UNIT SIXThe Church is ServantThe Church is Servant

6.2 Responding to Those in Need6.2 Responding to Those in Need

• We believe that we are all one people connected to one another across both time and space.

• We claim and celebrate the holy people and holy actions which are part of our history.

• We sorrow for the wrongs that have been perpetrated by this body to which we belong.

Owning Our Own HistoryOwning Our Own History

• We have a responsibility to correct the wrongs that we as a body have committed– The sins which tempted us once can easily

tempt us again

• We claim and study the low points in our history in order to know and protect ourselves from our own weaknesses– We can only become the body of Christ more

completely if we acknowledge, repent and learn from our sins

Owning Our Own HistoryOwning Our Own History

• Waldensians, one of Europe’s oldest Protestant groups

• Severely persecuted throughout their 800 year history

Apology to the WaldensiansApology to the Waldensians

• October 1997, French bishops issued a “Declaration of Repentance” to the Jewish community acknowledging the lack of public statements by the French bishops during World War II against the internment of some 40,000 Jews in French camps or against the anti-Semitism.

Apology to the Jewish Apology to the Jewish CommunityCommunity

• March 1998 the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews said in a document titled We Remember: A Reflection on the “Shoah”– Question asked “whether the Nazi

persecution of the Jews was not made easier by the anti-Jewish prejudices imbedded in some Christian minds and hearts”

Apology to the Jewish Apology to the Jewish CommunityCommunity

• Earliest beginnings, Christianity challenged economic status quo

• Jesus warned against the dangers of wealth and power

• Like Jesus, first Christians recognized no class distinctions

Wealth and Poverty

• Leaders, particularly the deacons, were expected to care for people, especially the poor, by meeting their immediate needs for food and shelter

• 1st and 2nd centuries Christians believed in the imminent return of Christ

• Educated and wealth upper-class began to enter community during second century– Asked to provide financial support for the

Church and its leaders

In the Early Church

• When Jesus did not return, the focus of the early Church shifted to immortality and life after death– Christians placed higher value on asceticism,

advocating as great a distance as possible from the things of this world

• When Constantine came to power a dichotomy appeared– Many Christians fleeing to desert– Church flooded by others who were very

wealthy

In the Early Church

• Majority of Christians fell in between two extremes, struggled to find an appropriate Christian response to money and property

• Not long after, the range of economic standards increased dramatically– For many the story of the rich young man

(Luke 18:18) served as basis for all judgments about property

– Communal monasticism: Holiest response was path of the monastics who had given up everything

In the Early Church

• Over time, the Church began to acquire possessions in form of land, slaves, money and payments in kind– Thought was they would be used for the

purpose of charity– Bishops came to be viewed as powerful

patrons– Many people came to believe that the best

way to expiate one’s sins was to make a large contribution to the Church

In the Middle Ages

• Overall attitude was that property and possessions were meant to maintain a moderate level of comfort.

• Christians were expected to give charity as an expression of love.

• Monasticism: example of the best way to live Christian life. Property and wealth shared equally, needs of the poor served

In the Middle Ages

• Difficult to help the poor through individual or Church-sponsored charity alone

• Problems of exploitation of workers and inhuman work and working conditions increased

• Many of the needs of the poor could only be addressed through structural changes

• Since Rerum Novarum, the Church has used language of rights and responsibility to talk about relationship between poor and wealthy

Industrial Revolution to the Present

• Church today views care for the poor as a requirement of basic justice rather than an expression of extraordinary love

• Care for the poor is the responsibility of all people

• Catechism of the Catholic Church states that part of the vocation of the laity is restructuring of social life in order to obtain justice

Industrial Revolution to the Present

• Principle to be followed in exercising Christian charity

• Says that God is particularly concerned with the needs of those who suffer the most and that the human community should be too

Preferential option for the poor

• Poor have a right to special consideration from the state in defense of their rights because they are particularly powerless to defend those rights themselves

• State has an obligation to protect the poor against exploitation and to ensure that they receive adequate wages, humane working hours, right to express personality at their work place

Preferential option for the poor

• Enough money to support themselves and their families and to have some savings

Adequate wages

• Decried system of encomiendas– Worse than the practice of slavery

• Encomiendas: A system in which a native person was “entrusted” to a settler to be “civilized” and taught the basics of Christian doctrine

