Thursday, February 6, 2014
Matthew 18, 1-14 + CSDC and CV
(CV 25e) In comparison with the casualties of industrial society in the past,
unemployment today provokes new forms of economic marginalization, and the
current crisis can only make this situation worse. Being out of work or
dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the
freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships,
causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. I would like to remind
everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and
social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man,
the human person in his or her integrity: “Man is the source, the focus and
the aim of all economic and social life”[61].
Notes: [61] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World Gaudium et
Spes, 63.
CSDC 89a. In response to the first great social
question, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the first social Encyclical, Rerum Novarum [143]. This Encyclical examines the condition of salaried
workers, which was particularly distressing for industrial labourers who
languished in inhumane misery. The labour question is dealt with
according to its true dimensions. It is explored in all its social and
political expressions so that a proper evaluation may be made in the light of
the doctrinal principles founded on Revelation and on natural law and morality.
Notes: [143] Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum
Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 97-144.
[1] At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" [2] He called a child
over, placed it in their midst, [3] and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless
you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. [5] And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.
[6] "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it
would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to
be drowned in the depths of the sea. [7] Woe to the world because of things
that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they
come! [8] If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands
or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. [9] And if your eye causes you to
sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life
with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna. [10] "See
that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their
angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father. [11]. [12]
What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?
[13] And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over
the ninety-nine that did not stray. [14] In just the same way, it is not the
will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.
CSDC 296. Child
labour, in its intolerable forms, constitutes a kind of violence that is less
obvious than others but it is not for this reason any less terrible.[639]
This is a violence that, beyond all political, economic and legal implications,
remains essentially a moral problem. Pope Leo XIII issued the warning: “in
regard to children, great care should be taken not to place them in workshops
and factories until their bodies and minds are sufficiently developed. For,
just as very rough weather destroys the buds of spring, so does too early an
experience of life's hard toil blight the young promise of a child's faculties,
and render any true education impossible”.[640] After more than a hundred
years, the blight of child labour has not yet been overcome. Even with the
knowledge that, at least for now, in certain countries the contribution made by
child labour to family income and the national economy is indispensable, and
that in any event certain forms of part-time work can prove beneficial for
children themselves, the Church's social doctrine condemns the increase in “the
exploitation of children in the workplace in conditions of veritable
slavery”.[641] This exploitation represents a serious violation of human dignity,
with which every person, “no matter how small or how seemingly unimportant in
utilitarian terms”,[642] is endowed.
Notes: [639] Cf. John Paul II, Message
for the 1996 World Day of Peace, 5: AAS 88 (1996), 106-107. [640] Leo
XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11
(1892), 129. [641] John Paul II, Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace, 6: AAS
90 (1998), 153.[642] John Paul II, Message to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations on the occasion of the World Summit for Children (22 September
1990): AAS 83 (1991), 360.
[Initials and
Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church; - SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]
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