For Labor Day, church should embody social teachings

It might have helped a little at the time, and would help now whenever it happens, if "anonymous" archbishops who are under great pressure by a political party to take a partisan political stand made that fact public. I suppose as an archbishop he might be afraid of losing a cardinal's hat but otherwise what is going to happen to the man. What is there to fear?

Remember the great Catholic labor leader Cesar Chavez and the bishops who supported, him including from Connecticut.

Read César Chávez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers’ Struggle for Social Justice - Paperback (Sept. 15, 2008) by Marco G. Prouty

Thank you, Fr. Richard for reminding us and the Church of our responsibilities as citizens and Catholics. It is really sad to live at this time of conservative politization of the USBC. It seems that the social justice teachings of the Church have been reduced to one pro-life issue: abortion.
Please, continue pointing out the failures and successes, past and present, of our catholicism. The Holy Spirit may transform some hearts. I hope tha more "teachers become witnesses."

The current crop of American bishops could care less about working people. They are more concerned with cracking down on nuns and church employees to enforce "orthodoxy." A more mediocre group of men would be difficult to find.

I’ve often wondered how different the American Catholic Church might be if more bishops preferred bowling to golf? There may be many fine people at the country clubs but most average Catholics have very different life experiences and concerns.

I heartily agree. In defence of the bishops, it is only what they have been taught to do. But as you say, their behaviour is embarrassing.
Des

Thanks, Father, for continuing to bear witness to the true mission of the church.

The hope that the Church will face it's "responsibility to practice what it preaches and teaches about social justice and human rights" - should also apply to Catholic Schools.
Catholic Schools should be open to the poor; but our schools are serving more the middle-class and rich. Furthermore, A "preferential option for the poor" should be maintained in our Catholic Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the poor, the schools should be closed and the resources used for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must close and the resources
used for "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" and other programs which can
be kept open to the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic
Schools for centuries. We can get along without them today. The essential
factor is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely,
THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the
poor come first.

You mean expect our bishops to behave as if the really believed what they preach?

Father McBrien, surely you jest!

Among issues that should be embodied in social teaching is the fragility of natural ecology and the desperate straits humankind is in because of human disregard for and waste of the Naturalis Sacramentum Ordinis.

http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/researchnews/tippingtowardst...

I want to applaud the words of Fr. McBrien. No longer can the church hide from its own teachings of social justice.

Where are others in this conversation, either such as Fr, McBrien or even those in the community with differing views? To dialog about the issues is to understand the other's perspective. No longer can our complacency, our unwillingness to listen and share, captivate ourselves as well as those whom we are called to serve. We are to be salt of the earth, lights on a hill. Where is your voice people?

"Yesterday’s bishops would have gone to bat, so to speak, for the right of workers -- many of whom were Catholic -- to form labor unions. Some assigned priests in their dioceses to run labor schools to instruct Catholic workers on the church’s social teachings and to identify the rights they possess in the marketplace."
http://www.justpeace.org/laborquotes.htm
http://www.osjspm.org/union.aspx
cf. also:
http://www.osjspm.org/social_teaching_documents.aspx

"Some readers might recall the claim that was persuasively made back in the 1940’s and 50’s that most American bishops came from households where the breadwinner was an ordinary work-ing man".

Not the country clubbers we have in this right-wing hierarchy today. The bishops have become pawns of the Republican National Committee. To such a degree their aid will be enlisted by the neo-Nazi wackos now in charge of that party. Which will, undoubtedly, sweep the House and Senate this November.

Then expect our hierarchy to timidly stand by and remain silent, or even join the chorus of Republicans denouncing, women's groups, gays, the wicked liberals and "socialists", the intellectual "leftist elite" running our media; of course "communists" and other enemies of the Republic.

Expect the old men in purple to be in the forefront of a renaissance of the Red Scare days of the 1940s and 50s. Just as they were during the Spanish civil war of the 30s giving direct support for Nationalist hero Francisco Franco.

They're desperate for ANY issue which distracts us from their growing irrelevance to more and more Catholics and their effort to reinvigorate a rapidly declining moral authority.

"This dramatic change in the composition of the U.S. hierarchy may explain, at least in part, why there is now a critical mass of bishops who take refuge behind their lawyers in opposing efforts by their lay employees to form labor unions --"

Just out of curiosity....

Is there a fully functioning labor union at the National Catholic Reporter? If there is, post a link so that we might be inspired. If there is not a functioning labor union, are there plans to create one?

Surely the progressive Jesuits, LCWR, LCWR member congregations, and Commonweal magazine have labor unions representing their numerous lay employees. Maybe the NCR can present these (hopefully existing) examples to the hierarchy.

I am one of a number of Catholic high school teachers who were let go because our "salaries were too high." This from a school that boasts of its desire to hire and retain quality teachers. What does this say to young teachers who want to make teaching in a Catholic school a career? What does this say to the dedicated teachers who have given many years of service and now find themselves unemployed? What does this say to those already teaching about the security of their positions?

And where, dear Fr McBrien, would you want these same Bishops to stand in
regards to Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae? Somehow I think you would say as far away from it as possible!!! This is sounding much like Cafeteria Catholicism.
As for the election of Obama as president most research shows that Catholics voted overwhelmingly for this President....hardly indicative of a Church that is "locked up" by the Republicans....historically the Bishops and of course the Catholic Church has stood with the Democratic Party...with the Democrats becoming the party of death the same said Bishops have turned albeit reluctantly more to the Republican agenda....much as they wished to support the Obamacare health fiasco they did say that un-less there would be no taxpayer supported abortion they could not do so...not that there be NO abortion ...but that it would not be on the tax-payers dime...as if THAT were the sole objection! It always boils down to the $$$$$$$ in the Church!!! There's plenty of blame here to pass around and it would seem more honest to admit that the Bishops should concern themselves with making a Church entrusted to them to become more holy...than a country more socialistic.

Because Fr. McBrien's columns were often included in our parish bulletin I put off reading this until I found it wasn't there today. What a shame. My feeling is it results from a growing parochial timidity due to increasing local instances of the kind of pressure the anonymous bishop experienced during the shameful ND/Obama-speech incident.

Thank you for the Paul VI references, especially the truth that we tend listen "more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if[they do]listen to teachers it is because they are also witnesses."

Thank you also for "putting your money where your mouth is"; that is for witnessing courage and real "caritas in veritate". It gives hope.

Just who is this guy, O'Brien, who keeps demanding that the Church turn into an arm of Greenpeace and the Sierra Club?

The Church has been that for the past 45 years but that apparently that isn't enough for him. Maybe he might want to spend some of his time volunteering at various Catholic Charities, Loaves and Fishes, food shelves, St. Vincent DePaul Societies, grade and high school, adoption agencies, employment services and dozens of other ministries found in huge numbers of places around the U.S.

O'Brian might consider a religious vocation as a deacon or something to take charge of one of those ministries.

What we need is a Church preaching about the worship of Our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, and how we are going to attain our eternal salvation with Him.

Too many American Bishops are in the pocket of the GOP. They have no concept of social justice, worker's rights, fairness, etc. All they care about is ranting about birth control, gay marriage, etc. A pathetic group of sexually repressed, GOP shills. Thanks JP II for saddling us with such a group of pathetic men. I cannot name a decent one.

Amen. Alleluia! The church's credibility depends on it's actions. The actions of many of our bishops are unevangelizing. Evangelization programs are great, but the bishops actions negate any positive effects of these programs.

Thank you, Fr McBrien, for stating it so clearly; YES, the church must embody its teachings central to social doctrine if it is to remain internally consistent with integrity. There is a huge gap between principles & practice when the U.S. bishops ride the Republican railroad down political tracks that diverge from the good of the laborer, the jobseeker, the patient, the hospital nurse or administrator acting ethically. Power is going to their clerical heads. And power corrupts. Theirs is not a Christ-like, Christ-reverencing message I can recognize.

Life, itself, seems to have a moral priority over a particular type of medical care, the death penalty for convicted murderers, and a "preferential option" for the poor. Besides, another "Catholic" Kennedy just attacked the Church again, to prevent it from helping the poor, the working class etc.
So, the choice is simple and the bishops "right".

Now, bring the troops home from our unjust wars.

Not sure how honoring Barack Obama with a doctorate at Notre Dame has anything to do with labor and the rights of workers ... unless it means more job security for the McBriens, Jenkins, and others who have been busy gutting the Catholicity of Notre Dame....

