The first of many utterances of Pope Paul VI on labor-management issues was an address, entitled "The Church's Special Love for Workers", to an August 7, 1963 workers' pilgrimage from Barcelona, Spain.(1) Acknowledging them as members of the workers' class and representatives of their "comrades" in faith, nationality and job, Paulunderlined the church's recent display of interest and love for workers. She has multiplied declarations of her teachings,
. . . to proclaim and defend your rights; help you fulfill your duties; preserve the working class for her religious and moral heritage; safeguard the dignity of human beings, whatever their profession; give material labor spiritual value; do away with fake ideology, especially as broadcast among labor, and false ideas that the Church of Christ is not a friend to the working people.
On September 1, 1963 Paul VI preached in the Cathedral of Frascati, near Castelgandolfo.(2) The occasion was the veneration of the remains of St. Vincent Pallotti, who was an apostle of lay involvement in the church and who had been canonized the previous January by John XXIII. Among other references, Paul alluded to a period after the French Revolution when there was a combination of revolutionary principles,
. . . that had done nothing more nor less than appropriate to itself certain Christian concepts: fraternity, equality, progress, lifting up lower classes. . . . [Really], it had taken, as its own, a banner that was anti-Christian, secularistic, irreligious, and tended to pervert that feature of the Gospel aimed at setting a higher and nobler value on human life.
On October 12, 1963 Paul VI addressed the Christian Association of Italian Craftsmen Convention.(3) He saw a parallel between the history of handicrafts and civilization. "They represent the first example of methodical work done with tools and capable of creating its own tools." He described craftsmanship as involving muscle and mind, natural and human forces, planned and occasional as well as spontaneous and disciplined manner, personal and family-oriented needs, slave and free workers, community and market goals. Furthermore, Paul continued,
. . . this work is done . . . not only with the mind closed within a narrow circle of productive and economic experience; but with a mind open, aware of surrounding social relationships, religious and moral ones inherent and preeminent in human life.
Paul VI noted handicrafts offered an extremely interesting, as well as original and limited picture, of human labor. In addition to the jealously guarded relative independence of hanidcraft, other interesting aspects for the pope were,
. . . Loving personal initiative . . . to degrees of intensity and productivity otherwise unattainable; . . . family form through which it is normally exercised and toward which its economic profit is chiefly directed; . . . commitment to preserve acquired methods; . . . stimulation toward perfection of production it exerts over those engaged in it, kindling in them a love, indeed a passion for their work, often awakening in them genius of originality and art; . . . natural virtues such work inspired and readily find confirmation in religious expression.
Indeed, so "beautiful human and sacred" was handicraft in the eyes of Paul VI that it hand to be protected from some changes in modern industrial life. For handicraft in such areas, its need for continuance would be dictated by participation "in the process, culture and well-being of the new times" by countless artisans and business places.
Very essential to safeguarding handicraft is unity among artisans, who are prone to self-sufficiency and individualism in problem solving, finding capital, selling products, hiding difficulties, and thinking independently. For Paul VI such attitudes would, not only compromise, but also, render artisans inoperative under modern industrial pressures. Hence,
Union in the economic field is necessary. . . . [It] is also needed in the ideal, moral and spiritual realms. A coalition of interests, if only economic, could perhaps compromise your freedom and place you at the mercy of other stronger interests. . . . There is also needed the safeguarding of your ethical and social function.
On April 12, 1964 Paul VI wrote the Argentine hierarchy in a national Catholic Action congress.(4) Insisting Catholic Action has no "explicitly economic or financial objectives," Paul VI urged valuable support in solving "the social question." Social doctrine must be spread, social works and associations protecting legitimate workers' interests must be promoted in accord with law, and workers' consciences and characters must be developed. He saw other benefits, too.
It will put social justice into actual practice and keep workers from entering associations posing a danger to their Christian faith and integrity. . . . On his adhesion to Catholic doctrine and Christian activity can depend the progress and equilibrium of society as a whole.
On April 25, 1964 Paul VI addressed 30,000 factory and farm workers from Naples, Italy.(5) Directing his opening remarks to the farm workers, Paul referred to ancient way of life in Monte Cassino, expressed originally by St. Benedict. He defined medieval civilization as "ora et labora." For Paul VI these words still survive in the law of work and life.
