Church-Worker Ties Must Be Renewed U.S

I Labor Dar hal I apecill meaning for Gar, Jennings, who nearr, lost his life in a construction accident. See story on page 12. Church-worker ties must be renewed U.S. Catholic Conference Labor Day statement WASHINGTON (NC) - The traditional ties be trial city," he said. merely make a theoretical or historical point but tween the Church and workers should be renewed, be Later, as labor became more organized, more rather, because "I believe we must seek to discover the cause of "new and difficult" economic challenges and Catholics entered the middle class, and other social meaning of this living tradition in our own time and the positive role for Catholic social teaching in address justice issues occupied Church attention, "there was a place. The challenge we face is to use the values of our ing them, ~ccording to the 1987 U.S. Catholic Con gradual tapering off" of direct Church .involvement tradition to help shape the economic transition that is ference Labor Day statement. with labor, Bishop Sullivan said. occurring." The statement, ''Rights and Responsibilities of "On this Labor Day, as we stop to reflect on the Workers," by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan of Preserve ;ights of workers economic issues that confront us and the basic values Brooklyn, was released by the USCC Aug. 4. The bishop However, he noted that "the present-day economy that guide us, I think there is solid reason for hope," he chairs the USCC Committee on Social Development and poses new ai:id difficult challenges for those seeking to said. World Peace. preserve the rights of workers. Meeting these For example, "among the labor movement there is "Much has changed in recent years, but the basic challenges will require a renewed partnership." clear evidence of a willingness to adapt to the changing challenge of defending human dignity remains a com Furthermore, he continued, "I believe that Cath signs of the times and to pursue the joint struggle for mon task of both Church and labor," he said. "I believe olic social teaching has a very real contribution to workers' rights and the common good," he said. there are several reasons to suggest that we should make in providing a moral vision and a foundation of renew and strengthen this partnership in the years ethical principles upon which to build the struggle for ahead." economic justice." Business community "Rerum Novarum" cited a "right to a living "And among the business community," he con Tracea labor teaching wage.'' while the U.S. bishops' pastoral, "Economic tinued, "there are numerous leaders who are willing The statement briefly traces the Catholic labor Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. and committed to join in working for an economy that teaching f1"9m Pope Leo XIl's.1891 encyclical "Rerum Economy" discussed that and other rights, he said. is prosperous but also just, an economy that rewards Novarum" through the U.S. bishops' economic pastoral Yet, there also are "important responsibilities of individual initiative but also promotes the common and Pope John Paul Il's encyclical "On Human Work" workers," he said. "These begin with the duty to use good, an economy that serves not only short-term and other texts. one's talents effectively, to provide a fair day's work, interests but also the long-term welfare of our society. '' "The Church has had a long history of participating and to seek excellence in production and service." He expressed hopes that "we can build on th,e good in the struggle for workers' rights and economic jus Pope John Paul, discussing labor unions, "has re will, the innate desire for justice and the creative com tice," particularly after the debut of ''Rerum Nov peatedly stressed the themes of the common good and petence that is part of the American tradition. These arum," the bishop wrote. solidarity" and has urged workers and unions "to be a values remain strong in our nation," he said. "They are "For example, in the early part of this century, voice for justice in all of society," the bishop said. among our most important resources in the continuing labor priests were found in virtually every major ind us- He added that he does not recall such teachings to struggle to achieve economic justice for all." - . The Archbishop's Column John Paul II: A post-modern man in studying the "Metaphysics" ol Kuimien 'WaJz cfur. , direction of a female priesthood 1921. 