A Catholic Framework for Economic Life envisions the “The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured. At the core, in matters of faith, economic life is one of the chief areas where we live out our faith, love our neighbor, and live our life. The 1986 letter on Economic Justice for All, written by the USCCB and presented here in summary, reflects a unique perspective for the United States. It is grounded in scripture and tradition, the fruit of three years of research, public feedback, and reflection, and it still has relevance for us today.
It was written in response to tax cuts, anti-union policies, increases in military spending, and the growing gap between rich and poor. The Bishops wrote Economic Justice for All to focus the US economy on the local and global poverty concerns. The letter called for new forms of cooperation between business and private enterprise, and was in-line with the UNs focus on the poor and vulnerable. No one can claim the name Christian and be comfortable with the homelessness and poverty in the world. We must share perspectives and raise questions as heirs to the Hebrew prophets and as heirs to Jesus' teaching. We must be in the service of all people - especially the poor.
Scripture provides an ample guide for a moral vision for economic life: The focal point of Israel’s faith provides the foundation for reflection. Humans are created in the image of God and are endowed with inalienable rights; through their labor they are unfolding the Creator’s work. Sin alienates humans from God and one another, but God always seeks out a sinful people. God’s covenant with Israel spells out God’s promise of steadfast love for the people (hesed) and God’s faithfulness (emeth). In return, God calls for fidelity and loving justice which promotes the dignity of all. The Israelites were to “imitate God by treating the alien and slave in their midst as God had treated them.
Central to the biblical presentation of justice is that the justice of a community is measured by its treatment of the powerless in society, most often described as the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger. Jesus enters human history as God’s anointed son who announces the nearness of the reign of God. The reign of God has already begun in the life and teaching of Jesus and Judgment will be based on how Jesus was treated in the least among us. Being called to be disciples in community involves imitating the pattern of Jesus’ life by openness to God’s will in the service of others. Sharing in the same resurrection faith as the disciples contemporary followers of Christ can face the struggles and challenges that await those who bring the gospel vision to bear on our complex economic and social world.
The Gospel of Luke especially has relevance for our moral perspective on economic life today. Luke speaks concretely of the rich and poor and explains how material poverty is not “blessed”, it’s the poor who are blessed because they are not blinded by riches and can thus see God. Luke’s Jesus has a special predilection for the poor and lowly. The preferential option for the poor calls us to see things from the side of the poor and powerless and to assess lifestyle, policies, and social institutions in terms of their impact on the poor.
We are a community of hope. Our human history is unfolding between the first creation and the restoral of that creation. In union with all people of good will, Christians are called to shape history in the direction of the reign of God. Our action on behalf of justice in our world proceeds from the conviction that, despite the power of injustice and violence, life has been fundamentally changed by the entry of the Word made Flesh in to human history. Our quest is two-fold; it involves diagnosing those situations that continue to alienate the world from God’s creative love as well as presenting hopeful alternatives that arise from living in a renewed creation.
It’s a living tradition that draws upon both Scripture and tradition. Throughout history, Christians have in their own context made the option for the poor, and beginning with Leo XIII’s Rerum Hovarum, down to the writings and speeches of John Paul II, the popes have more systematically addressed the rapid change of modern society in a series of social encyclicals. Efforts have been strengthened by the Protestant tradition’s emphasis on vocations of lay people, ecumenical efforts in economic ethics, and by Catholics in developing countries. The concerns of this pastoral letter are not at all peripheral to the central mystery at the heart of the Church. Instead they are integral to the proclamation of the Gospel and part of the vacation of every Christian today.
The ethical norms appeal to both Christians and non-Christians because they are grounded in basic respect for the dignity for the human person. The dual command for love of God and neighbor, in the social nature of persons, mirrors the Trinitarian relationship of Love.
Commutative justice demands that all persons receive their due, distributive justice demands a fair distribution of goods, and social justice calls for a basic level of participation in the life of the society. Basic justice also calls for the establishment of a floor of material wellbeing on which all can stand. This is a duty of the whole of society and it creates particular obligations for those with greater resources, as extreme income inequalities threaten the solidarity for the human community. As Americans we must examine our way of living and patterns of consumption in the light of the needs of the poor, and resist the temptation to want more.
Basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons. Patterns of exclusion are created by free human beings participating in unjust and oppressive structures and institutions. In this sense they can be called forms of social sin. Acquiescence in them or failure to correct them when it is possible to do so is a sinful dereliction of Christian duty. There is a basic floor of human rights which are necessary for basic survival and human dignity. Any denial of these basic rights violates the human person and destroys community. These rights include the civil and political rights to freedom of speech, worship, and assembly. A number of human rights also concern human welfare and re of a specifically economic nature. First among these are the rights to life, food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and basic education.
The obligation to provide justice for all means that the poor have the single most urgent economic claim on the conscience of the nation. The fulfillment of the basic needs of the poor is of the highest priority. Increasing active participation in economic life by those who are presently excluded or vulnerable is a high social priority. The investment of wealth, talent and human energy should be specially directed to benefit those who are poor or economically insecure. Economic and social po9licies as well as the organization of the work world should be continually evaluated in light of their impact on the strength and stability of family life.
It is primarily through their daily work that people contribute to economic justice. All work has a threefold moral significance. First, it is a principle way that people exercise the distinctive human capacity for self-expression and self-realization. Second, it is the ordinary way for human beings to fulfill their material needs. Finally work enables people to contribute the well-being of the larger community. Work is not only for oneself. It is for one’s family, for the nation, and indeed for the benefit of the entire human family. The principle of subsidiarity gives everyone, all individuals and social bodies the task of working for justice and the common good.
The way power is distributed in a free-market economy frequently gives employer greater bargaining power than employees in the negotiation of labor contracts. Such unequal power may press workers into a choice between and inadequate wage and no wage at all. But justice, not charity, demands certain minimum guarantees. The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Property owners, managers, and investors of financial capital must all contribute to creating a more just society. The Catholic tradition has long defended the right to private ownership of productive property. But this right is neither unlimited nor absolute and must always be at the service of the common good. It is constrained by a social mortgage.
Every citizen has the obligation to contribute to the common good. All who have more than they need must come to the aid of the poor. People with professional or technical skills needed to enhance the lives of others have a duty to share them. And the poor have similar obligations to work together as individuals and families to build up their communities by acts of social solidarity and justice. Charity will never be true charity unless it takes justice into account. Let no one attempt with small gifts of charity to exempt himself from the great duties imposed by justice (Pope Pius XI). Though the Church rejects all statist and totalitarian approaches to economic life, it nevertheless teaches that government has amoral function, protecting human rights and securing basic justice for all members of the common wealth.
The Christian vision of love, justice, peace, and grace gives us the strength and conviction to work toward a world that more fully reflects God’s reign of justice and peace, in spite of setbacks and obstacles. This hop is not a naïve optimism that imagines that simple formulas for creating a fully just society are ready at hand. The Church’s experience through history and in nations throughout the world today has made it ware of all ideologies that claim to have the final answer to humanity’s problems. Christian hope has a much stronger foundation than such ideologies, for it rests on the knowledge that God is at work in the world, preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide. Concrete solution to pressing economic issue will come as we communally engage in critical analysis, dialogue, experimentation, and imagination, undergirded by deep faith and courageous love.
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