The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine Part Thirteen, Poverty by Bill Droel

  

It’s published in Wall St. Journal (4/30/23), so it must be true. It’s an essay about wages by Michael Lind. He begins with a quotation from Adam Smith (1723-1790), a theorist for modern capitalism. For capitalism to thrive, Smith says employees must get a family wage.

Family wage is a principle of Catholic social doctrine. A slogan from Unite Here, a union of hotel workers with headquarters in Manhattan, is a good paraphrase of our Catholic principle: “One Job Should Be Enough.” Our U.S. bishops described a family wage in their 1919 Program of Social Reconstruction. Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) has it in his 1931 encyclical Reconstructing the Social Order, as does Vatican II (1962-1965). St. John Paul II (1920-2005) also writes about it. The idea is that one wage earner should be paid at least enough to support a family, including its education needs, some funds for leisure plus for modest savings. The amount of that wage can differ by location and by the type of job. A family can have a second wage earner, but the family’s survival should not depend on that arrangement. St. John Paul II emphasizes that the measure of a society’s justice is its wage structure. All other compensations and social policies and management plans are accessories.

Lind says that our economy does not abide by the family wage principle but uses a model he calls low-wage/high-welfare. Many employees get inadequate pay but stay afloat through Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, housing vouchers and more. In other words, as Lind writes, “taxpayers pay to rescue workers whose work does not pay enough.”

Lower wages allow for lower costs which benefit some consumers. For example, middle-class and upper-class families are winners in the low-wage/high welfare economy when they hire housekeepers or landscapers. The losers are taxpayers and of course the underpaid.

Matthew Desmond in Poverty, By America (Crown, 2023) agrees. Poverty resists elimination despite charitable endeavors and social welfare because some people benefit from the poverty of others. “Poverty is an injury, a taking,” says Desmond. Normally, people are unaware of how their lifestyle depends on the perpetuation of poverty. However, Desmond’s book makes it plain, using many examples including our tolerance for insubstantial wages.

There’s a corollary to the principle of a just wage. Because an employee agrees to a sub-level wage the criteria for justice is not met. Adherence to this aspect of Catholic doctrine means, for example, that a pastor cannot morally pay a teacher less than a just wage because the teacher understands the job as a vocation. The standard is objective, not subjective. That standard does, however, take into account that a just wage in a small town, for example, might be lower than a comparable wage in Manhattan.

There is plenty of room for debate as to how to achieve just wages. Lind mentions collective bargaining, but he is not happy about a bargaining unit at one Starbucks and then a different unit at the next Starbucks. He suggests sector or multi-employer bargaining might be better. This idea is like the Catholic idea of an industry council plan. To be continued…

Written for Catholic Labor Network (www.catholiclabor.org); 5/3/23

For more on this topic get St. John Paul II’s Gospel of Work edited by Bill Droel (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $8.)

A Prayer for Peace by Saint Patrick of Ireland

 Our situation of perpetual war seems impossible to change.  The politics of non-violence advocated by Martin Luther King seem to be ignored.  Prayer can provide the inspiration to continue in the struggle for the joy of creative peace.

Saint Patrick of Ireland negotiated with druids and the kings they served.  He vehemently opposed slavery and advocated for women’s rights, but he never established an army to fight the pirates and slave traders.  His appeal was to their humanity.  His defense was a ‘Breastplate’, the breastplate of prayer which follows.

Breastplate of Saint Patrick

I bind myself today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

of the Creator of creation.

I bind myself today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,              Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I bind myself today

Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,

In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.                           

In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,                         In the prayers of patriarchs,                                            

In the predictions of prophets,                                                       In the preaching of apostles,

I bind myself today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning

The swiftness of wind

The depth of the sea,

The stability of the earth,

The firmness of rock.

I bind myself today, through

God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me

God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.

I summon today

All these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel and merciless power

that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom,

gainst false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind myself today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

of the Creator of creation.

We know that Patrick is with us in our quest for an enduring peace.

May 1st 2023

 

This year’s May 1^st March, sponsored by Voces de la Frontera, begins at the Voces office, 1015 S. 5^th Street, at 11:00 a.m.  Demonstrators will march to the office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, N. 6^th and Wells Streets.  Following the rally at the DMV office, marchers will continue on to Zeidler Park on 4^th and Michigan Streets for

a final rally. 

