Church and Labor Leaders on Solidarity and Faith

Yesterday, the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies (where I am a graduate fellow) co-hosted an event at the AFL-CIO headquarters that brought together Church and labor leaders. The topic was “Erroneous Autonomy: A Conversation on Solidarity & Faith.” The event was a follow-up on last year’s “Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism” conference. This year’s conference, which sought to offer an affirmative alternative to the “poisoned spring” of libertarianism, could not have come at a better time, with Pope Francis’ new encyclical set to be released later this week.

Francis, building on his predecessors, will outline an ecological ethic dedicated to protecting creation and promoting integral human development—an ethic rooted in the personalist belief in the dignity and worth of the person and a communitarian commitment to social justice and the government’s role in promoting the common good. At the very heart of Francis’ message will almost certainly be yesterday’s main topic: solidarity. And his message will stand in stark contrast to the market morality, hyperindividualism, obsession with self-interest, and anti-government mentality trumpeted by the champions of libertarianism.

Under Francis, Church leaders are growing bolder in their denunciations of these cultural maladies, which are smashing the vulnerable—the poor, the sick, the unborn—under their diseased feet and wreaking havoc on the family. But identifying these threats to the common good is not enough. We must translate the radical Christian commitment to human dignity and flourishing into concrete steps to build the common good. Hopefully this week’s encyclical will convince an unprecedented number of Catholics on the left and right to abandon the libertarian temptation and commit to working together to counter environmental degradation—not by eliminating other humans, but by committing to an integral development that is sustainable.

And we should also hope that the Church and labor will restore the bond that once united them so closely. Pope Francis has shown tremendous concern for workers. He firmly believes in the dignity of work. And he has said that people have a right to dignified work. No institution, including labor unions, has a perfect record when it comes to supporting the common good (we all must reflect on our own actions to ensure that self-interest is not gaining ground on solidarity), but efforts to tear down organized labor and reduce workers to autonomous individuals will not promote the common good. These libertarian efforts are a grave threat to subsidiarity and stand as an obstacle to workers earning the living wage that is their right as human beings. We need unions, and we need the Church to stand with unions against the “god of money” and libertarian assaults on the common good. It was encouraging to see leading bishops and theologians doing precisely that yesterday.

MSW of NCR offered his thoughts on the event. Elizabeth Dias covered the event for Time. The keynote was by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, which can be read in full here. Fr. Clete Kiley provided a response. You can check out tweets from the keynote and the response below and further coverage of the event down the line here at Millennial.