Reorientation of Concepts

Evangelization and Liberation

Gospel bearing FRUIT Liberation from EVERYTHING oppressive: personal and communitarian FROM SOMETHING -----FOR SOMETHING NEW

SOCIAL SIN
Sinful structures a) institutions that
oppress, violate human dignity, stifle freedom, impose gross inequality. b) situations that promote and facilitate selfishness c) complicity of persons due to Indifference.

In any moment of decision, The BEST THING you can do is the RIGHT THING; The NEXT BEST THING is the WRONG THING; And the WORST thing you can do is NOTHING Theodore Roosevelt

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." - - Dante Alighieri, poet
(1265-1321)

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:15-16

POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLE

key to a healthy society : social will, value system aligned with correct principles. focus on the PERSONALITY ETHIC : IMAGE SELLING LAVISH SPENDING : LACK SUBSTANCE : GAIN VOTES POLITICAL SYSTEM INDEPENDENT OF NATURAL LAWS very sick organization or society with distorted values "teamwork," "cooperation," "loyalty," "profitability," "innovation," and "creativity." can be used by criminals

CBCP ON PHIL. POLITICS

+ GREAT AND URGENT challenge for active lay participation in principled partisan politics. 1. PATRONAGE POLITICS, FAMILY DYNASTIES in many cases. 2. DISHONEST ELECTORAL PROCESS 3. OVERSPENDING WITH EXPECTATIONS OF investment FOR unaccountable financial returns. 4. POLITICS AS MIRROR OF IMBALANCE BETWEEN RICH AND POOR 5. Politics as practiced , is a structure of evil. 6. Crippling apathy and cynicism among the youth.

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING ON POLITICS

Let those who are suited for it, or can become so, prepare themselves for the difficult but most honorable art of politics. Let them work to exercise this art without thought of personal convenience and without benefit of bribery. Prudently and honorably let them fight against injustice and oppression, the arbitrary rule of one person or one party, and lack of tolerance. Let them devote themselves to the welfare of all sincerely and fairly, indeed with charity and political courage.
The Church in the Modern World,#75

It follows that political authority, either within the political community as such or through organizations representing the state, must be exercised within the limits of the moral order and directed towards the common good, understood in the dynamic sense of the term, according to the juridical order legitimately established or due to be established. Citizens, then, are bound in conscience to obey. Accordingly, the responsibility, the status, and the importance of the rulers of a state are clear.
The Church in the Modern World,#74

Pope Benedict XVI reminded the lay faithful of their direct duty to work for a just ordering of society and to take part in public life in a personal capacity (Deus Caritas
Est 29).

Direct participation in the political order is the special responsibility of the laity in the Church. it is their specific task to renew the temporal order according to Gospel principles and values (CBCP, Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics, 1997).

WEALTH WITHOUT WORK

getting something for nothing : manipulate market, people and things. making much money w/o paying taxes, enjoying all the perks of citizenship of country or membership of corporation w/o assuming any responsibility. network marketing and pyramidal organizations : get rich quick by building a structure under them that feeds them without work

CST ON LABOR/WORK
It is right to struggle against an unjust economic system that does not uphold the priority of the human being over capital and land. Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) #35
John Paul II, 1991

Work is in the first place "for the worker" and not the worker "for work." Work itself can have greater or lesser objective value, but all work should be judged by the measure of dignity given to the person who carries it out. Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) #6
John Paul II, 1981

We consider it our duty to reaffirm that the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.
Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher) #71 Pope John XXIII, 1961

COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY

moral foundation : how we treat each other, the spirit of benevolence, service, contribution BUT: keep a hidden agenda, a secret life, and justify / rationalize their activities.

No natural laws: rational lies and have social mores or political wills that are totally divorced from natural laws and principles.

CST ON BUSINESS
There is a growing conviction that business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business : the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference
Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, # 40.

It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral and not simply economic act. Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand in hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise.
Caritas in Veritate (#66)

PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE

query of immature, greedy, selfish, and sensuous :
What's in it for me? Will this please me? Will it ease me?

pleasures w/o sense of responsibility Challenge : To give and take, to live selflessly, to be sensitive, to be considerate. No sense of social responsibility or accountability in pleasurable activities.

Todays pleasures..
Extra-marital affairs / no commitment Spending way into overwhelming debt. Extravagance / Ostentatious Display of Wealth Gambling away life-savings ( in casinos or in business ). Running away from family (physically or emotionally). Drugs or alcoholism Failing to put best foot forward at work. Workaholism Sloth Falling into a fantasy life via porn sites.

