INTRODUCTION: VATICAN II - PEACE THROUGH JUSTICE
Vatican II
brought dramatic change to the Roman Catholic Church. An analysis of the Council shows that the
purpose of the Council was to promote peace at a time when the world was
threatened with annihilation. As a
reminder, we have a fifties style bomb shelter in our Wauwatosa, WI home. World War II provided a tragic lesson. The holocaust, the murder and torture of 6
million Jews, could be laid at the feet of the Roman Catholic Church and all
Christians. The anti-Jewish Gospel s set
the historical ground work, and the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to challenge
the Nazis during WWII continues to be covered up. Pope John XXIII saw a possible road to
peace. Faith communities and all those
of Faith and good will, including those not of particular religious or faith
communities, could come together to “work for justice to achieve peace.”
Fifty years
later we cannot pass final judgment on the Council, but we can comment on where
we are today. Vatican II opened a window but the spirit of Gnosticism blew in,
took over, and slammed the window shut.
We have to take account of the Neo - Gnostics in post Vatican II
considerations.
Let’s look
at just two issues in Catholic Social Teaching that dramatically changed with
Vatican II. Let’s ask ourselves:
To whom are the
official Vatican messages directed?
What is the moral
status of organized labor in society?
PRE VATICAN II – SOCIAL DOGMA PRESENTED TO ROMAN
CATHOLICS
Pre Vatican
II encyclicals and official documents were addressed to Roman Catholic clergy
and laity; for example Rerum Novarum:
“To Our Venerable
Brethren, All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic World, In Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.”
Still other faith
groups commented. In 1918 in Great Britain a group called the
International Conference of Social Service Unions which included Catholics and
other denominations issued a strong social justice statement. Twenty English
Quaker employers in Great Britain issued a statement similar to nascent
Catholic Social Teaching in 1919. (Documents of American Catholic History,
ed. J.T. Ellis, Bruce, Milwaukee, 1955, pp. 614-615)
Opponents of this
social dogma as seen by the Catholic Church were named in Rerum Novarum
(1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931). The first of the Social Encyclicals strongly
criticized Capitalism (liberalism) and Socialism. Commentators differed in their
interpretation. Father John Ryan in the
U.S. endorsed Capitalism with limits. Catholic
Distributists in England and in the U.S. condemned Capitalism. Roman Catholic Social Teaching was against
socialism but without a precise definition.
Russian Communism was clearly the target of Roman Catholic wrath. U.S. Bishops in 1919 issued a statement on
Catholic Social Teaching written by Father John Ryan. Steven C. Mason, president of the National
Association of Manufacturers complained that it was, “partisan, pro-labor
union, socialistic propaganda.” Ten
years later, just before the collapse of the U.S. stock market, a New York
State Senate Investigating committee described the work as that of a group of
Catholics with leanings toward Socialism. (ibid. p. 611) Fascist countries
Spain, Austria, and Portugal found the “corporate economics” of the first two
encyclicals to be acceptable. Concordats were made but tensions existed between
the Vatican and the fascist countries of Germany and Italy.
POST VATICAN II – TO ALL - A DIALOGUE
The vision
of John XXIII was a move towards peace through justice and dialogue. On October 20th , 1962, just at
the beginning of the Council and two days before the public was aware of the
Cuban missile crisis, the Council issued a document:
MESSAGE TO HUMANITY –
Issued at the beginning of the Second Vatican
Council by its Fathers, with the endorsement of the Supreme
Pontiff. THE FATHERS OF THE COUNCIL TO ALL MEN
The next year – 1963 Pope John XXIII addressed his
encyclical Pacem in Terris to:
The Venerable Brothers
the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops…to the clergy and faithful of the whole world
and to ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL.
(The
Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J. General Editor, The America
Press 1966, p.3)
From this
time forward encyclicals on Catholic Social teaching are addressed to “all men of
good will.” John XXIII wrote Pacem in
Terris, a preview of Vatican II, and emphasized the basis of Catholic
Social Teaching as the natural law, not sectarian theology. Natural law was defined as human reason and
according to Thomas Aquinas, “reason is the norm of the human will, according
to which its goodness is measured.” ‘All’
then can relate to the encyclicals no matter of their religious orientation or
lack of it. (Pacem in Terris, ed. W.J. Gibbons S.J. Paulist Press, para.
38)
The social
encyclicals refer to biblical revelation for support; are those without belief
in the Christian Bible – Old Testament and New without connection to God’s
revelation? The Council’s document on
Revelation refers to nature.
This
sacred Synod affirms, ‘God the beginning and end of all things, can be known
with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason.’ cf. Rom. 1:20
(op. cit. Documents of Vatican II, p. 114)
PRE VATICAN II: ON THE STATUS OF LABOR
A shocker
from Rerum Novarum (1891) was that the Roman Catholic Church
dogmatically stated that workers had the right to organize. But questions remained:
Could Catholics
participate with non Catholics in a labor organization? Does the corporate economics of the
encyclicals allow labor unions to strike?
Does
corporate economics allow workers to choose their own leaders?
