Church teaches seek “right attitudes” to goods, humanity

Article 163 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series

Paragraphs 2419-2436

Years ago, when pursuing my undergraduate studies, I was introduced to a movement called the Social Gospel movement. The young voices in our class, a mix of Protestants and Catholics, were overjoyed to hear about the social implications of the Synoptic Gospels as well as the Gospel of St. John. As we explored the topic over several weeks, it became crystal clear that the Christian principles being put forth to bring the social order into conformity with Christianity were already quite apparent in the Catholic Church. Put another way, although bringing good works and faith together was something unacceptable to Protestant reformers like John Calvin in the 16th century, it was something we Catholics were already actively engaged in from the beginning when the Church was founded by Jesus Christ.

Curiously, what many Protestants rejected in the 16th century was reconsidered some 500 years later and put forth as the Social Gospel movement. Familiar in Protestant circles throughout the 20th century, this movement, based on the four Gospels in the New Testament, was meant to be innovative in its influence for the secular world. What they were really seeking to discover was something that we Catholics had never dismissed from the inspired Word of God.
 

In the words of the Catechism, “Christian revelation…promotes deeper understanding of the laws of social living… The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the truth about humanity. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to humanity, in the name of Christ, to our dignity and our vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches us the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom” (ccc 2419). As such, the Church is attentive to “the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end” (ccc 2420). In this regard, the Mystical Body of Christ seeks to “inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships” (ccc 2420).
 

“Right attitudes” dictate that everything under heaven is meant to be properly used and never taken from those who have a right to use them.  The Catechism states: “every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves them, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism” (ccc 2424). This extends from the Church’s teaching that any theory or principle “that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable” (ccc 2424). As such, the Church clearly rejects “totalitarian and atheistic ideologies,” including “communism” or “socialism” (ccc 2425).
 

Regarding the practice of capitalism, the Church deems unacceptable the notion of “individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor” (ccc 2425). With respect to any economic system, but especially capitalism, “reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended” (ccc 2425). Therefore, with reference to socio-economic matters, the dignity of the human person is paramount. A person ought to receive a just wage in relationship to the time and competency he or she directs into their workday. Economic life must be “ordered first of all to the service of persons…and of the entire human community…so as to correspond to God’s plan for man” (ccc 2426). In short, “work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him” (ccc 2427).
 

In summary:

“Work is for man, not man for work. Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community” (ccc 2428).
 

“Everyone has the right of economic initiative; everyone should make legitimate use of his talents to contribute to the abundance that will benefit all and to harvest the just fruits of his labor” (ccc 2429).
 

“Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment” (ccc 2433).
 

“A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account” (ccc 2434).
 

“It is unjust not to pay the social security contributions required by legitimate authority” (ccc 2436).

“Unemployment almost always wounds its victim’s dignity and threatens the equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to them personally, it entails many risks for their family” (ccc 2436).

The commentary given in the Catechism for the Seventh Commandment provides greater insight into how people may have more than their possessions stolen from them. No doubt, people from places like Ukraine or Ethiopia understand how horrifying it is to have their homes, land and other possessions, for which they worked hard to acquire over a lifetime, taken or stolen. Worse, however, is the personal loss they experience when they no longer have the opportunity to work for a living or fulfill their dreams of providing the essentials for their families through their own ingenuity and labor.
 

Some may recall the African students who once studied medicine at Ukraine universities and became refugees in Poland just weeks before graduation. How awful it must be for them, having worked so hard to fulfill a dream to become medical doctors only to have their dreams disappear because of Russia’s president, who had other plans.
 

The Seventh Commandment does include various scenarios when a person’s possessions or ideas may be stolen from them. Such scenarios, however, merely touch the surface when more serious aspects of the Seventh Commandment are explored. To have one’s possessions stolen is wrong; to have personal ideas stolen is worse. But, to have one’s dreams and personal dignity stolen is something that can never be replaced.
 

Father Hillier is Director, diocesan Office of Pontifical Mission Societies, the Office for Persons with Disabilities, and Censor Luborum