By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial
Inspired by the witness of St. Joseph as husband to Mary, foster-father to Jesus and worker supporting his family, the late Pope Francis proclaimed a “Year of St. Joseph” on Dec. 8, 2020. It was in the midst of the pandemic and the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
The pope wrote in his apostolic letter “Patris Corde” that his desire to reflect on St. Joseph “increased during these months of pandemic, when we experienced, amid the crisis, how our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, people often overlooked.” Among them: “Doctors, nurses, storekeepers and supermarket workers, cleaning personnel, caregivers, transport workers, men and women working to provide essential services and public safety, volunteers, priests, men and women religious, and so very many others. They understood that no one is saved alone…”
Seventy years ago today, on May 1, Pope Pius XII established St. Joseph the Worker Day to encourage devotion to the saint and to honor the dignity of workers in a faith-based response to Communists’ celebration of workers. Today, more than ever, we need to emphasize and advocate for the dignity of workers amidst a heartless, massive downsizing of the federal government that left thousands of federal workers without jobs or facing termination.
Still other workers, who are immigrants, live in fear of deportation amidst a sweeping crackdown on people living in this country without documentation. Earlier this month, the Iowa State Patrol reportedly pulled over a carload of seven Latino construction workers on their way home to Iowa City and detained them for nearly an hour while investigating their immigration status.
The right to support oneself and one’s family is a basic human right as the Catholic Church has long taught. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote the first social encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” (“Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor”). In the opening paragraphs, he said, “[Some] opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.”
Ninety years later, St. John Paul II wrote the encyclical “Laborem Exercens” (on “Human Work”). He highlighted, among other points, the Church’s “task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to … ensure authentic progress by man and society.” Furthermore, “it must be remembered and affirmed that the family constitutes one of the most important terms of reference for shaping the social and ethical order of human work.”
“A family without work is particularly vulnerable to difficulties, tensions, estrangement and even break-up,” Pope Francis wrote in “Patris Corde.” He posed a question we must ask ourselves as a nation, a state and individuals: “How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?” The response must include a “just living wage, fair labor practices, safe working conditions,” as the Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC), the public policy voice of Iowa’s bishops, states on its website: (iowacatholicconference.org).
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) developed an “ethical framework for economic life,” published in 1996, that is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. You can view the full list at (https://tinyurl.com/yddn9uvz). “These principles are drawn directly from Catholic teaching on economic life,” the bishops said.
Contact U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley, House Representatives serving in your district (congress.gov) and state legislators (legis.iowa.gov/legislators) and ask how they plan to apply in legislation these elements from the ethical framework for economic life:
- The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.
- Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family and serve the common good.
- A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.
- All people have a right to life and to life’s necessities, including economic security.
- All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, decent working conditions, to organize and to join unions or other associations.
- All people, to the extent they are able, have a corresponding duty to work, to provide for the needs of their families and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.
- Governmental action, where necessary, must assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life.
- Decisions on investment, trade, aid and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live on this globe.
As we reflect on St. Joseph the Worker and the example he set in his faith-filled life, let us put our faith into action by advocating on behalf of and supporting all workers and treating them with dignity.
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
