On August 23, 1968 Paul in a Latin American tour preached at a Eucharist for "Development Day" in Bogota, Colombia.(12) Opening with a message for all listeners, Paul added special messages for intellectuals, workers, managers, and families. The general message was that love must be the bond to transform uneducated and confused, suffering and unruly people to aware and active, united and strong, prosperous and happy people. To the question "Is charity enough"?, Paul responded,
Yes . . . as the propelling force of the great innovating phenomenon of an imperfect world in which we live. No . . . if it remains purely theoretical, verbal, and sentimental (Matt. 7:21) and if it is not followed by other virtues--the first be--in justice, which is the minimum standard of charity--and by other coefficients, which render practical, concrete, and operative the action inspired and supported in variously specified fields of human and temporal realities.
Paul initiated his discussion of "other coefficients" very forcefully. "We must say and affirm that violence is not in accord with the Gospel . . . it is not Christian." He prefaced such strong language by admitting that theories and practices which condone violence "often find their ultimate motivation in noble impulses of justice and solidarity." Specifically referring to the fundamental problem of Latin America, Paul found a keystone to it in the double endeavor,
. . . of proceeding not simply to a reform of social structures, but to a gradual reform that all can assimilate . . . improvement of the way of being human."
Maintaining sudden change in social structures as vain, ephemeral, and perilous without efforts on behalf of the "way of being human," Paul explained the phrase.
To help everyone to come to full awareness of his own dignity, to develop his own personality within the community of which he is a member, to be a conscious subject of rights and duties, to be freely a valid element of economic, civic, and moral progress in one's own society.
Not satisfied merely with brief description, Paul proceeded to list concrete steps toward a "way of being human"--literacy programs, basic education, continued education, professional education, civic and political awareness and methodical organization of essential services. Paul was confident his listeners had the proper understanding and strength to ponder and solve human problems, in light of the mystery of charity, the Eucharist. To that end, Paul pledged to continue with renewed vigor and every possible means the realization of goals he already proclaimed in Populorium Progressio.
On May 1, 1969, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Paul VI delivered the homily at the Eucharist marking the appointment of thirty-three new cardinals.(13) Initiating his homily on poverty by reference to the history of poverty being bound to the working conditions of the humble and disdained, who are subject to the arbitrariness and abuse of others, Paul was not satisfied simply to attribute it to original sin.
Under the tutelage of St. Joseph, Christ was a workman . . . But with this acceptance of work by Him, the old condition of mortification and fatigue was transformed; and work, although retaining the double element of healthy activity and painful fatigue, can . . . be referred to its original function of collaboration with God.
Hence, for Paul and the church, work - manual, craft, artistic, technical, scientific -is development, education and occupation, as well as "conquest and dominion of the earth," "great school of charity," and "fabric connecting human progress." Consequently, all should be engaged in work, even though functions are different, competencies distinct, and achievements distributed.
Yet, Paul found it necessary to lament the painful inequalities evident from natural divisions which should be sources of mutual balance, completion, and cooperation. In circumstances where workers have been less fortunate or oppressed, "the Church has taken up here position which is well known." Paul indicated motives for the church's continued assistance in defense of work, which was undertaken in the name of the human person.
Today there are too many people who are not yet sufficiently developed . . . excluded from social well-being and security; economic inequalities . . . are arising with alarming effect; . . . are used as a mere tool.
He urged that the program of "development as the new name for Peace," as outlined in Populorum Progressio, not be hindered by the obstinacy or insensitivity of anyone, "particularly those who call themselves Christians." He agreed that we must love and practice poverty after the example of Christ and that we must love, assist, follow, and suffer with the poor. Yet, even if
. . . poverty is the surest path to the full possession of the kingdom of God. . . . It is a duty [for the conscience of nations] . . . to help those people who are in need of greater development. This must not be done with violence, but with the meekness . . . justice . . . love [of the Gospel.]
On June 10, 1969 Paul VI, in the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, addressed the delegates to the International Labor Organization [ILO], on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.(14) He began by noting the church as a sympathizer, observer, admirer, and collaborator in the establishment functions, achievements, and merits of the ILO.
. . . unceasingly evinced . . . most particularly in Pius Xl's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, in Pius XlI's allocution to the Administrative Council of the ILO [November 19, 1954] . . . in the encyclical Mater et Magistra . . . in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World . . . and in Populorum Progressio.
Paul then contrasted the ancient concept of work in Cicero's De officiis [1,42] with the biblical concept of work as God's creation,
. . . handed over to the work of His creatures, whose intelligent efforts must develop it and perfect it, as it were, by humanizing it in His service. Hence . . . work is the normal activity of man . . . a fundamental datum of the human condition . . . [Indeed], the Son of God . . . became a worker.
Paul finds this Christian concept of work at the base of the modern concept of work, which the ILO heralds and defends. Humans come first, whether artist or artisan, contractor, peasant or worker, manual or intellectual. Despite apparent victory of technology with its gigantic effect on economic production, the human dimension still draws "the concentrated attention of the philosopher, the sociologist, and the politician." Indeed, Paul agreed that "labor systematization and industrial organization" play a vital role in development.
However, Paul reminded the delegates that they, better than anyone else, knew the evil results of the fragmentation of work in modern times. When work becomes ambivalent, when its organization depersonalizes workers, and when work scenes enslave people by depriving intelligence and freedom of their role, Paul continued,
Who does not see that work, which gives rise to marvelous fruit when it is truly creative, can also, when carried way by the cycle of arbitrary action, of injustice, rapacity and violence, become a real social scourge, as it attested by those labor camps erected as institutions, which have been the shame of the civilized world.
Praising ILO for having this human concept of work as its "vital root" and "special genius," Paul VI listed the ways in which ILO intervenes with preventive, remedial, auxiliary, and protective measures. Such is done with awareness of economic possibilities and commitment to end all forms of "segregation"--caste, class, race, religion, or slavery. Very forcefully, Paul referred to all the aforementioned as the ILO "vocation." ILO's motivation was not money or power, but social justice."
Indeed, Paul viewed ILO's formulation of new rules of social conduct and norms of law as efforts to gradually refine and improve "the moral conscience of mankind." He complimented the ILO structure--representatives of employers, governments, and workers--operative in the human dynamic of modern work and harmonizing "in courageous and fruitful cooperation." While insisting that labor-management conflicts cannot be resolved by denying workers or the community freedom--"their first and inalienable human prerogative"--nor by reliance on the determinism of any economic factors, Paul VI quoted the words of one of ILO's most influential figures, Albert Thomas, "The social factor must overcome the economic factor. It must regulate and guide it, the better to satisfy justice."
Paul VI called ILO "an open road toward a better future for mankind." He urged continued effort to convert special interest toward the common good, to adapt old arrangements for new needs, to create new arrangements, and to persuade governments in the ratification and enforcement of ILO covenants.
You must defend man against himself. . . . At all costs he must be prevented from becoming only the mechanized purveyor of blind machines . . . or of a state which is tempted to subject all energies to its service alone.
Alluding to the myth of Prometheus and the Tower of Babel, Paul challenged ILO to move beyond legal provisions, for the protection and remuneration of the work of men, women and youth, to measures for insuring "the organic participation of all workers . . . in economic and social responsibilities upon which their future and the future of their children depend." So, ILO legislative work must continue, while finding new avenues which would guarantee people's integral development and enable them "to become artisans of their destiny."
Quoting the French Dominican orator, Lacordaire's "between the strong and the weak, it is freedom which oppresses and law which sets free," Paul summoned ILO to continue to express in the rules of law "that solidarity which is becoming ever more definite in men's conscience," to curb rights of strong people, and to favor the development of weak people. He deemed such to be possible by the creation, not just theoretically but practically, "of a real international law of work." Paul concluded his 50th anniversary address to the ILO by reiterating his human vision of work in modern economic life.
. . . if technical arrangements are indispensable, they cannot bear fruit without this awareness of the universal common good. . . . This world of tomorrow will have to be built by the youth of today, but it is up to you to prepare them for this. . . . Many of them receive insufficient training and have no real possibilities of learning a trade and finding work. Many, too, fulfill tasks which have no meaning for them and whose monotonous repetition may indeed obtain a profit for them, but cannot suffice to give them a reason for living, to satisfy their lawful aspiration to take their place as men in society."