CST ON PLEASURE
Moral life requires that we recognize in ourselves the tendency to sin and acknowledge ourselves as sinners when we have done evil. Today this sense of sin seems to have been radically weakened by secularism: we are caught up in the flagrant consumerism that surrounds us. We are unconsciously influenced by the modern behaviorist psychologies that identify sin with morbid guilt feelings or with mere transgressions of legal norms . And through radio, TV and the cinema, we continually face so many examples of bribery and corruption in business and government, cheating in family life and lying in personal relationships, that we often end up rationalizing for our own misdeeds: Anyway, everybody does it, or I had to do it because.. ..
Catechism for Filipino Catholics # 764

 Great numbers of people are acutely conscious of being deprived of the worlds goods through injustice and unfair distribution (GS 9). In the midst of huge numbers deprived of the absolute necessities of life there are some who live in riches and squander their wealth.... Luxury and misery exist side by side (GS 63). PCP II speaks of how the Christian conscience must recoil at the sins committed against the poor: so many workers denied just wages to maintain living standards of the few. . . so many poor farmers tilling lands they will never own . . . so much economic and political power used selfishly to serve the few . . . (PCP II 267). Catechism for Filipino Catholics 186

EDUCATION WITHOUT CHARACTER

little knowledge or more knowledge : dangerous if without strong and principled character. Purely intellectual development without commensurate internal character development SAME AS
putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs.

better balance between the development of character and intellect.

Todays Realities
- Too much premium on grade performance : Cheating - Passing through extra projects - Commercialization of Education - What can be done vs. how to do

CST ON EDUCATION
386. But to so ignore the fact of our wounded human nature, our inclination to self-centeredness and pride has led to grave errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals (CCC 407-9; cf. CA 25). Since the Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God's help, the educational efforts of the Church must encompass the twin purposes of personal sanctification and social reform in the light of Christian values.
Economic Justice for All, #341

education demands a renewal of heart, a renewal based on the recognition of sin in its individual and social manifestations. It will likewise awaken a critical sense, which will lead us to reflect on the society in which we live and on its values...... In the developing countries, the principal aim of this education of justice consists in an attempt to awaken consciences to a knowledge of the concrete situation and in a call to secure a total improvement; by these means the transformation of the world has already begun. Justice in the World, #51

SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY

If science becomes all technique and technology : quickly degenerates into man against humanity.

MAN becomes victims of our own technocracy : little understanding of the higher human purposes that the technology is striving to serve

Todays Realities
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION TRANSEXUALISM SURROGACY ABORTION GENETIC ENGINEERING STEM CELL RESEARCH ANTI-LIFE PROGRAMS

CST ON TECHNOLOGY

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our Albert Einstein

Wherefore, whatever the progress in technology and economic life, there can be neither justice nor peace in the world, so long as men fail to realize how great is their dignity; for they have been created by God and are His children. Mother and Teacher, #215 Economics and technology have no meaning except from the human person whom they should serve. And the human person is only truly human in as far as, master of one's own acts and judge of their worth, one is author of one's own advancement, in keeping with the nature which was given to human beings by the Creator. ( Populorum Progressio #34)

CST ON TECHNOLOGY
When the sole criterion of truth is efficiency and utility, development is automatically denied and human freedom is authentic only when it responds to the fascination of technology with decisions that are the fruit of moral responsibility.
( Caritas in Veritate 70)

Entranced by an exclusive reliance on technology, reason without faith is doomed to flounder in an illusion of its own omnipotence. Faith without reason risks being cut off from everyday life. ( CV 74)

WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE

active in a church but remain inactive in its gospel : Social facade of religion and the piety of religious practices. no real walking with people trying to deal with our social problems that may eventually undo our economic system. NO sense of service or inner workship : ONLY outward observances of religion. want more spirituality but would never do one act of anonymous service

REALITIES
FOLK RELIGIOSITY W/O UNDERSTANDING EMPTY SPIRITUALITY PIETISTIC / RITUALISM WITHOUT SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT

CST ON WORSHIP
Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.Justice in the World (#6) For unless the Christian message of love and justice shows its effectiveness through action in the cause of justice in the world, it will only with difficulty gain credibility with the people of our times. Justice in the World (#35)

It is no less mistaken to think that we may immerse ourselves in earthly activities as if these latter were utterly foreign to religion, and religion were nothing more than the fulfilment of acts of worship and the observance of a few moral obligations. One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and their day-to-day conduct. As far back as the Old Testament the prophets vehemently denounced this scandal, and in the New Testament Christ himself even more forcibly threatened it with severe punishment. Let there, then, be no such pernicious opposition between professional and social activity on the one hand and religious life on the other. Christians who shirk their temporal duties shirk their duties towards his neighbor, neglect God himself, and endanger their eternal salvation.The Church in the Modern World (#43)

AUTHENTIC DEVELOPMENT
SECULAR: ( UN )
Understanding DEVELOPMENT simply as transfer of capital and technology to solve underdevelopment has been a failure.

