Five Principles of
Catholic Social Doctrine Most in Danger of Being Forgotten or Distorted
There are many
principles of the Church's social doctrine that are effectively communicated
and widely known. Chief among these is the dignity and sanctity of human life
from conception to natural death. Although this fundamental doctrine is far
from adequately implemented in our laws, there is little or no confusion about
the Church's teaching on this matter. We offer here a list of principles of
Catholic social doctrine—not to argue their priority over others—but because we
judge these to be the most in danger of being ignored or distorted in
contemporary public debate.
1. The Catholic view of the human person is
social not individual. Congressman
Ryan has stated that he learned from Rand to view all policy questions as a
"fight of individualism versus collectivism." [7] The Catholic Church
does not espouse "individualism," but rather sees it as an error as
destructive as collectivism. [8]
Blessed John Paul II described "individualism" as a dimension of the
"Culture of Death" arising from an "eclipse of the sense of
God." [9]
The human person is "by its innermost nature, a social being. ["10] We are radically
dependent upon and responsible for one another. Again, in the words of John
Paul II, "We are all really responsible for all." This truth of the
human person is tied to the central doctrines of the Church. It reflects the
very "intimate life of God, one God in three Persons." [11]
2. Government has an essential role to play in
protecting and promoting the common good. The error of individualism leads to a mistaken understanding of
the role of government. For too long politicians have echoed Ronald Reagan's
misleading mantra "Government is the Problem." The Catholic Church,
on the contrary, because of its social understanding of the human person,
considers government to be as "necessary" for human nature as the family.
The state exists to "defend and promote the common good of civil society,
its citizens, and intermediate bodies." [12] Thus, while the Church
does not offer a specific blueprint for policy, it does view our government's
action on behalf of the common good a positive good in itself.
Catholic apologists for small government
repeatedly invoke a single paragraph from John Paul II's Centesimus Annus
which cautions against the excesses of a "social assistance state"
ignoring the decades-long papal consensus supporting social insurance and
welfare systems. In the same document, John Paul described the
"intervention of governmental authority" on behalf of the defenseless
as "an elementary principle of sound political organization" taught
by the Church for a century. [13]
John Paul later stated "One can only rejoice" that "States set
up social welfare systems to assist families…and pension funds for
retirees." These express a sense of national "responsibility"
and "solidarity." [14]
3. The doctrine of subsidiarity both limits government
and demands that it act when local communities cannot solve problems on their
own. Subsidiarity has both
negative and positive dimensions. Negatively, it limits overreach by government
(as well as other large organizations, including corporations). Positively, the
concept (which means "help" or "assistance)" requires that
government act when problems cannot be solved on the local level.
Ryan has invoked subsidiarity to justify
devolving management of Medicaid to states thereby ending centralization "in
the hands of federal bureaucrats." At the same time, his budget cuts
Medicaid by $750 billion over ten years, a policy that will cut healthcare for
an estimated 14 to 27 million Medicaid recipients. [15]
The broader outlines of the budget plan will
radically reduce the size of government and consequently cut funding for
private and religious safety net providers such as Catholic Charities who
depend upon federal grants and contracts for much of their funding. This fails
the positive obligation under subsidiarity to render needed assistance.
4. The "preferential option for the
poor" demands both individual and collective action, including the acts of
the state. In the words of John
Paul II, the preferential option for the poor affects "our daily life as
well as our decisions in the political and economic fields;" placing
demands upon individuals as well as "leaders of nations." [16]
The portrayal of the Last Judgment in the
Gospel of Matthew is a judgment of the nations based on how they treat
the "least of these." This was the "central moral measure"
applied by the USCCB in its evaluation of the Ryan budget. "The needs of
those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come
first." [17]
Ryan, like Rand, sees "dependency"
as our most serious problem. Thus, he describes his understanding of preferential
option as "don't keep people poor, don't make people dependent on
government so that they stay stuck at their station in life." [18]
It should go without saying that poverty is not
caused primarily by a too generous government safety net that becomes in Ryan's
words, "a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of
complacency and dependency." [19] It is much easier to
cut government programs than to help people out of long-term poverty as the
very mixed results of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act prove. [20] Ryan's 2012 budget
achieves 62% of its designated savings from cuts to programs for low-income
families and individuals while cutting the top marginal tax rate and the
corporate tax rate. [21]
It is impossible to justify this as a serious exercise of the preferential
option for the poor.
