Pope Benedict XVI on social security systems and the rights of workers
“These processes have led to a downsizing of social security systems as the price to be paid for seeking greater competitive advantage in the global market, with consequent grave danger for the rights of workers, for fundamental human rights and for the solidarity associated with the traditional forms of the social State. Systems of social security can lose the capacity to carry out their task, both in emerging countries and in those that were among the earliest to develop, as well as in poor countries. Here budgetary policies, with cuts in social spending often made under pressure from international financial institutions, can leave citizens powerless in the face of old and new risks; such powerlessness is increased by the lack of effective protection on the part of workers’ associations.
Through the combination of social and economic change, 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 capacity of labour unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.”
- Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate.
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Dear Minion,
In France — that paragon of Catholic social teaching, the place where they don’t go to Mass, and don’t support the Church financially, where they don’t have a tradition of private charitable giving — the labor unions, those bastions of Catholic social teaching, just shut the country down. For what? Because of a proposal to raise the full retirement age from 60 to 62.
Talk about the common good!
Austin, the position that unions must occupy an essential role in the social order does not mean that everything every union supports in every time and place is necessarily good.
understood…the point i am making is that Europe, which you usually hold up as a beacon of Catholic social teaching, seems to be almost totally divorced from Catholic social teaching. I wonder if Protestant America is closer to the ideal than is Europe, where 1) they do not go to Church, 2) do not financially support the Church, 3) do not give to charitable causes, and 4) seem to be downright selfish about their guvmint benefits.
Austin, half of Europe is Protestant, and the Protestant parts are just as secularist–if not more so–than the Catholic parts.
And Francophobia is one of the nastiest American prejudices–reflective, of course, of ignorance, because, without France, there never would have been any United States of America.
Minion seems to have a prejudice against Protestant America in favor of Catholic Europe. I am making the point that in Protestant America the Catholics go to Mass more, give more financially to support their Churches, and also have a deep tradition of personal charitable giving, that is to say, more personal involvement in Catholic social teaching. I also suggest that Catholics in Catholic Europe do not go to Mass, do not support their Church financially, and do not support private charity. So, which is more in line with Catholic social teaching? Protestant America? Or Catholic Europe?
I love France. I love the French. I do a lot of work there. Don’t misread what i am saying as a prejudice aginst France.