The Catholic - Labor Network

Documents & Articles which concern Catholic and Labor Issues Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings Catholic Hospitals & Labor Catholic Schools & Labor Msgr. George Higgins Catholic Worker Connection General Articles of Interest  Home Page  The Catholic-Labor Network E-Mail List  The Catholic-Labor Network is dependent on interested persons sharing their activities struggles, victories and prayers with other like minded men and women of faith. We strongly invite all those who visit this page, and who share  a common interest in issues effecting the Catholic Church and the Labor Movement to subscribe.  Occasionally, notices will be sent when this page is updated.  When important events happen, we will pass on the information through the e-mail list, and most of all, the e-mail list is a means by which we can pray and support each other. Some Catholic and Labor Links The Holy See  The National Conference of Catholic Bishops  Human Rights for Workers  The Labor Issues Guide National Association of Catholic School Teachers  The Houston Catholic Worker  Catholic Online  National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice  The Seamless Garment Network  The International Labour Organization  The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations  The International Transport Workers Federation Union Web

Rally for Reform of Immigrant Labor Laws By Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yard Stick July 3, 2000  As many as 20,000 mostly Latino workers, along with a host of labor, religious and political leaders, converged on the Los Angeles Sports Arena June 11 to call for reform of immigrant labor laws and general amnesty for undocumented laborers. I had the good fortune to attend this historic AFL-CIO rally. The rally exceeded its organizers' expectations to the point where thousands of workers were shut out of the overfilled arena.  Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles was the most prominent of the local religious leaders who addressed the rally. Speaking first in English and then in Spanish, he pledged the Catholic Church's strong support for across-the-board amnesty for undocumented immigrant workers. He then went outside and delivered the same message to the several thousand workers who, for safety reasons, had been denied access to the arena.  The cardinal's eloquent message recalled the memory of the late, great Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, who more than 100 years ago set the tone for the church in the United States on the subject of social justice. In his famous memorandum to the Holy See in defense of the Knights of Labor -- which the late Msgr. John Tracy Ellis characterized as the single most important document in the history of the church in the United States -- Cardinal Gibbons wrote:    "And since it is acknowledged by all that the great questions of the future are not those of war, of commerce or of finance, but the social questions, the questions which concern the improvement of the condition of the great masses of the people, and especially of the working people, it is evidently of supreme importance that the church should always be found on the side of humanity, of justice toward the multitudes who compose the body of the human family."  Cardinal Gibbons' words came to mind as I listened to Cardinal Mahony speak so forcefully at the Los Angeles rally in support of immigrant worker rights. It was one of the best labor forums of its kind that I have attended in recent years.   Papal Social Encyclicals   Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest  Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins  Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre