. Many Christians consider
faith life to be the profession of a very vague and often sicky-
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sweet concept of love that moves no one to action and says
nothing to the pragmatic contemporary scene. On the other
side are those who take on an aggressive and self-righteous
“I’m-mad-at-the-world” attitude. Perhaps that makes so many
socially active Catholics and other Christians prone to searching
out solutions that might lead to violence. Very often they are
tempted to choose strategies that simply try to turn the present
power structure on its head by making today’s weak elements
tomorrow’s powerful elements. Paolo Freire warned us early on
that people who have lived and been raised under dictatorships,
even when they struggle for human rights and democratic
change, often chose the dictatorial methods of the society that
nurtured them.
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IX
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In the 19th century theologians and thinkers with competent
backgrounds in philosophy and humanistic studies made major
contributions to Catholic Social Teaching. The 20th century saw
a continuation of the previous century’s extreme nationalism
that led to World War I but this time it was coupled with
ideology clashes that led to World II, the cold war, numerous
proxy wars and conflicts.
The 20th century also saw attempts to exterminate entire
groups of people (Armenians, European Jewry). It witnessed the
barbarity of Nazi concentration camps, the excesses of Japanese
imperialism in Asia, the atomic bomb’s destructive force that
killed 220,000 innocent Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and began the nuclear arms race, the internment
and death of millions in the Soviet Gulag, the excesses of the
Chinese Cultural Revolution and the massacre of millions in
Cambodia and Rwanda. In the 20th century Catholic Social
Teaching needed theologians adept in political science,
sociology and economics to point to ways to avoid conflict, war
and economic catastrophe.
In the “brave new world” of the 21st century, theological,
philosophical, sociological backgrounds as well as studies in
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political science and economics will not be enough to form
the moral theologians of the future. Benedict XVI pointed
out that today “the social question has become a radically
anthropological question” (Cf. Caritas in Veritate no. 75). In other
words moral theologians now need a basic knowledge of
applied sciences, especially medical science, genetics and
molecular biology. The overall term describing these fields
is biotechnology. Biotechnology refers to the field of applied
biology that involves the use or manipulation of living
organisms to modify products or processes for some specific
use.
The following is an apt quote from Benedict XVI’s Caritas in
Veritate. “A particularly crucial battleground in today’s cultural
struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral
responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility
of integral human development is radically called into question.
In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question
asserts itself force-fully: is man the product of his own labors or
does he depend on God? Scientific discoveries in this field and
the possibilities of technological intervention seem so advanced
as to force a choice between two types of reasoning: reason
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open to transcendence or reason closed within immanence. We
are presented with a clear either/ or. Yet the rationality of a self-
centered use of technology proves to be irrational because it
implies a decisive rejection of meaning and value.” (Cf. no. 74)
1. New Challenges to Catholic Social Teaching
“If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a
natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are
made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research,
the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human
ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is
contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural
environment when our educational systems and laws do not help
them to respect themselves.” (Cf. Caritas in Veritate no. 51)
1) In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
In October 2010 the inventor of the “in vitro fertilization”
method, the United Kingdom’s Dr. Robert Edwards won the
Nobel Prize for Medicine. Dr. Edwards succeeded in fertilizing
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and implanting an egg in the uterus of Louise Brown’s mother
that resulted in Louise’s birth on July 25, 1978.
Msgr. Carrasco de Paula, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical
Academy for Life immediately criticized the Nobel
Foundation’s award to Dr. Edwards. Stephan Napier, an ethicist
at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia,
USA opined that “children should be the result of a loving act
between a husband and wife. Instead the IVF industry has left
us with thousands of frozen children—approximately 500,000
at last count.”
Yet some reform-minded Catholic theologians seem to have
cautiously suggested a more positive position regarding IVF
but only when eggs and sperm come from a married couple.
Opposed to this would be eggs from a woman other than the
wife of the man involved or sperm from a man other than the
husband. Worse yet would be implanting the egg in the womb of
a surrogate mother. Does this suggest that there will be further
discussions among theologians regarding this point?
