Dignity: When this concept is associated with the adjective "human", it is used to signify that all human beings possess intrinsic worthiness and deserve unconditional respect, regardless of age, sex, health status, social or ethnic origin, political ideas, religion, or criminal history. If violated, this can be considered discrimination. In other words, this respect is owed to every individual by the mere fact that he or she is a "member of the human family"
Ron: The Catholic faith is based firmly in the ideal that there is ONE and only ONE way to God. History has shown that this principle has guided the Catholic faith in its policy toward other religions not to mention that it discriminates based on sex. Therefore the statement "Belief in the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching." seems to be a contradiction in policy and terms. You do not respect a religion if it is deemed "false" you do not respect sex, when positions within the church are denied to women. Therefore it is seems "Human dignity" is rather conditional. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of gav Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 2:52 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [MD] Social Level- Catholic Social Teaching hiya, 1. Dignity of the Human Person Belief in the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching. Human life is sacred, and the dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society. This principle is grounded in the idea that the person is made in the image of God. The person is the clearest reflection of God among us. See selected quotations. gav: dignity...i am not sure this is the word i would choose...the word has rather pretentious connotations sometimes...but this is a minor balk. i would say that 'human life is sacred...' is a problem sentence though. anthropomorphism, simply. 'life is sacred' full stop. 2. Common Good and Community The human person is both sacred and social. We realize our dignity and rights in relationship with others, in community. Human beings grow and achieve fulfillment in community. Human dignity can only be realized and protected in the context of relationships with the wider society. How we organize our society -- in economics and politics, in law and policy -- directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. The obligation to "love our neighbor" has an individual dimension, but it also requires a broader social commitment. Everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the good of the whole society, to the common good. See selected quotations. gav: do we need to separate the social and sacred? is this sacred/profane division not emblematic of the general western psychopathology - ie alienation? the obligation to 'love they neighbour' is only necessary when the social is viewed as separate from the sacred. if the social is seen as sacred then the obligation dissolves into a natural tendency, a fait accompli. 3. Option for the Poor The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor. The "option for the poor," is not an adversarial slogan that pits one group or class against another. Rather it states that the deprivation and powerlessness of the poor wounds the whole community. The option for the poor is an essential part of society's effort to achieve the common good. A healthy community can be achieved only if its members give special attention to those with special needs, to those who are poor and on the margins of society. See selected quotations. gav:rich and poor = the classic capitalistic dichotomy. recognising the poor as a category in need presupposes the validity of the dichotomy and perpetuates it. a radical social shift needs to undermine these false divisions in order to realise community proper. 4. Rights and Responsibilities Human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency - starting with food, shelter and clothing, employment, health care, and education. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities -- to one another, to our families, and to the larger society. See selected quotations. gav: my only criticism here is that it presents the situation in an economic manner. i buy my rights by fulfilling my responsibilities so to speak. the arbitration of this exchange opens the door for rules and rulers, potentially. if my integration within my community and the natural world is maintained through the mythic imagination then the mythopoetics, the lore implicit in the stories that give my life meaning, ensure a harmonious social-individual relationship, without recourse to explicit law or regulation. 5.Role of Government and Subsidiarity The state has a positive moral function. It is an instrument to promote human dignity, protect human rights, and build the common good. All people have a right and a responsibility to participate in political institutions so that government can achieve its proper goals. The principle of subsidiarity holds that the functions of government should be performed at the lowest level possible, as long as they can be performed adequately. When the needs in question cannot adequately be met at the lower level, then it is not only necessary, but imperative that higher levels of government intervene. See selected quotations on the role of government and subsidiarity. gav: as lao-tse elegantly demonstrated the best ruler is the one that can let people run their own affairs. he becomes invisible. the principle of subsidiarity seems sound and seems to reinforce the value of self-sustainability: ie the functions of govt devolve to the individual and community, and where greater co-ordination is required, it is achieved through a bottom up co-ordination rather than a top-down administration. 