Addressing factory and farm workers, Paul noted the increasing maturity of the working class. More apt to appear in behavior and thinking of the workers was,
. . . passage from forms and mentality proper to traditional work to forms and mentality proper modern work. That is, consciousness of one's own condition, a willingness and inclination to render work a more worthy place in the social plan.
Examples were improvement in clothing, housing, habits, working hours, social relations etc. Call them benefits--Paul invoked and promoted them. Call them justice, progress, culture and modernity--Paul heralded and defended such innovations, especially in the life of the working classes.
Next, Paul VI delineated some aspects of maturity. Maturity consists more in ability to judge trends and ideas rather than in welcoming comforts and enjoyments. Maturity of ideas provokes and produces, confirms or condemns the maturity of things. While Paul was quite convinced ideologies govern modern life, he issued a challenge and proposals for social maturity.
[Maturity] produces evolution . . . change. . . . Some changes lead to transformation implying or generating decadence; other changes preserve essential elements in transformation and produce rebirth and splendor. All depends on knowing how to judge and choose well, in order to trace the good path of the new times.
First, among the proposals for social maturity, Catholic Actionists must discern what kind of teachers and speakers, newspapers and organizations seek to win the workers' souls, as they pursue economic sufficiency and personal dignity, as well as international peace.
Many of these ideologies . . . of social selfishness . . . superiority of economies over moral and religious law . . . destructive and atheistic Marxism . . . pleasure and vice as a program of life, and so forth, are erroneous . . . harmful . . . [and] can be disastrous.
Second, Catholic Actionists must remain faithful to Christ and the church, so concerned about workers and their problems. Such is not an
. . . apology for proper privileges or temporal advantages . . . defense of social conditions which have become historically and logically outmoded . . . impediment to legitimate and realistic dynamism . . . merely demonstrative and propagandistic activity. It is true and learned love . . . solicitude for your benefit . . . intelligent and loyal effort for collaboration with your free and legitimate associations as well as competent civil and political authorities.
Third, Catholic Actionists must strive positively to build a new world. That is, they must try to understand, serve, lead and love the world. They must learn to "sublimate suffering that might remain inevitable . . . give . . . an inner breath of high and noble thought."
On June 8, 1964 Paul VI addressed in Naples the National Congress of Christian Union of Employers and Executives.(6) He began by praising the accomplishments of business leaders, whether administrative, agricultural, commercial or industrial. He cited the creation of opportunities for employment and professional skills; the consequent provision of jobs and bread the deployment of forces which science and technology, industrial and bureaucratic structures place at the disposal of people today.
Together with teachers and doctors, you are in the forefront of those who transform society, who have the greatest influence on living conditions and who open the way to new, undreamt of developments. . . . A society that draws its vitality, greatness and ambition from the mastery of nature cannot do without you.
Calling business executives "typical representatives of our modern age", Paul expressed the church's attitude toward them: solicitude, understanding, admiration, and friendship.
Yet, Paul mentioned that the reference to them as "Christian" puts on trial "the whole ideological system that supports you." That system is slow to react properly to criticism or reminder of duty. Answers like religion, Gospel and church are alien; confuse the spiritual with the temporal; contaminate the scientific and precise rigor of the business world. None have any justification when business executives recall there is a moral realm to human activity. Indeed, lack of reference to human dignity and immortal destiny "is largely the cause of shortcomings . . . disorders . . . dangers . . . which, alas, exist in our industrial civilization."
Granting mechanical and administrative structures of industrialism work "perfectly," Paul noted the human structures do not "as yet." He found "something profoundly wrong . . . in the system itself." The flaw was attributed to the liberalism of the Manchester School,
. . . that still prevails in the concept of unilateral ownership of the means of production and of an economy directed mainly to private profit. . . . [Such a system] is not perfect . . . peaceful . . . just, if it still divides people into classes hopelessly opposed to one another.