In the U.S.
it was crucial for Catholics to belong to ‘neutral’ labor unions or labor
unions that consisted of workers from different denominations or no religious
affiliation. The importance of Catholic
membership in ‘neutral’ labor unions was recognized by Archbishop Gibbons of
Baltimore. While in Rome to receive his
Cardinal’s hat in 1887, Gibbons expressed in writing that there would be no
harm to the faith of U.S. Catholics if they were members of the national ‘neutral’
labor union, the Knights of Labor. Leo
XIII agreed not to condemn the Knights in the U.S. although he had condemned
the Knights in Canada and it was the year after the Knights’ eight-hour day
struggle and the Haymarket Riot. (Ryan, The Church and Labor, pp. 145 –
158) However Leo XIII appointee Archbishop Messmer (1847-1930) of Milwaukee
thought that Catholics should form separate labor unions. (Roman Catholicism
and the American Way of Life, U.N.D., Notre Dame, Indiana, pp. 74-75)
Is it morally
acceptable for labor unions to strike?
Pope Pius
XI says NO! He wrote in Quadragesimo
Anno (1931):
Strikes and lock-outs
are forbidden; if the parties cannot settle their dispute, public authority
intervenes. (Q.A. 93)
Detroit priest Father Charles Coughlin followed the
Pope’s dictum and advocated for compulsory arbitration. Coughlin thought that unions should be put
under the direction of the Department of Labor.
Some called this the fascist approach. (op. cite. Roman Catholicism
and The American Way of Life, p. 83.)
On the
other side of the coin, labor advocate, Father John Cronin, wrote in 1959:
That
workers in general have the right to strike is generally conceded… Moralists are more likely to emphasize the
justice of workers’ claims as an
excusing circumstance. (Cronin,
John F., Social Principles and
Economic Life, Bruce, Milwaukee, p.
185.)
POST VATICAN II ON THE STATUS OF LABOR
Catholic
workers participating in mixed labor unions…
Vatican II
was about cooperation for justice to achieve peace so the documents issued
emphasized collaboration among Christians, non Christians and Atheists. Ecumenism came to be known as interfaith dialogue
and cooperation, but it was more than that.
Let us consider the positive statement about atheists:
While rejecting
atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men,
believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike
live. Such an ideal cannot be realized,
however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue. (Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World, Part I, 21)
The
challenge to communism was softened and opened the way for Liberation Theology
to use Marxist categories.
The
morality of a strike…
Vatican II
contradicted Pius XI’s mandate of ‘no strikes.’
The Pastoral Constitution on the Church states:
Even in present day
circumstances, however, the strike can still be a necessary, though ultimate means for the
defense of workers’ own rights and the
fulfillment of their just demands.
(ibid.
Section 2 – 68)
Does
the corporate economics of the Roman Catholic Church concede the right of
workers to elect union leaders?...
The Pastoral
Constitution on the Church states:
Hence
the workers themselves should have a share also in controlling these institutions, either in person or
through freely elected delegates. (ibid. Section 2 – 68)
A footnote – commentary in The Documents of
Vatican II, edited by Walter Abbott states:
Its
(The Constitution on the Church) comments on the necessity of permitting the workers to be represented by ‘freely
elected delegates’ have meaning not only for countries where there are no
workers associations, but also for countries which have them but, like Spain,
do not allow for adequately free choice of representatives by workers themselves.
(p.
277)
At the time of the Council, Spain was under the
control of the Fascist dictator Franco.
The
principle of subsidiarity now extends to workers choosing their own leaders and
having the clear right to strike. The ‘corporate
economics’ of the Roman Catholic Church has dramatically changed. Perhaps it can no longer be called ‘corporate’
or ‘organic.’
WHERE ARE WE TODAY?
Catholic
Social Teaching is now moribund for both Church liberals and
conservatives. For example, there was no
support for the striking Palermo Pizza workers from the Archdiocese of
Milwaukee. Only the ‘Nuns on the Bus’
lent encouragement.
There are
many causes for the separation of the hierarchy from the ‘People of God.’ Cutting back to the essentials and working
for collaboration with other faith groups as advocated by Vatican II has caused
a Roman Catholic identity crisis. Also
the relative economic well being of influential Catholics has pushed the
politics of the Church to the extreme right.
The pedophile scandal has put the Church on the defensive, and instead
of rethinking the priesthood, the hierarchy attempts to spiritualize the authority
position of the clergy-hierarchy more than ever. Musician and former Capuchin Jerry Danks
wrote:
Clericalism IS the root cause and the gift that
keeps on giving - the notion that Catholic priests/religious are set apart,
super-human, assumed to be well-adjusted, presumed to be innocent, and
deserving of special treatment for what they have "given up…"
Women’s ordination, abortion, contraceptives,
gay rights, can’t be discussed, and these issues trump any kind of workers’
rights issues. The separation of the
spiritual from everyday reality is a form of contemporary Gnosticism that has
infected the hierarchy and some liberals.
It is fortunate there are other faith groups that provide an example of
what Church is about. We will hear about
them in a later blog. Post Vatican II
Roman Catholic Social Teaching is still there with great potential as a guide
for all to achieve workers’ rights.
