Catholic Church social teaching is evolving to the understanding that the church's role is less about being a voice for the poor and more about ensuring that the poor have their own voice, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who led the Vatican's effort to push for international debt relief for poorer nations.
"This means not just having general programs for human advancement, but ways in which those who are on the margins are brought as protagonists into the virtual circle of inclusion," said the archbishop, former secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Holy See's representative to U.N. offices in Geneva and at the World Trade Organization.
"Any form of globalization which only increases exclusion has no title to call itself global. Global means inclusion," he said.
Archbishop Martin was in Los Angeles keynoting a Nov. 8 symposium and luncheon on the 40th anniversary of the final Vatican II document, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World ("Gaudium et Spes").
More than 200 people gathered at the Wilshire Grand Hotel to celebrate the document that galvanized a Catholic generation to jump into the secular world and address global concerns from the light of faith.
The Catholic Church makes a significant contribution in assisting the poor to express their own concerns through its commitment to education in impoverished communities, Archbishop Martin said.
"If each of us is the result of a thought of God, you could say that in every person there is a particular thought of God. And it's only when all those thoughts are allowed to flourish that we really understand who God is," he added.
"Gaudium et Spes" has emerged as a dialogue process rather than a doctrine, said the Irish archbishop, who jokingly noted that youth become interested in his work when he tells them he has rock singer Bono's cell phone number. Bono, of the group U2, has been a cultural leader in raising awareness of global poverty and the need for debt relief for poor nations.
"Gaudium et Spes," continued the archbishop, is "an ongoing process of dialogue between the Gospel message and the signs of the times as they change."
Christian commitment to society, he added, "must be rooted in a truly Christian understanding of the human person which includes the reality of human sinfulness and therefore the redeeming message of Jesus." The church also puts forth a vision of "human dignity rooted in a relationship with God," he added.
However, Catholics shouldn't fall into thinking that the Christian faith gives a direct ready-made answer to every contemporary challenge, the archbishop cautioned. "The Word has to be mediated in a dialogue through human reflection and in an encounter with human science."
The cornerstone of dialogue, he told The Tidings, is to talk with a spirit of trust, even if there are wide differences in opinion, and to find common ground.
"You may understand each other in a totally different way once you see what you have in common," he noted.
The Nov. 8 symposium was jointly sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Mount St. Mary's College and St. John's Seminary.
A panel of local and national community leaders addressed the signs of the times 40 years later in key areas raised by "Gaudium et Spes."
In the area of marriage and family, Tom Chabolla, associate director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, said that a television-centered consumer culture along with social and economic pressures have eroded family foundations. Parents face the challenge of creating an environment where children can develop their own relationship with God, gain insight into their place in the broader community and put their faith into practice.
"Great souled persons are not born," said Chabolla. "They are nurtured, mentored, agitated and cajoled into being. It's an apprenticeship in the faith."
Sarah Bessell, student body president of Mount St. Mary's College, acknowledged that as a young adult "Gaudium et Spes" is new to her, as is learning about Vatican II and the church's teachings on social justice.
"But in reading and examining the document, it has helped me define who I am as a young Catholic and has helped me to define my faith," said Bessell.
Today's young adults are mobilizing around issues of social justice motivated by "an intense spirituality regardless of denomination," she said. "Because in order to cope with human suffering we find ourselves exposed to at such a young age, one needs a certain amount of faith."
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), observed that although "Gaudium et Spes" proclaimed the human person to be the center of all economic and social life, the reality today is far different.
"The individual has become the servant to the economy," she said. "Poor people must work tirelessly, often working two or three jobs, forced to make the economy the purpose of their lives. Why? Because one job does not provide enough to actually sustain themselves or sustain the family."
In the U.S. 13 million people live in poverty, including one in every six children.
Barbara Busse, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University, urged Christians to make informed moral choices about their consumption of culture and to take responsibility "for producing images we wish to see in the world."
"To become agents of cultural transformation we must understand in a deeply informed way where each one stands in relation to others, to the natural world, to God," continued Busse. "We need especially to be critical of the privileges of class, gender, ethnicity, wealth and national origin."
Reflecting on the joy, hope and optimism expressed in "Gaudium et Spes," Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, executive director of Homeboy Industries, cautioned that four decades later, "We seem to have despaired of the modern world."
The document calls the church "to be a credible witness to the truth. That this will of itself arise the world to a lively hope," said Father Boyle. Two important truths, he added, is "that our God is a compassionate, loving kind God. And we are asked to do only one thing, and that is to be in the world who God is.
"The measure of our compassion lies not in our willingness to serve those on the margins," said the priest, "but in our willingness to find ourselves in kinship with them." |