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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, abundant blessings to you and yours!
This month I wanted to cover the topic of justice, a term the Catechism defines as giving to others their due (#1807). As an aside and to aid in our understanding, the same Catechism defines religion as “justice” towards God, meaning giving to God what He is due.
This is an important topic to cover because, as justice is giving others their due, not giving others their due results in a lack of justice, or injustice. Frequent injustice leads to an urgent phenomenon: a perception by people of situations or places being difficult to endure, arguably “inhospitable,” meaning like lacking a sufficient standard of interaction to remain in these situations or places. So, we should pay attention to our actions and their impacts, and also to situations where our inaction leads to impacts. At an organizational level, we can also implement codes of conduct and ethics policies to have some sort of standard of behavior that prevents injustice.
In this post, I’d like to discuss common examples of justice, including those rights rooted in our American culture and laws, but also those coming from God. I take a dive into an especially important and relevant right against racism and discrimination, and our world’s sour history with it, especially since the 20th century. I also share a few examples from scripture of injustice, and I will discuss some ideas on how to build and sustain our fraternity and brotherhood in the church, which like all environments is always at risk of becoming inhospitable.
So, justice is giving others their due. The Catechism further states:
“Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor” (#1807)
Common examples of “justice” rooted in our American culture and laws include the right to due process, or fundamental rights in terms of crimes and when accused of a crime, to be treated fairly and that laws be applied fairly and rightly; the right to life and freedom from unjust harm from others, including harassment, and in an extreme sense, from sexual harassment; the right to private property, etc. In modern history, we must also mention freedom from racism and discrimination, especially here in the US, which is literally a melting pot of different races and ethnicities (and in my metro area of Miami, we are literally a melting pot of, among other origins, the Caribbean, and Central and South America).
As citizens, residents, or migrants/refugees, though we respect the rights given through the laws of our nation, we also have divine “rights”, and as Catholic Christians we have a responsibility to honor these to the best of our ability, even in government; the lack of these can also lead to injustice.
In terms of fundamental rights God desires for us, as inferred from the 10 Commandments, there is: harmonious, respectful, and dignified relations between parents/children, people/relevant authority figures, including government (and with the advent of Democracy, the ability as well to vote them in/out, essentially, self-rule); the right to life and the right to peace and freedom from harm from others; the right to a good name/reputation; the right to private property. Paragraph 2211 from the Catechism, also defines some rights, including the honoring and protection of the family and marriage bond, and all its success requires, and importantly, and relevant today, the right for families to emigrate.
Some other “rights” I’d like to consider are those that come from living in society, community, and interacting with large organizations on a regular basis, like schools, churches, corporations, and places of entertainment: that organizations complete their work/mission in an excellent and professional manner, e.g., that government offices perform the work they should, and well; the availability of spaces for work, worship, and life that are comfortable and free from hazards; that those impacted by any decisions be included in decision-making, or that they and any impacts to them at least be considered; a way to voice reasonable concerns so they can be addressed by appropriate leadership.
Scripture is full of examples of injustice. In Isaiah chapter 58, God through the Prophet speaks of the injustice of “driving laborers,…quarrel[ing],…fight[ing],…and strik[ing] with a wicked fist.”
On withholding wages from laborers, the Letter of St. James says: “Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (Chapter 5).
After murdering Abel, in the Book of Genesis, God says to Cain: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Chapter 4)
In modern society and history, we can’t ignore racism and its grave impacts; inhumane treatment of people based on the color of their skin or ethnicity has had grave impacts in history, even in recent history since the 20th century. Enslaved Africans were brought to the US and sold as property up until the late 1800s (Britannica); even after this slavery ended, they were also not allowed to use the same facilities as non-African Americans up until the late 1960s, including schools, restaurants, etc. (History Channel). This “segregation” was ruled unlawful by the US Supreme Court based primarily on testimony from African American children who lived in this segregation and society and had unconsciously formed the idea that they were “inferior” to their non-African American peers (National Park Service).
