In the previous article we mentioned two movements, Laudato Si’ and the Economy of Francesco (EoF), that are taking root in Catholic higher education. So far, we outlined some of the foundations of Catholic environmentalism. Here, we explore Catholic teaching on economic justice.
Human activity and virtue
It is worthwhile to start by considering the distinction between an economy and economic activity. “Economy” is an abstract noun and not a moral agent. Pope St. John Paul II pointed out that placing blame not on “the moral conscience of an individual, but rather on some vague entity or anonymous collectivity such as the situation, the system, society, structures or institutions” is incompatible with Church teaching. The authentic teaching is that social sins “are the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins.” Furthermore, a “situation-or likewise an institution, a structure, society itself-is not in itself the subject of moral acts. Hence a situation cannot in itself be good or bad.” (Reconciliation et Paenitentia [RP], 16).
On the other hand, “economic activity” (or work), is connected to a person and involves moral decision-making. That is not to say that Catholic social teaching does not critique economic structures built upon erroneous views on the human person. For example, Pope Pius XI condemned socialism (Quadragesimo Anno [QA], 117, 120) and John Paul II gave a conditional and nuanced acceptance of capitalism (Centesimus Annus [CA], 42). The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church both speak in terms of “work” and “economic activity” (see, for example, CCC, 2426ff; Chaps 6 and 7 of the Compendium.)
Two aspects of Catholic teaching are particularly relevant here. The first is that economic activity is viewed from the perspective of the final destiny of the person. As the Compendium puts it, “Work represents a fundamental dimension of human existence as participation not only in the act of creation but also in that of redemption. … Understood in this way, work is an expression of man’s full humanity, in his historical condition and his eschatological orientation” (Compendium, 263).
The second is that economic structures can’t truly be changed without a change of heart. Pope Pius XI spoke of the “reform of institutions and correction of morals” as vital to the reconstruction of society (QA, 77, also see CCC, 1888). As Pope John Paul II explained it,
At the heart of every situation of sin are always to be found sinful people. So true is this that even when such a situation can be changed in its structural and institutional aspects by the force of law or-as unfortunately more often happens by the law of force, the change in fact proves to be incomplete, of short duration and ultimately vain and ineffective-not to say counterproductive if the people directly or indirectly responsible for that situation are not converted. (RP, 16)
Put differently, structural sin cannot be removed without evangelization and converting sinners to live a life of virtue. This is a hallmark of Catholic teaching.
Why is acceptance of Christ and turning away from sin so important for social action? There are several reasons. One is that, while what we do in this life matters for the next (Mt 25:31-46), good actions, by themselves, do not merit the beatific vision. For more detail see paragraphs 1987- 2029 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which cover justification, merit, grace, and holiness.
For our purposes we’ll mention just a few points. The Catechism explains that “there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man” (CCC, 2007). Furthermore, filial adoption “can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice” (CCC, 2009). Prayer is an essential part of what we do because it “attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions” (CCC, 2010). The Catechism of the Catholic Church also states that,
The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. (CCC, 2011)
Put simply, those who engage in do-goodism in the name of wokism, CRT, or some other philosophy that explicitly rejects Christ are cutting themselves off from grace (see Hebrews 11:6). Does this mean that non-Christians should not do good things for the environment or help the poor? No, there is nothing wrong with doing these things. In fact, it is laudatory. However, when an institution calling itself Catholic removes Christ and grace from its activities, then not only does the movement simply devolve into another secular and faddish ideology but its power to transform hearts and make a true and lasting difference in this world and the next is greatly diminished.
A second reason why turning away from sin is so important has to do with the nature of social justice. While social justice is related to the structural elements in a society (Compendium, 201; CCC 1928), it is a virtue and oriented toward the development of character (CCC 1807). Good works and the spiritual life are linked through a rejection of sin and growth in the virtues.
A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.
The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God (see CCC, 1803).
Growing in the virtues takes repeated efforts and cooperation with grace (CCC 1810-1811). In other words, acting justly is incompatible with living a sinful life.
The current fad is to link social action with “virtue signaling” and to make the claim that working for justice (as the term in used by protesters in the streets) is a form of solidarity with the oppressed. Authentic solidarity is not a “feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis [SRS], 38). It is “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”. Therefore, it is outward-focused and implies a sacrificial love (see Compendium, 193). If social justice warriors change structures without addressing personal sin, then the work is in vain. Those who are merely looking for that “good feeling” or want to prove moral superiority over those who disagree with their ideology, are not growing in the virtues and are probably ineffective.
To become virtuous, we must work to break old habits and acquire new ones, commit to honest self-reflection and self-awareness, and repeatedly practice avoiding vices and acting virtuously (see CCC, 1810). This requires self-denial and a focus on others in Christian love. One would expect, therefore, that Catholics who take the virtue of justice seriously to consult the spiritual classics and have a good spiritual director. Catholics actively pursuing the virtues should seek the power of both the sacraments and sacramentals and to live out social action as a form of evangelization of the Good News.
Social justice, charity, and acts of charity
Pope Benedict stated in his 2006 address to UCID that “charitable acts must not replace the commitment to social justice”. This distinction between acts of charity and social justice is often forgotten, as is the difference between charitable acts and the virtue of charity. The virtue of charity is Christian love. In contrast, charity as in “charitable contributions” refers to the corporal works of mercy. A work of mercy is not social justice. A college’s center for social justice that sends a group of students to a food bank for a few hours is not engaging in social justice but a work of mercy. Put another way, charitable acts address the effects of an injustice while acts stemming from the virtue of justice address the root causes in the human heart.
It cannot be overemphasized that to change society, we must first develop the virtues, with the primary one being charity—that is, Christian love. Pope Pius XI’s proposal to the world nearly a century ago is still applicable, and that is to address social problems by “the infusion of social justice and the sentiment of Christian love into the social-economic order” (Divini Redemptoris, 32).
Pope Benedict XVI elaborated on the interrelationship between justice and charity:
Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine” to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “his”, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI’s words, “the minimum measure” of it, an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us. On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving. (Caritas in Veritate, 6).
The fruits of an authentically Catholic social program are an increase in virtue and prayer, and a turning away from sin and toward God. We cannot have social justice without virtuous people. In the final article we will evaluate the fruits of two programs being adopted in Catholic higher education as part of their social justice activities.
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![Detail from 'Crucifixion' (c.1315) by Giotto di Bondone [WikiArt.org]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files.catholicworldreport.com/2018/04/4668crucifixion_00000004277-326x245.jpg)
Hoping to see, here or elsewhere, a tighter engagement also with the unmentioned Gaudium et Spes which addresses both the “joys and hopes” and the “griefs and anxieties” of the modern world. The ecology, politics, culture, and economics all included…
Firstly, we read of “the new stage of…history” (n. 4), and of how “the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality to a more dynamic, evolutionary one” (n.4), “the degree of progress achieved by a given people” (n. 75), and of a “dynamically conceived common good” (n. 74)…
Secondly, we also read that the dynamically conceived common good remains “within the limits of morality” (also n. 74), and of the “permanent binding force of universal natural law and its all-embracing principles” (n. 79), and that “theological inquiry should seek a profound understanding of revealed truth without neglecting close contact with its own times” (n. 62). AND VICE VERSA?
Will stamp-collection synodality yet clarify what is the Church’s domain and what is not, in a time of, yes, cultural regression into barbarity?
And, will it respect (a) what is the domain of public officials (not the Church) to protect the common good—with the smarts and humility to remember that “The Church guards the heritage of God’s Word and draws from it religious and moral principles, without always having at hand the solution to particular problems” (n. 33)?
And, respect (b) the settled vitality of the magisterium, on much else internal to the Church?
And, when the affirmed principles of natural law now seem obscured by a set of ostensibly bridging—but easily exploitable—new “principles”: Namely:
When is “realities are more important than ideas” at risk of NOMINALISM (LGBTQ ideology)?
When is “time is greater than space” at risk of HISTORICISM (the “paradigm shift”)?
When is “unity prevails over conflict” at risk of CLERICALISM (the circularity of a “Synod” on “Synodality”)?
When is “the whole is greater than the part” at risk of GLOBALISM, the Fundamental Option…and AI benefit/cost ratios (the relativist “calculus of consequences”)?
Social justice has an unsavory connotation with Marxist socialism in Catholic websites. Misiak offers Benedict XVI’s Catholic rehabilitation as a valid cause for the Christian. An important dynamic, perhaps often overlooked in this antagonism betwixt social justice and Catholicism is the positioning of Christ in the thought of the founders of Communism.
“Marx’s early writings, which stated that, As Christ is the intermediary unto whom man unburdens all his divinity, all his religious bonds, so the state is the mediator unto which he transfers all his Godlessness, all his human liberty” (Investopedia). As much as Marx disagreed with Feuerbach, the latter perceived God as the projection of our virtues. Feuerbach’s anthropological materialism. Engels, the organizational genus of the Communist Manifesto, believed that capitalism created and maintained class struggles between the bourgeoisie, the business owners, and the working class (Investopedia).
