Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Five takeaways from the bishops’ new statement on poverty
Catholic Review ^ | 1/20/14 | Maria Wiering

Posted on 01/20/2014 2:04:50 PM PST by Welchie25

Maryland’s Catholic bishops released a joint statement Jan. 20 urging fair treatment of workers. The statement coincides with Poverty Awareness Month and the state’s legislative session, where increasing the minimum wage and mandating paid sick leave for low-wage workers are already in the spotlight.

The bishops make clear they want Maryland to enact legislation promoting “just compensation and a healthy work environment.” “While we hope one day the issue of raising the minimum wage will be addressed at the federal level, we cannot afford to wait in Maryland,” they stated.

Titled “The Dignity of Work,” the one-page statement was released in English and Spanish. The following are five points Catholics can take from the piece.

1. The church’s call for a living wage is nothing new. “Throughout the history of the social teachings of the Church, the right of all people to fair compensation for their labor has been upheld as an essential element of a just society,” the bishops stated. In “Rerum Novarum,” published in 1891 and considered the first of the modern social encyclicals, Pope Leo XIII argued that workers should be paid a wage sufficient to support a family, according to the bishops’ statement.

2. Minimum wage is not a living wage. “A full-time worker earning the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 earns little more than $15,000 annually, hardly enough to pay for food and rent, let alone support a family,” the bishops stated, adding that more 80 percent of the state’s low-wage workers are adults, many with children. “They deserve the comfort of knowing that their hard work can provide the means they need to achieve economic stability for themselves and their families.”

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicreview.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: livingwage; minimumwage; paidsickleave; povertyawareness
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 01/20/2014 2:04:50 PM PST by Welchie25
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

Lest there be any misunderstanding: These Bishops are NOT speaking Ex Cathedra. Their understanding of economics is on a par with Barack Al-Obama’s.


2 posted on 01/20/2014 2:08:50 PM PST by 2harddrive
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2harddrive
Catholic Priests and Bishops are, pretty much, total idiots when it comes to economic matters.

If Pelosi does not get kicked out for ignoring the prolife message of the Catholic Church -—

I should not get kicked out for ignoring the Socialist stupidity of the Church.

3 posted on 01/20/2014 2:10:50 PM PST by Kansas58
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 2harddrive

Any time the government is willing to resort to violence to set economic policy, all the world is poorer. It is trivial to demonstrate that people are always WORSE off in such circumstances.


4 posted on 01/20/2014 2:11:21 PM PST by 2harddrive
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

The Church agrees private property is the best to allocate and distribute resources. But it also teaches Christians must give to someone in need. One must always serve God, not Mammon. We can afford to pay who those work for a living a wage sufficient to support themselves and their families. Its really about priorities.


5 posted on 01/20/2014 2:11:41 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25
1. The church’s call for a living wage is nothing new.
2. Minimum wage is not a living wage.
3. Wages aren’t the only place where the workplace should improve.
4. The local Catholic Church sees the effects of poverty up close.
5. Pope Francis is on board.

6. There's a Presbyterian church right down the road, if you don't like socialism.

6 posted on 01/20/2014 2:12:59 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

But is the government in need? After the government takes its “share,” will most people have anything left to give to the poor?


7 posted on 01/20/2014 2:14:17 PM PST by Ingtar (The NSA - "We're the only part of government who actually listens to the people.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

American bishops flap their lips as the churches of the new catholic religion empty.

Capitalism is bad, saith the new pope as America turns itself inside out to accommodate socialism. Satan is winning and God is not pleased.

No souls are being saved, but slaves to socialism are being shackled together.


8 posted on 01/20/2014 2:15:32 PM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

Catholics are not socialists. But Catholic Social Teaching does not believe an unfettered free market is a moral good. We are entitled to earn and keep the fruits of our labor. But what we don’t use, we should give to others so they can benefit from us. We all see the effects of poverty. Improving the lot of those less fortunate than us draws us closer to God.


9 posted on 01/20/2014 2:17:33 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Ingtar

People are in need not government.

We are not to confiscate from others but simply to share what we have so all be part of the KIngdom Of Heaven.

True equality comes from people acting from their faith not from the dictates of an all-powerful and distant bureaucracy.

The answer is to poverty isn’t to do nothing or have the government run our lives; its somewhere in between.


10 posted on 01/20/2014 2:21:35 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop
Catholics are not socialists

Really?, then who is the 'we' in your next post?

We can afford to pay who those work for a living a wage sufficient to support themselves and their families.

YOU can and should do that, but what about those who don't work for you? Where does that money come from?

11 posted on 01/20/2014 2:42:26 PM PST by xone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

Economic insanity continues to spread unabated. We continue to abandon a system that made us the strongest and richest country in history in favor of a failed system that cannot work.


12 posted on 01/20/2014 2:43:23 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Things are only going to get worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

What do mean by, “what we don’t use?”

Are you referring to savings deposited into a bank after the bills are paid?


13 posted on 01/20/2014 2:48:20 PM PST by ScottinVA (Obama is so far in over his head, even his ears are beneath the water level.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

“For the poor always ye have with you; but Me ye have not always.”

There is no “answer” for poverty in this world and time period. We are exhorted to have Charity, but I have never seen it written as a commandment to give to someone who refuses to try to provide his own needs.


14 posted on 01/20/2014 2:51:53 PM PST by Ingtar (The NSA - "We're the only part of government who actually listens to the people.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

Money isn’t everything, you know.


15 posted on 01/20/2014 2:54:31 PM PST by jdsteel (Give me freedom, not more government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop
But what we don’t use, we should give to others so they can benefit from us.

What I don't use, the government takes away for the benefit of itself and for the benefit of those it deems worthy of its largesse. If the Church feels the poor in the USA are not adequately provided for, it needs to petition the entity that took the tithe it otherwise would have had. My 10% Church tithe resides in the coffers of US governments, State and Federal.

I beseech the Church to plead its case for the poor to the legislators that know better than myself how to care for the needy.

16 posted on 01/20/2014 2:55:15 PM PST by Thommas (The snout of the camel is in the tent..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Welchie25

A wage sufficient to support a family I put at $75,000/yr. minimum with a 5 or 10 percent increase yearly. Sounds good to me!


17 posted on 01/20/2014 2:57:41 PM PST by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop
But it also teaches Christians must give to someone in need.

Does it teach that government should give in their place after taking their "private property" under threat of prison?

In other words, if I take $20 from your wallet by force and give it to a poor person, have you committed a moral act?

The Church [and you, apparently] confuse forced income redistribution with charity. I'm sure Planned Parenthood would disagree with me, though.

18 posted on 01/20/2014 3:29:19 PM PST by BfloGuy ( Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop
But what we do not use,...

Our vocation was to work hard and be responsible for ourselves and our children. Though not rich by any means, we avoided debt and always saved money for unexpected expenses and, eventually, for our retirement years. We never wanted our children OR the government to have the burden of supporting us.

Frankly, many poor people don't HAVE to be poor. They make poor choices and pass them on to their offspring. It can become a way of life and I doubt God expects workers to carry them.

19 posted on 01/20/2014 3:39:37 PM PST by IIntense
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
"6. There's a Presbyterian church right down the road, if you don't like socialism."

Or rather, if you want a bigger dose of it.

20 posted on 01/20/2014 4:00:07 PM PST by Wyrd bið ful aræd (ALSO the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson