I have tried for some time to figure out how to tactfully write this column. I do not wish to come across as whiny nor as have given up the fight for neither are true. The conventional wisdom is to soft peddle these concerns so as to not drive away anyone who is barely hanging on. The soft peddling is not working. Perhaps a little tough love is needed. I am aiming at that: tough love. Tough in that sometimes it is necessary to face unpleasant truths. Love in that the goal is to jostle enough awareness to change to a trajectory that leads to heaven.
This column is not aimed at my parish per se in that most every pastor will have similar laments and concerns. These are the things that grieve me most as a pastor in the 16 years I have been a pastor. It should be encouraging that these are the things that grieve me for it shows where I hope to take any parish. To my own parish, there will be nothing new here in that we have working on this for several years now. These are reflected in the pastoral plan we have put together and will present next week. These, however, are the battles we face.
So in no particular order:
1. We know we are not a priority To the overwhelming number of people we are not a priority. We're just not. We're not in their lives nor their children's lives. I am not sure there was ever a golden age on this one. However, we know that for many that the parish is not a priority. It is a convenience. The sin of anything in the eye of the parishioners we try to do starts with the sin of being inconvenient. Everything must be convenient. Mass times...youth events...classes...you name it, we have to somehow wedge ourselves into the minuscule time allotments that are the scraps of the weekly time allotment in people's lives. We are not what schedules are arranged around. We get the scraps.
This makes planning anything nightmarish. We know that we are seen as less important than sports (any level), a whole host of leisure activities, and life in general. Youth ministers walk a mine field knowing that the windows they have to get youth's attention are growing smaller and smaller by the day. We know that non-faith formation events will take precedence over everything religious, even Mass itself. To try and draw, we feel this need to compete with these things by being fun, loud, and low impact. It is like lasing a stick of dynamite. We are told we must cede ground to schools (even catholic schools), coaches, instructors, and bosses. As we aren't the parents, many times we are left to the nose bleed sections of our young flock's life. If we care, and I do, it hurts.
When we complain, we are shrugged off with a legion of excuses: if only you all would _________. So , we have to pray that some will see us a priority. Thankfully a minority does.
2. We are barely catholic. To be Catholic means to be in a relationship with God AND His Body, the Church. Many, however have bought a very worldly view of this. God is wherever I want him: in nature, on a fishing boat, in a whole host of places outside of the churches. He is the non-judgemental rubber stamp who is pleased with me despite my minimal to non-existent effort. The majority stay away Sunday after Sunday. they teach their children to do the same.
Many times it is because they find a Church that is as cold as ice and lacks transcendence so much that it seems little more than a poorly executed glee club. It is hard to convince people to seek God with us when it is hardly discernible whether we in the church building are actively seeking the transcendent God. This is much more than ritual, a Latin Mass can be just as dead as any other.
The devotional life is barely discernible. The Church building sits empty most of the time. Prayer seems to be waning.
3. Christian witness is hard to provoke. Our faith is evangelical by nature. It is meant to be proclaimed and powerfully lived. It is a not a private function of the person. We have allowed the world to tell us to be quiet about faith lest we be considered intolerant. We have allowed ourselves to be bullied by the intolerant tolerant. Timidity has swallowed up our witness. We see so many parishes fold, close, and such because of demographic shifts. It wasn't as if other people didn't move in, but since they weren't Catholics, we stuck to our country club until membership dried up. We are content with not doing the things to not only insure our own survival, but avoid retaking lost ground and getting about the business of the kingdom.
Too many times we regulate our witness to being do-gooders. Don't get me wrong, the corporal works of mercy are necessary as a strong witness. However, they can not be done in isolation of the spiritual works of mercy. There is nothing merciful about writing off others, even this society itself, as going to hell in a hand basket. Mercy should open our hands and mouths. Such silence is NOT a virtue.
4. We know we have created this monster. This is the poison pill that keeps many a cleric quiet and trapped in learned helplessness. We pastors know that we cannot blame the laity for this one. No, what we are seeing is decade upon decade of watered down catechesis, watered down liturgy, catering to entertainment demands, and generally being milquetoast when we needed to stand. We failed to feed the flock so it went to the wolves who promised to feed them, even if in feeding them they were fattening them up for the slaughter.
We made opaque the transcendent God by abandoning the heavenly for the earthly. We replaced beauty with banality. We so watered down morality that we left the people believing everyone goes to heaven. While there never has been a golden age in the Church, we know that in the present age, points 1-3 are monsters of our own making.
5. We know turning this around is a near impossible task. Here I can say that in the parish I am in, I see signs of life blossoming, but it was no small task. Many of my brothers, though, look at the task as insurmountable. Given the sizes of the parishes in most areas and the sheer costs of running the parishes, we can be terrified that any effort to right the ship will be met with even emptier pews and shrinking coffers to pay the bills. Sometimes we can define success in terms of how little the loss was under our time. Very few even considering expansion an option, save where there are population shifts.
The truth is that it is and will be a battle with each square inch won back at tremendous effort. The best we can hope for is a baby step at a time. Notice, I said 'near impossible' and not merely 'impossible'. Don't forget that grace utilized will conquer sin. We are not alone in this battle: Christ leads us.
This leaves us in parish ministry (whether cleric or lay) with a choice to make: do we simply wait out our time or do we regain our footing and start addressing these issues? It is not enough to state what is wrong and then shrug our shoulders and walk away. We are responsible before God for the care we gave His flock. Tough love is going to be required. It is going to be required within our families and parishes. Making faith really a priority is going to necessitate our helping them. We won't help them by pandering to the lowest common denominator. We will help them by teaching the Gospel in its fullness. We cannot expect parents to stand their ground if we will not stand ours. We cannot expect them to witness if we will not. We cannot ask them to make hard choices if we won't.
We are not without hope. We might well have abandoned God, but He has not abandoned us. It is not going to be easy. Not for any of us. My final lament as a pastor is that we need more to gain hope and faith. I know that all I can do is propose these things, I cannot impose them. I simply do not possess the ability to make people respond I as would have them do. Free will is like that, it is left to the choice of the individual. That I cannot change. I can offer, teach, and try to do what is wanted of me by God. I cannot make those who do not wish to see to see. All I can do is try to shed a light of truth. That is all.
Final thought: notice what doesn't grieve me...money.. Not because we have it, but because I run a parish and not a business.
.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Is the Culture war lost?
Let's start at the core of the problem: the human person. Within the human person is a constant battle between selflessness and selfishness. We are born selfish. An infant does not know or care that its screaming at 2AM has any negative effect on mom and dad. It knows that it is hungry, scared, or has a full diaper as is incapable of fixing said problem. They know if the cry, someone will hopefully come to the rescue. As that child grows and its abilities grow with it, then the expectation grows of that child growing away from selfishness and growing towards selflessness. In fact, classically, a child's growth towards selflessness and altruism have been marks of maturity. A failure to grow towards selflessness and altruism was seen as a sign of a psychological disorder that led to sociopathic behavior. A society of coddling, manufactured self esteem, enabling, and participation trophies has not served the last two generations well.
It is well known that selfless behavior and altruistic behavior lead to personal contentment and union in whatever entities the person belonged. However, where selfishness rules, there can be no other option than strife and division. When a society becomes narcissistic, then discord will become the norm. Selfishness is only capable of breeding personal discontent and creating an insatiable entitlement.
The more narcissistic a person becomes, the more objective truth becomes the enemy. Objective truth are those things that are true of their own merit; they do not need my personal approval to be true. Subjective truth are things true because I say so; they are matters of personal preference and opinion. What we are seeing is the society falling into the tyranny of subjective truth. Our society is not the first to fall into this trap, nor will it be the last. Historically, the descent into such a tyranny does not end well.
The tyranny of subjective truth has indeed reached the point of craziness. Statements do not even have to have any basis in reality. We can now declare gender regardless of any physical, genetic, biological, or scientific criteria. We can change our race by mere proclamation. There are multiple such fiats on every imaginable topic. In this tyranny, other simply must accept whatever fiat is made and surrender their own dispositions to mine. If you do not accept my fiat, you are a danger to me and must be eliminated. The more tyrannical the narcissists becomes, the more voices contrary to their own must be silenced. To be sure, we are seeing this played out on multiple fronts.
From this, suppression of free speech arises. Your freedom must be curtailed if you do not cater to the demands of the narcissist. From this arrives the loathsome development of safe zones where no voice is heard other than my own (that is lasing the stick a dynamite for a narcissist). The debate of ideas devolves into a chorus of personal attacks where the word intolerance rains down like confetti. If we stay on this road, there will be no other option than totalitarianism.
With all this said, is all lost? No. First, these things are not endemic to our society. Others societies have gone through this. Some were able to rise above it, some were destroyed by it. Which happens to us is dependent on the ability of selfless to rise to the occasion and stand their ground. Second, it is not as if objective truth has not been the victim of attempted assassination before. That is the beauty of objective truth, it always survives like a pheonix. This isn't to say the war isn't going to be bloody.
For those who are followers of Christ: Jesus tells us multiple times to not be afraid. Current persecutors who believe they will finally crush Christianity and Catholicism will end up on the same ash heap of history as every supposed victor. Our lot is to stand our ground, to stick to the truth in boldness and charity. No battle is won until one sides cedes the ground. Honestly, we have ceded much ground. That needs to stop. This does mean we employ the same tactics as used against us? No, quite the opposite. We do not surrender the commandment to love in how we respond on the battlefield. No victory will come if we respond in kind. It never has. The reason Christianity wins out is because we take a different road.
So chin up, fix your gaze, and know we might get bloodied, but we can not be defeated. While we might well loose some battles, the war is never lost.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
The Roman Catholic Man and the Virtue of Justice
Those Christians who love to quote Exodus 21:24 quickly forget that Jesus negated such as interpretation in Matthew 5:36-41 where Jesus states "You have heard it said to you and eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth, but I say to you...turn the other cheek". Does this sound like the allowance for revenge as justice? NO. What changed? The Incarnation changes this. This leads to the definition of the virtue of justice within the Church.
If justice was about rendering to another that which their actions, for good or for ill, merited, then the Incarnation (the Son of God fully becoming human as well in all things but sin) doesn't happen. Our sins merit hell. They merit eternal punishment. This is what we deserved. As St. Paul reminds us multiple times, God sent His Son while we were still sinners. God didn't give what we deserved, but what we needed. To render to another that which is needed is the definition of the cardinal virtue of justice. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy are powerful examples of this. As a quick aside, the false definition of social justice as a delegating of personal responsibility to engage in justice to the state is not what we are talking about. We may ask the state to be just, but this does not absolve of us personal responsibility. Taxes do not equal charity.
For the Roman Catholic Man, cultivating the virtue of justice requires the discipline of love. It requires a man to actively be aware of those around him and to look to their needs, especially when they cannot do this themselves. Furthermore, the virtue of justice holds a man back from the abuse, exploitation, neglect, or apathy towards another person. To give an example, pornography is a sin against justice in that it reduces another person to a means to a personal end of self-gratification. It leads to a stripping away of a person's dignity. That the person might well have surrendered that dignity does not mean we should take it; what is needed by the person is their dignity to be respected even if their actions do not merit such.
The call to forgiveness that is constant within the New Testament, it is a rendering of judgement that allows mercy to temper any and all forays into vengeance. The sinner needs forgiveness. They might merit condemnation, but forgiveness is the standard to which the Roman Catholic man is called.
For the Roman Catholic man called to marriage. To render justice, you must come last. Your wife and children come first. God comes first. Justice requires selflessness. Their needs come before your wants. Sometimes it comes before your needs. When dealing with mistakes and sins, regardless of their severity, the use of anger and vengeance are always wrong. Abuse is never justified. As spiritual head of the home, you are to be the model of restraint, mercy, and forgiveness. Sometimes, especially with children, the removal of something to correct behavior might be what they need. For example to find your son viewing porn. It is in his best interest to restrict access to the internet. This is not vengeance as it is doing what is necessary to correct the behavior so as to set thing back on the road on which they should be. Ignoring or enabling bad behavior is just as unjust as inflicting revenge. Hence the virtue of prudence is necessary in how to exercise justice.
For the Roman Catholic man called to priesthood. God and your flock come first. We are to be poured out like a libation, as St. Paul says of himself, for the good of those God has placed in our care. Fear cannot mitigate message. Our flock may not want to hear the truth about Catholic morality. This does matter, they need to hear it. Our flock has a need to a Mass which orients them to God. Our flocks need to experience mercy; regulating confession to 45 minutes or less at the most inconvenient time is criminal. Our flocks need Jesus. They need the truth. Our flocks need forgiveness and mercy. They need to find this in their parish. Woe to the priests who is neglectful or abusive! We are to model ourselves after Christ Himself, who gave the totality of his entire being for the good of the flock. It is that high standard to which we are held.
As Roman Catholic men, we need to recapture this virtue of justice. In a society transfixed by entitlement and selfishness, the selflessness of the just man is a powerful witness that provides the safe harbor needed by those who are tossed about by the storms of this life, especially the storms of their own making. We need to model our judgement and its rendering on Jesus Christ Himself.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
The Roman Catholic Man and the virtue of Temperance
This virtue restrains the sinful nature of the deadly sins of lust, greed and gluttony. Temperance keeps us from the self indulgence of either craving or consuming too much. Temperance also tells us what are the things we need to stay away from altogether. As with the other virtues, the Roman Catholic man, motivated by love, trains himself to use wisely the things of this world for the sake of those placed under his care and as a witness to the larger world.
Temperance holds us firm in the face of falling into addiction. This virtue informs our will that the use of certain items which are not evil in and of themselves (food, drink, alcohol) are always to be used in moderation and never to be seen as a crutch. This virtue also informs us to stay away from certain items that are evil in their nature (pornography) lest we damage the relationships we have.
In conjunction with prudence, the Roman Catholic man is given the divine help to learn what is a proper use of his time and what is a waste of time on the basis of whether the behavior being engaged in is to the betterment or abasement of man himself and to the betterment or abasement of those placed under his care. Temperance also helps him to set his priorities straight, knowing they either guide himself and those placed in his care towards or away from God.
Temperance is about detachment from worldly things, using them correctly. Temperance underlies the use of the will in the mortifications of abstinence and fasting. Temperance helps the Roman Catholic man towards chastity (the right ordering of one's use of sexuality) so that he never degrades himself or others sexually so as to achieve a fleeting moment of pleasure. In fact, the Roman Catholic man who hones the discipline of temperance does not see pleasure as a primary goal in life. Informed by love, temperance gives us the ability to embrace sacrifice and suffering for those whom we love.
For the Roman Catholic man called to marriage, the virtue of temperance and its attendant discipline affords him the necessary mastery over himself to correctly navigate the balance needed in being the spiritual head of the home. Not enslaved to pleasure or self aggrandizement, he is free to consciously and soberly lead, provide, and protect those placed under his care. He can place himself last as an act of love, never allowing his wants to trump the needs of those laced in his care. The temperate man is not willing to jeopardize the welfare of others for his own self-gain.
For the Roman Catholic man called to the priesthood, the virtue of temperance and its attendant discipline affords him the ability to act always in the person of the Good Shepherd, putting his own desires aside for the good of the flock assigned to him. The temperate priest is a fitting model for the men of his parish in what Catholic masculinity looks like. Not given to sin, he is free to openly act as the Persona Christi in all his endeavors. He is able to live simply as the Church calls him to live, as is seen in Canon Law (Canon 282).
Temperance is so needed in this culture where the tyranny of selfishness has emasculated men into being driven like livestock from one transitory pleasure to another. The only outcome of this is the attachment to compensatory behaviors (abuse of alcohol, narcotics/ use of pornography...to name a few) which further break down any classical sense of masculinity. The Roman Catholic man needs to be witness and light in such grave darkness; to remind all men of the greatness to which they were called and created.
Monday, May 9, 2016
The Roman Catholic Man and Prudence
Virtue is a good habit. It is strengthened by the discipline of practice. It is to our soul and mind what exercise is to the body. While the seeds of these virtues are planted within us by God, the growth of these seeds comes through a mixture of God's grace and our active cooperation. They are to be nurtured consciously by our thoughts which give rise to our words and actions.
The desire to practice virtue is bound in the theological virtue of love. By love, we speak of the Greek word 'agape' which conveys a complete self giving for the good of the other. In the determined growth in virtue, it is a response to our desire to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves in such a way as to lift up these relationships towards God. The man who eschews the virtues is no man at all, but merely a overgrown adolescent. Virtues and their intentional practice lead the Catholic man from adolescence to maturity.
A cardinal virtue is hinge virtue, that is, virtues that inform our decisions and actions. They are conscious decisions and courses of actions in how we deal with events and people around us. Flowing from our active will to love, they inform us as to how to act and decide as men of God.
Prudence is the exercise of good judgement and wisdom in practical matters. The prudent Roman Catholic man weighs his actions in light of the Gospel of Christ and the subsequent teachings of the Church. The prudent Roman Catholic man knows he cannot do this without be familiar with the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. Why? The prudent man knows that within himself is NOT the totality and wisdom of the ages. He knows that God has revealed what it is that He desires. Humility drives him to seek such things out and use them as measures of his own behaviors and words. Love of God drives him to seek such wisdom.