Business executives were reminded that the necessary cooperation of religion is not a paternalistic nor utilitarian corrective to temper, but rather to discover the fundamental difficulties of a system which pretends "to regard human relationships . . . as purely economic and automatically controllable." The materialistic outlook on life is no more commendable among those who put a golden calf in the place due God than among those who have made materialistic dialectics the fundamental dogma of "a depressing sociology."
Paul highlighted the objective of business executives to overcome selfishness, to restore the scale of values, to turn the economy into service and to confer upon its leaders the dignity due social benefactors and worthwhile capacities. He hailed business leaders for their intentions, efforts and difficulties.
Gradualness, provided it is progressive, is wise. . . . It aims at the common good. . . . What is required is to overcome a selfish interest and mentality which now opposes capital to labor, private profit to public good, a class concept to an organic concept of society, private economy to public economy, an individualized to rationally planned enterprise, natural autarky to an international market--in brief, individual advantage to that of all human brotherhood.
Paul concluded by calling his audience pilots of modern industrial, technical and commercial society; people of dynamic ideas and brilliant initiatives; healthy risk-takers; resolute forecasters. He challenged them to do it again. Namely, to shape a more just, peaceful, and loving society through the strength of Christian love, which can do great things.
On June 26, 1964 Paul VI spoke to 450 priests attending a study week with the National Organization for Moral and Religious Assistance to Workers (ONARMO).(7) He spoke in glowing terms of their work as,
. . . an audacious and providential ministry, care and concern that constantly strives to measure up to its serious responsibilities in order to give, finally and authoritatively, the Christian answer to the questions and demands of workers.
The implications of such a ministry to workers were explicated. God's traces are found in material, technical and organizational realities. An inertia and denseness of matter, which sometimes seem to master and dominate humans, are conquered. Workers become aware of a dignity as transformed into new creatures and destined to build "the earthly city in justice, peace and liberty and as refined through their labor and sacrifice." People's labor become instruments of personal sanctification and improvement of the world. Workers' generosity, communal charity and mutual understanding can help to overcome obstacles of selfishness and division which isolate the best efforts of persons and groups.
Recalling the necessary loyalty to the gospel and affirmation of Christian principles, Paul concluded,
We trust your work and of other fine priests who are friends of the world of labor. We trust the heart of the worker, who surely is bound to see the importance and good fortune of dialogue with the Church, who is opening its gospel treasures with immense esteem and incomparable love.
On May 22, 1966 Paul VI addressed 15,000 workers from 35 nations on the 75th anniversary of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum.(8) Of it, Paul said, "Time has not exhausted it but has rather tested it." It gives courage for new development in labor issues, gives rise to literature worthy of consideration and dissemination, and forms a body of doctrine dealing with economics, sociology, law, ethics, history--indeed the whole of culture. Paul focused, not on all Christian social teaching, but only on seven "simple but basic axioms."
First axiom: "The Church is interested historically in the social question." Caring and seeking better living conditions for workers and the defenseless before dealing with the needs and duties of others has been a church priority.
Second axiom: "The Church has proclaimed the dignity of labor of whatever kind, provided it is honest, and has woven a wonderful rational basis for it."
Third axiom: "The Church has made its own a principle of social justice (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.58, a.5) and not just in its speculative doctrine . . . but in its practical teaching as well." Such underlines the need to reform legal norms "whenever they do not take sufficient account of just distribution of benefits and burdens of social living."
Fourth axiom: "The Church has not been afraid to descend from its religious sphere to that of the concrete conditions of social life." Consequently in the spirit of a Good Samaritan, there are statements about capital and labor, salary and contracts, family rights and welfare, and private and public property. In examining the aspirations and interests of poorer classes, the church with wisdom, prudence and farseeing courage has been inspiring legislation "contrary to privilege and selfishness" which protects weak, lowly and disposed people. Without using the term, Paul spoke of subsidiarity; The Church called on the state,
. . . to intervene, not to absorb rights and functions that belong to citizens either as individuals or as members of associations in a free society, but to protect liberty and equality of citizens themselves and to assume the exercise of those activities which only public authority can pursue with greatest assurance of achieving the common good.
