by James Parks, May 2, 2011
Working families in our country are in desperate trouble and in desperate need of the spirit and strength of Catholic social teaching which embraces social justice and the right of workers to form unions, AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney said today.
Sweeney delivered the keynote address at the Church, Labor and the New Things of the Modern World conference at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. The conference celebrates the 120th anniversary of the landmark papal encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things). Written by Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum laid the foundation for the Catholic Church’s longtime involvement in workers’ issues. Read the entire speech here.
Labor unions, the “free associations” Rerum Novarum said should protect them, are under attack as never before, Sweeney said.
Earlier this year, politicians began taking America’s anti-union, anti-worker crusade a step even further by trampling the rights of public employees and boldly trying to eliminate their unions altogether.
If unchecked, this assault on the very existence of unions is sure to spread, and the impact on Catholic social teachings and, indeed, the moral and economic fiber of our nation, will be profound.
Sweeney reminded the participants it will take more than words and admonitions to rescue working families from a society that insists they should have no say in the decisions affecting them.
It will take a genuine renewal of the social teaching tradition in the Church and the willingness of the leadership to challenge the economic and political “powers that be.” It is that tradition and that willingness that together brought us so far towards the goal of dignity for all work and dignity for all workers.
The conference, which ends tomorrow, brings together top Catholic religious leaders and scholars, including His Eminence, Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and journalists Harold Meyerson and E.J. Dionne and others to discuss the relevance of Catholic social teaching in the modern world.