At any rate, regarding IVF, church teaching has clearly made
the following objections:
① IVF separates the act of love-making from procreation.
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② IVF involving third parties damages the family by
separating the biological and emotional aspects of
parenthood.
③ Embryos (considered the beginning of a human life) created in IVF
are usually discarded or frozen and human life is destroyed
in the process.
④ Masturbation is usually the way sperm is harvested.
⑤ Often fetal reduction or so-called “excess” embryos
are done away with early in the pregnancy by injecting
potassium chloride—a form of abortion.
2) Human Cloning
Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut cloned “Dolly,” a sheep in 1997.
Ever since, debate has erupted over the morality of whether
or not to clone human beings. The Church has consistently
objected to the cloning of a human being and upheld the right
of human beings being the result of the natural sexual union
between married couples. Another danger associated with
cloning is the possibility of generating human beings as a source
for providing body parts.
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In the Korean context is the controversy surrounding Dr.
Hwang Woo-suk, a veterinarian by training. Dr. Hwang seems
to have rushed into cloning and published manuscripts that later
were found to have fabricated data. Dr. Hwang’s team at Seoul
University became the first to clone human embryos capable
of yielding viable stem cells. In 2004, Time Magazine declared
him one among the “persons who mattered” during that year.
But, in 2005 Dr. Hwang’s position suffered a setback when
University of Pittsburgh Gerald Schatten, who had worked with
Dr. Hwang for two years, made the surprise announcement that
he had ceased his collaboration with Hwang. In an interview,
Schatten commented that he made his decision “grounded
solely on concerns regarding oocyte (egg) donations in Hwang’s
research reported in 2004.”
An intense media probe followed and one of Hwang’s close
collaborators, Roh Sung-il, the director of MizMedi Women’s
Hospital in Seoul announced in a November 21, 2005 news
conference that he had paid each woman $1,400 for donating
their eggs. Some of Hwang’s female researchers were among
these women. Hwang later admitted that he had lied about the
source of the donated eggs to protect the privacy of his female
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researchers. Hwang claimed he was not aware this constituted a
breach of the Declaration of Helsinki which clearly enumerates
his actions as a breach of ethical conduct. A Korean court
found Hwang guilty in 2009 for ethical law violations linked to
falsified stem cell research.
3) Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are pluripotent stem cells
derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-
stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5
days past fertilization at which time they consist of 50-150 cells.
Because isolating the embryoblast or inner cell mass results in
the death of the fertilized human embryo, this process raises
serious ethical issues.
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, that is, they are able
to differentiate into all derivations of the 3 primary cell layers:
ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. These include each of
the more than 220 cell types in the adult body. So-called
multipotent stem cells generate most but not all cell types in the
adult body. Embryonic stem cells can generate and indefinitely
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propagate all cell types in the body, while adult stem cells can
only produce a limited number of cell types.
Many researchers believe embryonic stem cells will have the
potential to cure neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s or
Parkinson’s or even restore function to victims of spinal cord
disease. The danger is that embryos will be made, used and
discarded (in other words killed) to cure disease.
In the future will scientists be able to produce stem cells
without using embryos? If so, they might be able to bypass
the moral morass that now surrounds a very promising field
in medicine. Research on umbilical cord stem cells and the
research being conducted at Children’s Hospital Boston on so-
called individual pluripotent stem cells or “iPs” cells seem to
avoid ethical objections. Some researchers even think that “iPs”
cells might, in some ways, even be superior to embryonic stem
cells.
4) End of Life Issues
Dignitas of Switzerland founded by Swiss lawyer, Ludwig
E Minelli, is a so-called assisted dying group that provides
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qualified doctors and nurses who aid and participate in
euthanasia procedures for people with terminal clinical diseases
and painful physical and mental diseases. However, a former
employee accused the organization of running only for profit
and manipulating people into euthanasia.
In the United States Doctor Jack Kevorkian, champions a
terminal patient’s right-to-die and claims to have assisted 130
terminally sick people die with his help as a physician. The
right-to-die activist served eight years of a 25 year sentence
for second degree murder. No longer permitted to help patients
commit suicide, Dr. Kevorkian insists that present laws are
archaic and advocates that assisted suicide be a “medical
service.”
Terry Schiavo died in the USA in 2005. Eluana Englara died
in Italy in 2008. Both young women had entered a persistent
vegetative state and were kept alive for years through artificial
nutrition and hydration. Both became newsmakers because
medical science is now capable of keeping people alive even if
they are in severely diminished states. Yet some patients who
have been in severely diminished states for as long as 30 years
have revived.
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This poses a serious ethical problem. Should severely
diminished patients be deprived of nourishment and water and
allowed to die? Pro-lifers feel this is one way of killing a life
that has become inconvenient! Another line of thought says
these people should be allowed to die and “extraordinary”
means of care are not obligatory. Pope John Paul II leaned in
favor of providing food and water to patients in a persistent
vegetative state because, according to the Pontiff, that is
always an “ordinary” means and as such is obligatory. Medical
science is still learning about so-called vegetative states. And,
as mentioned above, even after long years in that condition,
patients have returned to consciousness.
Josefina Magno, a medical doctor from the Philippines
immigrated to the USA with her family where her husband, also
a medical doctor contracted and died of cancer. Dr. Magno’s life
and work provide the elements of a Catholic response to some
“end of life” issues. Josefina nursed her husband right up to his
death. Three years later, she also contracted breast cancer and
underwent a radical mastectomy and intensive chemotherapy.
Her struggle with cancer persuaded her to return to medical
school for retraining and she became an oncologist.
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Dr. Magno then went to England and studied the hospice
approach to “end of life” issues that combines pain management
with psychological and spiritual counseling. Hospice care allows
patients to die with a reasonable amount of comfort and dignity
rather than simply prolonging human life with treatment often
causing unbearable pain. In 1976 Dr. Magno piloted a hospice
program at Georgetown and persuaded Blue Cross-Blue Shield
to cover expenses for its insurance subscribers by pointing out
fees would be half of what hospitals charged. The next year, she
established the Hospice of Northern Virginia.
Dr. Magno effectively began the hospice movement in the
USA and in 1980 became the National Hospice Organization’s
first executive director. In three years in office, she persuaded
the US Congress to pass legislation to include hospice care
under Medicare. In 1984, she established the International
Hospice Institute to train doctors in the United States and
developing countries. Moving to Michigan, she founded the
first hospice there and created the hospice service at Henry Ford
Hospital in Detroit. In 1998, she returned to the Philippines,
where she helped establish programs for the poor.
Dr. Magno joined Opus Dei in 1992. She died in the
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Philippines in 2003. She did not establish the hospice movement
but her influence in spreading the movement in the USA and
worldwide is undeniable. Unfortunately the media has not made
her name and the work she accomplished as famous as that of
the proponents of euthanasia and the culture of death. In Korea,
the Korean Catholic Hospice Association coordinates hospice
programs countrywide. The Catholic University in Seoul
operates a research institute on hospice and palliative care.
5) Eugenics and Genetic Engineering
In the future will human beings try to reproduce disease-
free children with what they consider perfect character traits
and “attractive” physical features? Anti-biotech activists fear a
world of pre-programmed robots. Biotech proponents believe
such programming will never do away with free will and see no
need for undue concern.
However, what about the possibility of creating a baby
through IVF whose cells would be used to save a pre-existing
sibling with a fatal genetic flaw? Aside from the IVF method,
would such a procedure infringe on the younger brother or
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sister’s rights and freedom as a person to donate cells or body
parts?
Will genetic engineering be available only to the rich who can
afford its costs and thus create even greater inequalities between
the world’s “haves” and “have-nots?”
6) Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
Hunger and famine still stalk the planet. Millions die of
hunger and malnutrition very year. Science offers genetic
modification by inserting or deleting genes as a solution.
Producing a genetically modified organism (GMO) became
possible with the discovery of DNA and the creation of the first
recombinant bacteria in 1973.
The broadest and most controversial application of GMO
technology is patent-protected food crops resistant to herbicides
and which produce pesticidal proteins within the plant itself.
