Catholic Social Teahing:
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
Work is more than a way to make a living; it it a form of continuing participation in God's creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected - the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organize and join unions, to private property, and to economic initiative. The economy exists to serve people, not vice versa.

Pope John Paul II on The Dignity & Rights of Workers

As we continue to mourn the death and celebrate the life of Pope John Paul II, the Justice and Peace Committee felt that it would be appropriate to highlight a few of the Pope’s many contributions to the development of Catholic Social Teaching on The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

From Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) 1991:
“Society and state need to afford protection against the nightmare of unemployment through economic policies that ensure balanced growth and full employment or through unemployment insurance and retraining programs.”

“Consumerism also raises the ecological issue. Humanity is consuming the resources of the earth and life in an excessive and disordered way, forgetting the earth’s own needs and God-given purpose, provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, and overlooking our duties and obligations toward future generations.”

From Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern), 1987:
“Next to the underdevelopment of the many, there is a superdevelopment for the few. Superdevelopment leads to a throwaway society and to enormous waste. Excessive access to all kinds of things, — sometimes called consumerism — enslaves people and does not make them happy.”

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

From Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), 1981:
“But above all we must remember the priority of labor over capital: labor is the cause of production; capital, or the means of production, is its mere instrument or tool.”

For access to all the major documents of Pope John Paul II, please go to www.osjspm.org/CSTand click on “Social Teaching Documents” for the complete list.

Catholic Social Teaching Major Theme: Budgeting for Poverty

What was it really like to be poor in America? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently ran an interesting ad called "Budgeting for Poverty." We have reprinted some poverty facts from the USCCB, along with the text of the ad. Before you read this, please think about the fact that, if $18,810 is the poverty threshold for a family of four, this means that a family of four with an income of $18, 811 is NOT living in poverty. Would you agree with that?

• "The official poverty rate in 2003...was 12.5%, up from 12.1% in 2002. Total Americans below the poverty thresholds numbered 35.9 million, a figure 1.3 million higher than...2002."
• "The number of Americans living in severe poverty - with incomes below half of the poverty line - increased by 1.2 million in 2003, to 15.3 million."
• "In 2002, 34.9 million people lived in households experiencing food insecurity - that is, not enough food for basic nourishment."
• "A single parent of two young children working full-time in a minimum wage job for a year would make $10,712 before taxes - a wage $3,968 below the poverty threshold set by the federal government."
• From the USCCB charts - Detroit has the third highest poverty rate in the country, with 30.1% of the population living below the poverty level.

The federal government says that a family of four making $18,810 a year is living in poverty. But how far does $18,810 go in America today? How do you budget? What do you leave out? You make the hard choices:

So now you're $1,304 over budget, and you still don't have everything you need.

What Do You Leave Out?
Toiletries, School Supplies, Shoes, Clothes, Holiday Gifts, Education, Life Insurance, Furnishings, Recreation, Cleaning Supplies, Entertainment and Birthday Gifts.

These are the decisions that people are forced to make every day when they live in the state of poverty. Visit www.povertyusa.org to learn more.

©2004 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Please visit our website at www.povertyusa.org

Catholic Social Teaching Major Theme: Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

Catholic Social Teaching is full of references to "the poor and vulnerable." By "vulnerable", we mean all who are powerless in society, all who are in need of our protection - the elderly, the infirm, the disabled, and children. While most people would agree that the poor and vulnerable need some assistance, CST goes far beyond that basic premise. Our popes and bishops have consistently stressed that the poor and vulnerable should have priority over all others in society. In "Economic Justice for ALL (1986)" the U.S. Bishops state:

"The obligation to provide justice for all means that the poor have the single most urgent economic claim on the conscience of the nation."

AND

"Decisions must be judged in light of what they do for the poor, what they do to the poor, and what they enable the poor to do for themselves. The fundamental moral criterion for all economic decisions, policies, and institutions is this: They must be at the service of all people, especially the poor."

These teachings flow from the belief that God gave the earth and its resources to all of us to share. The uneven distribution of resources that results in poverty is man-made, not God-given. Pope Paul VI, in his 1967 encyclical "On the Development of People" states:

"To quote St. Ambrose: "You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor person. You are handling over to him what is his. For what has been given in common for the use of all, you have arrogated to yourself. The world is given to all, not only to the rich."

Vatican II, in 1965, went even further with a statement that my shock some:

"Therefore everyone has the right to possess a sufficient amount of the earth's goods for themselves and their family. This has been the opinion of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who taught that people are bound to come to the aid of the poor and to do so not merely out of their superfluous goods. Persons in extreme necessity are entitled to take what they need from the riches of others."

This means that a starving person who steals food may be guilty under the law, but they have not committed a sin. This does NOT mean that the Church supports a communist or socialist model of government. However, the Church does realize that some controls must be placed on a free-market economy to ensure justice and a more even distribution of resources. As Pope John Paul II states in his 1991 pastoral letter, "The Hundredth Year":

"There are needs and common goods that cannot be satisfied in the market system. It is the task of the state and of all society to defend them. An idolatry of the market alone cannot do all that should be done."

Clearly, the poor and vulnerable have a very special place in the teachings of the Catholic Church. How do they fit into our lives?

For more information on CST on the poor, please go to www.osjspm.org/cst.