1be mind and heart of Pope John Paul n are ing some slack time. From various sources, an un not readily accessible to Americans. We know him Besides livinl amoac Uniates, Ortbodo1 and scbiamatic Catholics, Karol Wojtyla bas had first forgettable memory is given us of this Youn& man. from the media: quick flashes of white robes1 a hand eiperience of the two totalitarian states of the He would sit b.y the boiler tryiq t,> study 1 creaaed, tbou&htful face, and a staff with the metaphysics. He later revealed: "For a long time I Crucified One. He describes himself as "the Pope of twentieth century: Nazi Gennany and the U.S.S.R. In fact, be admits that his first encyclical letter, couldn't cope with the book, and I actually wept over Slavic origins'' and doesn't hesitate to quote from it. It was not until two months later ... that I began the literature of his homeland. The early memories "The Redeemer of Man," was composed consciously against the background of the Nazi genocidal assault to make something of it, 'but in the end it opened up and associations of the Pope are intermingled with a whole new world to me. It showed me a new upon the Jewish people. F the largest ethnic and linguistic group of peoples in approach to reality, and made me aware of ques the His two doctorates expanded his intellectual a Europe. Slavs include the Poles 1 Czechs, the tions that I had only dimly perceived," Slovaks, the Wends, the Serbs, the Croats, the horizons. He first studied the four major poems of !II St. John of the Cross and their commentaries in a From these multifaceted experiences, I believe Slovenes, the Macedonians, the Montenegrins, the that in this Pope we find one of our few contem Bosnians, tbe Bulgarians, the Great Russians, Uk.rai• doctoral dissertion, "The Question of Faith in St. 0 nians and Byelorussians. The Pope can sing the John of the Cross." Then be turned his attention to poraries wbo has confronted the challenge of Mod C ernity success!ully and moved beyond lt. He has chants of Old Slavonic in the liturgy of a Byzantine the German phenomenologist, Max Scheler. He Vi understood that the fundamental challenge of our rite catholic Church. wrote another doctoral thesis entitled " An Evalu a Few Americans are ation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian times is a practical and theoretical atheism in whlch familiar with the diversity Ethic on the Principles of the System of Max theology has been turned completely and finally into u of historical Poland. Karol Scheler." Wojtyla rejects Scheler's phenomenology anthropology; the study of God has become ex• Wojtyla is the first Pope on the grounds that it was unable to determine acts elusively the study of man. e whose native culture has as good or evil in themselves but only "in intentional In his first encyclical, John Paul II reveals F known from the beginning feelings." himself as one of the few leaders of world-wide r, the schism between east· With this rich intellectual and cultural heritage, stature who is genuinely pos~modern and should be em and western Chris one of his biographers, George Huntson Williams, judged only by such a standard. "The man who wish C tianity. Religiously and remarks that ''John Paul ll, more than anyone from es to understand himself thoroughly ... must draw V culturally, the Slavs are another land, ... could bring a special perspective to near to Christ. He must, SD to speak, enter into him .... divided between Eastern bear on" relationships between Catholics and others. with all .his own self, he must "appropriate" and Orthodoxy and Roman l found one incident in his life especially il assimilate the whole of this reality of the Incarna I! Catholicism. His keen ecu• luminating. During the Nazi occupation of Poland in tion and Redemption in order to find himself.•· This menical interest in the Or· 1942, when he was 22 years old, Wojtyla presented is a great text, thoroughly grounded in the stupen a thodox can be understood himself to the Archbishop of Cracow, Prince Adam dous insight of Gaudium et Spes 22: "Christ the new against this background. Sapieha, as a clndidate for the priesthood in the Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the y, The Catholic Churches in Poland also are fam underground seminary. This happened shortly after Father and of his love, f uJly reveals man to himself A iliar with a schismatic sect called the Mariavites. the death of his father by a heart attack. Dunng and brings to light his most high calling." u Among their beliefs, they include the practice of the these most dangerous times, he continued to work by · + J, Francis Stafford l! ordination of nuns as priests. They moved in the day in the Solvay chemical plant where he began Archbishop of Denver p li u Regis College centennial Program on missionary discernment tJ The Denver Catholic Register will publish a special rt section commemorating the centennial of Regis College in The Missions Office of the Archdiocese of Denver will .

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