Christian Notion
1. Measured and Oriented acc. to man : totality. 2. Inclusion of have nots 3. Shared Decision Making 4. Needs Decentralization 5. Needs Structural Change 6. Never Violent - respect for culture

Solidarity
firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, and a commitment to the good of ones neighbor with the readiness to lose oneself for the sake of the other instead of exploiting, oppressing and taking advantage of others. join forces in freedom for the attainment of legitimate ends.

Solidarity..2

requires all men. participate in the management of all the activities in economic, political and cultural life while overcoming purely individualistic interests.

An urgent demand of faith . Filipinos: interdependence calls for doing away with political blocs and transforming distrust into collaboration.

Solidarity 3 Aid: no strings attached The bond of common humanity is not fear but love expressed in loyal collaboration. war can no longer be an instrumentof justice NEED FOR negotiation and dialogue.

Christian Justice
correct praxisof justice : requires a correct doctrine of justice: superficial activism . Faith and Action: (OT) Therecan beno fidelity to God without justice towardsmen; without the practice of justice, there can be no true worship.

Justice2

Church Tradition: firm willto give each person or social groups what belongs to him or them.

Commutative Justice. Distributive Justice: A fair share is not necessarilyan equal share. Contributive or Legal Justice.

Social Justice requires looking into the real situation of different groups of people give them their due

checks the inherent flaws and ambiguities of literal adherence to the classical types of justice.

Justice3
inherent flaws and ambiguities of literal adherence to the classical types of justice.

ambiguities: 1) more of a subjective virtue leading to the possibility of neglecting the objective or external aspect of justice. 2) considers the law as its object and situates itself within the established order, hence, losing the possibility of doing a critique about the given structure.

3) tends to orient such strictness toward the acceptable or passable minimum, thus encouraging minimalism and legalism. 4) lead to a neglect of the moral rectification of social structures.

If justice means to give to each one his/her due this due should not be interpreted according to the standards of the established order but from the ethical requirements of just social relations.

- dynamic and change-inducing value

SOCIAL JUSTICE

COMPONENTS OF JUSTICE
1. Sufficient life-goods : economic rights : principle of stewardship as ethical basis 2. dignity of the human person cultural rights : ethical basis : person is the the image and likeness of God 3. Participation: political rights : 4. Solidarity:
ethical basis: every person to contribute to the building of Gods Kingdom on earth

Ethical basis: Human beings are created to the image of God who is a Trinity of Persons (community).

Relationship of Justice and Love

Inseparable : Love and Justice Love : does not refer to the pious, self- entered individualistic charity of the rich who give out their super-abundance nor is it the romantic and sentimental love
Love loses its meaning and is bereft of its concrete content if it is not mediated by justice. interiorizes and radicalizes the demands of jus-tice giving the Christian believer a new motivation and a new inner power. Legal structure: usually works well only if all have equal advantages and opportunities. Laws are necessary : not sufficient for setting up the true relationship of justice and equality.

Love and justice

Silence and indifference today are considered unchristian and a sin of omission. THREE DEMANDS OF AUTHENTIC AND EFFECTIVE WORK for justice: -

First: awareness of the root causes of injustice

Super-abundance of a few nations and groups of people.
indifference and Passivity of the poor nations and peoples

sinful attitudes and deeds that create oppressive structures.

Love and Justice

2nd demand: condemnation of injustice. - demands announcing justice
3rd Demand : conversion.

itself. ( witnessing of justice)

- change in mentality and heart

Five Areas for Filipino Renewal

1. Commitment to COMMON GOOD ABOVE PERSONAL AND FAMILY INTEREST. 2. COMMITMENT TO HONESTY AND INTEGRITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE. 3. AN UNDERSTANDING OF DESTINATION OF THE GOODS OF THE EARTH FOR ALL AND THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 4. CONVERSION FROM THE CONSUMERIST MENTALITY. 5. RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF VALUE OF HUMAN WORK.