Posted on 05/02/2013 10:30:25 AM PDT by willowsdale
Few Democratic Party constituencies were quicker and more vociferous than the union brass in commending President Barack Obama’s announcement on May 9, 2012, endorsing state court decisions and statutes that change the traditional definition of marriage by formally instituting same-sex unions.
The top bosses of the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and a host of other unions all issued statements clearly implying that all right-thinking people should agree with Mr. Obama’s new stance, rather than the one he purported to hold while campaigning for the presidency in 2007 and 2008 and during his first three years and three months in the White House.
(Excerpt) Read more at nilrr.org ...
Unfortunately in my area a large number of Catholics DO belong to unions. I saw the Church gingerly step away from a confrontation with Obama over birth control funding in Obamacare. They never once tried to imply that you should not vote for the guy. Scared of empty collection baskets, I guess.
"The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated."
-- Paragraph 64 of Pope Benedict's “Caritas in veritate”
7. Furthermore, if Catholics are to be permitted to join the trade unions, these associations must avoid everything that is not in accord, either in principle or practice, with the teachings and commandments of the Church or the proper ecclesiastical authorities. Similarly, everything is to be avoided in their literature or public utterances or actions which in the above view would incur censure.
Pope St Pius X, Encyclical Singulari Quadam (On Labor Organizations), 1912
Bottom line: if a person could find a trade union that does not, in any way, violate, or advocate the violation of, any Catholic doctrinal principles, then a person could join that union. Otherwise, not so much.
Please name the unions that meet the above requirements.
((crickets))
Sadly, the bishops of Amchurch™ seem to have forgotten the above encyclical.
Regardless of whether the person is a Catholic or not, and regardless of whether the union is poltically active and supporting correct causes or not, the entire concept of a union is anti-biblical.
Collective bargaining is anti-biblical. See the parable of the workers in the vineyard Matthew 20:1-16. Any agreement over wages, working conditions etc is between the employer and the employee and does not concern any other employees.
Further a union operates through force and theft. It enforces it’s demands by stealing the owner’s use of their property (strikes blocking access etc). If the workers refuse to work the owner has every right to find someone who will work.
One of the political effects of catholics being allowed into the United States in the mid 1800s, was introducing a pro-union voting/agitating block, unions and Catholics are a pairing and one of what the Catholics consider the great liberal changes they brought to Protestant America. Catholics, unions, and big city politics and the democrat party were a mix, just as today.
Pope Leo XIII produced the pro-union/social justice Rerum Novarum in 1891 it was part of Roman Catholicism.
It was JFK who started unionizing the government against us.
Unions derive their power through intimidation and the threat of violence. Against the employer and against any employee who gets out of line.
And they will make good on those threats.
Maybe not the good Christian union brothers. But they will look away while their buddies take care of business.
Wrong question...Question should be: Can a good Catholic belong to the Democrat party ?..Answer is NO ! Nor should 2 times a year Catholics belong to it .
Correct.
“catholics being allowed into the United States in the mid 1800s” uhhh Catholics were in the 13 Colonies prior to the Revolution. Maryland was Primarily Catholic(the Maryland Calverts were Catholic(http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/georgecalvert.asp).
Uh, Catholics were almost non-existent at the creation and founding of the United States, they were about 1.4% of the population, and when Catholic immigration started about the 1840s, by the 1850 Catholics became about 5% of America’s population.
America was almost 100% Protestant, just as Mexico used to be almost 100% Catholic.
JMHO
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