The Catholic Alternative
The Catholic viewpoint doesn't give us easy answers to all of these
problems, but it does help to avoid some contradictions and tensions
between principles, because it offers different starting points.
First of all, the Catholic vision is rooted in transcendent rather than
secular values. Our philosophical starting point is our faith in God and
our pursuit of heaven, not our faith in human reason and our pursuit of
earthly happiness.
As Pope John Paul II explained in his encyclical commemorating 100 years
of social doctrine, it is because we believe in God-because we recognize
that human life has a transcendent purpose-that we must reject
materialistic ideologies, which treat individuals as having no purpose
but to either serve the economy, the state or their own self-interests.
It is because we profess that Christ redeemed all of humanity, that the
Church's social teaching is intrinsic to its evangelizing mission. That
is, Christ came to save every human being. So, we are called to promote
the human dignity of every human being, by working for justice. (See Centesimus Annus, sections 54 and 55)
Secondly, Catholic social teaching gets us out of the trap of seeing the
common good as an infringement on individual freedom. In the Catholic
worldview, based on Thomas Aquinas, God created us as social beings. Our
relationships with others nourish and enrich our individual lives. As
the bishops put it: "The common good is the sum total of those
conditions in society that make it possible for all persons to achieve
their full potential" (A Jubilee Call for Debt Forgiveness, 1999, p.10).
Thus, from the Catholic viewpoint, individual freedom and the good of
the community are joined, not in conflict.
This communitarian tradition distinguishes Catholicism from most strains
of Protestantism. Catholics are called not just to have an individual
relationship with God, but to be in communion with each other. We are,
after all, called as Catholics to Eucharist--to be in communion with God
and each other in a universal community we call Church.
Third, because we are called to communion, our Catholic perspective is
global, not parochial or nationalistic. Just as Jesus taught that the
Samaritan was neighbor to the Galilean, so too, we must think of
Ugandans, Iraqis, or Japanese not as foreigners, but as neighbors.
Pope John Paul II has developed the concept of solidarity to explain our
duty to see ourselves as our brothers' and sisters' keepers. "That's not
my problem" is not a solidaristic response to injustices. Solidarity
requires us to cross barriers of race, gender, class, and nationality,
in order to recognize our common condition as children beloved of God.
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