GOOD WORK:PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

EWDC, Herts, 2014

Catholic Social TeachingWhat is it?

The Roman Catholic Church’s ‘Social Teaching’ is what the Church has to say and, together with all people of good will to put into practice, in relation to the big issues that we face in living together in human societies. Among the key issues that Catholic Social Teaching addresses is work.

First modern Catholic Theology of Work?

In dialogue with Marx

But the problem – the theory of Labour

For Marx the human person is defined as a producer. But for Chenu:

"Work is not the essence of Man." (Theology of Work, 1963, p.42).

Laborem Exercens 1981 work is the central social

issue. human beings as the subject

of work, the meaning of ownership, workers have rights and Work should increase human dignity.

Priority of labour over capital. Rights of workers, especially women and the disabled, and unions.

Issues relating to direct and indirect employment.

Critique of capitalism as well as Marxism. The beginnings of a spirituality of work.

From Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum and the Industrial Revolution

examines working conditions in industrialised countries and insists on workers’ rights.

highlighted the issues of Socialism and Capitalism.

explored the Class question. Work and wages, worker’s Rights, the duty of the church.

main concern was with the issues of Socialism and Liberal Capitalism.

emphasized the Church, employers & workers should work together to build a just society

Pope Franics and Evangelii Gaudium

He points to the dangers of an economics of exclusion. Calls for a more just economic and globally equitable approach to commerce. He argues that “trickle down” theories of economic growth—where the profits of the rich will inevitably aid the situation of the poor—actually do not work. He suggests a globalisation of indifference has emerged underpinning global economics. With a culture of prosperity that deadens us (53). He suggests that the primacy of the person has been all too often replaced with an idolatry of money. In the midst of this he warns against individualist spiritualities which ” are more concerned with the road-map than the journey itself” (82) and do not encourage encounter with others or a serious engagement with the world. (78)

The Poor the policies, practices and

institutional structures in any society should be made, quite deliberately, to benefit people who are poor or are marginalized in other ways.

This is for their sake and also for the sake of the common good, because the common good can’t exist if poverty or any other factor excludes some people from contributing to or benefiting from it.

Dignity of the Human Person

the idea that each and every human being, created ‘in the image of God’, has intrinsic and incalculable worth, and must live and be treated by others accordingly – i.e. act responsibly and have a wide range of human rights respected

The Common Good

that we can experience human wellbeing only as we live in community with other people. We are fully human together or not at all. Most especially, governments are to act to the end of the common good, and therefore not, for example, for the selfish ends of those who rule, or for only one class, or merely to maximise economic growth/consumption.

Priority of Labour over Capital

People always matter more than things, and therefore more than material wealth. The conditions in which people work – the conditions of ‘labour’ – must reflect this. People should never be subjected to serving mere material wealth, ‘capital’. It should be the other way round: capital should be used to serve workers, because workers are persons.

Structural Sin and conscientisation

. At Medellin(1968) the Catholic Bishops of Latin America spoke of circumstances that were so obviously and massively unjust that they used the term "institutionalized violence".

In this context the Canadian bishops have spoken of unemployment as "a moral evil...symptomatic of a basic moral disorder."

Shifts in attitude

From private religion to social struggle

Turn outwards to active engagement

A global perspective Preferential option

for the poor The turn to the

margins Work is more than

employment

Resources: Catholicsocialteaching.org.uk Virtualplater.org.uk All papal and other Vatican documents are

accessible at www.vatican.va. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the

Church (2004) Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Chapter 6 “Human work”

Duffy, G.(2008) Labour and justice: The worker in Catholic Social Teaching, Leominster: Gracewing

Himes, K. (Ed.) (2004) Modern Catholic Social Teaching, Washington: Georgetown University Press

Live Simply, http://www.cafod.org.uk/livesimply