From my personal perspective, it’s well known that the originator of communal sharing of goods is early Christianity, when converts presented their wealth, properties at the feet of the Apostles. As time elapsed it apparently became unmanageable within the social economic framework. As a worthy religious ideal we find it transferred to religious communities. As the Dark Age set in, it was those religious communities, sharing in common all properties that retained the knowledge, Christian lifestyle that shaped the resurgence of the civilized world, lay communities developing adjacent to the monasteries, the future cities of Europe.
What these early communities possessed was a deeper sense of Christian community [farm hands would stop work while in the fields and pray when the monks gathered for the divine office at the sound of the bells]. Misiak sums it up well, “The fruits of an authentically Catholic social program are an increase in virtue and prayer, and a turning away from sin and toward God. We cannot have social justice without virtuous people”.
Environmentalism has been well addressed. Misiak criticizes the removal of Christ from the project, which I note here is related to ecology, the interrelation of species, specifically humans. Industrialism, consumerism, a profit oriented economy remains the same detriment to a Catholic perception of humanness. Outrage to the environment, devastation of forests, magnificent mountains degraded speak to mismanagement of God’s creation.
Human exploitation is less visible than when Friedrich Engels, member of a wealthy aristocratic Prussian family serving his family’s textile empire in Manchester England observed ‘women incapable of child bearing, deformed children, men with shattered limbs’ the result of factory labor. The Christian churches seemed at least impotent, perhaps oblivious. His Lutheran persuasion, deemed as responsible in Germany as Britain. The State, Marx’s ‘mediator’ of surrendered virtues.
Today, while conditions are vastly improved, government provides incentives not to work, the dole, compensation for being out of work perpetuates the inertia [see Black writer, economist Thomas Sowell on the economic destruction of incentive]. What has government provided the Black, Hispanic communities besides abortion centers? These are social justice issues. Our Church seems a participant in the injustice, foisting via Synod a homosexual normalization agenda, an affliction on Catholic families already in process of disintegration. Except for the remaining faithful who have the task of rewriting the agenda.
Perhaps we should consider the immediate needs of those closest to us first. Everyone has a right to access of food, clothing and shelter and the means to obtaining them through honest and dignified labor. We have a moral obligation to help facilitate these needs to the best of our ability. While these immediate physical needs are important the spiritual is much more important. Jesus teaches us that the value of one soul is more important than the total value of all the riches of the world combined . All the evils of the world are the result of selfishness, greed, and pride. The Devil has been given control and he is our chief enemy. Lasting social. , political, and economic change can only occur through the combination of a number of individual converted people working together . Change must always start with self and then we must look outwards, denying ourselves for the good of others. In combination converted souls can make a meaningful difference. I think that many members of The Catholic Worker Movement can teach us a lot about this kind of sacrificial living.
I may not have the right venue, but I am scared that our nation is in peril.
My Church and MY Republican congress seem mute about the destructive political rhetoric being spewed by MY Republican party. Direct threats are being made by Trump and his clan. I am scared that no voices are raising to combat this barrage of violence, threats, lies, vitriol that are infecting our nation and, more importantly, our innocent children. Cable TV, Fox News, Newsmax enable Trump’s lying by profusely lying themselves. Some scary un-American statements…
Trump: Continuing his attempt to overthrow the government… Politicizing the DOJ, targeting other government agencies as enemies. Threatens litigants and their families, Judges, prosecutors, witnesses, poll workers stoking violence. “You come after me, I go after you”. Visible tyranny: As Trump’s indictments increase his supporters become more emboldened.
Trump’s lieutenants: Matt Gaets “the only way we can regain control is by FORCE”.
Majorie Taylor Green: “Joining Military ‘Like Throwing Your Life Away, impeach President Biden”.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy: “Defund the IRS and the FBI”.
Today. Reuters: “Trump’s legacy: A more divided America, a more unsettled world”.
It is time for more than prayers, American citizen action is critical.
Call your national representatives and become involved.
You are not a Republican, based on your many posts and comments here. I’m not sure why you persist in this posturing and why the moderators continue to allow your TDS tirades to go through. Possibly as a cautionary tale. So I’ll just keep posting my same response to your self-righteousness: Remove the log from your own eye first.
Athanasius. Thank you for enlightening me on the flaws in my message. I welcome your response. In conclusion, I expose my family by writing editorial letters, as well as emails on this subject and others. That “log” may still be there.
God bless.
morganD – You are correct. This is not the right venue for your liberal diatribe.
You have more to fear from the Biden/Obama/Clinton corruption machine that has weaponized the federal government against its citizens. I pray for the ostriches.