6. Economic Justice The economy must serve people, not the other way around. All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. They also have a fundamental right to organize and join unions. People have a right to economic initiative and private property, but these rights have limits. No one is allowed to amass excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life. Catholic teaching opposes collectivist and statist economic approaches. But it also rejects the notion that a free market automatically produces justice. Distributive justice, for example, cannot be achieved by relying entirely on free market forces. Competition and free markets are useful elements of economic systems. However, markets must be kept within limits, because there are many needs and goods that cannot be satisfied by the market system. It is the task of the state and of all society to intervene and ensure that these needs are met. See selected quotations on markets, workers rights, and labor vs. capital gav: the capitalist system is fundamentally flawed and intimately related to the problems of alienation and environmental destruction. we cannot use the earth as a bottomless resource and tip, nor can we promote greed as a social value. the primacy of money, of the economic paradigm itself, must end if we are to live sustainably. 7. Stewardship of God's Creation The goods of the earth are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. There is a "social mortgage" that guides our use of the world's goods, and we have a responsibility to care for these goods as stewards and trustees, not as mere consumers and users. How we treat the environment is a measure of our stewardship, a sign of our respect for the Creator. See selected quotations gav: a view stained with the corruptive lens of the economic paradigm, once more. the world is not a storehouse of goods for the benefit of everyone, the earth is a symbiotic superintelligence, of which we are an integral part. when the earth is inseparable from yourself what need of any 'social mortgage'? 8. Promotion of Peace and Disarmament Catholic teaching promotes peace as a positive, action-oriented concept. In the words of Pope John Paul II, "Peace is not just the absence of war. It involves mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations. It involves collaboration and binding agreements." There is a close relationship in Catholic teaching between peace and justice. Peace is the fruit of justice and is dependent upon right order among human beings. See selected quotations. gav: apart from the inherent hypocrisy of the catholic church talking about justice and peace (not exactly paragons of virtue on either count), the phrase 'right order' sounds a little fascist to me...but maybe i am just paranoid. 9. Participation All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society. It is a fundamental demand of justice and a requirement for human dignity that all people be assured a minimum level of participation in the community. It is wrong for a person or a group to be excluded unfairly or to be unable to participate in society. See selected quotations. gav: spectacular. the situationists railed against the compartmentalistaion of life (work, leisure etc), being especially pissed off at the idea of art/culture as some sort of socially sanctioned spectacular experience rather than life in its totality. the sits were on about life as a continual flowing series of open-ended situations of which the individual is an integral part. perpetual participation (in life) or none at all, there is no middle ground here. there is only a spectacular (SOM) or integrated (MOQ) view of existence 10. Global Solidarity and Development We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological differences. We are called to work globally for justice. Authentic development must be full human development. It must respect and promote personal, social, economic, and political rights, including the rights of nations and of peoples It must avoid the extremists of underdevelopment on the one hand, and "superdevelopment" on the other. Accumulating material goods, and technical resources will be unsatisfactory and debasing if there is no respect for the moral, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the person. See selected quotations. gav: anthropomorphic again. an aside: it is the shaman's role to mediate between the human world - his community/tribe - and the non-human world, to ensure harmonious relationship twixt the two. we can be fully human only in connexion with each other AND all other (non-human) forms. we must stop separating the human from the earth...it is an illogical and damaging myopia. we are one family - gaia. gaian consciousness (the goddess) is (re-)inserting herself into the collective psyche to re-equilibrate our paternally weighted weltanschaaung. another aside: just watched 'into the wild' - kinda relevant. the spirit of being-in-the-world, of freedom, of belonging....and the danger of extremes... --- On Mon, 28/7/08, Stephen Hannon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Stephen Hannon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [MD] Social Level- Catholic Social Teaching > To: "MOQ Discuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Received: Monday, 28 July, 2008, 4:21 AM > Hi all, > > I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how one > group of > people (Catholics) look at social level values. Is there > any parallel > to social values we usually discuss? What are the > overarching > intellectual values/ideals driving these social teachings? > > http://www.osjspm.org/major_themes.aspx > > Peace, > Stephen > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Find a better answer, faster with the new Yahoo!7 Search. www.yahoo7.com.au/search Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
