The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine Part Seven by Bill Droel There are scores of books explaining Catholic social doctrine. The outline for many of them is a chronology of papal encyclicals (from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 On the Condition of Labor to Pope Francis’ 2020 On Social Friendship). Or the author might pick issues like peace, health care delivery, labor relations and the environment; quoting relevant official documents in each chapter.       The Church’s Best-Kept Secret by Mark Shea (New City... Read more

The Working Catholic: Abortion Stereotypes by Bill Droel One gets the impression nowadays that to be a member of the Democratic Party is to favor a woman’s autonomous right to unimpeded access to abortion, at least during the first six months of her pregnancy. Further, all Democrats supposedly favor the federal government as the guarantor of that right. In fact, many members of the Democratic Party have a textured view of the abortion issue. Some Democrats support Consistent Life organization... Read more

The Working Catholic: Routine by Bill Droel Clocks are everywhere because our modern economy needs to know the time. Our “regular measurement of time and the new mechanical conception of time arose in part out of the routine of the monastery,” writes Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) in Technics and Civilization (University of Chicago Press, 1934). It was long ago that Pope Sabinianus (d. 606) ordered bells to be rung seven times per day to alert the faithful to the liturgy of... Read more

The Working Catholic: Culture Despisers by Bill Droel Cardinal Francis George, OMI (1937-2015) of Chicago was a conservative who often bemoaned the defects in our society. Yet George insisted that people must love their society before they can improve it. Negativity ends in futile resentment, sometimes accompanied by violence. Those who despise can be found in marginal groups, including some with a religious appeal. In the Catholic Church, for example, some people are counting on the collapse of the institution.... Read more

The Working Catholic: Easter Mess by Bill Droel   Advent is Lent; Christmas contains Easter and Easter contains Christmas. The Incarnation is Redemption and Resurrection. Tom Stella (www.tomstella.org) of Soul Link in Colorado has a story: Once upon a time three monks were praying. The first imagined angels carrying him to heaven. The second imagined chanting while in the company of angels and saints. The third, quite distracted, imagined the variety of food awaiting him in the refectory.  Later the... Read more

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine, Part Five Catholicism ducked its appointment with modernity for about 400 years. Not until Vatican II (1962-1965) did Catholicism open the door to dialogue with the modern world—not a wholesale acceptance of every modern trend, but an engagement conducted with patience and sophistication. Catholicism opposed the Protestant Reformation (from 1517) because it was part of modern trends of individual standards, of sundry forms of worship and of authority structures unattached to Catholicism. Catholic officialdom was... Read more

From his earliest preaching days until the conclusion of his life, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) believed that social ills were the result of defects in the soul, the mind and one’s character. “The universe hinges on a moral foundation,” he would say. A physical law like gravity is built-in, he explained. It must be obeyed. You cannot jump off a building and expect to float safely. So too, God built a moral order into the universe “just as... Read more

Marriage is no place for quid pro quo. Yes, every household has division of labor, often established implicitly. Maybe the husband routinely repairs the house while the wife shops for groceries. But this arrangement cannot be “because I did this,” then “you are obligated to do that.” Or, more damaging still: “I disclosed something to you” then “you are expected in short order to disclose to me.” Marriage is a free gift… with benefits. Smile. Used sparingly, tradeoffs/compromises do have... Read more

People need explanations for new, unusual, fluid or disturbing happenings. Those people who have low tolerance for uncertainty often cope by using conspiracy theories. Conspiracy proliferates in closed cultures or subcultures. Without wide access to reliable information, people turn to a made-up scenario. In a sense many cultures of long ago were conspiratorial. They attributed unsettling events to the fates or to the capriciousness of the gods. Judaism was the first culture to impose meaning on the randomness of life.... Read more

Kellogg has used the lockout tactic before. In October 2013 the cereal company locked out its 220 Memphis employees. Issues included mandatory overtime and benefits. The situation remained until August 2014 when a federal judge ruled that in this case the tactic was illegal. The judge ordered that employees be brought back on the job with no penalty. Now Kellogg has locked out 1,400 employees at four plants. The main issue is a two-tier pay scale—newcomers get less; as old... Read more