Thoughts about Catholic Social Thought

Ecclesiology

Identify and briefly describe the major principles of Catholic Social Thought. How might these principles be applied to contemporary social, economic, and political systems to facilitate that such systems respect the dignity of human beings and operate justly ?

As a new Catholic Come Home to Christ confirmed revert I have always been confused about what Catholic Social Thought meant. To me, it seemed a bit like a brainwashing technique that I would rather not relive after this particular semester. However, until I came into the realization that the clergy and bishops created a USCCB website, it peaked my interests in this module. In it, and our readings and this Module we are taken to new heights about how in the modern world we are to behave as a society with rich values and a golden Catholic tradition. The Church is guided in light of history's events to treat society and individuals with social justice, as Michael Pennock says, is "a just society which guarantees that individuals and associations obtain what is due to them according to their nature and vocation" (262). Thus, the Church has a responsibility to the world to shine the light of the cross, as it is a visible sacrament, to everyone.

The USCCB opens saying “The Church's social teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society” (USCCB Web). Living a holy life does not mean going to confession every day over the anxieties of the world, or even every week to your spiritual director or pastor, but it does mean living by the Holy Spirit to be sanctified throughout your entire life until becoming justified and glorified in the end with God. There ought to be a convergence between the clergy and laity of utilizing the spectrum of Social Thought as “the apostolate of justice in the world was the means by which the Church shared the values of the Gospel in the world” (Tkacik). Looking further at this, let’s dive deeper.

Together we do that in breaking down socio-economic, political, and environmental ways daily so that we don’t destroy each other on this planet and repeat the wars of the past. However, this is difficult to undergo, even with the latest scare tactic news of sanctions, nuclear threats, computer hacking, death penalties, identity theft, stealing, copying, fake news, and overall misuse of the grace God has given to us as children. In my honest opinion, we have become too licentious in our freedoms or rights, thus a breakdown of the political system now with even the health care bill reform failures of the Senate and House is at a stall. The list can go on and on but what the Church must recognize is different than the rest of culture in the world and society we live in now. What should be our mindset then? 1 small Thing you can do, like I, is recycle. However, here are the USCCB’s recommendations on what it is Social Justice.

The 7 themes of Catholic Social Teaching are:

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

In sum, we believe that life is precious and that every human being from the natural conception of life until death means being respected. We are being under attack, i.e. “abortion and euthanasia,cloning, embryonic stem cell research, the death penalty” (USCCB Web).

Additionally, war should be sought as the last option and not the first option and we should resolve them by peaceful means. Threats to individuals’ lives do not respect or help benefit the life and dignity of any individual human person.

Call to Family, Community, and Participation

We are all on this little planet in the Universe called Earth together. We function together as a society and each individual must coordinate as such.

The USCCB says, “each individual is sacred but also social. How we organize our society -- in economics and politics, in law and policy -- directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. Marriage and the familyare the central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined. We believe people have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable” (USCCB Web).

To me this includes all immigrants (which is the majority of American population), the marginalized refugees from Syria, the poor and disabled kicked out from war or released from jail, those in circumstances of dire health issues that are now being threatened by a failed political system, and those who have inhabited this land, the Native Americans, who are attempting to preserve their heritage, and the lost whom just don’t know God.

Rights and Responsibilities

The USCCB states:

The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities--to one another, to our families, and to the larger society (USCCB Web).

This reminds me of the recent death penalty releases in the news. Praise God for second chances for these rehabilitated men who are no longer dangerous criminals but may have seen the light of Jesus while in jail themselves from a therapist, doctor, or minister. Unfortunately, though, I have also seen several cases of people with severe disabilities such as Autism or Aspergersbeing shot at for uncalled for reasons and that disturbs my spirit. It is equivalent to killing a fetus & cowardly.

Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

At our parish, we have recently added poor boxes next to each baptismal entrance where you can put cash and coins in to support the poor and homeless.

The USCCB states:

“A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first” (USSCB 2017 Web).

Sometimes those who have and those who have not fight about which row they should be able to sit in the pews. Actually, in Medieval Churches some people used to have paid pew spots and have legal battles over it I heard on our local Catholic radio. Ridiculously enough, some people still do that in gossip instead of prayer when at our parish now. Then they go apologize with a Peace Be With you after the Our Father. It's hypocritical but common.

A class system is and has been generated since the beginning of time and people and greed have taken over the hearts of society within the church and outside its walls. The Church strives towards treating those with less to have something to take with them to care for lives. This includes things like food pantries, Catholic Charities, and the poor boxes inside sanctuaries. I know the Angel Tree project gives out boxes of gifts around Christmas to the poor, kids, jobless, or homeless. Everyone matters.

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The USCCB states:

The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in Gods 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 the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative. (USCCB Web)

Unfortunately, the economy doesn’t support the people the way it should. The Liberal Progressive side of the Democratic Occupy Democrat party, chaired by the Resistance and Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks that minimum wage should be $15.00/hour. That may be unreasonable but when proportioned to the rich 1% versus the poor and the growing non-existence of the middle class, the Church recognizes that all are not equal but ought to be treated fairly and with sincerity, compassion, and respect.

