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Day 268 - What is meant by the principle "labor before capital"? // What does the Church say about globalization?

What is meant by the principle "labor before capital"?

The Church has always taught "the principle of the priority of labor over capital" (Pope John Paul II, LE). Man owns money or capital as a thing. Labor, in contrast, is inseparable from the person who performs it. That is why the basic needs of laborers have priority over the interests of capital. The owners of capital and investors have legitimate interests, too, which must be protected. It is a serious injustice, however, when entrepreneurs and investors try to increase their own profits at the expense of the basic rights of their laborers and employees.

What does the Church say about globalization?

Globalization is in itself neither good nor bad; it is, rather, the description of a reality that must be shaped. "Originating within economically developed countries, this process by its nature has spread to include all economies. It has been the principal driving force behind the emergence from underdevelopment of whole regions, and in itself it represents a great opportunity. Nevertheless, without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family" (Pope Benedict XVI, CiV). When we buy inexpensive jeans, we should not be indifferent to the conditions in which they were manufactured, to the question of whether or not the workers received a just wage. Everyone's fortune matters. No one's poverty should leave us indifferent. On the political level, there is a need for "a true world political authority" (Pope Benedict XVI, CiV [citing Bl. John XXIII, Encyclical Pacem in terris]) to help reach a compromise between the people in the rich nations and those in underdeveloped countries. Far too often the latter are still excluded from the advantages of economic globalization and have only burdens to bear. (YOUCAT questions 445-446)

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:September 06, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Nameday Sugar Cookies

ACTIVITIES

o Attitudes toward Miracles

PRAYERS

o September Devotion: Our Lady of Sorrows

· Ordinary Time: September 6th

· Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

Old Calendar: St. Eleutherius, priest (Hist)

Mary suffered because of her intimate union with Christ, on account of our sins, and on behalf of her spiritual children. Devotion to the Mother of Sorrows and the Seven Sorrows of Mary encourages us to flee from sin and inflames our desire to do penance and make reparation so as to console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

— The Catholic Faith, John O'Connell

Historically today is the feast of St. Eleutherius, abbot of St. Mark's monastery near Spoleto in the Italian province of Perugia, he was the friend of St. Gregory who mentions him several times in his Dialogues.

St. Eleutherius
A wonderful simplicity and spirit of compunction were the distinguishing virtues of this holy sixth century abbot. He was elected to preside Saint Mark’s monastery near Spoleto, and favored by God with the gift of miracles.

A child who was confided to the monastery, to be educated there after having been delivered by the Abbot from a diabolical possession, appeared to everyone to be entirely exempt from further molestations. And Saint Eleutherius chanced to say one day: “Since the child is among the servants of God, the devil dares not approach him.” These words seemed to savor of vanity, and thereupon the devil again entered into and tormented the child. The Abbot humbly confessed his fault and undertook a fast, in which the entire community joined, until the child was again freed from the tyranny of the fiend.

Saint Gregory the Great, finding himself unable to fast on Holy Saturday on account of extreme weakness, called for this Saint, who was in Rome at the time, to offer up prayers to God for him that he might join the faithful in the solemn practice of that day’s penances. Saint Eleutherius prayed with many tears, and the Pope, when they came out of the church, felt suddenly strengthened and able to accomplish the fast as he desired. The same Pope, remarking that the Abbot was said to have raised a dead man to life, added: “He was so simple a man, one of such great penance, that we must not doubt that Almighty God granted much to his tears and his humility!” After resigning his abbacy, Saint Eleutherius died in Rome in Saint Andrew’s monastery, about the year 585.

—Excerpted from Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).