By Bob Sullivan
Part II of my discussion with Deacon Omar F. A. Gutiérrez:
Editor's note: See part one here.
In Layman’s Terms: Now that we have addressed that, what does the Church teach about our responsibility to participate in and have an impact on society as a whole?
Deacon Gutiérrez: The Church takes this so seriously that one of the principles of the Church’s social teaching is the Principle of Participation. There is a moral obligation for all Catholics to participate in the advancement of the common good within our local, national, and global societies.
What that looks like will depend on our vocation and season in life, but of course ultimately, on what the Lord has called us to do. On a basic level it means voting but it should not be narrowly defined as just voting. Participation should also include getting to know our neighbors, educating ourselves about the Church’s teaching and on pressing societal issues, raising our children well, being conscious of the sorts of companies and industries to which we give money, paying our taxes, helping out at the parish. We even have a moral obligation to make sure that as many people can participate as possible. It means a lot of things to participate and positively impact society.
But practically speaking, what that looks like for me or for you will depend on vocation, season, and prayerful discernment of God’s will.
ILT: We are seeing and hearing about a lot of social justice issues in the U.S. today. Is there a difference between social justice and Catholic social doctrine?
DG: Technically, there is no difference. But because today “social justice” is a phrase which has come to mean so many things which run diametrically opposed to the Church’s social teaching, there is understandably a lot of confusion here. For instance, Catholics for Choice, an organization that lobbies for the expansion of abortion and abortion funding, claims that the work of Planned Parenthood and that federal funding of abortion is a social justice issue. Many of the riots we are seeing are justified by the perpetrators as social justice efforts. So, from this contemporary, popular understanding of “social justice,” there is an enormous chasm of difference between it and Catholic social doctrine.
However, the Church’s definition of social justice has nothing to do with those popular notions. It is a concept first expressed explicitly by Pope Pius XI in his 1939 document Quadragesimo Anno. There, he connects social justice with St. Thomas Aquinas’ teaching on various forms of justice. Basically, justice is giving someone or some people what they are owed, what is due to them. Social justice, then, according Aquinas, refers to what individuals owe the society. Aquinas called this legal or general justice. Pope Pius XI called it social justice. And we fulfill social justice when we participate in advancing the common good of society in authentic ways because we have a moral obligation to do so. Society is owed our participation in advancing the common good.
ILT: As Tina Turner used to sing: What’s love got to do with it? For instance, one popular notion for some is free college tuition. I don’t see a lot of love at the center of that issue, and it seems to me that one way to help us discern and prioritize the resources we invest in a social issue is the social issue’s impact on or impact from love. While it may help a lot of young graduates go on to live more comfortably (which is debatable), services and support of unwed mothers seems to be much more in line with the meaning of Aquinas, Pope Leo XIII, and Pope Pius XI. Can the Gospel message of agape love help guide Catholics in discerning where God is leading us as disciples on the various issues?
DG: Well, yes, love is the central commandment given to us by Our Lord. The difficulty is that every side claims love as their mantle. Europeans, for instance, provide free college education. When I studied in Rome, tuition was remarkably cheaper than here in the U.S., and it was in some cases, arguably better. One could say, then, that it would indeed be loving to provide young people the educational advantages that come with a university education that does not cost them an arm and a leg. At the same time, Europe pushes students who may not do well at university into other training programs. We don’t do that here. So, yes, love is the standard, but we would have to go deeper.
Pope Benedict XVI’s social encyclical Caritas in Veritate is important precisely for that reason. He realized we cannot just say “love.” We have to talk about love or charity in truth. Without truth, he teaches, love becomes an empty shell into which we can fill whatever we desire.
Catholics may be familiar with some of the principles of Catholic social teaching, like participation, subsidiarity, solidarity, but Pope St. John XXIII taught that foundationally, we need to live according to the values of truth, freedom, justice, and love first. If we do not understand those values well, then the principles fall apart and so our policy prescriptions for various societal ills become potentially harmful to the common good, not helpful.
And this is why those Catholic proponents of the Church’s social teaching who deny that objective truth and intrinsic evils exist have already lost the game. Without truth there is no authentic freedom, no real liberation, no justice, and no real love. Without truth we cannot live the social teaching at all because it inevitably becomes a battle over power.
ILT: In our next column in this series, we will look at some good resources for Catholic voters.
