[sitetest]

Dear dsc,

Though the term may not be 2000 years old, it is nonetheless used in the first sense (those things taught for centuries) by the authoritative Magisterium.

Just because the heterodox wish to hijack a word or a term doesn't mean we have to let them. "Social justice" is a very nice phrase. It is succinct and filled with meaning. It is an apt term to title the Church's teachings on how to live justly in human society.


sitetest

[SoothingDave]

Just because the heterodox wish to hijack a word or a term doesn't mean we have to let them.

Oh, all right. Can we still hate "seamless garment?" ;-)

SD

[dsc]

"Just because the heterodox wish to hijack a word or a term doesn't mean we have to let them. "Social justice" is a very nice phrase. It is succinct and filled with meaning. It is an apt term to title the Church's teachings on how to live justly in human society."

Sorry, I have to disagree with you on that.

We are enjoined by the scriptures to love our neighbor, and to be merciful, charitable, and generous. That is the basis for those things, not justice.

In your earlier note you mentioned property rights as one of the components of social justice as you define it.

That is a contradiction.

To say that justice requires us to feed and clothe the poor is to say that the poor have a *right* to the property diverted to their use. But if each man has a right to be secure in his own property, how can other people have a claim on it?

And if those people have a right to that property under the rubric of social justice, then it follows that society has a duty to see justice done. Seeing justice done under those circumstances necessarily involves a redistribution of wealth, which is a violation of property rights.

God has told us that the poor have a moral claim on our love, our charity, our mercy, and our generosity. He has not told us that they have a claim on our property enforceable by third parties.

Satan is very subtle. It is one of his hallmarks that a concept seems noble at first but leads to terrible consequences. To take these concerns out of the realm of the voluntary and put them in the realm of justice not only strips them of spiritual significance and value, and not only devalues the voluntary virtues of love, charity, mercy, and generosity, it sets in place a paradigm that leads to forced redistribution of property as surely as day leads to night.

The concept of "social justice" was excogitated by Satan to lead us away from the Scriptural and spiritual virtues of love, charity, mercy, and generosity, and toward even greater injustice.

Shakespeare often got things right:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.