Stay in your lane. That’s
one paraphrase of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. The word itself is
not found in most English dictionaries. It is derived from the Latin word subsidium, meaning help or aid. The idea behind
this principle is that higher or bigger entities should assist lower or smaller
entities, not usurp them. It can apply to family life, to dealings within
business, in schools and other social realms. It generally is invoked in the
context of the relationship between government and civil society, including
families.
There
are other renderings of subsidiarity: small is beautiful, no bigger than
necessary, decisions are made as close as possible to those affected by the decision
and more. When it is observed, subsidiarity protects freedom by keeping the
remote, bureaucratic entities like government or big business from displacing
the agency of citizens and consumers. In the same way it teaches people to be
responsible. The principle says, never do for others what they can do for
themselves (and always do for others what they cannot do for themselves). No
paternalism.
Some
neoconservatives have wrongly rendered the subsidiarity principle to mean that
government that governs least, governs best. Subsidiarity is not
anti-government nor is subsidiarity anti-business. There are many situations
when big government and big business are the proper entities to address a need.
These are situations in which no lower entity can do the job.
Covid-19
and subsequent plagues will not slow down if one family and then another does
its best to devise a homemade remedy. Of course, the government and business
have not been perfect in their response to Covid-19. There has been poor
communication at times, some misguided strategy and inadequate coordination.
But government was the only entity capable of keeping payroll accounts flush for
businesses forced to close for safety. Government research and investment,
paired with large pharmaceutical companies and drug store chains, made possible
the manufacturing and distribution of anti-Covid vaccines in record time.
Perhaps in
the emergency situation of Covid-19 the government and big medicine
overreached, bypassing those institutions closest to those affected. Maybe smaller
mediating entities could, for example, improve the rate of vaccine acceptance if
they (churches, union halls and neighborhood clubs) were involved in delivering
the shots. Credit should be given to those community organizations and some
small business associations that on their own promote anti-Covid strategies.
Subsidiarity
is the principle that celebrates those voluntary platoons that stand between a
ragged individual and the impersonal forces of government and big business.
These are mediating institutions like extended family, congregation, union,
ethnic club, professional association, neighborhood organization and the like.
Whenever
the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is articulated, someone is sure make the
valid objection that Catholic leaders and Catholic institutions do not follow
the principle. Catholic leaders repeatedly do not make decisions closest to
those affected by the decision.
A grievous
example of subsidiarity’s violation is our bishops’ mishandling of deviant
Church employees who abuse children. Each terrible incident was managed from
the top-down. A small number of officials covered up the deviance, going so far
as to not even inform a pastor or a congregation when a known abuser was reassigned
to a parish. No lower entity, like a
clergy personnel board, a congregation or a neighborhood, was consulted.
A second
difficulty in implementing subsidiarity is the steady decline in participation
within mediating groups. Nowadays there are fewer members of all lower entities
(parish, union, association or neighborhood group) than in the 1970s. Those who
stay involved are devoting less time and energy than the leaders of such groups
in years gone by. To be continued…
Droel
serves the board of National Center for the Laity in Chicago.
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