The year 1991 finds our country in a severe recession. We have serious unemployment, a housing crisis among the poor, widespread reliance on food banks, and cutbacks in social programs. Recessions, however, are not simply chance events. The offences to human dignity that the present one involves reflect a social and economic climate in our country that gives priority to promoting conditions favorable to the pursuit of private goods rather than to mobilizing forces for the pursuit of the common good.

1991 also marks the one hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers), the first official statement of Catholic social teaching. Pope John Paul II has just published Centesimus Annus (the lOOth Year), an encyclical that re-examines Rerum Novarum in the light of past, present and future social conditions.

We, the Catholic Bishops of Ontario, see this year as a particularly appropriate one in which to call on all Catholics, on organized labour, on business leaders, on government officials, and on all people of good will, to work together on a just social agenda for our country. To clarify what we mean by a just agenda, we want to conduct a brief review of the past century of Catholic social teaching.

Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Micah called on people "to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God." (6:8). What is involved in "acting justly" is something that humans have come to understand more fully as they have faced new social situations. In modern times no new situation has so profoundly affected all of life as has the industrial revolution. In a new way, this "revolution" forced the Church to state on whose side it stands. The Catholic social movement, which began in Europe about 1820 as a grass roots response to terrible social ills, was the start of what is today called the Church's option for the poor.

1848 was the year in which Karl Marx and Frederick Engels published their Communist Manifesto. It was also the very year in which Wilhelm Von Ketteler launched the Catholic social movement in Germany. The year 1887 saw the start of the Trades and Labour Congress in Canada. It was the same year in which Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore sought and obtained a papal defense of an early labour movement, The Knights of Labour. Two years later, Cardinal Manning of England publicly sided with the workers in the Great Dock Strike, and helped them reach a just settlement. These are only examples of a Catholic social movement that had become a powerful force for change by the end of the 19th century.

Rerum Novarum

Catholic social teaching became official with the publication, in 1891, of Pope Leo XIII's document, Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers). Becoming "official" means that it became an integral part of Catholic teaching. Pope John XXIII would express it this way in 1961: "The social doctrine professed by the Catholic Church is a necessary part of its teaching on how people should live." (Mater et Magistra, Christianity and Social Progress, no. 222). Rerum Novarum has been followed by ten other major social documents from Rome in the years since then, and the teaching of those documents has been applied to the local scene in hundreds of pastoral letters from individual bishops or regional councils of bishops. In Canada alone, the Canadian Assembly of Catholic Bishops has published more than sixty documents on social issues since 1945.

What follows is a brief outline of Catholic social teaching, particularly as it affects human labour, over the past one hundred years. Three stages can be distinguished.

First Stage
This stage, which begins in 1891 and extends into the 1920's, was characterized by Church reactions to individual injustices suffered by working people. This pattern was set by Rerum Novarurm, and is reflected in three features of that document.

1. Because human labour was commonly regarded simply as a commodity, something to be purchased for the industrial process much as one purchases raw materials, it was commonly assumed that all one was obliged to pay was the "going wage", that is, whatever the market required. To this, Pope Leo opposed the concept of the just wage, that is, whatever is required to enable a worker and a worker's family to live in truly humane conditions, while setting something aside for the future. Human dignity was the ultimate standard for a just wage, not the market.

2. Because the predominant spirit of the age was one of "paternalism", that is, a call to rely on the goodness and the wisdom of the rich or those in positions of power, there was strong opposition to the formation of labour unions, that is, organizations through which working people could speak and act for themselves. Pope Leo, however, said clearly that working people have the right to organize, and to speak on their own behalf, and that this right should be recognized by all governments.

3. Because the mood of the time favoured a "laissez faire" or "hands off" approach on the part of government to the operation of business, Pope Leo insisted instead that governments have a special obligation to pass legislation which protects working people. "The richer classes," he said, "have many ways of shielding themselves." (no. 54).

As a result of Rerum Novarum, there was a great burst of activity among Catholics to secure social legislation, to promote union organization, and to study social issues. This activity was most obvious in Europe, but there were initiatives in North America as well.

Second Stage
The second stage was strongly influenced by the publication, in 1931, of Pope Plus XI's Quadragesimo Anno ("Forty Years After" Rerum Novarum). The thrust of this document was that we must not just overcome individual injustices done to working people, but must struggle for profound changes in the very structure of the market economy. We single out just two aspects of the reform that was called for.

1. A New Image of Property: Whereas the accepted view of property was that private ownership is something absolute ("It's mine; I'll do what I like with it"), the Pope insisted that the goods of this earth belong first and foremost to all people as their common heritage from God (a principle that is becoming more appreciated in these days of environmental concern). Hence every person has a basic right to an adequate portion of the earth's goods, and to the opportunity to use those goods in a fully human manner. Any particular system of property-holding that does not guarantee the fulfillment of this right for every person is to that extent unjust.

2. A New Image of Social Life: Whereas the common view of social life is that of individuals engaged in competition with one another, the Pope spoke of society as rightly governed by two principles: solidarity and subsidiarity.

The principle of solidarity means that society is something like a family: we have a life together; we are pursuing common ends by common means; we have hundreds of interdependencies. That means there are certain things we should all be able to count on just because we are part of the family. Here is the principle underlying universality in social programs.

The principle of subsidiarity means that society is something like the human body: just as we have individual organs to carry out functions on behalf of the whole body, such as eyes for seeing, and feet for walking, so too, society needs to have all sorts of lesser organizations within it, through which people are able to participate in the life of the whole, have input, speak and act in their own name. Labour unions are but one notable example of the rich variety of subsidiary organizations that are required for a truly human and truly democratic society.

This second period was one of considerable cooperation between the Catholic Church and the labour movement. In the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, there were, for example, about one hundred Church-operated labour schools in North America, which helped people prepare for roles of leadership in the labour movement, and which assisted that movement in gaining legitimacy in areas where it was viewed with mistrust. In Ontario we recall particularly the important role played by Father Edward Garvey, C.S.B., at Assumption University in Windsor, when the United Auto Workers (U.A.W.) was first organizing in that city, the Catholic Labour School of Toronto, directed by Father Charles McGuire, S.J. in the years 1950-1970, and the Institute of Social Action at St. Patrick's College ih Ottawa, directed by Father L.K. Poupore, O.M.I., in the 1950's and 1960's.

Third Stage
This has been the period of the greatest production of Catholic social documents: two from Pope John XXIII, one from the Second Vatican Council, three from Pope Paul VI, and three from the present Pope, John Paul II, including Centesimus Annus, his perceptive treatment of Rerum Novarum. The overriding concern of these more recent documents has been, not only to encourage measures that will free working people from exploitation, but especially to call for changes that will make human work a genuine means for people to fulfill their humanity and to contribute personally to the common good.

1. Pope John XXIII laid down the important principle that, for an economy to be a just one, it must not only produce an abundance of goods and services, and distribute those goods and services fairly, but it must also make the producers themselves more human in the process. Any organization of the economy that undermines human dignity is unjust, no matter how effective it may be in providing consumer goods and services. (Mater et Magistra, Christianity and Social Progress no. 82-83). This is an especially timely reminder at a time when the failure of central economies in Eastern Europe is being regarded by some as the vindication of classical capitalism.

2. The same pope stressed the principle (it would be reinforced by the Second Vatican Council) that justice requires us to overcome the excessive inequalities between different groups of people, different sectors of the economy, and different parts of the world. This raises serious questions in our country about what appear to be measures to decrease labour's share of the national income. It also highlights what is at stake in the struggle to maintain our supply management marketing boards in the agricultural sector.

3. There is a lot of development in the theology of work. The human person, as the image of God, is called to share in God's Providence over all things, especially through his or her own work. Work, then, should not be seen as just a necessary evil in life, nor even solely as a means to personal advancement, but as the means to carry out, in a thoroughly human way, one's role in the stewardship of nature and in the progress of the human community. Moreover the workplace should be organized in such a way that workers will have a true share in management, ownership and profits, and thus a real sense that they are "subjects" of work, not cogs in a machine. (Laborem Exercens, On Human Work, no. 15).

4. This vision of work implies that people have a right to employment. Such a right clearly lays on government a responsibility to make full employment a priority, and to direct "planning" toward achieving this goal. (On Human Work, no. 18).

5. The present pope also stresses the fact that since capital results from work, capital must therefore serve work. If we are looking at matters correctly, then, it is labour that hires capital, not capital that hires labour. Here is the famous principle o£ the priority o£ labour.

6. Finally, more recent social documents portray labour unions as important means through which working people can be a voice for a better social order, hence as instruments of social change. It is in this respect, for example, that the pope refers to unions as "indispensable elements of social life." (On Human Work, no. 20). Unions have a noble role. They can be a great force for human advancement if they are careful always to respect their members and to be fair in their dealings with everyone.

Looking to the Future

On this 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, we could profitably make an examination of conscience, asking ourselves where we stand on the implementation of the Church's social teaching. What is there we can do to move more effectively from theory to practice? What can be done to assist labour, management, and government, to enter into a genuine dialogue, and a fruitful coalition in pursuit of the common good?

We remind one and all of the compelling principles that emerge from the Church's social teaching, principles that should be recalled in parishes, schools, and elsewhere. They include the dignity of the human person, and the right to have that dignity respected from conception to natural death; the responsibilities of the person and the corresponding right of persons to participate actively in the institutions that affect their lives; the primacy of the common good over purely private goods; the dignity of human work and the rights of workers, especially the fundamental right to decent employment; and the option we are all called to exercise in favour of the poor and marginalized in our society. Even to make everyone more aware of these social principles and the bases on which they rest, would give grounds for hope as we look to the future.

We express our gratitude to those who have struggled so hard for social justice in the past. At the same time, we are concerned about serious social and economic changes that are presently taking place. The maquiladora zone, a series of communities clustered around modern assembly plants on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexican border, provides a graphic symbol of that pursuit of private good at the expense of the common good, to which we referred above. North American corporations move operations to sites such as this in the search for cheap labour. The wages and conditions they provide for the Mexican workers are so poor that many factories experience a 200-300 per cent turnover of workers each year. At the same time, those jobs for which many Canadian workers received decent wages are being lost to this country. Such interdependencies lead us to ask if our entire society will simply become progressively more selfish and more alienating. Or can all of us work together to bring about a socioeconomic climate in which all human beings can become what God intended them to be.

In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The Social Concern of the Church), Pope John Paul refers to the presence of these sorts of "interdependencies" in our world. He also notes an interdependency in the causes of our social ills. It is the same "desire for profit" and the same "search for power" that lie behind our social problems everywhere. It is these causes that account everywhere for the debasing of work, the destruction of the social fabric, and the gradual loss of a caring society. The response to that interdependency, as the pope points out, must be a renewed spirit of solidarity on our part. It is in that spirit of solidarity that we, on the lOOth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, invite Catholics, the labour movement as a whole, business and government leaders, and all people of good will to work together for the creation of a genuinely human society.

The Catholic Bishops of Ontario

May 1, 1991

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker