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June 25, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
COMMENTARY
The Best Kept Secret of The Catholic Church
By Tony Magliano
Internationally syndicated social jus-
tice and peace columnist
[email protected]
The Catholic Church has a very big secret. It is
so powerful, challenging and relevant, that if every
bishop, priest, religious and layperson was committed
to communicating and implementing this secret, it
would turn society upside-down and literally trans-
form the world!
However, revealing its contents, and urging the full
application of its message, would surely cause great
controversy. The church’s leaders would come under
attack from both conservatives and liberals. They
would be characterized as naïve and acting outside
the acceptable bounds of church leadership.
Therefore, most church leaders have opted to tread
lightly, sadly guaranteeing that “Catholic social teach-
ing” will remain our best-kept secret.
The best-kept secret is that the Catholic Church
is deeply blessed with over 125 years of outstand-
ing social justice and peace documents authored by
popes, Vatican Council II, world synods of bishops
and national conferences of bishops. Sadly, they at-
tract more dust than readers.
Because Catholic social teaching’s foundational
tenets of love, justice and peace boldly challenge gov-
ernments, corporations and societies, as well as rich
and powerful individuals to fairly share their wealth
and power with the everyone – especially the poor,
the vulnerable and mother earth – and because these
teachings insist that war preparation and war-making
must give way to peacemaking, Catholic social teach-
ing is to put it mildly: a tough sell.
We need to put the effort into learning the wisdom
of Catholic social teaching and selflessly, courageously
put it into practice in our personal, political, economic
and societal lives. It needs to be put above the status
quo of ourselves, our nations, our corporations and
our culture.
Catholic social teaching has at its
core a set of principles designed
to help guide us in applying the
liberating message of the Gospel to
the social, economic, and political
problems facing modern humanity.
Like the Gospel, Catholic social teaching is coun-
tercultural. And, therefore, we must get out of our
comfort zones and be countercultural as well!
But sadly, because Catholic social teaching is so
challenging, the path of least resistance is most often
used. For example, from time to time a passing refer-
ence is made to it in a homily, but such token efforts
are too weak and too infrequent to make much differ-
ence for the unborn, poor and war-torn of our world.
And our faith is all the weaker for it.
Catholic social teaching has at its core a set of prin-
ciples designed to help guide us in applying the liber-
ating message of the Gospel to the social, economic,
and political problems facing modern humanity.
These principles are:
• The protection of all human life and the pro-
motion of human dignity
• The call to participate in family and commu-
nity life
• The promotion of human rights and respon-
sibilities
• The preferential option for the poor and vul-
nerable
• The safeguarding of workers’ dignity and
rights
• The building of global solidarity and the com-
mon good
• The care for God’s creation
• The universal destination of goods
• The call to become peacemakers
Among the most important documents of Catho-
lic social teaching are the Second Vatican Council’s
“Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World,” (see: https://bit.ly/WyDi4S), St. Pope John
Paul II’s encyclicals “On Social Concerns” (see:
https://bit.ly/1WJB2EX) and “The Gospel of Life”
(see: https://bit.ly/1AHf2fZ), and Pope Francis’
encyclical “On Care for Our Common Home (see:
https://bit.ly/1Gi1BTu).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
and Catholic Relief Services offer an excellent video
introductory overview of Catholic social teaching (see:
www.crs.org/resource-center/CST-101).
Catholic social teaching could become a tremen-
dously effective tool for building a just and peaceful
world, if we would regularly read it, pray with it, teach
it, preach it, and live it!
Letter to the Editor
The California Senate recently passed SB.360, which will endanger priest’s lives;
and, SB24, which will diminish our religious freedom! SB 360 requires a priest to
report the confession of a sex abusing priest and to give testimony in court.
However, the public may not distinguish exposing sex abuse of priests from
exposing the criminal activity of non-clergy; and, subsequent legislation may
also blur the distinction. A criminal who had confessed his guilt, may “silence”
the priest.
And, SB.24, requires California Public University (and, later, High School) Health
Clinics to provide the “Abortion Pill.” This makes abortions quick and easy, which
cheapens life and diminishes responsibility. Under such socialist policies, nothing
is sacred; the “Thought Police” determine what is moral.
Michael F. McCarthy
Hayward, CA.
Editor’s note: Read Bishop Cantú’s statement regarding SB360 on page 3 in the
June 11 edition of The Valley Catholic for more information.
Letters to the editor should be 200 words or less and may be submitted to
[email protected]. Deadline for the August 20 edition of The Valley Catholic
is Friday, August 2, noon. Please note, The Valley Catholic does not publish in July.
Letters may be edited and are published at the discretion of the editor.