NKCC

The Right to Work and Human Development – Job creation is a key agenda item for the current admini­stration in 2010.  This is a moral task as well as an eco­nomic necessity.  From a theological per­spective, authentic human flourishing can only be real­ized when all members of the human family are able to participate, through effort and engagement, in the proc­ess of the ongoing creation of the world.  Since the beginning of the modern tradition in Catholic Social Teaching, with Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, “On the Condition of Labor,” the right to work has been a central tenet of Catholic Social Teaching because of its importance to human development.  As many other Church statements, Pope Paul VI’s 1971 encyclical, “Call to Action,” emphasizes work is a necessity for human dignity:

All people have the right to work, to a chance to develop their qualities and their personalities in the exercise of their professions, to equitable remuneration which will enable them and their families to lead a wor­thy life on the material, social, cultural, and spiritual level and to assistance in case of need arising from sick­ness or age. (CA #14)

Throughout the 20th century, countries such as Aus­tralia have made practical progress in full employment policies and practices.  Because the question of work goes beyond economic theories to the heart and soul of human life, our contemporary Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have written and spoken extensively in the last decades on the right to work and its connec­tion to human dignity.

A sample of their reflections on work follows:

These reflections remind us that all people of faith are called to support government policies that support job creation and rights for all workers.  Faithful citizen­ship requires us to actively be involved in the current dialogue on jobs and to make our voices heard in sup­port of policies and programs that will help enable all our citizens to work.

The right to work has been a central tenet of Catholic Social Teaching because of its importance to human development. —Jane Deren

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