Unit X: From Charity to Justice

Overview

“Whose Holy Grail?  Justice, Genetics and the Search for a Global Common Good” aims to develop fundamental principles of Catholic Social Teaching, e.g., respect for human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity, in the context of emerging genetic technologies.  John Paul II’s 1987 encyclical, Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern) is a good resource for understanding the historical and theological development of these principles within the tradition.

Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern)

SRS begins with a reflection on the themes and central social commitments of Vatican II, as expressed in the 1987 encyclical by Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, (On the Development of Peoples) and in the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes.  SRS (#7) reads:

With regard to the content and themes once again set forth by [Populorum Progressio], the following should be emphasized: the awareness of the duty of the Church, as "an expert in humanity", "to scrutinize the signs of the times and to interpret them in the light of the Gospel";[10] the awareness, equally profound, of her mission of "service", a mission distinct from the function of the State, even when she is concerned with people's concrete situation;[11] the reference to the notorious inequalities in the situations of those same people;[12] the confirmation of the Council's teaching, a faithful echo of the centuries-old tradition of the Church, regarding the "universal purpose of goods";[13] the appreciation of the culture and the technological civilization which contribute to human liberation,[14] without failing to recognize their limits;[15] finally, on the specific theme of development, which is precisely the theme of [Populorum Progressio], the insistence on the "most serious duty" incumbent on the more developed nations "to help the developing countries".[16] The same idea of development proposed by the Encyclical flows directly from the approach which the Pastoral Constitution takes to this problem.[17]

In SRS, John Paul II picks up this key theme of development [the conditions within nations for meeting basic needs and advancing in science, technology, commerce and culture], this time with reference to the specific challenges of the third millennium.  The most significant change in thinking about development follows from the acknowledgement of global interdependence:

On the other hand, without departing from the lines of this moral vision, the originality of [Populorum Progressio] also consists in the basic insight that the very concept of development, if considered in the perspective of universal interdependence, changes notably.  True development cannot consist in the simple accumulation of wealth and in the greater availability of goods and services, if this is gained at the expense of the development of the masses, and without due consideration for the social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of the human being [26]. (SRS #9)

JPII goes on to note: “if the social question has acquired a worldwide dimension, this is because the demand for justice can only be satisfied on that level.”  The most salient feature of our worldwide situation for JPII is the wide and widening gaps between rich and poor:

The first negative observation to make is the persistence and often the widening of the gap between the areas of the so-called developed North and the developing South. This geographical terminology is only indicative, since one cannot ignore the fact that the frontiers of wealth and poverty intersect within the societies themselves, whether developed or developing. In fact, just as social inequalities down to the level of poverty exist in rich countries, so, in parallel fashion, in the less developed countries one often sees manifestations of selfishness and a flaunting of wealth which is as disconcerting as it is scandalous. (SRS #14)

The abundance of goods and services available in some parts of the world, particularly in the developed North, is matched in the South by an unacceptable delay, and it is precisely in this geopolitical area that the major part of the human race lives. (SRS #14)

The problem of underdevelopment (and its corollary, superdevelopment) is not limited, for JPII, to economic underdevelopment, but cultural and political as well, and the causes are multiple and intertwined, e.g., international economic systems, political unrest and the arms race, neo-colonial patterns of trade, histories of indebtedness.

The obligation to address underdevelopment is issued to all persons, all nations, and is based on the human right to evelopment:

Collaboration in the development of the whole person and of every human being is in fact a duty of all towards all, and must be shared by the four parts of the world: East and West, North and South; or, as we say today, by the different "worlds". If, on the contrary, people try to achieve it in only one part, or in only one world, they do so at the expense of the others; and, precisely because the others are ignored, their own development becomes exaggerated and misdirected...Peoples or nations too have a right to their own full development, which while including as already said the economic and social aspects should also include individual cultural identity and openness to the transcendent.  (SRS #32)

Although the causes of underdevelopment are economic and political, they are also fundamentally moral. Appropriate responses, therefore, will have to be moral as well as technical.

It is important to note therefore that a world which is divided unto blocs, sustained by rigid ideologies, and in which instead of interdependence and solidarity different forms of imperialism hold sway, can only be a world subject to structures of sin. The sum total of the negative factors working against a true awareness of the universal common good, and the need to further it, gives the impression of creating, in persons and institutions, an obstacle which is difficult to overcome [64]. (SRS #36)

What is necessary is a certain kind of moral and ultimately practical conversion:

Interdependence must be transformed into solidarity, based upon the principle that the goods of creation are meant for all. That which human industry produces through the processing of raw materials, with the contribution of work, must serve equally for the good of all.  (SRS #39)

Such a conversion, for JPII, takes us beyond emotional identification with the poor or marginalized in the world toward a rededication across patterns of production and consumption in light of the global common good:

(Solidarity) is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.  (SRS #38)

Note:  References set of in [ ] refer to paragraphs in Populorum Progressio cited within Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.