The Working Catholic: Sacramental Neighborhoods by Bill Droel Robert Moses (1888-1981) was the public works czar for Metro New York. His projects included highways, bridges, parks and more. He also spearheaded a few Upstate projects. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro (Random House, 1974) is the definitive biography. A gripping chapter is titled “One Mile.” There is a slight bend in a short section of what is now the Cross Bronx Expressway... Read more

The Working Catholic: Race Relations by Bill Droel Efforts these days to improve race relations are of related types. There is virtue signaling, as in ubiquitous TV ads featuring a mixed-race couple or the obligatory progressive statements from businesses and national religious denominations. There is social therapy, as when church-sponsored groups examine and then admit to their racism. Thirdly, justifiable racial grievances are expressed through marches and rallies that unfortunately lack any specific goal. Saul Alinsky (1909-1972), considered the dean... Read more

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine 16, Imagination by Bill Droel Catholics are, if you will, vaccinated with an analogical imagination. We assume that God’s creation, especially people, are made in God’s image and that therefore God is like creation in some way. Now, the vaccine does not last with all Catholics. It quickly wears off on a Catholic in an environment devoid of enchantment. And, some non-Catholics certainly have the analogical imagination. Gay Talese, baptized Gaetano, (now in his mid-80s)... Read more

The Working Catholic: UAW Strike by Bill Droel Autoworkers are not only seeking higher pay, writes Binyamin Appelbaum in N.Y. Times (10/2/23). “They are also, audaciously, demanding the end of the standard 40-hour workweek.” This is not the first time employees have sought fewer hours. In fact, our feast of St. Joseph the Worker/International Workers Day (May First) was inspired by an 1886 Chicago protest for shorter hours. The Federation of Trades and Labor held a May rally in our... Read more

The Working Catholic: Mediated Eucharist by Bill Droel Concern for public health in early 2020 forced most churches to curtail worship. The fallback became services by way of the internet. While there has long been a Catholic Mass on TV for shut-ins, the widespread broadcast of Mass by local parishes is new. As Covid-19 tapers off, some parishes discontinue their worship broadcast. Others, however, continue. After all, they installed the equipment and learned the rituals of TV. The mediated style... Read more

The Working Catholic: Sacraments by Bill Droel The Christian denominations vary in their list of official sacraments. But restricting God’s instruments of grace to any official list is misguided, writes Fr. Robert Lauder in The Tablet of Brooklyn. He directs his readers to Bernard Cooke (1922-2013), particularly his Sacraments and Sacramentality (Twenty Third Publication, 1983). The word “sacrament must be understood in a much broader sense,” writes Cooke.  Properly understood, “the most basic sacrament of God’s saving presence to human... Read more

The Working Catholic: Anxiety by Bill Droel Since the dawn of the urban/industrial revolution social scientists, religious leaders and ordinary families have struggled with its side effects. The unintended outcome of industrialism was called the social question. The term, first used in Western Europe in the early 1800s, considers: How is it that the promise of economic progress is accompanied by so many paupers and what should be done about poverty? Today there is a second, related question: Why in... Read more

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine #14 by Bill Droel The term social justice is regularly used but rarely defined. It often means a government program is on the way. “Social justice requires an increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).” It can mean a general concern. “The status of women is a matter of social justice.” It can describe an event. “We went to a social justice conference.” Or describe a personality type. “She’s a social justice warrior.”... Read more

The Working Catholic: Child Labor by Bill Droel It is a fallacy to believe that if teenage members of a family spend more time on a job, the family will necessarily gain upwardly mobility. Nor is it true that our economy prospers when young people neglect their studies for the sake of income. Yes, employment trains teenagers and young adults in public disciplines plus gives them some outlook on social psychology. However, excess hours on the clock are not beneficial.... Read more

The Working Catholic: Immigration by Bill Droel The immigrant “can sense that the United States is of two minds,” writes Hector Tobar of the University of California in Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation (Farrar, Straus, 2023). “Like the indentured servants, the Poles, the Germans and the Chinese people of other centuries, she knows there are factory owners and affluent families on the other side of the fence or the ocean who really want her to make it across… She knows... Read more