The Australian Catholic Social Justice Council’s Briefing for May is now up on the website. The Briefing covers issues of Catholic social teaching in May 2016, highlighting resources, media items and diary events. It can be read here.
From the Secretariat, John Ferguson:
The Church has always held a special concern for unemployed and vulnerable workers and their families. This concern was clearly stated by Pope John Paul II, in 1981, when he spoke on the broad subject of ‘Human Work’:
… the ‘poor’ appear under various forms; they appear in various places and at various times; in many cases they appear as a result of the violation of the dignity of human work: either because the opportunities for human work are limited as a result of the scourge of unemployment, or because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family. [Laborem Exercens n.8]
He said that the Church’s solidarity with poor and vulnerable workers is part of ‘her mission, her service, a proof of her fidelity to Christ, so that she can truly be the “Church of the poor”’.
With this in mind, the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council raises three issues:
1. The inadequate levels of income support offered to people who are unemployed;
2. The risk that penalty rates will be cut for vulnerable workers; and
3. The increasing intrusion of work demands into family time and weekends.
You can read and/or download the ACSJC’s Discussion Guide on Dignity and Work here: click here.
