Ignorance of Justice and Poor Faith Formation
(Never Let Your Hymns Drown Out the Cries of the Poor)  

The following is a copy of a letter which social awareness director, Diane Baltaz, sent to a priest who recently asked her, out of frustration, how to convince his clerical colleagues that they too, must "hunger and thirst for justice" a part of their everyday faith,  rather than leave social actions and talk to their order's justice bureau.   Because we've got church staffers, and parish D&P groups, etc. doing justice statements is a frequent lament among justice-minded Catholics, we are reprinting our reply to him, deleting all references to his identity.

Dear Padre,
First, my apologies for my slow response to your request on ways that you can convince your confreres of the need to "do justice" along with other Christian acts such as prayer and attending mass. But I confess that the frustration with which you made that request remained in my mind often. 

Yours is  a common complaint that I hear from the justice-seeking faithful--  practicing Catholics who are good at receiving the sacraments, prayer, etc., turn into smiling manikins when they are challenged to confront the "structures of sin" that oppress major chunks of humanity and creation.  Or they evade the issue by countering with one of the following rationalizations:a) society/economics is too complex and the Church/themselves cannot deal with such matters; b) they are already "transforming society" by giving their surplus money to charity (which is often confused with social justice);c) "Our parish has a justice committee to handle it"; d) they accuse enthusiasts as "fanatics" who think that the Church should be only doing justice and nothing else (even though these "fanatics" are often involved with parish CWL, liturgy committees, the choir, and so forth).

Much of why the above occurs is precisely what Bishop John Sherlock said during his recent talk on the Ontario Bishops' document, Choosing a Government, at the Hamilton Convention Centre -- that those who do not heed our social teachings have "incomplete faith formation". (Our pope and various bishops' conferences have previously written that Catholic education is incomplete unless the teachings are ingrained within people.) While the reasons for it vary, the situation explains why our social doctrine -- which are basic guidelines for good living -- are called, "The Church's Best-Kept Secret". 

Happily, education rounds out faith formation, which must be a life long process for every Catholic. There are adequate resources on the social teachings and justice issues such as books, videos, handouts, retreats, workshops, and the Internet. 

Our best "educational tool" is our Holy Father: dubbed as a "social justice pope" by some secular social commentators -- his encyclicals and talks on justice issues challenge us to "do something" for bringing God's Kingdom to earth.   His recent exhortation to our hemisphere's bishops, Ecclesia in America, ranks  Catholics' appropriation of and acting upon the social doctrine, as core acts for evangelization if the Church is to flourish beyond the 21st century.  Indeed, after reading it (or at least the Archdiocese of Kingston summary of its justice aspects) it's difficult to genuinely "celebrate Christ's 2000th birthday" without first "doing justice".

And education can work: the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative for debt cancellation, described briefly in the "kudos" section of this issue, gained widespread interest by Christians of all stripes, many of whom apparently said, "We never knew the true impact of the trillions of dollars of Third World debt to our nations until now!" Indeed, one reason for my delay in answering my query to you is because of the increasing number of queries, requests for talks, on social issues that are coming to my office. 

But there's also a resistance to "doing justice" that defies education. This is especially so in matters which personally challenges one's complicity in the "perverse structures" and "social sin" which The Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly describes. In preparation for the Jubilee, the Pope asks us in "Tertio Millennio Advenniente" to "place ourselves humbly before the lord and examine themselves on the responsibility which they too, have for the evils of the day" (#36, the same paragraph in which he asks how many Christians really know and practice the Church's social doctrine).  Like Christ's failure to convince the rich, young man to sell all that he has and to "come follow me", this resistance is a tough one to crack.

Perhaps that's why it's easy for Catholics to speak of personal sins such as road rage, but not to "examine themselves on the responsibility which they too, have for the evils of our day".  The "System" benefits the middle class -- which constitutes the majority of the Canadian church --- even though the Pope, Dr. David Suzuki and others repeatedly warn that unless we change our life styles, much of the world's population will remain impoverished while the earth's ability to regenerate its air and soil will die. (Indeed, in his present CBC Radio series, "From Ape to Super Species", Suzuki argues that the latter is already happening, with perhaps no more than 200 years for us to reverse our damage.) 

It is easier to tackle something that does not personally benefit us -- we never got any of the Third World interest payments. But for something from which we benefit may become such a sacred cow that Holy Lady Poverty herself can't touch it.

Like the rich young man, we're addicted to stuff.  This is not unusual-- nearly all religions began as some reaction to unequal distribution of wealth (systemic poverty) and power.  What is new is the unprecedented disparity of wealth that characterizes both Canada (whose middle class shrank to 44% from over 60% in less than 15 years) and the world.

The Suzuki series mentioned above states that Canadians are drowning in so much stuff  that we would need five planets if the rest of the world lived like us.  And our global structures and the media reinforce this high living, even though it disregards rising world poverty levels, a raped creation and  a deteriorating quality of life which Suzuki says results in smog, pesticide-laden food, purchased bottled water, and barely knowing who one's neighbours are. 

As with an addiction, one cannot "read these signs of the times" and change unless one hits bottom and undergoes a different way of thinking (conversion). Happily, much of the Canadian and international justice movement is also increasingly demonstrating different ways of doing justice that even the most stubborn justice resister can't ignore. They focusing on our personal consumerism (greed?) As much as on the standard macro-issues such as Third World debt. This includes  hands-on, community-building alternatives (eg. supporting local farmers and businesses, community gardens, buying organic, fair-trade coffee).  Grassroots groups such as Development& Peace, 10 Days, Citizens for Public Justice and of course, our diocesan Justice & Peace Commission are increasingly leaning towards promoting such models -- the new way which the Pope called for in Centisimus annus(1981).  Our own diocese is in the process of developing "simply just living circles" if only to challenge each other in the way we "do justice" ,and to inspire ourselves with the social doctrine.

This returns to the need for more education -- a gentle, joyful one which radiates our pope's vision in Ecclesia in America.   While the process remains slow, only touches a few folks at a time, and relies upon personal conversion (and my own is still in process), we can only trust that the Holy Spirit remains active.  After all, if we view the social doctrine as a cornerstone of our faith, we know what Christ said about corner stones!

Yours truly,

Diane P. Baltaz 
Social Awareness Director, Diocese of Hamilton