Such a vast, enthusiastic and galvanizing program for ILO energies was part of the Vatican's, as well as the ILO's, commitment to the cause of the downtrodden. In proof thereof, Paul quoted Matthew 11:28 and 5:10.
On May 1, 1971 Paul VI gave another address to thousands of European workers, while hosting a general audience honoring St. Joseph the Worker.(15) Really, the pope was honoring work, in which Jesus "personifies humanity in its most primitive and simple expression," for which "man's life is destined," and "the reason . . . for man's sovereignity over creation and . . . vocation to complete the created world." Yes, for Paul VI, work is difficult and expiatory, penitential and rehabilitative. Yet, it is also creative and fertile, able to overcome selfishness and promote nobility among people, productive in teaching cooperation and in stimulating solidarity. Work is the
. . . secret of love, . . . hope, freedom and happiness and thus offers . . . the basis of modern social life. . . . Let us honor work . . . when, feverishly inspired by scientific thought--capable of tracing the hidden divine thought in things--it wields marvelous tools. These relieve it to a great extent from the hardness of physical toil, and endow it with incalculable efficiency, so that the age-old weariness is transformed into joyful elation and sometimes even into trembling fear.
Referring to this theology of work as "the great poetry," "the great reality," and "this palingenesis," Paul remarked that earlier and somewhat current class conflict and privilege was not deemed the "requisite norm of the social dialectic." In addition to a call for the defense of sacred human rights and the promotion of legitimate aspirations, Paul wanted specific commitments
. . . to the collaboration of the social classes and mutual participation in economic and civil progress, with fair distribution of the benefits yielded by common work, and with joyful concord and solidarity among men, sons of the same country and brothers in the same fatherland, which is the whole earth.
On May 14, 1971 Paul VI addressed an apostolic letter to Cardinal Roy, President of the Council of the Laity and the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum.(16) This apostolic letter usually is referred to as Octogesima Adveniens. It contained five major divisions: purpose in writing, new social problems, aspirations and currents of ideas, Christians' response to these new problems, and a call to action.
The first division, purpose in writing, begins with mention of the church traveling along the same road and sharing in the lot of humanity, while announcing and clarifying human activity in tune with the Good News of God's love and Christ's salvation, as well as the fullness of human aspirations. Paul met many of these people on all continents, among all nations and cultures, and all kinds of conditions. There appear common human problems for all people. Such touch the church as well as others in those lands. Some would strive to prolong existing situations, while others are beguiled by revolutionary ideologies. Paul was quite cautious as well as confident.
In the face of such widely varying situations it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. Such is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country, to shed on it the light of the Gospel's unalterable words and to draw principles of reflection, norms of judgment and directives for action from the social teaching of the Church. This social teaching has been worked out in the course of historic date of the message of Pope Leo on "the condition of the workers."
Paul proceeded to delineate the "historical evolution" which followed Rerum Novarum and "led to an awareness of other dimensions and other applications of social justice" other than "the scandal of the condition of the workers." As part of the history, Paul mentioned Quadragesimo Anno, Mater et Magistra, Gaudium et Spes, and Populorum Progressio. Paul viewed the 1971 Synod of Bishops and his own apostolic letter to Cardinal Roy as means of further development and encouragement for "ecclesial activity in the service of men."
The second division of Octogesima Adveniens touched upon new social problems such as: urbanization, youth, the role of women, workers, "new poor," discrimination, emigration, and industrial policy.
Urbanization raised the question of whether sufficient attention was given to "the life of the country people." The miserable economic conditions in which they strive to survive push them into the cities, "where neither employment nor housing awaits them." Pual extolled medium-sized towns, "which better avoid the proletarianisms and crowding of the great built-up areas." While extolling the positive dimensions of urbanization and industrialization, Paul also bemoaned negative aspects.
. . . professional or regional unemployment, redeployment and mobility of persons, permanent adapation of workers and disparity of conditions of industry. Unlimited competition utilizing the modern means of publicity incessantly launches new products and tries to attract the consumer, while earlier industrial installations which are still cable of functioning become useless.
Paul decried "human progress" which made slaves of the objects' creators brought about a loneliness in anonymous crowds, and made impossible intimacy for marital and family life. Thus,
Centers of special interest and culture must be created or developed at the community and parish levels with different forms of associations, recreational centers, and spiritual and community gatherings where the individual can escape from isolation and form a new fraternal relationships.
Whether in addressing the problems of industrialization or the problems of urbanized youth, women, or workers, Paul stressed the biblical images of Ninveh as a place of repentance and Jerusalem as a place of promise.
More specifically, Paul commented on the rights of workers and the responsibilities of labor unions, as flowing from Gaudium et Spes' insistence that the human person "is and must be" the goal of human institutions. Included would be rights,
to work, to . . . develop qualities and personality in the exercise of one's profession, to equitable remuneration to enable one's self and family to lead a worthy life on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, and to assistance in case of need arising from sickness or age.
Paul acknowledged the principle of labor unions as a defense for the rights of workers. Yet, Paul did not find labor unions always open to the implementation of such rights.
The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of responsibility for the realization of the common good. Their activity, however, is not without its difficulties. Here and there the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes--the right to which as a final means of defence remains certainly recognized--conditions which are too burdensome for the over-all economy and for the social body, or to desire to obtain in this way demands of a directly political nature. When it is a question of public services, required for the life of an entire nation, it is necessary to be able to assess the limit beyond which the harm caused to society becomes inadmissable.
Paul also called for timely reflection, research, and experimentation, in order to meet legitimate aspirations of workers, increasingly asserted as their education, consciousness of personal dignity, and organizational strength progress.
While admitting the role of egoism and domination, Paul noticed the need "to strike at the roots of newly arising situations." Among other things, industrial change gave rise to "new poor." By such he meant the handicapped, maladjusted, elderly, and other groups "on the fringe of society." Among these, Paul specifically mentioned those discriminated on account of race, origin, color, sex, or religion.
Stating that all humanity has the same basic rights and duties, as well as supernatural destiny, Paul decried any legislation or practices which obstruct any person's "equal admittance to economic, cultural, civic and social life and benefit from a fair sharing of the nation's riches." Paul deemed very precarious the situation of emigrant workers, in spite of real contributions to the economic effort of the host countries. Equally precarious is the lot of people who seek work while escaping disaster or the hostile climate of their native land. Paul pleaded,
It is urgently necessary for people to go beyond a narrowly nationalist attitude in their regard and to give them a charter which will assure them a right to emigrate, favor their integration, facilitate their professional advancement and give them access to decent housing where, if such is the case, their families can join them.
In the few and succinct comments made about industrial policy, Paul first mentioned the number of people failing to find work and driven to misery would increase in the future, particularly in the newer nation. He called for effective policy
of investment, production, trade, education, invention, and capital formation. He directly called for as much social imagination as created the enterprises devoted to armaments or technological achievements. He issued a stern warning, "If man lets himself rush ahead without foreseeing in good time the emergence of new social problems, they will become too grave for a peaceful solution to be hoped for."
The third division of Octagesima Adveniens, fundamental aspirations and currents of ideas, began with Paul pinpointing two fundamental and persistent aspirations or forms of human dignity and freedom, in the changes of scientific and technological progress, patterns of knowledge and relationships, practices of work and consumption. These forms and aspirations are equality and participation. Finding advantages and disadvantages in legislative and juridical recognition of the same, Paul asserted,
The two aspirations, to equality and to participation, seek to promote a democratic type of society. Various models are proposed, some are tried out, none of them gives complete satisfaction, and the search goes on between ideological and pragmatic tendencies. The Christian has the duty to take part in this search and in the organization and life of political society. . . . All particular activity must be placed within that wider society, and thereby it takes on the dimension of the common good.
Paul continued by warning Christians who desire to live their faith in a political context about the contradiction in adherence to any ideological system that radically or substantially goes counter to Christian faith and its concept of humanity. Very specifically Paul spoke of the Marxist ideology and the liberal ideology. Of the former, Paul said a Christian,
. . . cannot adhere to the Marxist ideology, to its atheistic materialism, to its dialectic of violence and to the way it absorbs individual freedom in the collectivity.
Of the latter, Paul said a Christian cannot,
. . . adhere to the liberal ideology which believes it exalts individual freedom by withdrawing it from every limitation, stimulating it through exclusive seeking of interest and power, and considering social solidarities as more or less automatic consequences of individual initiatives, not as an aim and a major criterion of the value of the social organization.
Paul spoke of the possible ambiguity of every social ideology and of a current retreat of ideologies. He mused about the times being favorable to "an openness to the concrete transcendence of Christianity" or "a more accentuated sliding towards a new positivism." Whatever the eventual outcome, Paul remarked on the attraction, not only to Marxist and liberal ideology but also to concrete systems such as bureaucratic socialism, technocratic capitalism, and authoritarian democracy. Paul also cautioned against the "rebirth of utopias," "human sciences," and "ambiguous nature of progress." His concern was unawareness of underlying assumptions at odds with Christian social thought and fascination with intellectual and social fads.
The four division of Octagesima Adveniens, Christians face-to-face with the new problems, treated the dynamism of the Church's social teaching, movement for greater justice, changes in attitudes and structures, Christian meaning of political activity, and demand for greater sharing in responsibility and decision-making. Of the movement for greater justice, Paul said, . . . it is necessary to have the courage to undertake a revision of the relationships between nations, whether it is a question of the international division of production, the structure of exchanges, the control of profits and the monetary system--without forgetting the actions of human solidarity--to question the models of growth of the rich nations and change people's outlooks.
The fifth and final division of Octagesima Adveniens, call to action, emphasized two points. The first was the need to become involved socially, especially among the laity. The second point was the pluralism of options in the strategies and tactics of such involvement.
About two days after the issuance of Octagesima Adveniens, Paul VI addressed thousands of workers assembled in St. Peter's, for a liturgy celebrating of the 80th anniversary of Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum.(17) The homily also highlighted the church's interest and intervention in social questions and the affirmation of Catholic social teaching. With regard to celebrating the anniversary, Paul singled out two aspects of Leo's encyclical as salient. First, Leo saw as very wrong and unjust the new society forming, which would establish "a status of permanent struggle and innate aversion among members of the same people." Essential for a dynamic and happy society were concord and harmony, balance and peace. In the new industrial society, such qualities were almost impossible without important changes. Second, Leo saw such society imposing, not simply tolerating, "inhuman living conditions incalculable hardships and sufferings, iniquitous inequalities concerning common rights, a kind of condemnation to a . . . way of life . . . deprived of liberty and hope."
With regard to justifying the church's teaching, Paul saw such as "liberating and prophetic" and as echoing the voice of Christ, "who made Himself the center of all who are oppressed and troubled in order to console and redeem them". Hence, it is the right and duty of the pope, as well as the church's ministers, "by innate vocation the ally of needy and long-suffering humanity . . . [Indeed], the Church's preference is for those who need to be helped and defended also in the temporal realm." Yet sometimes the church must issue threatening but kindly words to the rich and powerful when indifferent, selfish, or arrogant in their practices or motives. For, such mean the rich and powerful "appropriate for their own exclusive benefit the goods of the earth, particularly when these are the fruit of the sacrifice and sweat of others."
With regard to affirming this social teaching, Paul listed several items that authorized and obligated the church's dialogue with "a modern social doctrine" of its own.
. . . the inexhaustible fruitfulness of the theological, philosophical, and anthropological principles from which the Church draws the source and validity of her teaching; the evangelical and historical imperative of her tradition; the formidable storm of grave social and political facts, by which we are beset and assaulted; the persistence and indeed the revival and emergence of grave social problems; and the very admission of a pluralism of opinions and systems, in view of the ever dynamic formation of a progressive social order.
Paul concluded his homily with the confidence that Catholic social teaching would interpret the experiences of recent times for an advancement of human temporal and eternal destiny. With that mentioned, Paul referred to the broad outlines of his encyclical Octogesima Adveniens.