Joanne & I went to see the movie “The Way” with friends. The film features Martin Sheen on a pilgrimage to Compostela in Spain. The Sheen character achieves spiritual healing with the journey. We were all impressed with the message, acting and the scenery. (Is Sheen related to – an ancestor of Bishop Fulton J….. ?)
But Compostela is a shrine to a Christian victory over the Muslims in the 9th century C.E. The victory is credited to the help of Santiago - St. James. Who is the St. James of the legend makers? Is he the Apostle James the Greater, brother of John; is he the leader of the early Christian Jerusalem community? Is he the author of the Epistle of James – brother of Jesus? Can we say yes to all of the above? Legend relates that St. James preached in Spain, and returned to Jerusalem to be martyred. His remains were sent on a boat to northwestern Spain. They were found at Compostela and his ghost aided in defeating the Muslims. Santiago is often depicted in statues on a white horse with a sword raised in battle to kill Muslims. Santiago de Compostela is also referred to as Santiago Matamoros – St. James the Muslim killer. A town in Mexico is named Matamoros after St. James.
The pilgrims in Sheen’s movie achieved spiritual healing through love. But to what extent is it healing if it is not based on truth? The pilgrims in the movie suppressed part of the story. Santiago de Compostela is a shrine to the killing of enemies, and has nothing to do with love - Charity. Without truth is the movie a romantic cover up of hatred?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
EQUALITY Part I
From the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”
The Declaration was approved in 1776, but what does “equal” mean? At its conclusion Native Americans are described as “merciless Indian savages” – obviously not “men” and equal. The law of the land, the Constitution, was ratified in 1788. Slaves, women, Native Americans and non property owners were not guaranteed the right to vote. Only white male property owners, 16% of the population, could vote.
Lincoln said in the 1863 Gettysburg address that the U.S. political dedication to equality was an “unfinished work.”
Then there was the cry of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality – the cry of the French Revolution 1789.
The heritage that U.S. 1776 rebels were struggling against is described by Samuel Fielden in a brief autobiography written in the Cook County Jail as he awaited hanging for the Chicago Haymarket riot in 1886. He was one of eight labor leaders convicted of murder in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. As an immigrant from England, Fielden had great expectations. He wrote, “My elder brother … he was quite radical in his views … it was a constant torment to him to debase himself before his master (employer) as lackeys were compelled to do in England. Now one of these means of debasement was being compelled to put his hand to his cap, in fact to bow down to Gesler (his employer). Thus must the proletariat bow the knee to the ‘bourgeoisie’ or starve, and some people call this liberty of contract.” (The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, Philip S. Foner, ed. Monad Press, New York 1977, p. 144)
Fielden as a young mill worker in England supported the North in the U.S. Civil war even though the war cost them jobs in the cotton mills. English workers cheered the Northern victory, but experiences and observations on a trip to the South after emigrating to the U.S. forced some second thoughts for Fielden. In his autobiography he states, “… the Negro was held in as absolute bondage as he was before the war.” (Ibid. p.151) Does equality refer to status, class, religion, income or all of the above?
From the beginning, Catholic Social Teaching has been about equality. The first social encyclical concerning labor, Rerum Novarum, stated that workers had the right to organize in order to achieve equal status as persons and a living wage. In contrast "liberalism" considered workers as a commodity to be bought and sold at the lowest price.
BUT CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AS RELATED TO LABOR IS DORMANT.
The Call to Action conference in Milwaukee was so much better than I expected. When I saw the brochure I guessed it would be simply a hierarchy-bashing fiesta – a piñata for those nostalgic for Vatican II. It was that, but the conference was saved by three outstanding speakers - scholars, Marcus Borg, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Jamie Manson.
The attack on Wisconsin workers was not mentioned in the brochure. Not surprising. Catholic response is muted by the priority of churchy “Social Issues” e.g. women’s ordination, abortion, gay rights, contraception, translation of the Roman Missal, Roman Catholic identity for hospitals. Both conservatives and liberals focus on these issues with a strong sense of purpose. Should Roman Catholic identity be defined by these “Church Social Issues” rather than by The Condition of Working People (Rerum Novarum)?
In my opinion, Church pronouncements on real social Issues are ignored. It seems that Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate just gathers dust. If this Encyclical were an attack on gay rights, it would have been widely read. Right wing Catholics would be saying, “I told you so,” and the left would righteously denounce another ridiculous pronouncement. Both sides would generate lots of print and rhetoric while labor rights would continue to be forgotten, and the church hierarchy would continue to wallow comfortably in tired myths.
It is interesting both Catholic liberals and conservatives are concerned about immigration reform, but not how it relates to labor unions, e.g. a Guest Worker Program or the Employee Free Choice Act – EFCA. The challenge and fear of labor unions perceived by both the right and left in the Roman Catholic spectrum make alliances more difficult. Is there a point of convergence in that Latinos put life into the tired myths in the fight for social justice? For example, Milwaukee Voces de la Frontera – New Sanctuary Coordinator Nancy Flores, with the help of her mother and grandmother, have designed vigils of protest and prayer in such a way that even the “hueros” (non Latinos) are proud to be “Guadalupanos,” (activists devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe) as a “comunidad de base.” (Medellin, Rerum Novarum) A “Comunidad de base,” could be a workers association not necessarily a labor union but a group that works with labor unions for social justice.
I was reminded at the Call to Action round table discussion of the keystone of Roman Catholic Social teaching. I asked, what is the most important document of Catholic Social Teaching? The response was, Rerum Novarum, which gives the rationale for workers right to organize. I agreed; all flows from this point. Before it could be mentioned that John Paul II declared Labor prior to Capital (Laborem Exercens, Part 12) and that labor unions are an “indispensible element of social life” (Ibid. Part 20), the group dispersed for a protest rally. The Milwaukee Catholic Worker group had organized a march and demonstration to protest Marquette Universities sponsorship of the R.O.T.C.
Call to Action keynote speaker Jamie Manson pointed out that her “church downstairs,” a type of “comunidad de base” that doesn’t need to be sanctioned by the hierarchy, has emerged, and is the Church of the future. Manson explained that at the church in New York where she ministers, she is not officially recognized as a priest or official of the church in the “upstairs church liturgy” because of her gender. In the “downstairs church,” at the community meal for the homeless, she has status from the people as a respected minister. This is the new church that is emerging, a “comunidad de base.”(Medellin) A step towards equality; isn’t it time to just forget about the hierarchy?
Another Call to Action keynote speaker, scripture scholar Marcus Borg, helped put Christian action into perspective by noting that the Jesus movement was in opposition to civilization as established by empires throughout history. Jesus, the Palestinian Jew, opposed the Roman Empire and was executed. Borg explained that the empire was for the benefit of the few in control. In resistance, Jesus enjoyed community meals with the alienated.
According to CTA speaker Angie O’Gorman, the best of capitalism follows the dictum of John Stuart Mill, “the greatest good for the greatest number.” Is this really acceptable for the ancient prophets and the Jesus movement? Before he was hanged as one of the Haymarket Martyrs in 1887 labor leader, Albert Parsons, wrote from the Cook County Jail,
“For the greatest good to the greatest number anarchy substitutes the equal right of each and everyone.” “Anarchy is the extension of the bounds of liberty until it covers the whole range of wants and aspirations of man-not men, but Man.” (Ibid. p. 43) “Privileges are none: equal rights for all. Liberty, Fraternity, Equality.” (Ibid. P. 56)
Does income equality mean a level playing field for all in the race for riches? C.T.A. Sunday speaker Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz explained the principle of solidarity in terms of relationship and cooperation as opposed to equality in competition. Fraternity – Sorority is a form of love – compassion, not a method of fair competition for happiness measured by riches. Ms. Isasi-Diaz mentioned the attack on worker rights in Wisconsin and the massive May Day marches organized and sponsored by Voces de la Frontera.
As stated above, a problem for both liberals and conservatives is for Catholic Social Teaching to remain relevant and present. Let us consider an example from the past. During the transition stage to Vatican II, Pius XII, in 1943, watched in silence as the Jews of Rome were sent to Auschwitz yet he made a major pronouncement on the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Gerald Ellard, S.J. commented and quoted Pius XII in his introduction to Pius XII Encyclical Mediator Dei:
“Pope Pius XII affords us, in his customary charge to Rome’s Lenten preachers, what might be called an annual ‘pastoral’ for Rome. That for 1943 dealt at length with the nature and efficacy of prayer and the Mass at the center of the Christian life. ‘The greatest, the most efficacious, and holiest of piety is the participation of the faithful in the holy Sacrifice’ (March 13, 1943).” (Encyclical Letter, Mediator Dei, of Pope Pius XII. With notes by Gerald Ellard, S.J. America Press, 1948, p. 9)
In the Encyclical (Mediator Dei November 20, 1947) Pius XII states, “We ourselves in the course of our address to the Lenten preachers of this gracious city Rome in 1943, urged them warmly to exhort their respective hearers to more faithful participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice.” Ibid. p.15.
The slaughter of the “unequal” Roman Jews was not remembered. Their existence and the memory of their existence were blotted out.
This blog is a review of Catholic Social Teaching with a reference to current events. We are now moving from the beginning documents into the transition stage before Vatican II.
The Declaration was approved in 1776, but what does “equal” mean? At its conclusion Native Americans are described as “merciless Indian savages” – obviously not “men” and equal. The law of the land, the Constitution, was ratified in 1788. Slaves, women, Native Americans and non property owners were not guaranteed the right to vote. Only white male property owners, 16% of the population, could vote.
Lincoln said in the 1863 Gettysburg address that the U.S. political dedication to equality was an “unfinished work.”
Then there was the cry of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality – the cry of the French Revolution 1789.
The heritage that U.S. 1776 rebels were struggling against is described by Samuel Fielden in a brief autobiography written in the Cook County Jail as he awaited hanging for the Chicago Haymarket riot in 1886. He was one of eight labor leaders convicted of murder in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. As an immigrant from England, Fielden had great expectations. He wrote, “My elder brother … he was quite radical in his views … it was a constant torment to him to debase himself before his master (employer) as lackeys were compelled to do in England. Now one of these means of debasement was being compelled to put his hand to his cap, in fact to bow down to Gesler (his employer). Thus must the proletariat bow the knee to the ‘bourgeoisie’ or starve, and some people call this liberty of contract.” (The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, Philip S. Foner, ed. Monad Press, New York 1977, p. 144)
Fielden as a young mill worker in England supported the North in the U.S. Civil war even though the war cost them jobs in the cotton mills. English workers cheered the Northern victory, but experiences and observations on a trip to the South after emigrating to the U.S. forced some second thoughts for Fielden. In his autobiography he states, “… the Negro was held in as absolute bondage as he was before the war.” (Ibid. p.151) Does equality refer to status, class, religion, income or all of the above?
From the beginning, Catholic Social Teaching has been about equality. The first social encyclical concerning labor, Rerum Novarum, stated that workers had the right to organize in order to achieve equal status as persons and a living wage. In contrast "liberalism" considered workers as a commodity to be bought and sold at the lowest price.
BUT CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AS RELATED TO LABOR IS DORMANT.
The Call to Action conference in Milwaukee was so much better than I expected. When I saw the brochure I guessed it would be simply a hierarchy-bashing fiesta – a piñata for those nostalgic for Vatican II. It was that, but the conference was saved by three outstanding speakers - scholars, Marcus Borg, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Jamie Manson.
The attack on Wisconsin workers was not mentioned in the brochure. Not surprising. Catholic response is muted by the priority of churchy “Social Issues” e.g. women’s ordination, abortion, gay rights, contraception, translation of the Roman Missal, Roman Catholic identity for hospitals. Both conservatives and liberals focus on these issues with a strong sense of purpose. Should Roman Catholic identity be defined by these “Church Social Issues” rather than by The Condition of Working People (Rerum Novarum)?
In my opinion, Church pronouncements on real social Issues are ignored. It seems that Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate just gathers dust. If this Encyclical were an attack on gay rights, it would have been widely read. Right wing Catholics would be saying, “I told you so,” and the left would righteously denounce another ridiculous pronouncement. Both sides would generate lots of print and rhetoric while labor rights would continue to be forgotten, and the church hierarchy would continue to wallow comfortably in tired myths.
It is interesting both Catholic liberals and conservatives are concerned about immigration reform, but not how it relates to labor unions, e.g. a Guest Worker Program or the Employee Free Choice Act – EFCA. The challenge and fear of labor unions perceived by both the right and left in the Roman Catholic spectrum make alliances more difficult. Is there a point of convergence in that Latinos put life into the tired myths in the fight for social justice? For example, Milwaukee Voces de la Frontera – New Sanctuary Coordinator Nancy Flores, with the help of her mother and grandmother, have designed vigils of protest and prayer in such a way that even the “hueros” (non Latinos) are proud to be “Guadalupanos,” (activists devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe) as a “comunidad de base.” (Medellin, Rerum Novarum) A “Comunidad de base,” could be a workers association not necessarily a labor union but a group that works with labor unions for social justice.
I was reminded at the Call to Action round table discussion of the keystone of Roman Catholic Social teaching. I asked, what is the most important document of Catholic Social Teaching? The response was, Rerum Novarum, which gives the rationale for workers right to organize. I agreed; all flows from this point. Before it could be mentioned that John Paul II declared Labor prior to Capital (Laborem Exercens, Part 12) and that labor unions are an “indispensible element of social life” (Ibid. Part 20), the group dispersed for a protest rally. The Milwaukee Catholic Worker group had organized a march and demonstration to protest Marquette Universities sponsorship of the R.O.T.C.
Call to Action keynote speaker Jamie Manson pointed out that her “church downstairs,” a type of “comunidad de base” that doesn’t need to be sanctioned by the hierarchy, has emerged, and is the Church of the future. Manson explained that at the church in New York where she ministers, she is not officially recognized as a priest or official of the church in the “upstairs church liturgy” because of her gender. In the “downstairs church,” at the community meal for the homeless, she has status from the people as a respected minister. This is the new church that is emerging, a “comunidad de base.”(Medellin) A step towards equality; isn’t it time to just forget about the hierarchy?
Another Call to Action keynote speaker, scripture scholar Marcus Borg, helped put Christian action into perspective by noting that the Jesus movement was in opposition to civilization as established by empires throughout history. Jesus, the Palestinian Jew, opposed the Roman Empire and was executed. Borg explained that the empire was for the benefit of the few in control. In resistance, Jesus enjoyed community meals with the alienated.
According to CTA speaker Angie O’Gorman, the best of capitalism follows the dictum of John Stuart Mill, “the greatest good for the greatest number.” Is this really acceptable for the ancient prophets and the Jesus movement? Before he was hanged as one of the Haymarket Martyrs in 1887 labor leader, Albert Parsons, wrote from the Cook County Jail,
“For the greatest good to the greatest number anarchy substitutes the equal right of each and everyone.” “Anarchy is the extension of the bounds of liberty until it covers the whole range of wants and aspirations of man-not men, but Man.” (Ibid. p. 43) “Privileges are none: equal rights for all. Liberty, Fraternity, Equality.” (Ibid. P. 56)
Does income equality mean a level playing field for all in the race for riches? C.T.A. Sunday speaker Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz explained the principle of solidarity in terms of relationship and cooperation as opposed to equality in competition. Fraternity – Sorority is a form of love – compassion, not a method of fair competition for happiness measured by riches. Ms. Isasi-Diaz mentioned the attack on worker rights in Wisconsin and the massive May Day marches organized and sponsored by Voces de la Frontera.
As stated above, a problem for both liberals and conservatives is for Catholic Social Teaching to remain relevant and present. Let us consider an example from the past. During the transition stage to Vatican II, Pius XII, in 1943, watched in silence as the Jews of Rome were sent to Auschwitz yet he made a major pronouncement on the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Gerald Ellard, S.J. commented and quoted Pius XII in his introduction to Pius XII Encyclical Mediator Dei:
“Pope Pius XII affords us, in his customary charge to Rome’s Lenten preachers, what might be called an annual ‘pastoral’ for Rome. That for 1943 dealt at length with the nature and efficacy of prayer and the Mass at the center of the Christian life. ‘The greatest, the most efficacious, and holiest of piety is the participation of the faithful in the holy Sacrifice’ (March 13, 1943).” (Encyclical Letter, Mediator Dei, of Pope Pius XII. With notes by Gerald Ellard, S.J. America Press, 1948, p. 9)
In the Encyclical (Mediator Dei November 20, 1947) Pius XII states, “We ourselves in the course of our address to the Lenten preachers of this gracious city Rome in 1943, urged them warmly to exhort their respective hearers to more faithful participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice.” Ibid. p.15.
The slaughter of the “unequal” Roman Jews was not remembered. Their existence and the memory of their existence were blotted out.
This blog is a review of Catholic Social Teaching with a reference to current events. We are now moving from the beginning documents into the transition stage before Vatican II.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
OFFICIAL CHURCH DOCUMENTS: CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
INTRODUCTION
shema yisra’el Adonai ’elohenu Adonai ’ehad. Duet. 6:4
Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is one.
An opinion: elohenu is the God of nature, the philosophers – e.g. Aristotle’s uncaused cause, Stephen Hawking’s big bang and final crunch. elohenu retaliates with anger and requires sacrifice.
Adonai reveals a presence; Adonai is the Father – Mother of all; Abba of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the prophets. Adonai supports the struggle for justice; advocates and acts for the poor. Adonai is truly only one.
The model, the documents and comments listed are based on notes taken at a seminar in the summer of 03 given by Dr. Christine Firer Hinze of Fordham University, formerly of Marquette University and recognized expert on the work of labor priest John Ryan. (1865-1945) The seminar was one of many graciously given by Dr. Hinze for interns and other labor associates of the Faith Community for Worker Justice in Milwaukee. Dr. Hinze also participated in the annual “Labor in the Pulpits Program.” The New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera now sponsors “Predicatores de Justicia” for the May 1st Labor Day since the Faith Community for Worker Justice of the Milwaukee Labor Council folded.
Some additions and deletions were made to Dr. Hinze’s notes. As the discussion continues more changes will be made. Notable points are listed, but it is recognized that such an abbreviation does not really represent the richness and complexity of the Encyclicals.
EARLY DOCUMENTS
1891 Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII, Workers’ right to organize.
1919 Program for Social Reconstruction, U.S. Bishops: Value international & interdenominational cooperation- also, equal pay for equal work for women.
1931 Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI: Principle of subsidiarity.
TRANSITION PERIOD
194I –1952 Social Documents, of Pope Pius XII.
1941 Whitsuntide Message, Pvt. property has social responsibilities.
1943 Xmas Message, Democracy & Peace, “Corporate” democracy OK. Distrust of “masses.”
1949 To the Representatives of the International Union of Catholic Employers
Associations, Reaffirm Q.A. Nationalization of assets, with limits, to
protect common good.
1950 To the International Congress of Social Studies, Balance of production with consumption a key issue - free mkt. not the answer. Workers ancient feudal bonds
similar to modern wage slavery.
1952 To the Italian Catholic Association of - Owner Managers: Principle of Solidarity.
1952 Letter to 39th “Social Week” Dijon, France, Free market does not produce distributive justice.
1952 Radio Address to Austrian Catholics, Overcome class struggle by organic
coordination of employer & employee.
1952 Exul Familia, Right to migrate.
1952 Xmas Message, Unrestricted production is not the answer to unemployment.
Advocates international solidarity.
1952 Letter of Mons. Montini (future Pope Paul VI) to Catholic Social Week in Turin, Italy, : Addresses worker alienation. Advocates worker, employer solidarity.
1961 Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII, Social duty of private property, Cf. Pius XII.
Part 1, 41-43. Values collective bargaining. Part 2, 91.
1963 Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII, (John XXIII added, for the first time the salutation "and to all men of good will.") Dignity of the person is the basis of human rights. Part 1, 8. Right to migrate reaffirmed. Part 1, 25
DRAMATIC CHANGE “AGGIORNAMIENTO”
VATICAN II CRITICAL, YET OPEN TO THE IDEAS OF THE MODERN WORLD
1963 – 1965 Council Fathers with Pope Paul VI
1964 Unitatis Redintegratio. (On Ecumenism), Advocates cooperation with “separated brethren” on social issues. C. II,12
1964 Lumen Gentium, (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), The Spirit dwells
in the people. C. I, 4
1965 Gaudium et Spes, (Pastoral Constitution on the Church),: Labor right. to
organize & freely elect leaders. Right to strike. (vs. fascist Spain & Franco) #68
1965 Dignitatis Humanae, (Freedom of Conscience), In all activity man is bound to follow his own conscience. #3
1965 Nostra Aetate, (Relation to Non Christians), Although hostilities in past - make common cause for social justice. #2
POST VATICAN II
1967 Populorum Progressio, (On the Development of Peoples), Paul VI: Neo-colonialism a concern. Free trade is fair only if it is subject to the demands of social justice. Part II, 52 – 58. Unjust political and economic structures denounced. Part I, #21.
1967 Medellin, Colombia Documents, Latin American Bishops: Foundation of Liberation Theology – Political and economic structural change advocated. Pope Paul VI's opening address supports change of oppressive systems and structures. "Comunidades de base" recognized. Task of "Concientizacion."
1971 Octogesimo Adveniens, (Eightieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Paul VI: Women have equal rights to participate in cultural, economic and political life. #13 Preferential Respect for poor.
1979 Puebla, Mexico Documents, Latin American Bishops: Visiting Pope J.P. II endorses Liberation Theology. Preferential option for the poor.
1981 Laborem Exercens, (On Work), John Paul II: Labor is prior to capital, Labor Unions indispensible.
1986 Economic Justice for All, U.S. R.C. Bishops: Use of sociological data.
1987 Solicitudo Rei Socialis, (On Social Concern). , John Paul II: In Solidarity, overcome structures of sin for true liberation. VII, 46
1991 Centesimus Annus, (One hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum),1991, John Paul II: The church values the democratic system in so far as it insures the participation of citizens in making political choices. Chapter 5, #46.
MILLENNIAL PERIOD
2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Pontifical Council for Justice &; Peace, Church doctrine on homosexuality, contraception and abortion is part of the Church social doctrine.
2009 Caritas in Veritate, (Selfless Love in Truth), Benedict XVI: "Trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating power of labour unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome."
Section 25
2011 Towards Reforming The International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority, Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace. Creation of a world political authority to regulate financial markets that cause “inequalities and distortions of capitalist development.”
POST SCRIPT – BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx’ son-in-law, was sentenced to a year in jail for participating in the May 1, 1891 demonstration in Lille, France that turned violent. While in jail Lafargue won an election to become a member of the Lille chamber of deputies. His inaugural speech “caused an uproar among leftist members who might have otherwise supported him by appearing to support the conservative Catholic Church’s ‘Christian socialism’ and question the rectitude of the left’s commitment to separation of church and state.” (Gabriel, Mary, Love and Capital, Little Brown and Company, New York, 2011, pp. 558 – 561.)
shema yisra’el Adonai ’elohenu Adonai ’ehad. Duet. 6:4
Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is one.
An opinion: elohenu is the God of nature, the philosophers – e.g. Aristotle’s uncaused cause, Stephen Hawking’s big bang and final crunch. elohenu retaliates with anger and requires sacrifice.
Adonai reveals a presence; Adonai is the Father – Mother of all; Abba of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the prophets. Adonai supports the struggle for justice; advocates and acts for the poor. Adonai is truly only one.
The model, the documents and comments listed are based on notes taken at a seminar in the summer of 03 given by Dr. Christine Firer Hinze of Fordham University, formerly of Marquette University and recognized expert on the work of labor priest John Ryan. (1865-1945) The seminar was one of many graciously given by Dr. Hinze for interns and other labor associates of the Faith Community for Worker Justice in Milwaukee. Dr. Hinze also participated in the annual “Labor in the Pulpits Program.” The New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera now sponsors “Predicatores de Justicia” for the May 1st Labor Day since the Faith Community for Worker Justice of the Milwaukee Labor Council folded.
Some additions and deletions were made to Dr. Hinze’s notes. As the discussion continues more changes will be made. Notable points are listed, but it is recognized that such an abbreviation does not really represent the richness and complexity of the Encyclicals.
EARLY DOCUMENTS
1891 Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII, Workers’ right to organize.
1919 Program for Social Reconstruction, U.S. Bishops: Value international & interdenominational cooperation- also, equal pay for equal work for women.
1931 Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI: Principle of subsidiarity.
TRANSITION PERIOD
194I –1952 Social Documents, of Pope Pius XII.
1941 Whitsuntide Message, Pvt. property has social responsibilities.
1943 Xmas Message, Democracy & Peace, “Corporate” democracy OK. Distrust of “masses.”
1949 To the Representatives of the International Union of Catholic Employers
Associations, Reaffirm Q.A. Nationalization of assets, with limits, to
protect common good.
1950 To the International Congress of Social Studies, Balance of production with consumption a key issue - free mkt. not the answer. Workers ancient feudal bonds
similar to modern wage slavery.