Fifth axiom: "The Church recognized the right to organize into unions . . . overcoming theoretical and historical preferences for corporative forms and mixed associations." Organizations of workers were foreseen as bringing many benefits to a social order. There were strength in numbers, awareness of workers' dignity and social status, sense of discipline and solidarity, incentive to professional and cultural advancement, capacity to participate in production "to some extend as a co-responsible and co-interested element."
Sixth axiom: "The Church does not and cannot accept social, ideological and political movements which take their origin from Marxism and preserve its principles and negative methods." Its atheism is opposed to a scientific concept of the universe and civilization. Its materialism denies genuine spirituality and transcendental hope. Its class struggle hinders and harms social peace. Its consequent violence and oppression lead to abolition of liberty and propagation of heavy authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
Seventh axiom: "It [social teaching] deals with the indispensable function of religion." That function is not merely instrumental, it is transforming.
On November 25, 1966 Paul lectured Portuguese business executives.(9) He indicated special characteristics of Christian business executives, "which more or less contain all the others"--honesty, competence, a social sense.
Paul included among the several marks of honesty an acute sensitivity to all that touches on what is just and unjust. Such would be revealed "in a concern for the salary due a worker, which should make it possible to bring up his family properly." This fundamental quality makes the Christian executive realize economics and organization are not everything and success can never be gained "at the cost of compromising his conscience."
In practice, moral worth of Christian executives must be accompanied by genuine and solid competence, yet with great demands from society as well. With society so based on the scientific-industrial dimensions of life and with ownership more involved in direct and responsible leadership, executives "must submit to a severe asceticism." Organizing personnel and resources "to serve the common good with maximum efficiency", being current on new discoveries and techniques, reflecting and traveling will enable executives the right to speak and influence the profession and the public.
Social sense flows from business as "first and foremost a work directed by . . . carried on by . . . [and] in the service of men." As a means for total human progress, business presupposes constant concern among executives for the human characteristic of their tasks.
On March 26, 1967 Paul wrote an encyclical "On the Development of Peoples" or Populorum Progressio.(10) Following on the teachings of his predecessors, the Second Vatican Council, his journeys to Latin America and Africa, his address to the United Nations, and the establishment of the Vatican Justice and Peace Commission, Paul called "for concrete action towards man's complete development and development of all mankind." A particular concern was development of those peoples,
. . . who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilization and more active improvement of their human qualities . . . aiming purposefully at complete fulfillment.
In the encyclical, some elements pertained more immediately to the labor-management scene. The modern economy left to itself "works to widen the differences in the world's levels of life, not diminish them: rich peoples enjoy rapid growth whereas the poor develop slowly." Industrialization was necessary for economic growth and human progress, signified and contributed to development. Yet, an unchecked liberalism or capitalism,
. . . considers profit as the key motive for economic progress, competition as the supreme law of economics, and private ownership as an absolute right which has no limits and carries no corresponding social obligations.
To be resisted is blaming industrialization for excessive suffering, injustices, and conflicts "that belong to the woeful system which accompanied it." Justice demands recognition of the "irreplaceable contribution of organization of labor and of industry."
Paul spoke also about work. Created in the image of God every human "must cooperate with his Creator in the perfecting of creation and communicate to the earth the spiritual imprint he himself has received." For the pope, everyone who works is a creator, "whether he be artist or craftsman, engaged in management, industry or agriculture." Work done in common reminds all they are brothers and sisters. With promises of money, wealth, and power work may beckon selfishness or revolt. When work is more scientific and better organized, it may dehumanize and enslave. For, "work is human only if it remains intelligent and free." Paul recalled words of John XXIII in the encyclical, Mater et Magistra, "[Every] effort should be made that every enterprise become a community of persons in the dealings, activities and standing of all its members."
Paul VI also warned about programs and planning, "A hasty agrarian reform can fail. Industrialization ,if introduced suddenly, can displace structures still necessary and produce hardships . . . a setback in terms of human values." He was convinced individual initiative and mere competition would never usher in development. So, he spoke of programs encouraging, stimulating, coordinating, supplementing and integrating the activity of individuals and intermediary bodies.
It pertains to the public authorities to choose, even to lay down the objectives to be pursued, the ends to be achieved, and the means for attaining these, and it is for them to stimulate all the forces engaged in this common activity. But let them take care to associate private intuitive and intermediary bodies with this work. They will thus avoid the danger of complete collectivisation or of arbitrary planning, which, by denying liberty, would prevent the exercise of fundamental rights to the human person. This is true since every program, made to increase production has in the last analysis no other raison d'etre than the service of man . . .
To speak of development, is in effect to show as much concern for social progress as for economic growth. It is not sufficient to increase overall wealth for it to be distributed equitably . . . to promote technology to render the world a more human place in which to live. The mistakes of their predecessors should warn those on the road to development of the danger to be avoided in this field. Tomorrow's technocracy can beget evils no less redoubtable than those due to the liberalism of yesterday. Economics and technology have no meaning except from man whom they should serve.
Paul also spoke of the importance of organizations in assisting the family ["life's primary environment"] in development. Such, by disseminating information and programming education, can contribute greatly to a sense of the common good and personal obligation. If there were a respect for human freedom and dignity, as well as for the religious orientation of peoples, a pluralism of professional organizations and trade unions would be admissable. From some points of view it would be useful, if thereby liberty were protected and emulation stimulated. Paul paid homage to all who labor in such organizations, in order to give unselfish service to others.
In May 1968, Paul VI spoke to a general audience on "The Christian Ideal of Work."(11) Addressing workers and other pilgrims on "the feast of workers," Paul focused on a split between "the psychology of work and the psychology of religion." Among its social repercussions, Paul listed a separation from faith of many who,
. . . make work; not only their profession, but also spiritual designation, expression of the supreme conception of life, opposed to a Christian one.
Decrying such as one of the greatest misunderstandings of modern society to the detriment of truth, work, and workers themselves, Paul proceeded to outline a "theology of work."
Work expresses physical and spiritual human faculties. So, manual labor has the imprint of the human personality in its progress, perfection, and utility--both social and economic. Work is the normal development of all human faculties, explains basic education, and clothes human talents, dignity, and genius in perfecting and producing. Work fits the creator's plan of humans as explorers, conquerors, rulers of the secrets, treasures, and energies of creation. Work is not punishment or enslavement. Work is free and conscious, noble and sacred human activity - hands and all faculties directed by intelligence.
With a synthesis of his "theology of work," Paul explicated its implications by discussing two issues--unacceptable work conditions and modern work methods. It was theoretically easy but practically difficult to find answers to oppressive or unrewarding work, when it was "the index, almost the seal," of insuperable and intolerable economic and social inequalities. Confident human suffering is "a force that in the end is victorious," Paul saw a need of securing for work a justice of its own that will issue in a truly human aspect,
. . . strong, free, cheerful, lightened by the conquest not only of economic benefits sufficient for a worthy and wholesome life but also of the higher gifts of culture, leisure, the legitimate joy of living, and Christian hope.
Quite aware that much remained to be done, Paul commended his predecessors, pastors, teachers, and liturgists, who spoke so significantly about such conditions. That heritage makes clear the church honors work and marches "certainly not in the rear guard" on the highway of modern civilization.
Focusing on modern work methods, Paul mentioned a host of means involved in "industrial form . . . which has transformed our society, marking distinctions and oppositions of social classes." The church encourages modern work because it made work less burdensome, multiplied economic benefits for more people, and provided new relationships and solidarity for workers. Such solidarity and friendship is healthy if it united people, provides firmer social textures, and creates the organization of the indispensable functions of work benefiting both performance and the common good. Such an organic conception of society,
. . . should not result from the clash of contrasting and insurmountable greeds, but should follow from a dialectical harmony of collaboration for a just order for everyone and participation in a rationally distributed common good.
Paul VI acknowledged such was still mostly a hope. However, he discerned "a process of maturing" wherever a Christian vision of society and the sacred concept of the human person are "conquering the mentality of modern progress." Paul concluded,
. . . religion stands at the roots and summit of a process that gives prominence to the concept and reality of work. Religion has its own doctrine concerning that aspect of effort and suffering, which work never loses. Remembering the unhappy origin of work (Genesis 3:19), religion recalls also the happy and sublime epilogue, its redemptive value (Matt. 5:6).