Prudence helps us combat rashness in words and actions. It tempers us from explosions of emotion and foolishness. For the Roman Catholic man, prudence is a filter by which he determines a path of action or words. Prudence leads us to look to the long term. Is what I am about to say or do going to have consequences now and in the future? Who suffers or benefits from these consequences? Will these consequences lead to heaven or hell? Will these actions give positive witness or cause scandal? The prudent Roman Catholic man asks these questions continually. Practiced enough, then these questions become second nature.
As we look towards our society, we see a lack of prudence and the tyrannical reign of unrestrained emotions. We see a foolhardiness in which the only criteria is how something makes me feel. Social media has given a super highway for such drivel. This is not to say that social media is evil by nature, it isn't. However. like any tool, it can be used for either and given the breadth of its reach, can be used for tremendous good or unspeakable evil. The lack of prudence will manifest itself in a narcissism.
The need for Roman Catholic men to nurture prudence becomes more dire as the virtue is shuffled off the public stage. Prudence connotes a strength of character and an awareness of both oneself and one's environs and relationships. Prudence will guide where actions needs to take place and where it is appropriate to hold one's tongue. A Roman Catholic man cannot be the protector and provider he is without prudence. Prudence will lead us to see that God has placed others into our care and protection.
For the Roman Catholic man called to marriage, prudence becomes the guide by which he measures the correct path with his wife and children. Informed by love, he weighs his decisions on what consequences will be reaped or suffered by those entrusted to his care by God. Is his actions leading those entrusted to him towards or further away from God? Is he giving witness or scandal?
For the Roman Catholic man called to priesthood, prudence becomes the guide by which he ever measures every word and action by whether he is leading the flock closer to or away from Christ. Prudence keeps him from wandering away from church teaching. It bolsters him in standing for the truth even when the truth is unpopular. It informs him in the celebration of the Eucharist in not making it about a show, play, entertainment extravaganza, or anything else that changes the focus from God to us. It informs his words of preaching and teaching and keeps him aware that said words are seeds which can produce a great harvest or can introduce weeds into the crop.
Let us Roman Catholic men strive to such a high standard. Let us avail ourselves of becoming familiar with the teachings of the Gospel and the Church so that we might rightly judge and speak. Let us reign in the emotions and more greatly exercise restraint before acting or speaking. Remember, it is a good habit, furthered by each positive act of will to develop it. Finally, let us realize that it by the grace of God as given through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are given what we need to do this.
Monday, May 2, 2016
Looking for Messiahs Where There are None to be Found
Call me jaded, but I have been well cognizant of politics since the 1984 presidential election. For decades I have listened to one presidential candidate after another make essentially the same laundry list of promises (appropriate to party, of course). Each claims to be the person or party that will make us better. 30+ years of we'll make health, education, infrastructure, and programs better. 35+ years of promising safety, welfare, and economic stability. 35+ year of making promises to unite us. 35 +long and painful years of steady failure.
I am sure each party and candidate believed what they were saying. I do not think they intentionally lied or that they did lie, first to themselves, and then have bought the lie, spread the lie. What is the lie? They were wannabe messiahs. Mere men and women who seek to move heaven and earth, to manipulate the very forces of nature themselves. They make promises that simply cannot be kept by anyone. They look for the power of THE Messiah and always fall short. This does not stop the gravy train of rampant hubris from the next crop of messiahs from rising up and playing the populace for fools.
In the same time frame, we have busied ourselves with deleting the actual Messiah from the public purview. Some actively have eliminated Him through endless lawsuits, harassment, and through good old fashioned demagoguery. Most have eliminated Him by apathy and chasing after favored sins. The new Messiahs promised what the old Messiah wouldn't: they promised wealth without work, choices without consequences, safety without wariness. These messiahs, though, want a high price: surrender integrity, dignity, freedom, and independence to receive their chest of gold. Of course, the chest of gold is appropriately filled with fool's gold every time. Despite the Who's singing "we won't get fooled again" we line up like Charlie Brown, convinced that the football won't get yanked away by Lucy again. So every election cycle? To quote the Peanuts strip, "Auuuughhhhhh, THUMP!"
So, now we have a new crop of wannabe messiahs. They promise vacuous things like free this or that, or he'll make America great again, or some other siren's song to get us to line up like lemmings to jump off the electoral cliff. Auuughhhhhh....THUMP! The dirty little truth is that there are consequences from which no earthly messiah can absolve us. There is no true security without the work, vigilance, or wisdom. The real Messiah tells us that. He doesn't absolve of consequence but gives a Gospel to steer us to consequences which will give peace and joy. This true Messiah doesn't tell us to sit on our kiester and wait for good, but to get off our kiester and get about the business of the Kingdom.
The difference between these poseurs for the throne and the actual Messiah, Jesus Christ? The poseurs see you as a cog in the machine, largely disposable, and to be cast aside once you have outlived your usefulness. The real Messiah sees you as worth surrendering His life for. False messiahs seek power. Jesus eschewed it, turning down the devil's temptation to rule over all earthly kingdoms if Jesus would but bow down to him. The false messiahs are motivated by what is in it for them; the true Messiah is selfless and empties himself. False messiahs shear and slay their flock; the true Messiah gives His life for the flock.
The antidote to this cancer? First, in politics: the president takes an oath of office. See what is in it and what is not. For the love of God, look at the Constitution and see what his duties are. Saving us is not in the constitutional job description. Can your candidate do this? Then vote for them. If not, then don't. Second, recognize that anyone who does get elected is going to be a mere human being. They do not always get it right. That said, please try to elect a person who is honest and will do the job outlined in our constitution. Third, we have got to start following the right Messiah again. If we don't, we will have more of the same or even worse. History shows that any entity that shoves the hand of God away from them become easy targets for the predators out there. We muct stop looking for messiahs where there are none to be found.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
The Catholic and Social Justice
Social Justice. Fewer words cause more controversy in the political and religious spheres. I believe that the controversy stems from an utter lack of understanding in what the concept means. For some, these words represent the corporate responsibility of peoples to utilize government to the public welfare. For others, these words represent the guise that many who favor socialism or communism use as a way of the redistribution of wealth. Still others who favor a socioeconomic Darwinism see this as the seizure of their goods to be given to those who are undeserving. What does the Church actually teach about this?
We should start by answering the question as to what justice itself is. The concept has taken on the meaning in our culture of a person getting what their actions deserve. This is certainly the operative meaning in our criminal justice system. The socioeconomic Darwinist would apply this definition in regards to society. What does the Church say? First, understand that 'justice' is one of the four Cardinal Virtues. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1807, it is stated, " Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor.Justice towards God is called the 'virtue of religion". Justice towards men disposes one to resp[ect the rights of each and to establishing human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regards to persons and to the common good."
This is lived on two levels, not one. First, as is seen in the Last Judgement Sequence, justice finds itself in what are commonly called the corporal works of mercy and, by extension, the spiritual works of mercy as well. In no teaching of Jesus does He command love or mercy only to the deserving, but commands love and mercy even to the undeserving, which He says is in imitation of the Father. (see Matthew 5: 43-48) To see a need and simply do nothing is not an option in the Christian life. In fact, it is a sin of omission. The onus, though, is on the individual first. Many times, social justice warriors will concentrate their time and energy on institutions they perceive as unjust without looking towards their own injustices and lack of mercy. Rallying for a government or business to be just is not a replacement for the person themselves exercising justice.
To do so is the height of hypocrisy. It is tantamount to what we see in so many 'cause celebre' out there. To give an example: the actor who on the one hand screams about global warming yet who owns multiple homes, cars, yachts, and such. It smack of Gnosticism. "I know the secret knowledge which exempts me from acting justly." We cannot demand corporate entities change or become just in lieu of my own action. Charity, as they say, begins at home. Jesus' primary directive towards justice is aimed at the individual first. This is why paying taxes does NOT absolve one of charity.
With this said, as Catholics, we do have a responsibility to be sure that the entities to which we belong reflect our own commitments to justice. It is upon us to influence corporate entities to be just and to use those entities to ensure the welfare of the populace. Here, political and economic arguments can be made as to what system will best do this. I am not going to tackle that here. The Church herself favors no political or economic system; rather, she gives standards that should be used in seeing to the welfare of the citizens or workers of the various corporate entities. The general guidelines point to a respect for the integrity and dignity of the human person; that the person is never reduced to a thing to be used and disposed with upon end of use. These would include the sins that cry out to heaven: "There are particular mortal sins that are so evil that they are said to be sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: murder (Gn 4:10), sodomy (Gn 17:20-21), oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4)." (taken from catholic answers website) http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/what-are-sins-that-cry-to-heaven-for-vengeance-and-sins-against-the-holy-spirit)
Social justice is an extension on the corporate level of the demands of justice on the personal level. One is not the exclusion of the other. We can quibble as to what is covered and what is not; where charity ends and enabling begins. The point is, we can never absolve ourselves of the duties we have to be just, to care for those in need (deserving or not), and to be the face of the love and mercy of God.
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