Bartolome De Las Casas

• Early Christians were not allowed to participate in any profession connected with idol-worship or worship of the emperor, or which had to do with bloodshed or capital punishment. – Christians could not serve in the army, could

not be judges, could not earn living through drama, art, or rhetoric

• As more Roman citizens joined Church some of the restrictions began to ease

Work

• Strongest emphasis on duty of work and on personal detachment from work found in monastic communities– Work was a discipline

• Today church insists that all people have right to work– Through work we become partners with God

in creation of world, express full measure of our dignity

Work

• From the beginning, the Church insisted on monogamy and marital fidelity, and on chastity before marriage for both men and women.– Rejected the idea of limiting family size by

exposing unwanted children, or by sterilization

• When Christianity was legalized, new laws of the state were enacted offering more protection to children, outlawing things viewed as sins connected with marriage and sex.

Family

• Having only one spouse

Monogamy

1. Marriage valued and consecrated– Permanent marriages pleasing to God

2. Virginity and celibacy viewed as more pleasing.

• Truly holy those who forego pleasures of marriage for sake of kingdom

Two views with respect to sexuality

• Pope John Paul II wrote on value of both marriage and professed religious life. They are two distinct ways of living out our covenant relationship with God.

• Importance of marriage and family life for both Church and secular world

• Family is the domestic church

Recent views

• Christian family

• In the family, parents and children exercise their priesthood of the baptized by worshipping God, receiving the sacraments, and witnessing to Christ and the Church by living as faithful disciples

Domestic church

• Early Church: Christians not allowed to participate in the military in any way– All forms of violence and bloodshed

considered wrong

• As Christianity became an accepted part of empire, prohibition against participating in military relaxed – Augustine in the 5th century developed the

“just war theory”

War

• Principle outlined by Saint Augustine and accepted by the Catholic Church which says that under certain specific conditions Christians may engage in war

Just War Theory

• At the heart of the guidelines for determining whether or not a war was just, love must be central

Current Teaching

• 1095, Church proclaimed its own war– Pope Urban II

• Series of religious wars in the 11th to 13th centuries

• Primary goal to recapture the Holy Land, most particularly Jerusalem

• Called upon all Christians of the west to go defeat the Moslems

The Crusades

Reunite Christians in the east and west

Re-conquer Holy Land

Bring about the Kingdom of heaven

Urban’s threefold objectives for the Crusades

• Disorganized mob formed under leadership of Peter the Hermit– Practiced for war with Moslems along way to

Jerusalem by seeking out and killing Jews– Fought many other Christians as they tried to

claim food and property for their cause

• July 1099, horrible bloodbath followed conquest of Jerusalem– Region required constant reinforcements to

keep it in Christian hands

The Crusades

• 1187 Jerusalem retaken by Moslems

• Warring spirit of crusades lived on for several centuries– Used rhetoric against heretics

• Justifiable to torture heretics and burn them at the stake in order to save their souls

• Nothing is more important than salvation, everything and anything was justifiable in attempt to save souls

The Crusades

• As Church lost control over governments, attitude toward war and use of force began to shift

• Pope Pius XII during World War II remained neutral in hopes he would be able to negotiate peace in future

• Since World War II, Church has a more active stance against use of force or aggression by any government

The Church and Modern Wars

• In world of modern warfare it is difficult to define and achieve only what is legitimate

• Potential damage of war far outweighs the potential good in most if not all cases

• Constant preparation for war consumes our society

• Arms race is one of the main contributors to the problem of worldwide poverty

The Church and Modern Wars

• Jesus told his disciples the world would recognize them because of the love they showed for one another

• First Christians expected Christ's imminent return. Believed because of what Christ had done, class distinctions were irrelevant, violence rendered powerless. – They ignored social boundaries, struggle for

power– Mingled with one another as equals

In Conclusion

• As coming of kingdom was delayed, Christian hope focused more on rewards of next world

• Today, Catholics are called not only to give to those in need, but also to recreate the social structures which cause extreme need in the first place– Work to create society in which values of

kingdom may be experienced– Christ has chosen to remain on earth through

the Church

In Conclusion