1952 To the Italian Catholic Association of - Owner Managers: Principle of Solidarity.
1952 Letter to 39th “Social Week” Dijon, France, Free market does not produce distributive justice.
1952 Radio Address to Austrian Catholics, Overcome class struggle by organic
coordination of employer & employee.
1952 Exul Familia, Right to migrate.
1952 Xmas Message, Unrestricted production is not the answer to unemployment.
Advocates international solidarity.
1952 Letter of Mons. Montini (future Pope Paul VI) to Catholic Social Week in Turin, Italy, : Addresses worker alienation. Advocates worker, employer solidarity.
1961 Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII, Social duty of private property, Cf. Pius XII.
Part 1, 41-43. Values collective bargaining. Part 2, 91.
1963 Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII, (John XXIII added, for the first time the salutation "and to all men of good will.") Dignity of the person is the basis of human rights. Part 1, 8. Right to migrate reaffirmed. Part 1, 25
DRAMATIC CHANGE “AGGIORNAMIENTO”
VATICAN II CRITICAL, YET OPEN TO THE IDEAS OF THE MODERN WORLD
1963 – 1965 Council Fathers with Pope Paul VI
1964 Unitatis Redintegratio. (On Ecumenism), Advocates cooperation with “separated brethren” on social issues. C. II,12
1964 Lumen Gentium, (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), The Spirit dwells
in the people. C. I, 4
1965 Gaudium et Spes, (Pastoral Constitution on the Church),: Labor right. to
organize & freely elect leaders. Right to strike. (vs. fascist Spain & Franco) #68
1965 Dignitatis Humanae, (Freedom of Conscience), In all activity man is bound to follow his own conscience. #3
1965 Nostra Aetate, (Relation to Non Christians), Although hostilities in past - make common cause for social justice. #2
POST VATICAN II
1967 Populorum Progressio, (On the Development of Peoples), Paul VI: Neo-colonialism a concern. Free trade is fair only if it is subject to the demands of social justice. Part II, 52 – 58. Unjust political and economic structures denounced. Part I, #21.
1967 Medellin, Colombia Documents, Latin American Bishops: Foundation of Liberation Theology – Political and economic structural change advocated. Pope Paul VI's opening address supports change of oppressive systems and structures. "Comunidades de base" recognized. Task of "Concientizacion."
1971 Octogesimo Adveniens, (Eightieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Paul VI: Women have equal rights to participate in cultural, economic and political life. #13 Preferential Respect for poor.
1979 Puebla, Mexico Documents, Latin American Bishops: Visiting Pope J.P. II endorses Liberation Theology. Preferential option for the poor.
1981 Laborem Exercens, (On Work), John Paul II: Labor is prior to capital, Labor Unions indispensible.
1986 Economic Justice for All, U.S. R.C. Bishops: Use of sociological data.
1987 Solicitudo Rei Socialis, (On Social Concern). , John Paul II: In Solidarity, overcome structures of sin for true liberation. VII, 46
1991 Centesimus Annus, (One hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum),1991, John Paul II: The church values the democratic system in so far as it insures the participation of citizens in making political choices. Chapter 5, #46.
MILLENNIAL PERIOD
2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Pontifical Council for Justice &; Peace, Church doctrine on homosexuality, contraception and abortion is part of the Church social doctrine.
2009 Caritas in Veritate, (Selfless Love in Truth), Benedict XVI: "Trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating power of labour unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome."
Section 25
2011 Towards Reforming The International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority, Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace. Creation of a world political authority to regulate financial markets that cause “inequalities and distortions of capitalist development.”
POST SCRIPT – BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx’ son-in-law, was sentenced to a year in jail for participating in the May 1, 1891 demonstration in Lille, France that turned violent. While in jail Lafargue won an election to become a member of the Lille chamber of deputies. His inaugural speech “caused an uproar among leftist members who might have otherwise supported him by appearing to support the conservative Catholic Church’s ‘Christian socialism’ and question the rectitude of the left’s commitment to separation of church and state.” (Gabriel, Mary, Love and Capital, Little Brown and Company, New York, 2011, pp. 558 – 561.)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
“EQUALITY” COMES NEXT,…BUT FIRST AN ASIDE
This blog is an attempt to present Catholic Social Teaching as it developed from Rerum Novarum in 1891 to the present. Some references to current problems are made within the historical context of the documents being considered and the church leaders of the time. In some instances reference will be made to future documents and the radical shift provided by Vatican II.
The topic we are now discussing is: Democracy, Equality and the Simple Life as seen by Pius XII. The previous posting was on Democracy; now we will consider Equality.
Before the posting on Equality, there will be an article on a demonstration in Chicago concerning the Obama administrations “Secure Communities” program.
The next ‘aside’ will be a post listing the major Vatican pronouncements on Catholic Social Teaching since 1891 including Rerum Novarum along with key concepts from the documents.
Protesting "Secure Communities" (from Voces de la Frontera Newspaper, Sept. 2011).
By Bill Lange, New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera
On August 18th, Voces members Jim Cusack, Ken Greening and I traveled to the Haymarket Monument in Chicago to attend a press conference held before an Advisory Task Force hearing on “Secure Communities.”
The Haymarket is the site of the 1886 demonstration for the eight-hour day led by immigrant workers. Mounted police attempted to break up that rally and several policemen and some workers were killed. Labor leaders were indicted and falsely accused of murder. Four were hanged, only one of them a native English speaker. They are called the “Haymarket Martyrs.”
But is it any better today? At the press conference, Father Brendan Curran, O.P. of St. Pius V parish in Chicago, lamented the breakup of families with the “Secure Communities” program under the Obama administration. In Milwaukee, Voces is swamped with families looking for loved ones who have been picked up by law enforcement.
The advisory task force hearing took place at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ hall located around the corner from the Haymarket Monument. The meeting started with controversy as some were not allowed into the hall because of capacity restrictions. Jim Cusack of Voces was the first speaker: “It’s outrageous to incarcerate our neighbors – to make them fearful of even going to church,” he said.
Several in the crowd had enough of talking and took to the street. They blocked Randolph Street; buses threatened them, but protesters refused to move. Many were sitting in the street. A group of musicians were drumming as other danced around police who attempted to remove them. Young people with t-shirts reading “Undocumented” shuffled onto the street despite the police and chanted, “We are not afraid, we are not afraid!” Some protesters were arrested, but there was no violent action by the demonstrators.
Jenny Dale of the Chicago New Sanctuary Movement commented, “We should all be inspired by these courageous young people who take to the street in the struggle for justice.”
The next day, President Obama announced major changes to US deportation policy. It remains to be seen if this will actually grant some relief to immigrant workers.
Check this link for article and photos: http://vdlf.org/userimages/pdfs/2011-09-newspaper.pdf
The topic we are now discussing is: Democracy, Equality and the Simple Life as seen by Pius XII. The previous posting was on Democracy; now we will consider Equality.
Before the posting on Equality, there will be an article on a demonstration in Chicago concerning the Obama administrations “Secure Communities” program.
The next ‘aside’ will be a post listing the major Vatican pronouncements on Catholic Social Teaching since 1891 including Rerum Novarum along with key concepts from the documents.
Protesting "Secure Communities" (from Voces de la Frontera Newspaper, Sept. 2011).
By Bill Lange, New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera
On August 18th, Voces members Jim Cusack, Ken Greening and I traveled to the Haymarket Monument in Chicago to attend a press conference held before an Advisory Task Force hearing on “Secure Communities.”
The Haymarket is the site of the 1886 demonstration for the eight-hour day led by immigrant workers. Mounted police attempted to break up that rally and several policemen and some workers were killed. Labor leaders were indicted and falsely accused of murder. Four were hanged, only one of them a native English speaker. They are called the “Haymarket Martyrs.”
But is it any better today? At the press conference, Father Brendan Curran, O.P. of St. Pius V parish in Chicago, lamented the breakup of families with the “Secure Communities” program under the Obama administration. In Milwaukee, Voces is swamped with families looking for loved ones who have been picked up by law enforcement.
The advisory task force hearing took place at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ hall located around the corner from the Haymarket Monument. The meeting started with controversy as some were not allowed into the hall because of capacity restrictions. Jim Cusack of Voces was the first speaker: “It’s outrageous to incarcerate our neighbors – to make them fearful of even going to church,” he said.
Several in the crowd had enough of talking and took to the street. They blocked Randolph Street; buses threatened them, but protesters refused to move. Many were sitting in the street. A group of musicians were drumming as other danced around police who attempted to remove them. Young people with t-shirts reading “Undocumented” shuffled onto the street despite the police and chanted, “We are not afraid, we are not afraid!” Some protesters were arrested, but there was no violent action by the demonstrators.
Jenny Dale of the Chicago New Sanctuary Movement commented, “We should all be inspired by these courageous young people who take to the street in the struggle for justice.”
The next day, President Obama announced major changes to US deportation policy. It remains to be seen if this will actually grant some relief to immigrant workers.
Check this link for article and photos: http://vdlf.org/userimages/pdfs/2011-09-newspaper.pdf
Saturday, August 13, 2011
DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, AND THE SIMPLE LIFE
DEMOCRACY (vs. FASCISM)
Introduction
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is pushing his fascist program as fast as possible. By fascist I mean top down mandates without the voice of the people being heard, mixed in with racism and nationalism. With Walker’s program, public sector workers will have a very limited voice in the workplace. Walker’s budget favors the wealthy over the needs of the poor and children. The budget is a key component in the politics of wealth concentration. A wealthy fascist aristocracy supports Walker, and is attempting to gain more power. The tea party people represent the nationalistic aspect of the new fascism. Fascist racism is also there in the fierce opposition to immigrants. Walker’s budget includes a removal of in-state tuition for undocumented children. An Arizona type immigration bill has been presented by a Walker supporter to the Legislature’s Homeland Security Committee. Unwillingness to confront seriously the poverty and unemployment in central city Milwaukee is again rank racism.
The theme of this blog is a historical review of Catholic Social Teaching with reference to current events, and it will look at the rise of totalitarianism in the 30’s. This is the time of Quadragesim Anno, Pius XI and Pius XII. The Walker program is not the first time fascism has raised its ugly head. Can we fault Pius XI and XII for their blindness in not seeing the horror implicit in fascism? They were not alone. Check out the list of quotes I have assembled. Pius XI's pre-war and Pius XII’s pre-war and war-time positions might be more understandable. Does natural law ethics, the basis of Catholic Social Teaching, survive WW II? Quotes from Catholic scholars and others before the war, during the war, and after the war follow.
In 1946, Saul Alinsky said in his book, Reveille for Radicals,
“Organized religion, organized labor, and all other organized institutions of the people were completely impotent in preventing Fascism and war.” (Work, “Reveille for Radicals – Book Review,” Paul Kalinauskas, February, 1946.)
The question is why? Was all that was needed was Alinsky organizing tactics? 1946 reviewer Kalinauskas says Alinsky was naive. After the war it was easy to see the evils of fascism, but some Catholic intellectuals and officials only partially saw the coming horror.
Natural law philosophers – theologians, religionists fortified by the Ten Commandments, were at sea just as much as enlightenment liberals who claimed Hitler and Mussolini had a right to their opinion and were improving the social and economic situation in their countries.
(July 27, 2011: Voces was swamped with people looking for loved ones picked up by the police, the FBI, the ICE on a drug bust. The innocent are raked in with the guilty – no distinction – thus families separated. To whom do you complain? Kohl, Moore, Barrett are not listening. What happened to the 14th amendment? Is this due process?)
Before WW II
U.S. Attitudes and Political Theory
How does U.S. political democracy make decisions? According to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, the basis for U.S. democracy is the Declaration of Independence statement, “all men are created equal;” therefore democracy is rooted in nature. However, Lincoln did not believe that a majority vote superseded nature. In his debates with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act which would have allowed slavery in those territories if the majority approved.
(From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7-29-11, “Judge declares paid sick-day law ‘over’… In doing so he found the city law, passed by 69% of voters in November, 2008 and upheld by the state Court of Appeals in March, was moot because of state legislation (Walker’s gang) approved in April that voided it.”)
For Lincoln, and WW II President Franklin Roosevelt, the ‘common good’ was the goal of political society. Roosevelt was passionate about democracy, but his political philosophy was not based on the ontology of atomism or simply ‘survival of the fittest.’ He claimed the right wing individualists, ‘economic royalists,’ were the enemies of the people and invited progressives, Republican and Democrat, to work for the common good. The New Deal was an analogue to the Declaration of Independence. At the 1936 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia Roosevelt said:
“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in the spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” (Brands, H.W. Traitor To His Class, Doubleday, New York, p. 453.)
In the early days of European fascism it was not clear to the American public that fascism was inherently evil.
“From the time he came to power in 1922, the American press was generally supportive of Mussolini, who was credited with restoring order in postwar Italy and revitalizing its economy.” (Baldassaro, Lawrence, Beyond Joe DiMaggio, University of Nebraska Press, p. 122.)
As for fascism in the U.S., industrialists actually used fascist tactics. “Blackshirts” fought picketers at the 1934 Kohler strike in Wisconsin. Two strikers were killed. (Uphoff, Walter H. Kohler on Strike, Beacon Press, Boston, p. 73.)
(Today we have the Wisconsin recall elections. This is an attempt to save democracy. August 9, 2011, two Walker Senators were recalled.)
U.S. Roman Catholics and Academics
University of Chicago philosophy professor Mortimer Adler, of Jewish heritage, disagreed with his friend Robert Hutchins, President of the University, over the U.S. getting involved in the military war against fascism in Europe. Adler wrote in his autobiography:
“With the onset of the European war, a revival of American isolationism, under the banner of ‘America First,’ enrolled a large following. Among the leaders of that movement were Colonel Lindbergh, Gen. Robert E. Wood (chairman of the board of Sears Roebuck), Bob Hutchins, and Bill Benton, then vice president of the University of Chicago.”
Philosopher Bertrand Russell of England joined Adler and denounced Hitler. Adler claimed his argument against Hitler was supported by ‘natural law’ and, although Russell was correct in opposing Hitler, his argument was weak. Adler wrote:
“Abhorrence of Hitler had caused even Bertrand Russell, not only an avowed pacifist but also a relativist in morals, to advocate taking sides in the struggle because what Hitler stood for was, in his judgment, morally wrong. But my university colleagues would not forsake their skepticism about the objectivity of moral value in order to come out flatly against Nazism as politically and morally outrageous. They were willing and anxious to have us go to war against Nazi Germany, but could not bring themselves to declare that the issue involved rights and wrongs that were not a matter of subjective opinion or entirely relative to the declarant’s prejudices, feelings or point of view.” (Adler, Mortimer J. Philosopher at Large, Macmillan, N.Y. 1977, pp. 217 – 220.)
But before the war, even with a criterion to criticize the status quo, e.g. the natural law and disgust of Hitler, the ambivalence toward fascism as a political system and democracy as practiced in the U.S. and England, was a challenge to Mortimer Adler & Walter Farrell. Farrell was a Dominican priest and recognized as a scholar of the work of Thomas Aquinas. Leo XIII had proclaimed the theology of the 13th century Dominican Friar as the official theology of the Catholic Church.
Adler and Farrell wrote in The Thomist just before the U.S. entered WW II,
“We propose to make a philosophical analysis of democracy. We cannot ignore the fact that this analysis is coincident with a world-wide war which has come to be described as a struggle between the democracies and the totalitarian powers. …We ask the reader to help us by not identifying democracy with the existing governments of England and the United States. …The worst misunderstanding of what we are trying to say would be to suppose our judgment of democracy to be that it is always and everywhere the best form of government for people to adopt. …Far from supposing that democracy is the best form of government relative to every historic situation, we seriously doubt whether in the world today there is any people whose physical, economic, cultural, and moral attainments are yet adequate for the full practice of democracy.” (The Thomist, “The Theory of Democracy,” Mortimer J. Adler and Walter Farrell, O.P. Sheed and Ward, Baltimore, July 1941.)
Before he entered the Trappists, the young Thomas Merton wrote in his diary that he wasn’t so sure about going to war – was the defense of capitalism worth it? For example, he wrote,
“And if we go into the war, it will be first of all to protect our investments, our business, our money. In certain terms it may be useful to defend all these things, an expedient to protect our business so that everybody may have jobs, but if anybody holds up American business as a shining example of justice, or American politics as a shining example of honesty and purity that is really quite a joke.” (Run to the Mountain, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Harper San Francisco, 1996, p. 221) Merton applied for conscientious objector status in March of 1941. (Ibid. p. 361)
Other Catholic academics questioned getting involved in WW II. Jesuit priest, Joseph Husselein, S.J.,Ph.D. wrote in September 1941,
“It is not well for us to presume that the taint of totalitarianism does not exist, to a greater or less extent, in our own English speaking countries under the fair name and the guise of democracy. The teachings of popular professors in secular universities … who logically deny the existence of the natural law … and so derive all rights from the state are merely totalitarian in disguise. They are doctrines entirely subversive of that high ideal built up in the United States by the Founding Fathers on the firm basis of belief in God and consequently in inalienable natural rights from Him alone – rights not given by the state and cannot be taken away by it.” (Husslein, Joseph,S.J., Ph.D. Social Wellsprings, Bruce Publishing Co. Milwaukee, 1942. p. 316.)
There was a Catholic move to conscientious objection based on the common good, the good for all, not a particular nation. Archbishop McNicholas of Cincinnati wrote in a pre-war pastoral letter,
“Will such Christians in our country form a mighty league of conscientious non combatants? The organization of such a league deserves the consideration of all informed Christians who have the best interests of America at heart.”(The Chicago Catholic Worker, “The Case for Conscientious Objection,” Paul Kalinauskas and Ed Marciniak, December 1940, p. 5.)
Conscientious objection would be grounded on human nature, not custom, what works, majority opinion, or might is right. Kalinauskas and Marciniak explain,
“Conscience is a practical moral judgment of the intellect. It is practical because it does not concern itself with theoretical speculation on good and evil but tells man whether or not this particular action may or may not be performed by him, here and now. Men, unlike irrational animals, have been given the faculty of distinguishing between good and evil.” (ibid)
Here Kalinauskas and Marciniak do not argue for conscientious objection based on religious feeling or biblical interpretation, but they base their argument on reason – a natural law approach. Milwaukee native Gordan Zahn took up the challenge and became a WW II conscientious objector. It wasn’t a popular stance.
The January 1942 issue of the Catholic Worker, the first to appear after the declaration of war, displays this headline:
OUR COUNTRY PASSES FROM UNDECLARED WAR TO DECLARED WAR WE CONTINUE OUR CHRISTIAN PACIFIST STAND
Dorothy Day wrote:
“We are still pacifists. Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers. Speaking for many of our conscientious objectors, we will not participate in armed warfare or in making munitions, or buying government bonds to prosecute the war, or in urging others to these efforts.” (The Duty of Delight, “The Diaries of Dorothy Day,” Edited by Robert Ellsberg, p.65, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 2008.)
In Europe, well known German philosopher, Martin Heidegger supported Hitler. In Spain, the Rector at the University of Salamanca, Miguel Unamuno, never spoke out against Franco until it was too late and then was put under house arrest.
Natural law philosophers, theologians, existentialists – few saw what was coming except some artists, – painters Picasso, (Guernica - 1937) Diego Rivera, (The Opponent of Fascism - 1933) Felix Nussbaum, (The Refugee - 1939) Marc Chagall, (White Crucifixion - 1938).
During the War
What about moral political decisions during the war, such as, the continuing massacre of Jews in Europe and the decision to end the war by dropping atom bombs on Japan?
The Holocaust: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued several strong statements condemning Hitler’s massacre of the Jews during the war. In 1944 Roosevelt said, after he was informed of a roundup of Jews in Hungary,
“In one of the blackest crimes of all history-begun by the Nazis in the day of peace and multiplied by them a hundred times in the time of war-the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated every hour.” (op. cit. p. 761.)
Roosevelt thought that conquering Hitler would be the only and quickest way to stop the massacre. He refused to bomb the death camp at Auschwitz or the rail lines feeding it because it would require the diversion of scarce resources. (op.cit, Traitor to His Class, p. 761.)
Rhetoric was not enough for future U.S. President Harry Truman concerning the massacre of the Jews. Truman said in 1943, in what could be construed as a criticism of Roosevelt,
“Merely talking about the four freedoms is not enough. This is the time for action. No one can doubt the horrible intentions of the Nazi beasts. We know they plan the systematic slaughter throughout all of Europe, not only of the Jews, but of vast numbers of other innocent peoples.”(McCullough, David, Truman, Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1992, p. 286.)
As President, Truman was supportive of the creation of the state of Israel.
The Atom Bomb: President Harry Truman explained his decision to use the atom bomb,
“The final decision of where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me. Let there be no mistake about it. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used. The top military advisers to the President recommended its use. And when I talked to Churchill he unhesitatingly told me that he favored the use of the atomic bomb if it might aid to end the war.” David McCullough, Truman. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992, p. 442.)
Some opposed the use of the atom bomb on moral grounds. The following appeared in the magazine Christian Century, August 29, 1945,
“Today a single atomic bomb slaughters tens of thousands of children and their mothers and fathers. Newspapers and radio acclaim it a great victory. Victory for what?”
Albert Camus declared,
“Technological civilization has just reached its final degree of savagery.”
Paulist priest James Gillis, a champion of social justice, a friend to labor, and an enemy of racial segregation, wrote an editorial in the Catholic World stating the use of the bomb was,
“atrocious and abominable …the most powerful blow ever delivered against Christian civilization and the moral law.” (Carroll, James, House of War, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2006, p. 43.)
There was no public comment from Pius XII directly condemning the U.S. and Truman, but the Vatican’s Observatorio Romano August 7, 1945 commented,
“This war provides a catastrophic conclusion. Incredibly this destructive weapon remains as a temptation for posterity, which we know by bitter experience, learns so little from history.”
Pope Pius XII stated,
“Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man.” (Mark Weber, www.1hr.org/jhr/16v16n3p-4_Weber.htlm - Cached.)
Dorothy Day commented in the Catholic Worker September 1945,
“Mr. Truman was jubilant. President Truman. True man; what a strange name, come to think of it. We refer to Jesus Christ as true God and true Man. Truman is a true man of his time in that he was jubilant. He was not a son of God, brother of Christ, brother of the Japanese, jubilating as he did. He went from the table on the cruiser which was bringing him home from the Big Three conference, telling the great news: ‘jubilant’ the newspapers said, Jubilate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese.” (op cit, Duty of Delight, Diaries of Dorothy Day, p.95.)
After the War
After the war Adler and Farrell nuanced and adjusted their before-the- war writings. Adler wrote in his autobiography,
“In 1945, both Father Farrell and I delivered addresses at the American Catholic Philosophical Association, in which we took the position that the superiority of democracy to all other forms of government could no longer be questioned by philosophers who regarded themselves as Aristotelians or Thomists, even though Aristotle and Aquinas could not be quoted in support of that thesis.” (Adler, Mortimer, Philosopher at Large, p. 309, Macmillan, N.Y. 1977.)
How do you justify not speaking out about political-moral atrocities? It’s a political decision. After WWII, Pius XII said,
“The duty of repressing religious and moral error cannot be an ultimate norm of action. It must be subordinated to higher and more general norms which in some circumstances permit, and even perhaps make it appear the better course of action, that error should not be impeded in order to promote to promote the common good.” (Murray, John Courtney S.J. We Hold These Truths, Sheed and Ward, 1960, pp. 61-62 Pius XII, - discourse to Italian Journalists December 6, 1953)
Looking ahead, to the dramatic changes brought about by Vatican II, John Paul II, Apostolic Letter sent on the 50th anniversary of WW II:
“I wish to repeat here in the strongest possible way that hostility and hatred against Judaism are in complete contradiction to the Christian vision of human dignity.” August 27, 1989.
In 2000 John Paul II visited ad Vashem, The National Holocaust Memorial in Israel. “I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church … is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time, in any place.”
He added, “There are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the holocaust.” Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, October 1965: “…what happened in his (Jesus Christ’s) passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed as if such views followed from Holy Scriptures.”
Conclusion: some opinions
Theologian, John Courtney Murray, tied American Catholic theology and philosophy to U.S. Political Democracy after WW II apparently following the lead of fellow Jesuit Joseph Husslein. He wrote that the Declaration of Independence was in agreement with Natural Law theory. He dismissed the notion that democracy was ‘in line’ with the ‘social contract theory’ by simply declaring that no one believes in the ‘Social Contract’ any more. “We no longer believe, with Locke or Hobbes, that man escapes from a mythical ‘state of nature’ by an act of the will by social contract.” (John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1960, p. 7.)
The ‘social contract’ theory and moral relativism implies an atomistic ontology, e.g. - everyone for themselves – survival of the fittest. Atomists would contend the ‘common good’ or the ‘General Welfare’ means the ‘Greatest Good for the greatest number.’ In their most notable speeches both Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt use the word ‘charity’ in the classical sense of selfless love. This is not a word for political policy used by today’s survival of the fittest Ayn Rand followers.
The ‘social contract’ theory breaks down when it is admitted that the majority is not always correct, and there needs to be another standard of judgment. The ‘natural law’ theory fits the bill, but it needs to be reinterpreted. Retired MATC professor and union activist Anne Channell suggested, “It’s just human decency.” If the majority is not always correct, the voice of the minority must be listened to and protected. The best argument for the minority, opposing the majority, is reference to the standard ‘human decency.’ Common sense demands consideration of the common good as defined by Vatican II,
“…the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment.” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church)
Even with the solid framework of the natural law and measured interpretation of Sacred Scripture, complete certitude is not always possible in political morality. Decisions rest on probabilities based on available information, but also sentiments and prejudices which are not always susceptible to immediate analysis. The decisions themselves are political, and unintended moral error is always possible. A broker who takes bets for a living would understand. Despite the uncertainty, especially in times with rapidly changing technology and politics, moral decisions must be made. The best decisions are made, with the least amount of anxiety possible, in Faith, perhaps without direct connection to an organized belief system or theology – e.g. Abraham Lincoln. Moral political decisions must be made with the goal of the common good in light of a ‘preferential option for the poor.’ No longer are political-moral decisions simply local. We must be always aware that we live in a ‘global village.’
Introduction
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is pushing his fascist program as fast as possible. By fascist I mean top down mandates without the voice of the people being heard, mixed in with racism and nationalism. With Walker’s program, public sector workers will have a very limited voice in the workplace. Walker’s budget favors the wealthy over the needs of the poor and children. The budget is a key component in the politics of wealth concentration. A wealthy fascist aristocracy supports Walker, and is attempting to gain more power. The tea party people represent the nationalistic aspect of the new fascism. Fascist racism is also there in the fierce opposition to immigrants. Walker’s budget includes a removal of in-state tuition for undocumented children. An Arizona type immigration bill has been presented by a Walker supporter to the Legislature’s Homeland Security Committee. Unwillingness to confront seriously the poverty and unemployment in central city Milwaukee is again rank racism.
The theme of this blog is a historical review of Catholic Social Teaching with reference to current events, and it will look at the rise of totalitarianism in the 30’s. This is the time of Quadragesim Anno, Pius XI and Pius XII. The Walker program is not the first time fascism has raised its ugly head. Can we fault Pius XI and XII for their blindness in not seeing the horror implicit in fascism? They were not alone. Check out the list of quotes I have assembled. Pius XI's pre-war and Pius XII’s pre-war and war-time positions might be more understandable. Does natural law ethics, the basis of Catholic Social Teaching, survive WW II? Quotes from Catholic scholars and others before the war, during the war, and after the war follow.
In 1946, Saul Alinsky said in his book, Reveille for Radicals,
“Organized religion, organized labor, and all other organized institutions of the people were completely impotent in preventing Fascism and war.” (Work, “Reveille for Radicals – Book Review,” Paul Kalinauskas, February, 1946.)
The question is why? Was all that was needed was Alinsky organizing tactics? 1946 reviewer Kalinauskas says Alinsky was naive. After the war it was easy to see the evils of fascism, but some Catholic intellectuals and officials only partially saw the coming horror.
Natural law philosophers – theologians, religionists fortified by the Ten Commandments, were at sea just as much as enlightenment liberals who claimed Hitler and Mussolini had a right to their opinion and were improving the social and economic situation in their countries.
(July 27, 2011: Voces was swamped with people looking for loved ones picked up by the police, the FBI, the ICE on a drug bust. The innocent are raked in with the guilty – no distinction – thus families separated. To whom do you complain? Kohl, Moore, Barrett are not listening. What happened to the 14th amendment? Is this due process?)
Before WW II
U.S. Attitudes and Political Theory
How does U.S. political democracy make decisions? According to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, the basis for U.S. democracy is the Declaration of Independence statement, “all men are created equal;” therefore democracy is rooted in nature. However, Lincoln did not believe that a majority vote superseded nature. In his debates with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act which would have allowed slavery in those territories if the majority approved.
(From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7-29-11, “Judge declares paid sick-day law ‘over’… In doing so he found the city law, passed by 69% of voters in November, 2008 and upheld by the state Court of Appeals in March, was moot because of state legislation (Walker’s gang) approved in April that voided it.”)
For Lincoln, and WW II President Franklin Roosevelt, the ‘common good’ was the goal of political society. Roosevelt was passionate about democracy, but his political philosophy was not based on the ontology of atomism or simply ‘survival of the fittest.’ He claimed the right wing individualists, ‘economic royalists,’ were the enemies of the people and invited progressives, Republican and Democrat, to work for the common good. The New Deal was an analogue to the Declaration of Independence. At the 1936 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia Roosevelt said:
“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in the spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” (Brands, H.W. Traitor To His Class, Doubleday, New York, p. 453.)
In the early days of European fascism it was not clear to the American public that fascism was inherently evil.
“From the time he came to power in 1922, the American press was generally supportive of Mussolini, who was credited with restoring order in postwar Italy and revitalizing its economy.” (Baldassaro, Lawrence, Beyond Joe DiMaggio, University of Nebraska Press, p. 122.)
As for fascism in the U.S., industrialists actually used fascist tactics. “Blackshirts” fought picketers at the 1934 Kohler strike in Wisconsin. Two strikers were killed. (Uphoff, Walter H. Kohler on Strike, Beacon Press, Boston, p. 73.)
(Today we have the Wisconsin recall elections. This is an attempt to save democracy. August 9, 2011, two Walker Senators were recalled.)
U.S. Roman Catholics and Academics
University of Chicago philosophy professor Mortimer Adler, of Jewish heritage, disagreed with his friend Robert Hutchins, President of the University, over the U.S. getting involved in the military war against fascism in Europe. Adler wrote in his autobiography:
“With the onset of the European war, a revival of American isolationism, under the banner of ‘America First,’ enrolled a large following. Among the leaders of that movement were Colonel Lindbergh, Gen. Robert E. Wood (chairman of the board of Sears Roebuck), Bob Hutchins, and Bill Benton, then vice president of the University of Chicago.”
Philosopher Bertrand Russell of England joined Adler and denounced Hitler. Adler claimed his argument against Hitler was supported by ‘natural law’ and, although Russell was correct in opposing Hitler, his argument was weak. Adler wrote:
“Abhorrence of Hitler had caused even Bertrand Russell, not only an avowed pacifist but also a relativist in morals, to advocate taking sides in the struggle because what Hitler stood for was, in his judgment, morally wrong. But my university colleagues would not forsake their skepticism about the objectivity of moral value in order to come out flatly against Nazism as politically and morally outrageous. They were willing and anxious to have us go to war against Nazi Germany, but could not bring themselves to declare that the issue involved rights and wrongs that were not a matter of subjective opinion or entirely relative to the declarant’s prejudices, feelings or point of view.” (Adler, Mortimer J. Philosopher at Large, Macmillan, N.Y. 1977, pp. 217 – 220.)
But before the war, even with a criterion to criticize the status quo, e.g. the natural law and disgust of Hitler, the ambivalence toward fascism as a political system and democracy as practiced in the U.S. and England, was a challenge to Mortimer Adler & Walter Farrell. Farrell was a Dominican priest and recognized as a scholar of the work of Thomas Aquinas. Leo XIII had proclaimed the theology of the 13th century Dominican Friar as the official theology of the Catholic Church.
Adler and Farrell wrote in The Thomist just before the U.S. entered WW II,
“We propose to make a philosophical analysis of democracy. We cannot ignore the fact that this analysis is coincident with a world-wide war which has come to be described as a struggle between the democracies and the totalitarian powers. …We ask the reader to help us by not identifying democracy with the existing governments of England and the United States. …The worst misunderstanding of what we are trying to say would be to suppose our judgment of democracy to be that it is always and everywhere the best form of government for people to adopt. …Far from supposing that democracy is the best form of government relative to every historic situation, we seriously doubt whether in the world today there is any people whose physical, economic, cultural, and moral attainments are yet adequate for the full practice of democracy.” (The Thomist, “The Theory of Democracy,” Mortimer J. Adler and Walter Farrell, O.P. Sheed and Ward, Baltimore, July 1941.)
Before he entered the Trappists, the young Thomas Merton wrote in his diary that he wasn’t so sure about going to war – was the defense of capitalism worth it? For example, he wrote,
“And if we go into the war, it will be first of all to protect our investments, our business, our money. In certain terms it may be useful to defend all these things, an expedient to protect our business so that everybody may have jobs, but if anybody holds up American business as a shining example of justice, or American politics as a shining example of honesty and purity that is really quite a joke.” (Run to the Mountain, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Harper San Francisco, 1996, p. 221) Merton applied for conscientious objector status in March of 1941. (Ibid. p. 361)
Other Catholic academics questioned getting involved in WW II. Jesuit priest, Joseph Husselein, S.J.,Ph.D. wrote in September 1941,
“It is not well for us to presume that the taint of totalitarianism does not exist, to a greater or less extent, in our own English speaking countries under the fair name and the guise of democracy. The teachings of popular professors in secular universities … who logically deny the existence of the natural law … and so derive all rights from the state are merely totalitarian in disguise. They are doctrines entirely subversive of that high ideal built up in the United States by the Founding Fathers on the firm basis of belief in God and consequently in inalienable natural rights from Him alone – rights not given by the state and cannot be taken away by it.” (Husslein, Joseph,S.J., Ph.D. Social Wellsprings, Bruce Publishing Co. Milwaukee, 1942. p. 316.)
There was a Catholic move to conscientious objection based on the common good, the good for all, not a particular nation. Archbishop McNicholas of Cincinnati wrote in a pre-war pastoral letter,
“Will such Christians in our country form a mighty league of conscientious non combatants? The organization of such a league deserves the consideration of all informed Christians who have the best interests of America at heart.”(The Chicago Catholic Worker, “The Case for Conscientious Objection,” Paul Kalinauskas and Ed Marciniak, December 1940, p. 5.)
Conscientious objection would be grounded on human nature, not custom, what works, majority opinion, or might is right. Kalinauskas and Marciniak explain,
“Conscience is a practical moral judgment of the intellect. It is practical because it does not concern itself with theoretical speculation on good and evil but tells man whether or not this particular action may or may not be performed by him, here and now. Men, unlike irrational animals, have been given the faculty of distinguishing between good and evil.” (ibid)
Here Kalinauskas and Marciniak do not argue for conscientious objection based on religious feeling or biblical interpretation, but they base their argument on reason – a natural law approach. Milwaukee native Gordan Zahn took up the challenge and became a WW II conscientious objector. It wasn’t a popular stance.
The January 1942 issue of the Catholic Worker, the first to appear after the declaration of war, displays this headline:
OUR COUNTRY PASSES FROM UNDECLARED WAR TO DECLARED WAR WE CONTINUE OUR CHRISTIAN PACIFIST STAND
Dorothy Day wrote:
“We are still pacifists. Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers. Speaking for many of our conscientious objectors, we will not participate in armed warfare or in making munitions, or buying government bonds to prosecute the war, or in urging others to these efforts.” (The Duty of Delight, “The Diaries of Dorothy Day,” Edited by Robert Ellsberg, p.65, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 2008.)
In Europe, well known German philosopher, Martin Heidegger supported Hitler. In Spain, the Rector at the University of Salamanca, Miguel Unamuno, never spoke out against Franco until it was too late and then was put under house arrest.
Natural law philosophers, theologians, existentialists – few saw what was coming except some artists, – painters Picasso, (Guernica - 1937) Diego Rivera, (The Opponent of Fascism - 1933) Felix Nussbaum, (The Refugee - 1939) Marc Chagall, (White Crucifixion - 1938).
During the War
What about moral political decisions during the war, such as, the continuing massacre of Jews in Europe and the decision to end the war by dropping atom bombs on Japan?
The Holocaust: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued several strong statements condemning Hitler’s massacre of the Jews during the war. In 1944 Roosevelt said, after he was informed of a roundup of Jews in Hungary,
“In one of the blackest crimes of all history-begun by the Nazis in the day of peace and multiplied by them a hundred times in the time of war-the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated every hour.” (op. cit. p. 761.)
Roosevelt thought that conquering Hitler would be the only and quickest way to stop the massacre. He refused to bomb the death camp at Auschwitz or the rail lines feeding it because it would require the diversion of scarce resources. (op.cit, Traitor to His Class, p. 761.)
Rhetoric was not enough for future U.S. President Harry Truman concerning the massacre of the Jews. Truman said in 1943, in what could be construed as a criticism of Roosevelt,
“Merely talking about the four freedoms is not enough. This is the time for action. No one can doubt the horrible intentions of the Nazi beasts. We know they plan the systematic slaughter throughout all of Europe, not only of the Jews, but of vast numbers of other innocent peoples.”(McCullough, David, Truman, Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1992, p. 286.)
As President, Truman was supportive of the creation of the state of Israel.
The Atom Bomb: President Harry Truman explained his decision to use the atom bomb,
“The final decision of where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me. Let there be no mistake about it. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used. The top military advisers to the President recommended its use. And when I talked to Churchill he unhesitatingly told me that he favored the use of the atomic bomb if it might aid to end the war.” David McCullough, Truman. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992, p. 442.)
Some opposed the use of the atom bomb on moral grounds. The following appeared in the magazine Christian Century, August 29, 1945,
“Today a single atomic bomb slaughters tens of thousands of children and their mothers and fathers. Newspapers and radio acclaim it a great victory. Victory for what?”
Albert Camus declared,
“Technological civilization has just reached its final degree of savagery.”
Paulist priest James Gillis, a champion of social justice, a friend to labor, and an enemy of racial segregation, wrote an editorial in the Catholic World stating the use of the bomb was,
“atrocious and abominable …the most powerful blow ever delivered against Christian civilization and the moral law.” (Carroll, James, House of War, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2006, p. 43.)
There was no public comment from Pius XII directly condemning the U.S. and Truman, but the Vatican’s Observatorio Romano August 7, 1945 commented,
“This war provides a catastrophic conclusion. Incredibly this destructive weapon remains as a temptation for posterity, which we know by bitter experience, learns so little from history.”
Pope Pius XII stated,
“Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man.” (Mark Weber, www.1hr.org/jhr/16v16n3p-4_Weber.htlm - Cached.)
Dorothy Day commented in the Catholic Worker September 1945,
“Mr. Truman was jubilant. President Truman. True man; what a strange name, come to think of it. We refer to Jesus Christ as true God and true Man. Truman is a true man of his time in that he was jubilant. He was not a son of God, brother of Christ, brother of the Japanese, jubilating as he did. He went from the table on the cruiser which was bringing him home from the Big Three conference, telling the great news: ‘jubilant’ the newspapers said, Jubilate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese.” (op cit, Duty of Delight, Diaries of Dorothy Day, p.95.)
After the War
After the war Adler and Farrell nuanced and adjusted their before-the- war writings. Adler wrote in his autobiography,
“In 1945, both Father Farrell and I delivered addresses at the American Catholic Philosophical Association, in which we took the position that the superiority of democracy to all other forms of government could no longer be questioned by philosophers who regarded themselves as Aristotelians or Thomists, even though Aristotle and Aquinas could not be quoted in support of that thesis.” (Adler, Mortimer, Philosopher at Large, p. 309, Macmillan, N.Y. 1977.)
How do you justify not speaking out about political-moral atrocities? It’s a political decision. After WWII, Pius XII said,
“The duty of repressing religious and moral error cannot be an ultimate norm of action. It must be subordinated to higher and more general norms which in some circumstances permit, and even perhaps make it appear the better course of action, that error should not be impeded in order to promote to promote the common good.” (Murray, John Courtney S.J. We Hold These Truths, Sheed and Ward, 1960, pp. 61-62 Pius XII, - discourse to Italian Journalists December 6, 1953)
Looking ahead, to the dramatic changes brought about by Vatican II, John Paul II, Apostolic Letter sent on the 50th anniversary of WW II:
“I wish to repeat here in the strongest possible way that hostility and hatred against Judaism are in complete contradiction to the Christian vision of human dignity.” August 27, 1989.
In 2000 John Paul II visited ad Vashem, The National Holocaust Memorial in Israel. “I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church … is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time, in any place.”
He added, “There are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the holocaust.” Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, October 1965: “…what happened in his (Jesus Christ’s) passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed as if such views followed from Holy Scriptures.”
Conclusion: some opinions
Theologian, John Courtney Murray, tied American Catholic theology and philosophy to U.S. Political Democracy after WW II apparently following the lead of fellow Jesuit Joseph Husslein. He wrote that the Declaration of Independence was in agreement with Natural Law theory. He dismissed the notion that democracy was ‘in line’ with the ‘social contract theory’ by simply declaring that no one believes in the ‘Social Contract’ any more. “We no longer believe, with Locke or Hobbes, that man escapes from a mythical ‘state of nature’ by an act of the will by social contract.” (John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1960, p. 7.)
The ‘social contract’ theory and moral relativism implies an atomistic ontology, e.g. - everyone for themselves – survival of the fittest. Atomists would contend the ‘common good’ or the ‘General Welfare’ means the ‘Greatest Good for the greatest number.’ In their most notable speeches both Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt use the word ‘charity’ in the classical sense of selfless love. This is not a word for political policy used by today’s survival of the fittest Ayn Rand followers.
The ‘social contract’ theory breaks down when it is admitted that the majority is not always correct, and there needs to be another standard of judgment. The ‘natural law’ theory fits the bill, but it needs to be reinterpreted. Retired MATC professor and union activist Anne Channell suggested, “It’s just human decency.” If the majority is not always correct, the voice of the minority must be listened to and protected. The best argument for the minority, opposing the majority, is reference to the standard ‘human decency.’ Common sense demands consideration of the common good as defined by Vatican II,
“…the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment.” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church)
Even with the solid framework of the natural law and measured interpretation of Sacred Scripture, complete certitude is not always possible in political morality. Decisions rest on probabilities based on available information, but also sentiments and prejudices which are not always susceptible to immediate analysis. The decisions themselves are political, and unintended moral error is always possible. A broker who takes bets for a living would understand. Despite the uncertainty, especially in times with rapidly changing technology and politics, moral decisions must be made. The best decisions are made, with the least amount of anxiety possible, in Faith, perhaps without direct connection to an organized belief system or theology – e.g. Abraham Lincoln. Moral political decisions must be made with the goal of the common good in light of a ‘preferential option for the poor.’ No longer are political-moral decisions simply local. We must be always aware that we live in a ‘global village.’
Thursday, June 9, 2011
FROM TRAGEDY TO THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
TRAGEDY IN EUROPE
We’re in the midst of the battle. It’s difficult to focus on anything else than the war to prevent a fascist takeover in Wisconsin. But let’s move on from the first two Social Encyclicals to the writings of Pius XII. (Pope 1938-1958)
There is a gnawing question that surfaces. Why plunge into the history of the Roman Catholic Church to find a rationale for Justice? Could a search into the gargoyle-infested Gothic yield anything positive? These are the questions to be asked as we move to consider Pius XII. Maybe it’s OK to just skip over some horrible mistakes of the past and move ahead; let’s relegate the Borgias to a TV “novela”. But with Pius XII the pervasiveness of deliberate evil can’t be ignored. The enormity of the holocaust, its proximity in time; who are we as human beings as the creators of evil? How can anything good come out of this? Another problem: people that profess the Roman Catholic tradition include a large number of sign-of-the-cross, genuflecting, rich and white faithful who want to reverse the “Robin Hood” story, and then there are those who are mostly concerned about who are to be priests and who are to be canonized. They couldn’t care less about Catholic Social Teaching that advocates for workers and insists on a “preferential option for the poor.” But anyway –
Evidence shows that Pius XI (Pope 1922-1939) was sympathetic to the cause of fascism – a third way, the preferred option over capitalism and communism. He signed concordats with Mussolini (1929) and Hitler, (1933) but later denounced the dictators and their policies. (Vs. Hitler, “Mitt brennender Sorge” – 1937. Vs. Mussolini, “Non Abbiamo Bisogno” – 1931) Also, the Vatican led by Pius XII strongly supported the fascist dictator, Franco, in Spain. A major street in Madrid is named Pius XII. He witnessed the Jews of Rome taken to the camps in 1943 and said nothing publically to save Jews from the furnaces. For Pius XII, a few words of explanation are not adequate, but let’s try.
Let’s say Pius XII wasn’t an evil man. He was responsible for witnessing evil without protest, more than a direct cause of evil. We can ask ourselves in our present situation, is such non-action morally acceptable? Could you say that the political situation was a force that mitigates his responsibility - did he see his choices as lesser evils? Also, some of his mistakes were out of ignorance. Not just ignorance of the political situation and the proper course of action, but a policy rooted in a deeply flawed theology that is generated by the theology of the Christian scriptures themselves. Pilate (the Roman Empire) said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves. And the whole people said in reply, ‘His blood be on us and our children.’” (Matt. 27 vs. 24-25) The first Christian theologians developed a story that exonerated Rome and blamed the Jews for the execution of Jesus. The story was presented as historical fact. At the very beginning this was a failed strategy; when Christians were separated from the Jews, the Roman Empire fed the Christians to the lions. Later, under Constantine, Rome, the political empire, became identified with the Christian church, and the Jews faced more vigorous persecution. Were Pius XI and Pius XII looking to a revitalized Holy Roman Empire based in a penitent Europe ruled by an administrative dictator supervised by an infallible moral savant?
Pius XII was more than willing to defend Roman Catholic Jews and he spoke out for U.S. African Americans. He wasn’t a classic fascist in the Nazi sense. He once said of National Socialism in reference to the Nazis, “the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ…the cult of violence, idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity.” (Cronin, Catholic Social Principles, Bruce Publishing, Milwaukee, 1950, p. 162) But the slaughter of millions of Jews, the slaughter of gypsies and others that didn’t meet Hitler’s ethnic and social requirements is a rancid tragedy soaked in blood, and Pius XII was complicit in it all; he said nothing and didn’t do anything significant to challenge Hitler. Is it that many of Hitler’s victims did not meet Pius XII social requirements, was he fearful for the destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and its treasures, where does Faith itself need to be considered? But wait a minute, I suspect that in some way we are all involved, past - present and future; the matter needs continued review. Is forgiveness possible?
Despite it all, the historical review of Catholic Social Teaching is worth it. Catholic Social Teaching provides an epistemological rationale to say there is a right and wrong and people can know the difference; that morality is more than custom, and its criteria to judge go beyond simply “what works.” Granted, no one person or group is free from error, but truth can be known. After all, the tradition relates to the sacred writings of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Maimonides, Averroes, and Thomas Aquinas are all contributors.
And it’s not all forgotten. Read former AFL- CIO President John Sweeney’s speech to “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.” The speech was in honor of the 120th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/cgf050411sweeney.php.
The struggle continues. If anyone asks me why I participated in civil disobedience Thursday June 2nd in Madison, WI, I will respond in terms of Catholic Social Teaching and use Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” King quoted St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the nature of law and morality.
MADISON: THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
The tragic collapse of the reasonable brings on the theatre of the absurd. Resistance is swallowed up by the bizarre, yet courage to be, demands a response. Silence is death.
It started when Joanne & I couldn’t find 14 Mifflin Street where we were to meet the Voces de la Frontera group that was to do civil disobedience. Voces is an immigrant workers’ center based in Milwaukee. Joanne and I are volunteers for the New Sanctuary Movement housed and sponsored by Voces. We eventually found the meeting place about a block from the Capitol. I could explain, but it’s really inexplicable. The last time I recounted one of our getting lost stories, the kids threatened not to let us out of the house by ourselves.
We were late. George Martin, veteran peace activist, had just finished explaining the fundamental principles of non-violent civil disobedience. He looked at us and said, “Look at all these wonderful young people, we’re the only freeze dried hippies here.”
Voces had a press conference on the Capitol steps. The purpose of our visit was to protest the proposed elimination of instate University and Technical College tuition for undocumented children. State Representative Jocasta Zamarripa explained that the program would not increase the University budget and the students have to be residents and graduates of a Wisconsin high school and qualify according to University academic requirements. http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/2011-13%20Budget/Budget%20Papers/750.pdf She said it was a very important program benefitting the state and the students. Voces brought 91 year old Father Bill Brennan, S.J. to the press conference. Father Bill, a former missionary to Honduras, supports immigrant families when and wherever possible. He knows and preaches Catholic Social Teaching. But he was dressed in a long cassock and a stove pipe hat. You could barely see his Roman collar.
We filed to fourth floor conference room in the State Capitol. The room held over 100 people. A tall young man with a blue shirt scooted around between aisles with a blue Segway. Joanne named him the “Blue Giant.” Another tall very thin young man with long red hair shaved on one side was operating his video camera. Places were set in the front for the legislators. They were to sit behind a long desk with microphones for each. Behind on the wall was a sign: “Joint Finance Committee.” OK, I know it’s Madison, but I didn’t know they did that. Attending were a busload of Voces high school students dressed in blue caps and gowns with signs hanging from their necks – “WHAT NOW?” This group did not plan to do civil disobedience. The Voces kids sat quietly, but the others- University students perhaps, I don’t know, - roamed around, went to the front of the room and mocked the legislators. Busy, professionally dressed legislative aides moved around one to the other talking with knowing smiles and head nods. It was a circus atmosphere, and we were ready for action.
The meeting was to start at 1:00 p.m. We waited and waited. Most of the people we did not know. I cautioned Joanne to speak only in Spanish because I didn’t want to give away our civil disobedience plans. We overheard that the meeting would be at 3:00 p.m. We waited, the Voces kids waited – with patience, and the clowning kids continued to entertain us. A little after 3:00 p.m. one of the legislative aides announced that the meeting would be at 5:00 p.m.
Joanne and I went for a bite to eat at a restaurant across from the Capitol building. Joanne ordered apple strudel with cheddar cheese and butter pecan ice cream. I ordered a bratwurst with sauerkraut smothered in salsa picante. We noticed that the Voces students had filed onto their bus. I went out and asked the Voces President, Primitivo Torres, what was going on? He responded that the students had permission from their parents only for the afternoon. He said, “Some are weeping –the legislators don’t want to hear their story.”
We were back at 5:00 p.m.; the civil disobedience cohort was ready to go. The clowns continued clowning. Suddenly a young man in a lacy mantilla was accosted by the police and arrested. He screamed - why? Friends shouted objections. The police took a handbag. People shouted that it didn’t belong to the arrestee. Off they went, people shouting and screaming behind them including the Blue Giant. The Blue Giant returned on his Segway. He denounced the people in the committee room for not protesting. It was a teaching moment. Larry Miller, member of the Milwaukee School Board, tried to explain. “You don’t denounce your allies.” The Blue Giant didn’t seem to understand.
The arrested man returned none the worse for wear. The police mistook him for someone else.
At about 6:45 p.m. the legislative budget committee appeared. Action began in the center ring; the role call triggered our civil disobedience response. Jesus Salas, former University Regent and associate of Cesar Chavez; Larry Miller, Milwaukee School Board Member; Al Levi, high school teacher, advisor to Voces youth group and member of the Voces Board of Directors; and Christine Neuman Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, answered the call. They removed jackets or sweaters to reveal “T” shirts advocating instate tuition. They shouted their message stating that education is a universal right. The Madison police were on them in an instant. Democrats Jauk, Shilling and Taylor demanded that they sit down. The protestors went limp, and the police carried them out one by one. As Jesus Salas was carried out someone screamed, “Be careful, be careful, don’t hurt him.” Al Levi read the “Declaration of Independence” as he was carried out. His professor’s chair, “cathedra” was formed by the embrace of the Madison police.
After the protestors were removed, the meeting began again in earnest. Another protestor stood up, removed her jacket and read a statement advocating instate tuition. She was removed. Then one by one about 30 of us followed the same tactic. As I was carried out our son David called on the cell phone. Joanne answered and said in a whisper, “I can’t talk, Dad is being arrested,” then hung up. On the way home we called Dave and explained.
The police told those that had been carried out that we would have to leave the building and that we could not return that day, but we could return the next day. Outside the building we were met by a large group from Madison Interfaith Worker Justice. They kept up a constant singing of worker justice songs. Joanne and I talked to Rabbi Rene Bauer, the director of the group. Joanne enlisted Rabbi Rene’s support for a committee that is insisting that insurance companies pay workers’ compensate on to the injured undocumented. Rabbi Rene agreed that she would be part of the committee.
We arrived home in time to watch the late TV news on NBC’s WTMJ. There was nothing on the demonstration, but there was an interview with Governor, Scott Walker. He said he was worried about the recall of Republican state legislators, because money was coming from out of state to finance the effort. With that we hit the hay. It was like incredibly totally awesome.
We’re in the midst of the battle. It’s difficult to focus on anything else than the war to prevent a fascist takeover in Wisconsin. But let’s move on from the first two Social Encyclicals to the writings of Pius XII. (Pope 1938-1958)
There is a gnawing question that surfaces. Why plunge into the history of the Roman Catholic Church to find a rationale for Justice? Could a search into the gargoyle-infested Gothic yield anything positive? These are the questions to be asked as we move to consider Pius XII. Maybe it’s OK to just skip over some horrible mistakes of the past and move ahead; let’s relegate the Borgias to a TV “novela”. But with Pius XII the pervasiveness of deliberate evil can’t be ignored. The enormity of the holocaust, its proximity in time; who are we as human beings as the creators of evil? How can anything good come out of this? Another problem: people that profess the Roman Catholic tradition include a large number of sign-of-the-cross, genuflecting, rich and white faithful who want to reverse the “Robin Hood” story, and then there are those who are mostly concerned about who are to be priests and who are to be canonized. They couldn’t care less about Catholic Social Teaching that advocates for workers and insists on a “preferential option for the poor.” But anyway –
Evidence shows that Pius XI (Pope 1922-1939) was sympathetic to the cause of fascism – a third way, the preferred option over capitalism and communism. He signed concordats with Mussolini (1929) and Hitler, (1933) but later denounced the dictators and their policies. (Vs. Hitler, “Mitt brennender Sorge” – 1937. Vs. Mussolini, “Non Abbiamo Bisogno” – 1931) Also, the Vatican led by Pius XII strongly supported the fascist dictator, Franco, in Spain. A major street in Madrid is named Pius XII. He witnessed the Jews of Rome taken to the camps in 1943 and said nothing publically to save Jews from the furnaces. For Pius XII, a few words of explanation are not adequate, but let’s try.
Let’s say Pius XII wasn’t an evil man. He was responsible for witnessing evil without protest, more than a direct cause of evil. We can ask ourselves in our present situation, is such non-action morally acceptable? Could you say that the political situation was a force that mitigates his responsibility - did he see his choices as lesser evils? Also, some of his mistakes were out of ignorance. Not just ignorance of the political situation and the proper course of action, but a policy rooted in a deeply flawed theology that is generated by the theology of the Christian scriptures themselves. Pilate (the Roman Empire) said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves. And the whole people said in reply, ‘His blood be on us and our children.’” (Matt. 27 vs. 24-25) The first Christian theologians developed a story that exonerated Rome and blamed the Jews for the execution of Jesus. The story was presented as historical fact. At the very beginning this was a failed strategy; when Christians were separated from the Jews, the Roman Empire fed the Christians to the lions. Later, under Constantine, Rome, the political empire, became identified with the Christian church, and the Jews faced more vigorous persecution. Were Pius XI and Pius XII looking to a revitalized Holy Roman Empire based in a penitent Europe ruled by an administrative dictator supervised by an infallible moral savant?
Pius XII was more than willing to defend Roman Catholic Jews and he spoke out for U.S. African Americans. He wasn’t a classic fascist in the Nazi sense. He once said of National Socialism in reference to the Nazis, “the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ…the cult of violence, idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity.” (Cronin, Catholic Social Principles, Bruce Publishing, Milwaukee, 1950, p. 162) But the slaughter of millions of Jews, the slaughter of gypsies and others that didn’t meet Hitler’s ethnic and social requirements is a rancid tragedy soaked in blood, and Pius XII was complicit in it all; he said nothing and didn’t do anything significant to challenge Hitler. Is it that many of Hitler’s victims did not meet Pius XII social requirements, was he fearful for the destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and its treasures, where does Faith itself need to be considered? But wait a minute, I suspect that in some way we are all involved, past - present and future; the matter needs continued review. Is forgiveness possible?
Despite it all, the historical review of Catholic Social Teaching is worth it. Catholic Social Teaching provides an epistemological rationale to say there is a right and wrong and people can know the difference; that morality is more than custom, and its criteria to judge go beyond simply “what works.” Granted, no one person or group is free from error, but truth can be known. After all, the tradition relates to the sacred writings of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Maimonides, Averroes, and Thomas Aquinas are all contributors.
And it’s not all forgotten. Read former AFL- CIO President John Sweeney’s speech to “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.” The speech was in honor of the 120th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/cgf050411sweeney.php.
The struggle continues. If anyone asks me why I participated in civil disobedience Thursday June 2nd in Madison, WI, I will respond in terms of Catholic Social Teaching and use Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” King quoted St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the nature of law and morality.
MADISON: THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
The tragic collapse of the reasonable brings on the theatre of the absurd. Resistance is swallowed up by the bizarre, yet courage to be, demands a response. Silence is death.
It started when Joanne & I couldn’t find 14 Mifflin Street where we were to meet the Voces de la Frontera group that was to do civil disobedience. Voces is an immigrant workers’ center based in Milwaukee. Joanne and I are volunteers for the New Sanctuary Movement housed and sponsored by Voces. We eventually found the meeting place about a block from the Capitol. I could explain, but it’s really inexplicable. The last time I recounted one of our getting lost stories, the kids threatened not to let us out of the house by ourselves.
We were late. George Martin, veteran peace activist, had just finished explaining the fundamental principles of non-violent civil disobedience. He looked at us and said, “Look at all these wonderful young people, we’re the only freeze dried hippies here.”
Voces had a press conference on the Capitol steps. The purpose of our visit was to protest the proposed elimination of instate University and Technical College tuition for undocumented children. State Representative Jocasta Zamarripa explained that the program would not increase the University budget and the students have to be residents and graduates of a Wisconsin high school and qualify according to University academic requirements. http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/2011-13%20Budget/Budget%20Papers/750.pdf She said it was a very important program benefitting the state and the students. Voces brought 91 year old Father Bill Brennan, S.J. to the press conference. Father Bill, a former missionary to Honduras, supports immigrant families when and wherever possible. He knows and preaches Catholic Social Teaching. But he was dressed in a long cassock and a stove pipe hat. You could barely see his Roman collar.
We filed to fourth floor conference room in the State Capitol. The room held over 100 people. A tall young man with a blue shirt scooted around between aisles with a blue Segway. Joanne named him the “Blue Giant.” Another tall very thin young man with long red hair shaved on one side was operating his video camera. Places were set in the front for the legislators. They were to sit behind a long desk with microphones for each. Behind on the wall was a sign: “Joint Finance Committee.” OK, I know it’s Madison, but I didn’t know they did that. Attending were a busload of Voces high school students dressed in blue caps and gowns with signs hanging from their necks – “WHAT NOW?” This group did not plan to do civil disobedience. The Voces kids sat quietly, but the others- University students perhaps, I don’t know, - roamed around, went to the front of the room and mocked the legislators. Busy, professionally dressed legislative aides moved around one to the other talking with knowing smiles and head nods. It was a circus atmosphere, and we were ready for action.
The meeting was to start at 1:00 p.m. We waited and waited. Most of the people we did not know. I cautioned Joanne to speak only in Spanish because I didn’t want to give away our civil disobedience plans. We overheard that the meeting would be at 3:00 p.m. We waited, the Voces kids waited – with patience, and the clowning kids continued to entertain us. A little after 3:00 p.m. one of the legislative aides announced that the meeting would be at 5:00 p.m.
Joanne and I went for a bite to eat at a restaurant across from the Capitol building. Joanne ordered apple strudel with cheddar cheese and butter pecan ice cream. I ordered a bratwurst with sauerkraut smothered in salsa picante. We noticed that the Voces students had filed onto their bus. I went out and asked the Voces President, Primitivo Torres, what was going on? He responded that the students had permission from their parents only for the afternoon. He said, “Some are weeping –the legislators don’t want to hear their story.”
We were back at 5:00 p.m.; the civil disobedience cohort was ready to go. The clowns continued clowning. Suddenly a young man in a lacy mantilla was accosted by the police and arrested. He screamed - why? Friends shouted objections. The police took a handbag. People shouted that it didn’t belong to the arrestee. Off they went, people shouting and screaming behind them including the Blue Giant. The Blue Giant returned on his Segway. He denounced the people in the committee room for not protesting. It was a teaching moment. Larry Miller, member of the Milwaukee School Board, tried to explain. “You don’t denounce your allies.” The Blue Giant didn’t seem to understand.
The arrested man returned none the worse for wear. The police mistook him for someone else.
At about 6:45 p.m. the legislative budget committee appeared. Action began in the center ring; the role call triggered our civil disobedience response. Jesus Salas, former University Regent and associate of Cesar Chavez; Larry Miller, Milwaukee School Board Member; Al Levi, high school teacher, advisor to Voces youth group and member of the Voces Board of Directors; and Christine Neuman Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, answered the call. They removed jackets or sweaters to reveal “T” shirts advocating instate tuition. They shouted their message stating that education is a universal right. The Madison police were on them in an instant. Democrats Jauk, Shilling and Taylor demanded that they sit down. The protestors went limp, and the police carried them out one by one. As Jesus Salas was carried out someone screamed, “Be careful, be careful, don’t hurt him.” Al Levi read the “Declaration of Independence” as he was carried out. His professor’s chair, “cathedra” was formed by the embrace of the Madison police.
After the protestors were removed, the meeting began again in earnest. Another protestor stood up, removed her jacket and read a statement advocating instate tuition. She was removed. Then one by one about 30 of us followed the same tactic. As I was carried out our son David called on the cell phone. Joanne answered and said in a whisper, “I can’t talk, Dad is being arrested,” then hung up. On the way home we called Dave and explained.
The police told those that had been carried out that we would have to leave the building and that we could not return that day, but we could return the next day. Outside the building we were met by a large group from Madison Interfaith Worker Justice. They kept up a constant singing of worker justice songs. Joanne and I talked to Rabbi Rene Bauer, the director of the group. Joanne enlisted Rabbi Rene’s support for a committee that is insisting that insurance companies pay workers’ compensate on to the injured undocumented. Rabbi Rene agreed that she would be part of the committee.
We arrived home in time to watch the late TV news on NBC’s WTMJ. There was nothing on the demonstration, but there was an interview with Governor, Scott Walker. He said he was worried about the recall of Republican state legislators, because money was coming from out of state to finance the effort. With that we hit the hay. It was like incredibly totally awesome.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
MAY 1ST 2011 SOLIDARITY MARCH – A REFLECTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE FIRST TWO SOCIAL ENCYCLICALS – RERUM NOVARUM and QUADRAGESIMO ANNO
Photos by Sue Ruggles
A record crowd was out on the streets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday May 1, 2011 for the annual May Day Immigrant Worker’s March for Justice. It was an historical event, not so much because of the massive crowd, but because it demonstrated solidarity between immigrant workers and the labor movement. The labor movement itself has its divisions, but many with SEIU jackets and shirts marched and cheered the speech by Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. The SEIU belongs to a different federation of unions called – “Change to Win,” ever since they separated from the AFL-CIO in 2005. Members of the UE –Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, who are not affiliated with either federation, were also represented. The UE
received national attention in 2009 by forcing the Bank of America to pay workers owed benefits and wages at Chicago’s “Republic Windows and Doors” when the company closed. Because of restrictive labor law many workers are not able to be part of a union, but thousands of workers marched even though they are not. Thanks to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for getting us together. Walker is attempting to take away most collective bargaining rights from State empolyees.
A key speech at the rally on May 1st was given by Mahlon Mitchell, President of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. Mitchell stated that Scott Walker offered to exempt the firefighters from the take away of collective bargaining rights in order to split the firefighters from other state workers. The firefighters responded by denouncing Walker’s plan and marching in solidarity with labor. Catholic Social Teaching provides different reasons on the importance of getting together.
The solidarity expressed by the march was not exactly the solidarity proclaimed by the first two social encyclicals. The march solidarity is the solidarity expressed by Polish Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei (1987). John Paul II was beatified at the Vatican on the very day of the March –May 1,2011. Compare the two statements.
SOLIDARITY – Rerum Novarum (1891) Para. 39. “Neither capital can do without labor nor labor without capital.” Quadragesimo Anno (1931). Para 69. “…there is a social aspect… For man’s productive efforts cannot yield its fruits unless a truly social and organic body exists, unless a social and judicial order watches over the exercise of work, unless the various occupations, being independent, cooperate with and mutually complete one another, and what is still more important, unless mind, material things, and work combine and form as it were a single whole.”
“SOLIDARNOSC” - SOLIDARITY -“J.P. II Sollicitudo Rei (1987), Para. 38. Solidarity – “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say the good of all and each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is the desire for profit and the thirst for power …. These attitudes and ‘structures of sin’ are only conquered…by a diametrically opposed attitude…” Archbishop Listecki commented on the occasion of the beatification of Pope John Paul II. He noted that John Paul’s confidence that the Holy Spirit dwells within the church, “… generated his (John Paul II’s) warnings to capitalism and its potential for greed and the accumulation of wealth which entices us to live apart from the responsibility we have to our brothers and sisters.” (Milwaukee Catholic Herald May 5, 2011)
The first encyclicals advanced a theory of “corporatism” which could be called fascistic. It advocates the notion of the economic system as a body or “corpus” in Latin. All the parts are to work together as directed by the head. The analogy was used by St. Paul in a letter to the Christian sect of Judaism in Corinth, Greece (1 Cor. C. 12, v. 13) . “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons …” Pius XII in a 1943 encyclical described the Roman Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. (Mystici Corporis) War time Pontiff Pius XII reinforced the corporate model and corporate meaning of solidarity, “… the principal part of the Encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, which contains the Church’s real program: viz., the idea of a corporate, occupational order of the entire economy.” (Address of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, to the Italian Catholic Association of Owner-Managers, 1952.) Pius XII strongly supported Franco’s fascist government in Spain. Paul’s analogy does not work when stretched to include an economic system or a particular Christian church group especially since Paul was the "prime analogate" of dissidence.
Fascism or Corporatism does not allow for strikes. Apparently Pius XI in writing Quadragesimo Anno never envisioned the principal of “subsidiarity” in a legitimate clash with “solidarity.” Labor had the right to organize – to be a stick in the fascist bundle, but a strike – or a labor stoppage was not acceptable. “Strikes and lock-outs are forbidden; if the parties cannot settle their dispute, public authority intervenes.” Q.A. Para. 94
The 1919 American Bishop’s Pastoral on the Economy affirmed the Q.A. and R.N. position that strikes are an erroneous tactic. However by 1950, American Roman Catholic theologians took exception. Rev. John Cronin of the Catholic University of America wrote, “That workers in general have the right to strike is usually conceded.” (Catholic Social Principles, Rev. John Cronin, S.S., Ph.D. Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950). Paul VI in his Encyclical, Octogesima Anno, (1971) recognized workers’ right to strike with qualifications. “…the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes - the right to which as a final means of defense is certainly recognized - conditions which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the social body …”Para.14. Paul VI’s predecessor, John XXIII, had ended the complete support of the Vatican for fascist Franco in Spain.
In its formative years neo-liberalism negated the right to strike in the U.S. During the Reagan years, the 1938 Supreme Court decision to allow replacement workers during a strike was put into effect. This policy eliminated the possible effectiveness of a strike. The Scott Walker attempt to eliminate collective bargaining is the latest effort to eliminate labor unions and establish complete economic control by capital supported by the government.
Kevin Mulvenna, MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College)instructor, closed a video of the Madison demonstrations by noting that values are the most difficult subject to teach। For the public and the participants, the Madison demonstrations were an important lesson learned about democracy। Kevin, with tears of pride and joy, stated that he was happy that his kids were participants। Hope does not reside in the White House, but in the streets of Milwaukee and Madison.
The ultimate success of the May Day March of 2011 in Milwaukee will be difficult to determine, but for now let’s call it an experience of identity and consciousness raising.
A record crowd was out on the streets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday May 1, 2011 for the annual May Day Immigrant Worker’s March for Justice. It was an historical event, not so much because of the massive crowd, but because it demonstrated solidarity between immigrant workers and the labor movement. The labor movement itself has its divisions, but many with SEIU jackets and shirts marched and cheered the speech by Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. The SEIU belongs to a different federation of unions called – “Change to Win,” ever since they separated from the AFL-CIO in 2005. Members of the UE –Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, who are not affiliated with either federation, were also represented. The UE
received national attention in 2009 by forcing the Bank of America to pay workers owed benefits and wages at Chicago’s “Republic Windows and Doors” when the company closed. Because of restrictive labor law many workers are not able to be part of a union, but thousands of workers marched even though they are not. Thanks to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for getting us together. Walker is attempting to take away most collective bargaining rights from State empolyees.
A key speech at the rally on May 1st was given by Mahlon Mitchell, President of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. Mitchell stated that Scott Walker offered to exempt the firefighters from the take away of collective bargaining rights in order to split the firefighters from other state workers. The firefighters responded by denouncing Walker’s plan and marching in solidarity with labor. Catholic Social Teaching provides different reasons on the importance of getting together.The solidarity expressed by the march was not exactly the solidarity proclaimed by the first two social encyclicals. The march solidarity is the solidarity expressed by Polish Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei (1987). John Paul II was beatified at the Vatican on the very day of the March –May 1,2011. Compare the two statements.
SOLIDARITY – Rerum Novarum (1891) Para. 39. “Neither capital can do without labor nor labor without capital.” Quadragesimo Anno (1931). Para 69. “…there is a social aspect… For man’s productive efforts cannot yield its fruits unless a truly social and organic body exists, unless a social and judicial order watches over the exercise of work, unless the various occupations, being independent, cooperate with and mutually complete one another, and what is still more important, unless mind, material things, and work combine and form as it were a single whole.”
“SOLIDARNOSC” - SOLIDARITY -“J.P. II Sollicitudo Rei (1987), Para. 38. Solidarity – “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say the good of all and each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is the desire for profit and the thirst for power …. These attitudes and ‘structures of sin’ are only conquered…by a diametrically opposed attitude…” Archbishop Listecki commented on the occasion of the beatification of Pope John Paul II. He noted that John Paul’s confidence that the Holy Spirit dwells within the church, “… generated his (John Paul II’s) warnings to capitalism and its potential for greed and the accumulation of wealth which entices us to live apart from the responsibility we have to our brothers and sisters.” (Milwaukee Catholic Herald May 5, 2011)
The first encyclicals advanced a theory of “corporatism” which could be called fascistic. It advocates the notion of the economic system as a body or “corpus” in Latin. All the parts are to work together as directed by the head. The analogy was used by St. Paul in a letter to the Christian sect of Judaism in Corinth, Greece (1 Cor. C. 12, v. 13) . “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons …” Pius XII in a 1943 encyclical described the Roman Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. (Mystici Corporis) War time Pontiff Pius XII reinforced the corporate model and corporate meaning of solidarity, “… the principal part of the Encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, which contains the Church’s real program: viz., the idea of a corporate, occupational order of the entire economy.” (Address of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, to the Italian Catholic Association of Owner-Managers, 1952.) Pius XII strongly supported Franco’s fascist government in Spain. Paul’s analogy does not work when stretched to include an economic system or a particular Christian church group especially since Paul was the "prime analogate" of dissidence.
Fascism or Corporatism does not allow for strikes. Apparently Pius XI in writing Quadragesimo Anno never envisioned the principal of “subsidiarity” in a legitimate clash with “solidarity.” Labor had the right to organize – to be a stick in the fascist bundle, but a strike – or a labor stoppage was not acceptable. “Strikes and lock-outs are forbidden; if the parties cannot settle their dispute, public authority intervenes.” Q.A. Para. 94
The 1919 American Bishop’s Pastoral on the Economy affirmed the Q.A. and R.N. position that strikes are an erroneous tactic. However by 1950, American Roman Catholic theologians took exception. Rev. John Cronin of the Catholic University of America wrote, “That workers in general have the right to strike is usually conceded.” (Catholic Social Principles, Rev. John Cronin, S.S., Ph.D. Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1950). Paul VI in his Encyclical, Octogesima Anno, (1971) recognized workers’ right to strike with qualifications. “…the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes - the right to which as a final means of defense is certainly recognized - conditions which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the social body …”Para.14. Paul VI’s predecessor, John XXIII, had ended the complete support of the Vatican for fascist Franco in Spain.
In its formative years neo-liberalism negated the right to strike in the U.S. During the Reagan years, the 1938 Supreme Court decision to allow replacement workers during a strike was put into effect. This policy eliminated the possible effectiveness of a strike. The Scott Walker attempt to eliminate collective bargaining is the latest effort to eliminate labor unions and establish complete economic control by capital supported by the government.
Kevin Mulvenna, MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College)instructor, closed a video of the Madison demonstrations by noting that values are the most difficult subject to teach। For the public and the participants, the Madison demonstrations were an important lesson learned about democracy। Kevin, with tears of pride and joy, stated that he was happy that his kids were participants। Hope does not reside in the White House, but in the streets of Milwaukee and Madison. The ultimate success of the May Day March of 2011 in Milwaukee will be difficult to determine, but for now let’s call it an experience of identity and consciousness raising.
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