5. Economic forces must be reckoned among any
serious account of the threats to society and human dignity. Ryan's budget resolutions speak mainly of
overbearing government and free individuals acting in a private sector whose
justice is never questioned. It is hard to reconcile this vision with the
history of the past forty years, in which globalization has deindustrialized
America and deregulation has increased the power of private corporations. At
the same time, unions, which official Catholic teaching has long recognized as
indispensible to the rights of workers and the common good, have been severely
weakened. [22]
Whatever the threat of government power, any adequate response to our
challenges must address the facts of economic power as well. Modern papal
social doctrine has addressed both threats since its inception.
In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict
XVI has offered an analysis more probing than that offered by either political
party.
Benedict speaks of the loss of state power in
the face of globalization and calls for the development of new forms of
government engagement.
In our own day, the State finds itself having
to address the limitations to its sovereignty imposed by the new context of
international trade and finance, which…has altered the political power of
States….[T]heir powers…need to be prudently reviewed and remodelled so as to
enable them, perhaps through new forms of engagement, to address the challenges
of today's world. [23]
Benedict continues the century-long papal
teaching that the market alone cannot address the needs of the common good:
Economic activity cannot solve all social
problems through the simple application of commercial logic. This needs
to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the
political community in particular must also take responsibility. Therefore, it
must be borne in mind that grave imbalances are produced when economic action,
conceived merely as an engine for wealth creation, is detached from political
action, conceived as a means for pursuing justice through redistribution. [24]
Benedict offers a description of the
temptation to reduce the social safety net that reads like an analysis of the
Ryan Budget:
From the social point of view, systems of
protection and welfare…are finding it hard and could find it even harder in the
future to pursue their goals of true social justice in today's profoundly
changed environment….[T]he market has prompted new forms of competition between
States as they seek to attract foreign businesses…. 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. [25]
Conclusion:
The momentous
challenges facing our nation cry out for the full wisdom of the Church's social
doctrine. We live at time when the social indifference of libertarian thought
is achieving broad cultural legitimacy and political power. This vision of the
human person and society are fundamentally at odds with the Gospel and the
principles of Catholic Social Doctrine. Legitimate disagreements with the Obama
administration must not lead the Church to edit the fullness of its teachings
for political expediency. Our political obligations as Catholics go beyond
choosing a candidate for which to vote. In the words of Faithful Citizenship,
"our participation should help transform the party to which we
belong." [26]
Ours is a moment that demands the fullness of the Church's teachings as few
others have. To be truly prophetic, the Church—bishops, clergy and lay
faithful—must proclaim the fullness of its message to all parties, movements,
and powers.
Footnotes
7.
Address by Paul Ryan
to Atlas Society "Celebration of Ayn Rand," 2005.
8.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church,
#2425. "The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic
ideologies associated in modem times with "communism" or "socialism."
She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism,"
individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human
labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis
of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails
social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied
by the market." Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic
initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the
common good, is to be commended."
9.
John Paul II, Evangelium
Vitae, #22-23.10.Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, #12.
11.John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, #38, 40.
12.Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1882, 1910.
13.John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, #48, 10.
14.John Paul II, Address to Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 2002.
15.Kaiser Commission On Medicaid And The Uninsured, "House Republican Budget Plan: State-by-State Impact of Changes in Medicaid Financing," May 2011. http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/8185.pdf
16.John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, #42.
17."Federal Budget Choices Must Protect Poor, Vulnerable People, Says U.S. Bishops' Conference," April 17, 2012. http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-063.cfm.
18."Paul Ryan Says His Catholic Faith Helped Shape Budget Plan," Interview with David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Network, April 10, 2012. http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2012/04/10/only-on-brody-file-paul-ryan-says-his-catholic-faith.aspx
19.The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise (2012 Budget Resolution), 25. http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperityfy2012.pdf
20."The prevalence of extreme poverty rose sharply between 1996 and 2011. This growth has been concentrated among those groups that were most affected by the 1996 welfare reform." "Extreme Poverty in the United States, 1996 to 2011," National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, February 2012, 4. http://www.npc.umich.edu/publications/policy_briefs/brief28/policybrief28.pdf
21."Chairman Ryan Gets 62 Percent Of His Huge Budget Cuts From Programs For Lower-Income Americans," Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, March 23, 2012. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3723
22.John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, #20, and Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, #25.
23.Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 24.
24.Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 36.
25.Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 35.
26.United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, #14. http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship-document.cfm
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