Cardinal Turkson on Rerum Novarum
Courtesy of Michael Sean Winters, have a look at this excellent speech Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, entitled “Protecting Human Life and Dignity: Promoting a Just Economy”, recently delivered in Washington DC. How refreshing to see real Catholic social teaching being presented on American soil! There are many good nuggets on this speech, but this is one of my favorites:
“Yes, it is fashionable to be negative, nihilistic, pessimist – it not only leaves one off the hook, but also absent from history, both human and divine. Quite counter-culturally, therefore, we Christians firmly believe that a more just and peaceful world is possible.
If we resign ourselves to fatalism, this can have drastic consequences for our overall wellbeing and for the wellbeing of others. For, despite the naysayers, economic resources exist that could help wipe the tears from the eyes of those who suffer injustice, who lack the basics of a dignified life, and who are in danger from any deterioration in the climate. The poor do benefit from champions in solidarity who believe that injustice can be reduced, that harmonious relationships can be fostered, that our planetary ecology can be made sustainable, that a world of greater communion is possible.”
Quite often in the United States, the notion that we are called upon to create a better world is written off utopianism - the fruit of a secular ideology that is not compatible with a fallen mankind. You see this on the right, but there is no consistency – these same people are quite willing to adopt utopian positions pertaining to the power of free markets and individual liberty. When you dig deeper, you realize that the real problem is not utopianism, but a fundamental disagreement with the tenor of Catholic social teaching since Rerum Novarum. As Cardinal Turkson points out, we called to serve people by “creating the best society possible”. This is non-negotiable, but so often forgotten.
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Thanks for the sanity, intelligence and true message of faith, MM. Now I can take my afternoon nap with peace.
“the real problem is not utopianism, but a fundamental disagreement with the tenor of Catholic social teaching since Rerum Novarum”
–cafeteria Catholics—ahem.
I am so grateful to read this.
Thanks to Cardinal Peter Turkson for this message. Thanks to the people who invited him to speak in Washington.
Thanks to Michael Sean Winters at the NCR as well as this Vox Nova posting by Morning’s Minion, what we have here and now is an extremely rare but welcome sign that the Catholic Church in North America still has a major commitment to Justice and Peace.
Some of us have begun to wonder and seriously worry whether the institutional Church has been wandering into rigid doctrinaire fundamentalism and even encouraging fanatical extremism over the global sexual revolution.
When we see that most of our dioceses no longer have anything such as a local office for social justice and peace, what are we to think? They tell us it’s because of budget restrictions and reduced available finances. But I suspect that something deeper and more fundamental is behind the trend, when different priorities are being emphasized.
The very fact that we still have a Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is a hopeful sign of the official church’s commitment to engage in promoting social justice as a central and constitutitive element of proclaiming the gospel.
I hope and pray that each and every bishop in each and every diocese throughout North America pays close attention to this message and then takes steps to support the work of the church’s amazing social doctrine, from Rerum Novarum to Caritas in Veritate. This is not utopianism. It is a realistic commitment to the challenge of proclaiming the gospel in our particular time of history.
I am reminded of what unorthodox Marxist theorist Slavoj Zizek says about utopianism: the real utopianism is imagining that things will always stay the same, that we will always be this prosperous, etc. As we go tobogganing downhill towards economic and environmental chaos, the real absurd fantasy is imagining that things will just fix themselves insofar as we just conserve the status quo. Indeed, perhaps “conservativism” is the ultimate utopianism.
“…we Christians firmly believe that a more just and peaceful world is possible.”
I think many in America think a more just world is possible. More just for those who, with Benedict VI in the social encyclical Caritas in Veritate do believe not in a perfect world, but one that can be made more just.
More just for the unborn who are aborted. More just for those who were never conceived due to contraception. More just for those who honor marriage as between one man and one woman and who are increasingly called “intolerant.” More just for those who seek to provide for their families without dependency on the govt.
There are many areas to increase justice.
More just to feed, clothe and shelter the 5 million children around the world who die before their 5th birthday due to disease and malnutrition. More just to end wars, poverty and the greed and hatred that cause wars. More just to stop attacking people out of hatred because they are different from us. More just to stop the bigotry in each heart that harms those who are different.
More just to create a world that is safer to bring children into the world.
More just heterosexual men who do not need to attack out of fear and hatred others who have a different sexual orientation. More just to be willing to give more our personal resources to those who have less or none.
Agree with feeding those around the world. In fact JP II noted that the first world poverty isn’t economic but rather spiritual – the lack of the true knowledge of God.
Part of that is recognizing that peace is more than the absence of war, that bigotry and prejudice is a condition of fallen humanity and not the West alone and that homosexuality is disordered.
But otherwise I agree with you.
I prudentially disagree with the good Cardinal’s views on immigration reform and with his mistaken belief that economic justice is not served by the free market. I do so because (1) it is my right as a Catholic and (2) my own financial interests and those of the people paying my salary just happen to be opposed to his prescriptions.