Sadly, neither of the major parties are acceptable to Catholic teaching and practice. If we “throw our vote away” to a third party candidate we CAN make a statement if nothing else. We as Pilgrims and Strangers belong to the Kingdom who happen to be living in a so called democracy. We are in the world, but not of the world. Their ways are not our ways. We must pay required taxes, acknowledge secular leaders and obey laws as long as they don’t compromise our morality. We can best help society as living witnesses of our faith and evangelizing and teaching others. Education is both more powerful and lasting than legislation. Changing laws does not change hearts .
So I take it you don’t like Trump—well I do and just why don’t you go on and on about Biden and his corruption, for abortion (which as a catholic is a disgrace, he is a pure evil). But no, because you don’t like Trump you have to tell us all the lies like the MSM does about our MAGA President. May God please open your eyes and soul to see His light. Trump 2024 our next President of our USA. Our only hope for it’s future.
When I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, I was voting for the candidate of the political party that is clearly the lesser of two evils from a Christian perspective. When I vote for him again in 2024, it will be for the same reason. Everything you have proclaimed about him and about various other Republicans is far more applicable to the Democrat Party.
You are so right about the Republican party and Trump. If Trump is elected, it will be the END of our democracy. He will pardon himself if he has been convicted of any of his indictments and he plans to dissolve the Civil Service system and become an outright dictator. If he has not been convicted he will direct the justice department to drop all charges. This is why Mark Meadows wants his GA indictment to be transferred to the federal system. The book Strongmen by Ruth Ben-ghiat is a must read. She chronicles the patterns of world dictators from Musdolini onward and shows that Trump is following the playback. She also talks about how we can address this danger to our democracy.
1. Given the papacy of Pope Francis, I don’t see how anyone can really know or say for sure exactly what Catholic Social Doctrine is anymore.
2. Sure, one can go back and make one’s stand with Pope John Paul II.
3. But Pope Francis is a pope, too, you know. And he will probably be canonized just as quickly as John Paul II was. Right?
4. To assert that Pope Francis’s Social Teachings must be interpreted in light of (i.e., constrained by) the Social Teachings of Pope John Paul II makes no more sense than to say than to say the reverse, that Pope John Paul II’s Social Teachings must be interpreted in light of (liberated and loosened by) the Social Teachings of Pope Francis.
5. Some of the traditionalist Catholics are accused of “pope sifting,” i.e., picking which popes have teachings that are valid. But surely we have no authority for doing that.
6. So, I think anyone who now proposes to lecture us about what is the true Catholic Social Doctrine is exceeding the bounds of what can honestly be said.
7. Some much is up in the air now, isn’t it, as the Great Renewal of All Things commenced at Vatican II continues.
Bartolomé, to date binding doctrine remains inviolable. That’s because what is attributed to Pope Francis as doctrine is not binding. He has not pronounced to the Church new doctrine that definitively differs from what exists [personally I don’t believe God would permit Francis or any pontiff to change what has been revealed].
We read” “But Pope Francis is a pope, too, you know. And he will probably be canonized just as quickly as John Paul II was. Right?”
Many think not, but the central point about canonization is evidence of personal sanctity, which is quite different from the more external ability to make prudent decisions in an imperfect world. Some point to Pope Honorius I who was anathematized by a later council, decades after his death, not for what he “taught,” but instead for his silence (!) toward the heresy of monothelitism. A more relevant precedent than the recent canonizations of John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II?
Popes do not exist to invent extravagant new truths. Those seeking this arrangement might do better under Mormonism, or under Islam which rationalizes the flip-flop contradictions of a totally inscrutable Allah under the principle of “abrogation”. Instead, as graced human understanding deepens, popes are simply protected from formally teaching actual contradictions to what, in fact, has been revealed in the historical Incarnation and is perennially protected by the Holy Spirit indwelling the Church. The Holy Spirit, not “paradigm shifts” as found in the natural sciences. So, to your point, the silence of Honorius is hypothetically more relevant than a future canonization. But, once we separate very flawed judgment and silences (and worse?) from the mysterious and narrower possibility of personal sanctity, who can say?
But surely, it is already (!) a providential act of the Holy Spirit which gives us the solidity of Veritatis Splendor, whereby our innate Natural lLaw is clearly affirmed and even incorporated into the magisterium of the Church.
But, Natural law? In our very deteriorated moment in human history, the Church has the elementary task of at least reminding “strangers in a (very) strange land” about the alarming truth of the gratuitous and historical Incarnation of the Triune God into human history, and therefore about the also-disclosed nature of ourselves, too, and the “transcendent dignity human persons” (the heart of Catholic Social Teaching).
This task of remembering (!), when the very fallen world no longer understands even the vocabulary, let alone the cosmology that “backward” Christians still take for granted—as in simply what is “natural” plus what is “supernatural”…