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Labor's Place in the New Evangelization
Msgr. George G. Higgins
February 15, 1999
An apostolic exhortation on America titled "Ecclesia in America''
("The Church in America'') was signed by Pope John Paul II Jan. 22, the
day he arrived in Mexico for a five-day visit prior to his visit to St.
Louis, Mo. The new document is based on the Nov. 16-Dec. 12, 1997, Special
Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops and responds to it.
"Ecclesia in America'' is a long, somewhat repetitive document
but, because it covers North, Central and South America and the Caribbean
-- speaking of America as one continent -- it necessarily is couched in
broad generalities. This is particularly true of its treatment (or lack
of treatment) of labor issues. A friend who read the document before I
did alerted me to the fact that it makes no mention of the right of workers
to form or join unions and that the only mention of unions comes in No.
67 where unions are lumped in with other "leading sectors'' of societies
that are said to be in need of evangelization due to "the spread of secularism.''
My friend finds the document's virtual silence on labor issues
a rare exception in papal letters of this sort, but is willing to take
it as good news that the pope says in the document, "It would be very useful
to have a compendium or approved synthesis of Catholic social doctrine,
including a catechism, which would show the connection between it and the
new evangelization.'' I hope that this proposed catechism of Catholic social
doctrine will emphasize the role of free trade unions in dealing with "the
complex phenomenon of globalization,'' which the pope singles out as one
of the features of the contemporary world particularly visible in America.
His moral vision in this area, he says, "rests on the threefold cornerstone
of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity.'' It is difficult for me
to imagine how the global market can be guided by this moral vision, absent
strong and effective unions in all countries of the continent. A number
of conservative commentators across the continent have argued that with
the dissolution of the Soviet Union, labor's international mission is obsolete.
But in a global market it is more important than ever that unions cooperate
across national borders. It is also more necessary than ever that domestic
governments around the world civilize and socialize international capitalism
as the democracies since the Industrial Revolution have been trying --
with fits and starts, and with only limited success -- to civilize and
socialize their domestic markets. As Gus Tyler, a leading American labor
economist, pointed out a few years ago, "The titanic struggle of the last
decade of this century and the first decade of the next will be between
megamultinational corporations and sovereign states.''
The history of domestic economic reform during the past century
clearly suggests that the megamultinational corporations will win this
struggle unless strong, effective labor movements pressure their sovereign
governments to initiate and enforce international standards of social justice.
But are we likely to have strong and effective unions as we enter the new
millennium? So far as the United States in concerned, even a casual survey
of the literature on organized labor's future shows that the answer to
this question is still in doubt. The answer is even more in doubt in many
countries south of the border.
It is for this reason that the new evangelization called for
by the pope in "Ecclesia in America'' must place heavy emphasis on the
church's teaching with regard to labor issues.
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