Dear Friends,
This weekend, we celebrate Labor Day as a nation. It has been an official federal holiday since 1894. The bishops of the United States, in honor of this day, have often reflected on the importance of the gift of work and the dignity of all workers. Pope John Paul wrote an entire encyclical on the gift of work and other popes have reflected on it as well. Recently, the bishops offered the following thoughts:
In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis shares a vision for a post-COVID world that aspires to a global fraternity which leaves no one at the margins of society. He decries the reality that women are not yet recognized as having the same dignity as men, that racism shamefully continues, and that those who are poor, disabled, unborn, or elderly are often considered dispensable. In response to this throwaway culture, the Holy Father invites us all to, “…dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home…”.
Pope Francis reflected that such a universal fraternity can only be accomplished when our social and economic systems stop producing victims. Rejecting a neoliberal vision, Francis writes that markets cannot solve societal problems on their own; therefore, proactive policies centered on the common good must be created.
In an effort to “‘re-animate’ the economy” with a new economic model based on fraternity and equality, last year Pope Francis launched the Economy of Francesco event, rooted in Saint Francis of Assisi’s example of embracing the poor and an integral ecology. In his video message to participants, the Holy Father shared, “Once the present health crisis has passed, the worst reaction would be to fall even more deeply into feverish consumerism and forms of selfish self-protection…”
Instead, Pope Francis promotes a new ethos around economic thinking, as he writes of the thinking of economists Mariana Mazzucato and Kate Raworth: I see ideas formed from their experience in the periphery, reflecting a concern about the grotesque inequality of billions facing extreme poverty while the richest one percent own half of the world’s financial wealth. . . I see thinking that is not ideological, which moves beyond the polarization of free market capitalism and state socialism, and which has at its heart a concern that all of humanity have access to land, lodging, and labor. All of these speak to priorities of the Gospel and the principles of the Church’s social doctrine.
It is our task not only to reflect on the present ills of our economy, but also to build consensus around human dignity and the common good, the bedrocks of Catholic social teaching, and to answer the Pope’s call to propose new and creative economic responses to human need, both locally and globally.
Pope Francis observes that we sometimes justify our indifference for the poor by looking the other way and living our lives as if they simply do not exist. Not only are our actions insufficient, but our sight as well, when we ignore the poor and do not allow their pleas to touch our hearts . . . so let us engage in building “a better kind of politics” by entering into dialogue with elected officials, calling them to an authentic politics that is rooted in the dignity of the human person and promotes the common good.
Good words as we take a day to remember the divine gift of human work.
Peace,
Fr. Damian