Love in Action

Simon Cuff

Description

Described as 'the Catholic church's best kept secret,' Catholic Social Teaching provides a rich body of thought, and finds a particular resonance as all denominations in the church seek to engage with the needs of contemporary society. Yet beyond the immediate context of the Catholic church, it is all too readily ignored.
Resolutely aimed at those who come from traditions beyond the movement’s traditional catholic heartlands but who seek to view their ministry through the lens of generous orthodoxy, "Love in Action" offers a deeply scriptural but accessible introduction to this vital approach to the church’s ministry in the world.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 28 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334057956
• Langue: English

Extrait

© Simon Cuff 2019
Published in 2019 by SCM Press
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
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from the British Library
978 0 334 05793 2
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Background
2 Personal Dignity
3 Common Good
4 Solidarity
5 Subsidiarity
6 Social Sin
7 For the Poor
8 See, Judge, Act
9 Flourishing
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Index of Scriptural References

For all whose voices remain unheard.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all at SCM Press, and especially David Shervington for his guidance and support. Likewise, the staff at the British Library, and for all those others whose work has been relied on that remain unnoticed. I rely so much on my family and the prayers of my cell group, Carol, John and Di. My colleagues and students at St Mellitus are too many and too wonderful to name, especially those who have helped shape my thoughts on some of the ideas found here through conversation and teaching. I would particularly like to thank Fr Lincoln Harvey for his encouragement, and my tutees for their prayers: Andy, Natasha, David, Gary, Sarah, Mike, Phillipa, Davidson and Rachel. This book stems from an engagement with Catholic Social Teaching that has been a consistent feature of my adult life, since Philip Kennedy, Fr Peter Groves, Bishop Allen Shin, Mthr Jenn Strawbridge, Fr Andrew Davis and others opened my eyes to the possibilities of Catholicism for engaging with the world and living the Christian faith afresh. I would like to thank all those who have taught me so much at Citizens UK through community organizing, and to whom many of the practical ideas here are indebted, especially Stefan Baskerville, Matthew Bolton, Peter Brierley, Marzena Cichon-Balcerowicz, Charlotte Fischer, George Gabriel, Daniel Mackintosh and more besides. Zrinka Bralo at Migrants Organiseremains a persistent source of challenge and inspiration. Fr Sean Connolly, Sr Josephine Canny OA, Selina Stone and especially Fr Angus Ritchie of the Centre for Theology and Community have persistently challenged, cajoled and taught me what it means to put the demands of the Gospel into action, and never to settle for anything less than an advance on justice in all that we do. This book would have been impossible without the support of Fr Jack Noble. All mistakes remain my own.

Introduction
In 1911, a young Belgian with a sense of trepidation. He was seeking Ben Tillett, the leader of the famous Dock Strike of 1889 which had seen London’s docks grind to a standstill. A standstill resolved through the mediation of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Manning.
Fr Cardijn was right to be anxious. ‘Ben Tillett’, he later wrote, ‘was no friend of Roman collars.’ 1 Ben Tillett wasn’t at home, but when the two met later that afternoon, his initial interrogation of Fr Cardijn ended with the exclamation: ‘The Catholic Church is a clever church. The Church of England would never send its priests to study worker organizations.’
Times have changed. Even before the publication of Faith in the City in 1985, the Church of England had begun to explore the issues that affect the lives of working people as well as those seeking or unable to work. 2 At the press conference announcing that Justin Welby would be the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, he responded to a question from the Catholic periodical The Tablet : ‘I have gained and learned so much from the Roman Catholic Church. I have learnt much from Catholic spirituality and from the glorious and – if I may say so to The Tablet – far too well-hidden structure of Catholic Social Teaching, which surprisingly few Catholics know about, let alone others.’ 3
Catholic Social Teaching has been described as the Roman Catholic Church’s best kept secret. 4 It is a rich body of thought, the fruit of the Roman Catholic Church carefully applying the demands of the Gospel in the midst of ever-changing social and political contexts. It finds its origins in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century and continues to be worked out today, with recent interventions by Pope Francis developing this body of teaching and reflection on how the Gospel is to be preached in an increasingly globalized world.
At its heart, Catholic Social Teaching is about the restoration and reconciliation of relationships which Christ brings. The Archbishop of Canterbury describes it as ‘the applied outworking of the good news of Jesus Christ in terms of social structures and social justice’. 5
Justin Welby’s interest in Catholic Social Teaching isn’t new. As is obvious from the tribute he has paid this body of thought, Catholic Social Teaching isn’t only for members of the Roman Catholic Church. It is, the Archbishop of Canterbury notes, a ‘series of brilliant reflections on the nature of a functional and just society’. 6
Jesus famously said that no one lights a lamp only to hide it under a bushel. 7 The aim of this book is to make the structure of Catholic Social Teaching a little less well hidden, and a little more widely known among Christians from every denomination. We will try to make sure that the light of Catholic Social Teaching is well and truly realized across Christian communities. We will explore the origins, nature and structure of Catholic Social Thought, before seeing how this body of thought might be applied to every church context in order to build churches which are truly flourishing places of holy community.
Catholic Social Teaching stems from a foundational encyclical written in 1891, often referred to by its Latin title Rerum Novarum (‘of new things’). An encyclical is a letter written by the Pope, more normally addressed to those bishops in communion with the Holy See, but often intended to impact a wider audience by setting out a body of teaching on whatever matter the Pope writes. The encyclical Rerum Novarum enjoys an almost mythic status in the world of Catholic Social Teaching. 8
The ‘new things’ in the title of Rerum Novarum are the sweeping social and economic changes which were occupying the minds and lives of many in newly industrialized Western nations at the end of the nineteenth century. Standing in the first decades of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in the midst of similarly widespread social and economic flux. In this context, the insights of Catholic Social Teaching are especially pertinent. They have much to offer every Church as churches try to negotiate and build up the body of Christ in the midst of sweeping social and economic change.
However, the ‘new things’ of Rerum Novarum didn’t appear in a vacuum. There isn’t the space in this book to trace all of the influences which led to its publication in 1891.
Instead, in Chapter 1 we’ll consider three important figures who laid the groundwork for the first document of Catholic Social Teaching and provide the background of its emergence and development. Two of these three we have met already: Cardinal Henry Edward Manning and Cardinal Joseph Cardijn. We will explore Cardinal Manning’s role in the industrial dispute which brought London’s docks to a halt in 1889, events which many point to as being a significant point of origin for Catholic Social Thought. We’ll then consider Cardinal Cardijn’s contribution to this body of teaching, especially through the foundation of the Young Christian Worker movement. We’ll discuss the lessons he learned in his studies of industrialized Europe and conversations with Ben Tillett and others on how to organize communities in order for just and flourishing relationships across communities. Finally, we’ll discover the importance of the thought of St Thomas Aquinas in the theoretical background to Catholic Social Teaching. It will become clear that Catholic Social Teaching is not just a strange add-on to the life and thought of the Catholic Church, but arises from the outwork of other areas of that life. It isn’t the ‘leftie, trendy vicar stuff, a recipe for Marxism with a pointy roof’ 9 that some critics claim, but arises out of Catholic reflection on the Christian life, human life in all its fullness.
As an example of this life, and a reminder that it is not reserved just for male clerics, this chapter will also briefly consider the life and writing of Dorothy Day and her association with the Catholic Worker movement. In contrast to the other three figures in this chapter, she stands not so much behind Catholic Social Teaching as at its vanguard. She lived on the front line ministering among the people whose lives Catholic Social Teaching at its best see