Comments on: What”s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Social Justice?

By: leon

leon — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:22:58 +0000

I agree, GB. We have an informal men”s group that gets together once a week for coffee and discussion after Mass, and we did Caritas in Veritate as well this past year. I think a study guide for the Compendium, which would be thematic rather than focused on an individual encyclical, may be the best tool for for forming "Catholics first." Of course, it would be hard to find such a tool that would be completely immune from the ambiguity mentioned in my post. But of course, people can just read the Compendium itself and discuss what they”ve read . . .

By: gb

gb — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:10:41 +0000

This discussion needs wider circulation. A group of Catholics in our diocese has been meeting monthly to discuss Benedict”s "Caritas in Veritate". Its made us more aware of how few Catholics are Catholics first & Americans second. Many have reversed the order, usually unwittingly.

By: Kacey

Kacey — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:11:37 +0000

I disagree with the sentiment that the application of such principles is difficult. Instead they”ve been hijacked by the current Preisdent and funded by Soros”s fake Catholic groups, as well as clouded by liberal Bishops….

“If we accept th…at a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.” – Mother Teresa

“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.” – Mother Teresa

If you want peace work for justice…..

Catholicism denounced socialism as inherently and gravely evil in the 1870s

Agreed Zachs points are well taken!

By: Stephen M. O''Brien

Stephen M. O''Brien — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:54:02 +0000

Leon,

I”m posting your essay on my [i]Facebook[/i] page.

Catholics should transcend the false dichotomy between the “left” and the “right,” and they should be wary of [i]all[/i] forms of “cafeteria Catholicism.”

Best regards. Keep and spread the Faith.

Steve

By: M. Forrest

M. Forrest — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:02:03 +0000

Points well taken, Leon. And Zach”s points above are also well-taken.

By: leon

leon — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:28:43 +0000

I think I saw that commercial, too. Super Bowl? Anyway, before that, Old Spice did a whole series of commercials around this "two things" motif, including the one I linked to. I don”t really recommend the Old Spice commercials themselves, which I think are a little too risque, but they do provide a segue to the discussion on social justice.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:22:42 +0000

He”s not part animal, part man in the commercial. He”s ALL man. And he”s ON a horse at the end. Not PART of a horse….

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:51:46 +0000

Good review, Leon. One problem that I have with the term "social justice" is that it is often used in connection with situations in which there is no fundamental injustice present. For example, back in the late 90”s, I was very poor–supporting a wife and child on $13K per year. Was there anything "unjust" about my condition? Certainly not. I gladly accepted assistance from individuals willing to help, but I understood their assistance to be [i]charity[/i]–not an exercise in restoring the scales of "social justice."

Likewise, I often hear good Catholic folks speak of going to work at a soup kitchen in response to the Church”s teaching on "social justice." I reject the underlying assumption, which is that the very existence of poverty is prima facie evidence of an insidious injustice. Should we care for poor people and work in the soup kitchen? Yes. But this is rightly called "charity." If we find out that some injustice is to blame for their condition (for example, they have been defrauded in some way), then we can legitimately speak of working for justice.

Confusing and conflating terms may not seem overly problematic, but once people begin to believe that all poverty or economic inequality is due to a breakdown in "social justice," they will naturally be inclined to seek the assistance of the state (the official guarantors of justice) in rectifying that deficiency.

Add to that the very confused and wrongheaded economic proposals advocated by the USCCB and encyclicals like [i]Populorum Progressio[/i], and it can seem to the average Catholic that "social justice" requires us to favor government-enforced redistribution of wealth. Besides making the poor worse off, such policies have devastating effects on private charity–as Arthur Brooks demonstrates in [i]Who Really Cares[/i]–which of course, makes the poor even worse off materially and makes us worse off spiritually.