The US firm Monsanto owns the largest share of GMO seeds
producing crops planted globally. Scientists tout GMO crops as
a solution to world hunger because they produce better and in
greater volume as well as being environmental friendly because
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they reduce the need for pesticides.
A genetically modified organism is created by means that
overcome natural boundaries. Combining genes from different
organisms is known as recombinant DNA technology. The
resulting organism is said to be “genetically modified,”
“genetically engineered” or “transgenic.” Genetically modified
products include medicines and vaccines, foods and food
ingredients, feeds and fibers.
Anti-GMO activists fear genetic engineering because it
involves crossing species which could not cross in nature. For
example, genes from a fish have been inserted into strawberries
and tomatoes. Because the processes of genetic engineering and
traditional breeding are different and lead to different risks, this
has become a worry for some scientists as well.
Activist groups and some religious leaders suspect GMOs
will only make agribusiness firms richer and in the process
jeopardize food safety, human health, biodiversity and
environmental well-being everywhere. European activists call
GMO crops “Frankenfoods” (a play on the word Frankenstein, the
famous movie monster). Anti-GMO activists fear GMOs will disrupt
traditional farm practices and somehow seep into the ecosystem
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and do untold damage. They wonder about hidden agents in
the food that might eventually be harmful to human beings and
animals. Do GMO products falsely promise to alleviate hunger
thus allowing underlying causes such as poverty, unequal land
distribution, lack of access to markets for poorer nations and the
consumer life-style of rich countries to continue?
The fears surrounding GMOs have given new life to
indigenous seed collecting movements worldwide. The modern
movement of collecting food plant seeds probably began with
Russian scientist Nikolai I. Vavilov, the founder of the All-
Russian Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry. Vavilov
perished under Stalin in a Soviet prison in 1940.
The Millennium Seed Bank Project in England is probably the
biggest institute of its kind. It collects all kinds of native plant
seeds and similar movements, large and small, have arisen in
various nations of the world. Traditional farmers and gardeners
worry that hybrid seeds will take over and native plant species
will die off.
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7) Chimeras
A “chimera” is an organism that carries both human and
animal genes. This is such a recent innovation that scientists
and moral theologians have much to talk about before official
church teaching can really develop.
8) Health Care
Pope John XXIII made a clear endorsement of universal
health care as a basic human right in article 11 of his 1963
encyclical letter Pacem in Terris.
“Beginning our discussion of the rights of man, we see that
every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the
means which are suitable for the proper development of life;
these are primarily food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care,
and finally the necessary social services. Therefore a human
being also has the right to security in cases of sickness, inability
to work, widowhood, old age, unemployment, or in any other
case in which he is deprived of the means of subsistence through
no fault of his own.”
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Many lament the fact that recent biotech breakthroughs have
not given enough attention to how resources are distributed in
combating many diseases inflicting humanity especially the
poor. World Health Organization (WHO) reports show that the
diseases of poorer countries seldom grab the attention of most
of humanity.
Health care efforts in Korea have practically abolished
leprosy, yet this destructive disease still flourishes in many poor
countries especially in Africa. Hookworm, leprosy, African
sleeping sickness and trachoma cause a half-million deaths per
year. Malaria decreases the GDP of developing countries and
worsens poverty. AIDS and tuberculosis are still rampant in poor
countries and among the poorer people in advanced countries
because a sufficient supply of drugs at affordable prices is still
unavailable to treat these diseases.
Advanced countries have siphoned off health care providers
from less developed countries because they pay better salaries
to doctors, nurses and medical technicians. In 2006 the public
health system in the Philippines estimated it had lost 300,000
nurses who went abroad to work. Poor countries that export
medical personnel to advanced countries feel this “brain drain”
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impoverishes them and subsidizes the health sector of developed
countries.
Too often pharmaceutical companies sponsor the pursuit of
biotech breakthroughs merely for profits. Pope Benedict XVI
pointed this out in his social encyclical “Caritas in Veritate ”
when he declared that rich countries assert “…the right to
intellectual property, especially in the field of health care” (Cf.
no. 22).