To continue with examples of racism and its impact, 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust by the Nazi German government led by Adolf Hitler (National World War II Museum). Japanese people in the 1940s in California, because of the Pearl Harbor attacks, were all suspected, and forced to relocate into camps (National Archives). Furthermore, in Africa, and similarly, groups of citizens were murdered in widespread manner, or genocide, by rival tribes in power (University of Minnesota).
These examples are warnings for us about the dark side of a sort of “tribalism” where we exclude groups of people. Especially in large-scale political action outside the court systems and legislative processes, we must be sure to apply discernment of the laws of our nation, and divine law, including and especially what the church teaches:
-From a perspective of the laws of the US: are we discriminating based on protected statuses, like race, color, ethnicity (country of origin), sex, age, etc.? Are we also applying the law of the US fairly and rightly?
-From a perspective of divine law, as taught through the Church: are we allowing all families access into the Church, or are we obstructing in any way, including through coldness or passive aggression to make others feel unwelcome? If we have economic power, are we allowing all families access to good and dignified employment and housing?
A main point I wanted to discuss in this post is rooted in the 5th commandment, which is against murder, but which also grants us the right to peace and freedom from harm from others. It’s important that we consider that murder is the “extreme” act of this commandment, but harm to others can be placed on a spectrum – even willed physical harm, such as battery, or purposely causing someone emotional harm is a violation of this commandment, and an injustice. It’s obvious, and in our church, that many are OK with harming others. This behavior is often excused, especially in the Church, by saying we are a fallen people, and a “hospital” for sinners; this however, does not excuse purposeful physical or emotional harm done to others, and shows a lack of repentance, a turning away from these sins as God asks us to (Catechism #1431). The former CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress, the man who has now stepped down, but was involved with the movement for years, including during the event, once said something about a culture of a lack of trust in our Catholic church, which he attributes chiefly from years of scandal, and I am of the opinion that this also refers to sex abuse scandals. The same thought process can be applied about any injustice in organizations and in our church, because as I said during the intro, frequent injustice leads to a feeling of inhospitality, a feeling of having difficulty in remaining in situations and places. Mr. Tim Glemkowski states in an interview with The Pillar:
“It is no use hiding that the last 20 years of scandals in the institutional church has led to a latent broken trust. The often-intractable dysfunction that persists in so many of those institutions can cause many well-intentioned lay people to despair when they encounter it. I remember one corporate executive who came to work for the Church telling me that she had never encountered as much nastiness in corporate America as she had working for the Church and, furthermore, if her organization had operated the way the Church did it would have closed decades before. That squares with my experience, for sure.”
We should strive for environments, and especially in the church, where kindness, cordiality, and friendliness abound – we are brothers and sisters after all! Two scripture passages that we can consider for our interaction with others, especially in the church, are:
-St, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, on the fruits of the Spirit, which can inspire us:
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”
-The Letter of St. James, chapter 3, which describes wisdom from above, which is:
“pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”
An American legend of history spoke once in Washington D.C about how injustice cries for the urgency of “now,” to be resolved quickly, because people are impacted, and sometimes gravely, living sometimes in inhumane conditions:
“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”
The speaker continues, but highlighting racial justice, which was the topic of his speech:
“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
May these words of Martin Luther King Jr., whom we celebrated just a few weeks ago in mid-January, inspire us to quickly resolve any situation where we are involved in any injustice.
As usual, I’m most grateful for your time and attention!
Abundant blessings to you and yours,
Juan B
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Citations
Britannica, “The Middle passage,” “Transatlantic slave trade” https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade/The-Middle-Passage. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
History Channel, “Segregation in the United States,” https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
King Jr., Martin Luther, “I Have a Dream,” NPR, https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety, Transcript. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
National Archives, “Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II,” https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
National Park Service, “Kenneth and Mamie Clark doll,” “Brown v. Board of Education” https://www.nps.gov/brvb/learn/historyculture/clarkdoll.htm. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
National World War II Museum, “The Holocaust,” https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust. Accessed 6 Feb 2025
University of Minnesota, “Rwanda,” “Holocaust and Genocide Education” https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/rwanda. Accessed 6 Feb 2025