Economic Issues
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Economic Justice for All is the pastoral letter promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 1986 that deals with the United States economy and with Catholic social teaching in the nation’s context. The document is a part of the tradition of Catholic social teaching. Every perspective on economic life that is human, moral, and Christian must be shaped by three questions:
1) What does the economy do for people?
2) What does it do to people?
3) And how do people participate in it?
The economy is a human reality: men and women working together to develop and care for the whole of God’s creation. All this work must serve the material and spiritual well-being of people. The efforts of our Commission on Global Issues are to be proactive in giving voice to those persons who are impacted by inequities in our economy. We strive to educate on the issues, engage in advocacy and be active in written and verbal communications with legislators at the local, state and national levels
Several issues that are in the forefront of these efforts include:
- Utilize encyclical principles from Laudato Si’ to study and integrate climate justice/economic justice plans
- Uphold an economy of inclusion that supports Catholic social justice
- Support universal healthcare as a human right
- Privatization of the detention centers across the nation
- Continue to address federal and state budget priorities as needed
- Keep abreast of the issues of economic inequality
- Corporate power and investment realities in the workplace
- Closing the gap in the American economy
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Proposed Definition of Economic Justice:
"The study of how scarce productive resources are allocated among competing productive uses, and where the members of a society does not diminish the opportunity of other to enjoy the consumption of goods and services, and that, in the aggregate, the policies and regulation provides a net benefit to society, both now and in the future."**
The Nature of Economic Justice:
It is both a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field. Independent groups with various disciplines could look at a given problem from their specific discipline’s perspective. Ideally, it will bring the various disciplines together to assess a problem or situation and jointly determine how to best approach it.
Economic justice has elements of philosophy, sociology, economics, and psychology. It may include other fields, as appropriate, such as environmental science, in the case of climate change; and food sciences in the case of poverty.
Books on Poverty:
Other Resources on the Web:
- Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
- Bread for the World
- Patriotic Millionaires
- Fratelli Tutti Resources
- Economic Justice for All
**Source: Introduction to Economic Justice. Steven Tanimura. 2021. Page 69.
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