Further on and in the same vein he stated: “When technology
is allowed to take over, the result is confusion between ends
and means, such that the sole criterion for action in business
is thought to be the maximization of profit, in politics the
consolidation of power, and in science the findings of research.
Often, underneath the intricacies of economic, financial and
political interconnections, there remain misunderstandings,
hardships and injustice. The flow of technological know-how
increases, but it is those in possession of it who benefit, while
the situation on the ground for the peoples who live in its
shadow remains unchanged: for them there is little chance of
emancipation” (Caritas in Veritate, no. 71).
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2. Resolving Contemporary Clashes
between Aspects of Social Doctrine
The 21st century has seen a strange contradiction among many
ordinary Catholics. Many tend to support the teachings of Pope
John Paul II and Benedict XVI when they embrace traditional
views on family and sexuality. They tend to disregard or ignore
the teaching of these popes when they point out that more and
more people are falling into poverty and decry the slashing an
already fraying social safety net. Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009
social encyclical, Caritas in Vertitate laments downsizing social
security systems and weakening the solidarity associated with
the traditional forms of the social state.
“Consequently, the market has prompted new forms of
competition between States as they seek to attract foreign
businesses to set up production centers, by means of a variety of
instruments, including favorable fiscal regimes and deregulation
of the labor market. These 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
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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” (Caritas
in Veritate no. 25).
Despite widespread economic collapses leading to recession
and aggravated poverty for the already de-favored poor, free
market fundamentalists in many countries have often expressed
blind confidence in privatization, deregulation of companies
and tax breaks for all including the super-wealthy. For the
past 50 years, believers in the absolute and radical freedom of
individualism and libertarian capitalistic ideology have railed
against taxes and governance to the extent that the concept
of legitimate state intervention into government has become
highly suspect and even rejected (Cf. Rerum Novarum no. 33 and
Caritas in Veritate no. 39). Governments need to be transparent and
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accountable. Citizens should exercise their right to promote
the common good, solidarity and fraternity (Cf. Caritas in Veritate
no. 19 and 24) by regulating how public money is used and
demonstrating willingness to participate more fully in the
democratic process to create a more human society.
Jesus himself declared to his followers that they had a duty
to render unto Caesar (or government) what was necessary to
provide common services and civil security (Cf. Mt. 22, 17). He
even instructed Peter to catch a fish and extract from its mouth
a coin to pay the Temple tax. Paul urged every person to be
subordinate to higher authorities because their authority came
from God (Cf. Rom. 13, 1). For that reason, he urged Christians to
pay taxes to those to whom taxes and tolls are due (Cf. Rom. 13,
5-7).
3. Conclusion
“It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by
placing himself in relation God and others.(Cf. Caritas in Veritate no.
53)
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We are all the products of human procreation but firstly
all beneficiaries of God’s love. We cannot nor did not create
ourselves. We have inherited the world we inhabit thanks to a
bountiful Lord. Those who preceded us endowed us with the
gifts of knowledge and a relatively structured universe. Thus we
realize we are individuals but not isolated beings. We depend
on family, community and country for a human existence. We
relate to others as citizens of a country and members of the
entire human family. Being interconnected and interdependent
necessitates guidelines for living together in peace and harmony.
As individuals, when interdependence and connectedness
give way to isolation, the result is unawareness, selfishness
and self-absorption. When, as ethnic groups and nations, we
cut ourselves off from other ethnic groups and nations, waging
war and barbarity replace humanistic intercourse. When the
strong overwhelm the weak to seek out their own advantage, the
“culture of death” predominates.
At the beginning of this reflection we saw that Catholic Social
Doctrine arises from the scriptural precept to relate to each other
with justice and the interconnectedness that engenders love and
mercy. To close this reflection on living together on this planet
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according to the wisdom of the ages gathered by moralists
into what we now know as the Social Doctrine of the Church,
a few universally well known phrases from the Renaissance
metaphysical poet, John Donne come to mind.
From John Donne’s Meditation XVII (verses 13 to 15)
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away
by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any
man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee.”
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