I'm not sure if the Church recognizes its priests and nuns as workers but I doubt if the bishops would welcome their forming a union with freely elected officers.
On the other hand I recall a parish council in a low income parish which voted, on a motion from their finance chairman, to tell their bishop that his priests were underpaid and urged that he raise their salaries!
The bishop, the late Archbishop Borders, accepted the recommendation!
Bill Keane

So, Father, you think that the Church should follow the lead of the secular world in permitting the formation of labor unions? Let us examine some of the success stories of unions, shall we?

Why do American schools consistently fall behind the rest of the world? Teachers' unions protect the weakest and least capable teachers and constantly fight against any attempt by government or private organizations to provide choice for students in which schools to attend, to hold teachers accountable and to strenghthen curriculum. In addition, teachers unions routinely protect and cover up for teachers credibly accused of sexual abuse of students (this should be reason enough to ban these unions, for those of you who advocate the public lynching of all priests so accused). The NEA also supports abortion on demand and is one of the largest organized supporters of the Democrat pary in the nation.

Once upon a time, individual workers had the right to negotiate directly with their employees for increases in wages, better working conditions, better hours, etc. Once upon a time, freedom of contract and assocation were guiding principles in American business/labor relations. But then, the unions came along and, with their minions in Congress, they created union shops wherein only those who belong to the union are allowed to be employed (thankfully, Taft-Hartley gave the states the power to prohibit unions for forcing membership as a condition of employment).

Labor unions routinely use coercive means to deprive employers of the labor that is their due under legal and moral obligations. Labor unions routinely coerce non-union members into at least paying dues for the ostensible benefits that the unions provide. Labor unions, by forcing increased wages, wages that often are far beyond the bounds of reason, force employers to find new and innovative means of production that increasingly leads to a reduced need for human labor. This results in highly skilled employees being reduced in force and required to find jobs that often are substandard. The higher costs associated with American manufacturing, as a direct result of labor unions, forces companies to outsource labor in an effort to keep prices down for their customers and profits and dividends high for their stockholders (let us never forget that private enterprise exists for profit, NOT for social benefit).

Labor unions are given unique status under the law. Harvard University's Edward Chamberlin once described the unique legal status that labor unions had been granted:

"If A is bargaining with B over the sale of his house, and if A were given the privileges of a modern labor union, he would be able (1) to conspire with all other owners of houses not to make any alternative offer to B, using violence or the threat of violence if necessary to prevent them, (2) to deprive B himself of access to any alternative offers, (3) to surround the house of B and cut off all deliveries, including food (except by parcel post), (4) to stop all movement from B's house, so that if he were for instance a doctor he could not sell his services and make a living, and (5) to institute a boycott of B's business. All of these privileges, if he were capable of carrying them out, would no doubt strengthen A's position. But they would not be regarded by anyone as part of "bargaining" – unless A were a labor union."

So, what Father McBrien seems to be endorsing is:

1) Low standards for teachers
2) Protection for teachers who cannot or should not be teaching
3) Continued failure of American students
4) Protecting and covering up for those who are credibly accused of sexual
abusing students
5) The loss of the right to free assembly and association
6) Denial of the individual's right to negotiate a contract that is the most
beneficial for himself
7) Denial of the labor that employers have a legal and moral claim to and
that employees have a legal and moral obligation to provide
8) The use of coercion to force concessions rather than the use of good
faith negotiation
9) The use of coercion to force individuals to accede to union membership
and union rules
10) The exemption of unions from the normal rule of law that everyone else
must obey
11) Continued outsourcing and layoffs as a result of unreasonably high costs
of production and/or unnecessarily high costs for consumers
12) Abortion on demand and the Democrat party.

This is what Father McBrien advocates and what he believes the Church should advocate as well. Scary stuff.

I suspect that the abortion issue is for some bishops at least a cover for voting Republican as they would have without the issue.

James O'Connell

Read César Chávez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers’ Struggle for Social Justice - Paperback (Sept. 15, 2008) by Marco G. Prouty

EXCELLENT ARTICLE! THANK YOU FR. MCBRIEN. MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU.
IN CHRIST, SR. SHARON

Neither political party should "own" the Church. Neither Ted Kennedy, nor Newt Gingrich speak for the Church. The Bishops should defend moral principles, but be very careful about getting too cozy with politicians of either party.