             

The May 1^st March is also a memorial to immigrant workers who were marching for an Eight Hour Day and were killed in Milwaukee and Chicago in May of 1886.  After a bizarre trial in Chicago, several workers were condemned to be hanged.  One of the immigrant workers from Germany, August Spies, wrote in an autobiography requested by the Knights of Labor that his death would be a spark in securing workers’ rights. 

In his autobiography Spies quotes Rev. Thomas Muntzer, a colleague of Martin Luther:  “Look you, the sediment of the soup of usury, theft and robbery are the Great, the masters, they take all creatures as their property, the fish in the water, the birds in the air; and the vegetation of the earth.  And then they preach God’s commandment to the poor; ‘Thou shall not steal.’  But this is not for themselves.  They bone and scrape the poor farmer and mechanic until these have nothing left, then, when the latter put their hands on the sacred things, they are hanged.  And Doctor Liar says, Amen!  The masters do it themselves, that the poor man hates them.  The cause of the rebellion they won’t abolish, how then can things change to the better.  And I say this, I am an incendiary—let it be so!”

Thomas Muntzer

Muntzer and Luther broke over the Peasants’ War (1525); Luther advocated the suppression of the Peasants.

                                                            Martin Luther

Pastor Paul P. Kuenning concluded in his essay, “Luther and Muntzer:  Contrasting Theologies in Regard to Secular Authority within the Context of the German Peasant Revolt,” as follows:  “Luther’s heritage is a needful reminder that it is important to oppose violence, while Muntzer [a colleague of Luther] reminds one that it is not enough to reject only the violence of those who strike against injustice and oppression, while condoning the sometimes more subtle violence of their oppressors.  Somewhere between Muntzer’s theology of revolution and Luther’s theology of devotion, there lies a theology of nonviolent activism.”

August Spies and three comrades were hanged on November 11, 1887.  He and his union brothers are buried at Waldheim Cemetery in suburban Chicago.

Sources:  

The autobiographies of the HAYMARKET MARTYRS, Edited by Philip S. Foner, Pathfinder, New York, 1969.

“Luther and Muntzer:  Contrasting theologies in Regard to secular Authority within the Context of the German Peasant Revolt,” by Paul P. Kuenning; from the Journal of Church and State, Vol. 29, Spring 1987.

 

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine Part Twelve by Bill Droel

 

Stay in your lane. That’s one paraphrase of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. The word itself is not found in most English dictionaries. It is derived from the Latin word subsidium, meaning help or aid. The idea behind this principle is that higher or bigger entities should assist lower or smaller entities, not usurp them. It can apply to family life, to dealings within business, in schools and other social realms. It generally is invoked in the context of the relationship between government and civil society, including families.

There are other renderings of subsidiarity: small is beautiful, no bigger than necessary, decisions are made as close as possible to those affected by the decision and more. When it is observed, subsidiarity protects freedom by keeping the remote, bureaucratic entities like government or big business from displacing the agency of citizens and consumers. In the same way it teaches people to be responsible. The principle says, never do for others what they can do for themselves (and always do for others what they cannot do for themselves). No paternalism.

Some neoconservatives have wrongly rendered the subsidiarity principle to mean that government that governs least, governs best. Subsidiarity is not anti-government nor is subsidiarity anti-business. There are many situations when big government and big business are the proper entities to address a need. These are situations in which no lower entity can do the job.

Covid-19 and subsequent plagues will not slow down if one family and then another does its best to devise a homemade remedy. Of course, the government and business have not been perfect in their response to Covid-19. There has been poor communication at times, some misguided strategy and inadequate coordination. But government was the only entity capable of keeping payroll accounts flush for businesses forced to close for safety. Government research and investment, paired with large pharmaceutical companies and drug store chains, made possible the manufacturing and distribution of anti-Covid vaccines in record time.

Perhaps in the emergency situation of Covid-19 the government and big medicine overreached, bypassing those institutions closest to those affected. Maybe smaller mediating entities could, for example, improve the rate of vaccine acceptance if they (churches, union halls and neighborhood clubs) were involved in delivering the shots. Credit should be given to those community organizations and some small business associations that on their own promote anti-Covid strategies.

Subsidiarity is the principle that celebrates those voluntary platoons that stand between a ragged individual and the impersonal forces of government and big business. These are mediating institutions like extended family, congregation, union, ethnic club, professional association, neighborhood organization and the like.

Whenever the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is articulated, someone is sure make the valid objection that Catholic leaders and Catholic institutions do not follow the principle. Catholic leaders repeatedly do not make decisions closest to those affected by the decision.

A grievous example of subsidiarity’s violation is our bishops’ mishandling of deviant Church employees who abuse children. Each terrible incident was managed from the top-down. A small number of officials covered up the deviance, going so far as to not even inform a pastor or a congregation when a known abuser was reassigned to a parish.  No lower entity, like a clergy personnel board, a congregation or a neighborhood, was consulted.

A second difficulty in implementing subsidiarity is the steady decline in participation within mediating groups. Nowadays there are fewer members of all lower entities (parish, union, association or neighborhood group) than in the 1970s. Those who stay involved are devoting less time and energy than the leaders of such groups in years gone by. To be continued…

Droel serves the board of National Center for the Laity in Chicago.

Does the Truth Change?

     National Public Radio reporter, Vanessa Romo, quotes the audit done by the Anti-Defamation League:  “Anti-semitic incidents in the U.S. rose 36% in 2022,…”  Can we look to causes or does this just happen?  Let us look at a possible root cause, the New Testament.  This article will be just a glimpse of the Antisemitism in the Gospels. It will focus on the Gospel of Matthew and the a Antisemitism in Saint Thomas Aquinas as indicated in his Commentary on Matthew, Chapter 27.    The theology of St. Thomas Aquinas was designated by Pope Leo XIII (1878 - 1903) as the official theology of the Church.

The Gospel of Saint Matthew was written in the year 70 AD for Jewish Christians, approximately 40 years after Jesus’ death. Matthew’s narrative of Jesus before Pilate answers Pilate’s question of who is responsible for Jesus’ death.  The crowd replies, “…his blood be upon us and upon our children.” (Mt. 27:25) The other three Gospels do not have this answer.  What does Matthew mean?  All Jews for all time?  Jesus was a Jew.  Does this include his family?  The early Christians, still a part of Judaism, included Peter and James, Jesus’ brother, a former Pharisee, both Jews.  What about Paul the former Pharisee?  The early Christians were Jews.  Paul, a Jew, wrote primarily to Gentiles before Matthew’s Gospel was written.

Thomas’ Commentary says, “And in this way it came about that Christ’s blood is demanded of them even to this day; and what is said fits them well: the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the earth (Gen 4:10).  We cannot hold Thomas to contemporary biblical research, but he should be held to simple Aristotelian logic with which he was very familiar.  Can the action of a limited number be applied to all Jews for all time? 

Such scapegoating has resulted in fierce Antisemitism; for example, the slaughter of the Jews in the Rhine Valley in the first Crusade in 1095.  The most horrible of all, the Holocaust, the slaughter of six million Jews by Hitler’s Germany during World War II. 

Vatican II concluded that the Jews were not responsible for Christ’s death.  The document is named “Nostra Aetate”, (In Our Time).  So the position of the Catholic Church changed from the time of the first Crusade and Thomas’ later Commentary.  Is it that ‘truth’ changed and in ‘our age’ the Jews are innocent of Jesus’ death?

We need to look at root causes of anti-Semitism.  This is an existential challenge to Christianity. 

Resources:

Weisheipl, O.P., James A., Friar Thomas D’Aquino his life, thought and works,  Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, (1256 - 1259 lecture in Paris) p. 371;      Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NewYork, 1974.

Thomas Aquinas, O.P., Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, p.  431, (Paragraph 2343); The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, Lander, Wyoming, 2013.

 

St. Patrick (385 – 461): Sacred Earth and Celtic Spirituality

Saint Patrick focused on nature.

                                A tree in embrace of the universe.

 I arise today 

Through the strength of heaven; 

Light of sun, 

Radiance of moon, 

Splendor of fire,  

Speed of lightening,  

Swiftness of wind, 

Depth of sea, 

Stability of earth,  

Firmness of rock.                                                                                                                                     (From the Breastplate of Patrick)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Seeing God in nature was different than the dualism of Saint Augustine whose Platonic philosophy saw beauty and God in ideas rather than nature itself.  The collapse of Augustine’s beloved Roman Empire made him view the earthly as evil.

 Other Celtic theologians were of the same mindset as Patrick.  For Pelagius there was no room for original sin.  Pelagius emphasized the integrity of the human person.  He did not rely on original sin which condemns the human person upon creation.  For Pelagius the person is responsible for their actions, both good and evil.

 

                                                                                                   (451-525 A.D.)

Bridget saw nature in action as a movement of God towards God.  She was an able leader and the fit foundress and abbess of the monastery of Kildare which covered a vast amount of acreage.

Patrick was a slave and after he achieved freedom, he condemned slavery which was commonly accepted in Christian theology, for example, in the letters of Saint Paul: Ephesians 6:5, 7; I Corinthians 15:24, 28; Philemon.  Was Paul waiting for the second coming. In a letter to Coroticus, a slave trader, Patrick denounced the practice of slavery.  He was especially adamant in defending women’s rights.

The Council of Whitby, 664 A.D., established Augustinian dualistic theology as normative.  Celtic theology of Patrick would have respected nature, the person and the sacred earth.  What if the Council of Whitby had established Patrick, Pelagius, Maeve, and Bridget as founders of the Church?  It’s time for a change. 

The Working Catholic: Church and Tech by Bill Droel

 Covid-19 accelerated our churches’ use of streaming and other audio-visual tools.  

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a pioneer in media studies. Yet he is largely ignored in our day of omni-present media.  Digital Communion by Nick Ripatrazone (Fortress Press, 2022) sets out to revive McLuhan through a focus on his Catholic faith.  

McLuhan died before our universal use of mobile devices and laptops, before social media and before niche TV channels.  Thus, some might say, he is irrelevant today. McLuhan is a fun writer, but—at least to some—he feels frivolous.  He offers zingers, “probes,” and “explorations” without sustaining an argument. Readers might prefer “polished sentences and learned syntaxes,” Ripatrazone explains. A long, logical presentation, however, “can trick us into thinking that stylistic writing equals intellectual certainty, but McLuhan felt such an approach stymied inquiry.” Instead, McLuhan’s books are peppered with cartoons, reproductions of advertisements, provocative one-liners, discursive illusions to literature and more. “I don’t explain, I explore,” McLuhan said.  

Perhaps McLuhan is neglected because his central idea was never well-understood. For example, parents and teachers are wary about content on social media or on various websites. Others are concerned about how information is presented by TV commentators.  McLuhan’s interest in media was different. His tag line was “The medium is the message.” The primary concern, he believed, is not content. It is the technology itself. Simply having a mobile device in one’s pocket, changes the environment. A laptop or a TV in the house, no matter what website is accessed or what channel is tuned-in, changes its user and the environment. A mounted screen inside a church changes worship, regardless of what is projected.  

McLuhan, contrary to an assumption during his time, was not a cheerleader for each new invention. He wanted his audience to be aware that the use of a technology conforms them to that technology and that, especially with screens, media has the power to anesthetize.

Yet, McLuhan decidedly was not a prophet of doom. He had a Catholic sensibility, Ripatrazone writes. Our experience of the world comes to us “in disparate images, experiences and ideas,” Ripatrazone continues.  And to McLuhan and others who share a sacramental imagination, it is all unified by God. Our world is full of grace, though flawed by sinful people and their wayward institutions.  McLuhan’s challenge is to look not only for the message but for the nature of the medium (positive and negative) in each of our encounters.  Media effect a change, Ripatrazone says, not only through the content we receive but in the way we think and act.  

        Well, then what about churches that are installing big screens on both sides of the altar?  Isn’t that in keeping with the so-called new evangelization? What about putting the parish bulletin online?  After all, isn’t that where the young adults are?  And what about live-streaming the Mass for months to come?

         Ripatrazone concludes with an observation from Fr. Anthony Lusvardi, SJ, who blogs about the liturgy at www.tonylusvardisj.com.  Covid-19 necessitated some limitations on worship and consequent broadcasts of the Mass.  The productions varied in sophistication and ease of access. There was and remains ambivalence about it all. Lusvardi is disturbed about fitting the Mass “within the parameters of the broadcast.” Ripatrazone asks: Is a Mass mediated through technology really participation in a sacrament? Doesn’t a “digital communion” turn the Eucharist into pictures of bread and wine and thereby turn worship into a passive show watched by one or four people in their den? If technology individuates, what happens to community during a broadcast Mass?

        McLuhan did not necessarily denounce the latest. His advice was to delve deeper into how each technology changes us culturally, personally and theologically. What are the longer term consequences for a sacramental faith when its churches lean-into cyber-technology?

Droel edits a print newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL60629)