Solidarity

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers and sisters keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that if you want peace, work for justice.1 The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict. (USCCB Web)

Care for God's Creation

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of Gods creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored. (USCCB Web)

In regards to our readings, McBrien evaluates Gaudium et Spes best when saying that Catholic Social Teaching’s Mission after Vatican II is that the Church “is a Kingdom not only of “truth and life, holiness and grace, [but also] of justice, love, and peace” (n.39) (249). Too long have we seen justice and peace be rallied again and again on the streets only to see more injustice and heartbreak, i.e. Planned Parenthood, unjust death penalties, babies in trashcans, disabled people threatened or killed, refugees turned away from the chalice, or immigrants not housed and protected by border rights patrol agents and travel bans from certain Islamic countries. These broad based moral issues are also social issues. Are we being too judgmental in our Catholic Social Thought to not bring prosperity of a land of freedom and life to those whom we don’t recognize as American?

Henceforth, with such Social Teachings, the Church has the authority and right to do so in its mission. The Church also states that at the Third World Synod of Bishops proclaims:

The Church’s action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world…[are] a constitutive dimension…of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation”. (para. 6) (McBrien 249)

In my circle of a scope of the largest parish in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, but not the richest, we have a variety of pluralistic individuals, which constitute the human races of almost every country at our different masses and in one way, or another, could have been oppressed by a number of reasons. This leads to an economic discussion of how the classical essentialism of church works for some, but more historical existentialism has risen in America and amongst the melting pot of urban areas or rural ones, which have them as America’s population, grows exponentially each generation.

For example, the idea of Natural Family Planning is promoted amongst our Diocese, in lieu of abortion, and this is the Church's right and duty to teach. McBrien says, "from Leo XIII to the present - then the insistence that the Church has the right and duty to teach officially…" (McBrien 251). Also, I have myself already been taught by a Roman priest, an exorcist in training I believe who was my past spiritual director, how to test the spirits and to always respect all peoples and to “Build a Bridge” between all peoples, treating people with respect, compassion, and sincerity, instead of by what they look or sound like or may have heard gossip wise. Each individual laity, religious, and clergy have their own priestly, prophetic, and kingly calling and mission Godly given to them in life by which the Church recognizes through their baptism sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Briefly, all of these issues are underneath a political backdrop of a chessboard. Our Constitution states that the Church and State should be separate. This affects our understanding of socio-political economics as individual Catholics. McBrien says the Church is no longer a “perfect society” on its own and unfortunately in order to reach out in peace to one another, that Catholic Social Thought should “call upon the Church to free itself from entangling political alliances in order to provide even more effective and credible moral witness on the great social issues of the day” (McBrien 253). I do not foresee this happening for the next 333 more years…prophetically. Each leader has secret meetings and phone calls and Facebook messages to each other about their next move or sanction or idea.

In closing, Catholic Social Thought is meant to place an ideal vision of the Kingdom of God, like the Beatitudes and the 7 Corporal Works of Mercy, to Earth to serve the people to bring about peace in the world. Each individual has their part to play to show God's love for the world as Catholics strive to be holy so that others may see the light, as a Muslim homeless person said to me at the library the other day, "is already inside of us". If we don't manifest God's love for those types of people, i.e., I pass out change, food, and holy cards on the street as part of my music ministry, then hand them my business card (with no phone number) with links to where all my music is if they ask…I don't force Jesus on them, instead, I try and be Jesus to everyone. Pneumatic Correctivessays, “the efforts of Social Justice facilitated by the Church” are:

…The vertical and horizontal dimensions of Christian existence are also brought into unity in the Kingdom. Unified too are two aspects of the human person-seeker of meaning and maker of meaning. In Christian terms, human beings as seekers of meaning find it by allowing God to communicate with them; as makers of meaning, they create it by building the Kingdom of God. The problem of the relationship between faith and justice must be approached from the starting point of this unity that both unifies and is itself unified. In the interaction of building the Kingdom and building it according to the will of God, faith and justice are brought into the course of history. (Tkacik and McGonigle, O.P. 55)

Thus the Church is at an exit on the interstate highway to another transition to this day over a variety of issues worldwide that can only be seen as a sign of the times, being that we strive for peace even though war still exists throughout history and within its own walls. Ideologically, we would be as one, among Christians and Catholics, and even non-believers. However, we are not there yet. Therefore, I would hold to Dulles' S.J. understanding of post-conciliar theology stating:

Both Protestant and Catholic, there has been a growing emphasis on the dialectical tension between the “already” and the “not yet” in the mystery of the Church. Pannenberg holds that in Jesus the ultimate future has already appeared, and that the Church is “an eschatological community pioneering the future of all mankind. (111)

Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven is not just in a building, it’s in you.

Works Cited

Dulles, Avery., Cardinal., S.J. Models of the Church. Image Books. 2002. Print.

McBrien, Richard P. The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism. Harper One,

2009.

Pennock, Michael. This is Our Faith. A Catholic Catechism for Adults. Ave Maria.

Notre Dame, IN. 1998.

Tkacik, Michael., Module 7. PDF. Accessed July 30, 2017

Tkacik, Michael., McGonigle, Thomas. O.P., Pneumatic Correctives. What is The

SpiritSaying to The Church of the 21st Century?: University Press of

America, Inc., Lanham, MD. 2007.Print.

"7 Themes of Catholic Social Teaching."http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2017, www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm.