The cry for justice comes naturally to all human beings. Children protest that ‘it isn’t fair’. Adults ask their torturers, ‘Why do you hurt me?’ Justice has to do with relationships. In families, justice has to do with personal relationships between parents and children and between siblings. In schools, between teachers and students. Human relationships between groups of people, institutions, nations and our environment all have to do with social justice.
In our current world issues involving questions of social justice are often acute. Think of the railway strikes for just wages, the protests against discrimination on grounds of race and gender, the conduct of war in Gaza and Myanmar, the claims of the US and Russia to territory outside their boundaries, and responsibility of governments to curb the mining and sale of oil and coal in order to curb global warming.
CATHOLIC THOUGHT
Pope Francis has taken up positions on many of these social justice issues. In doing so he has drawn on and contributed to a long history of Catholic thought on similar issues. Although linked to Christian faith in God’s action for us in Jesus, this teaching is of wider relevance because it centres on human life, what it means for us to flourish and what shape our involved relationships should take. These questions are asked by all human beings.
The central insight of Catholic social thought is that each human being has a unique dignity and value, whatever their race, religion, colour, gender and virtue or lack of it. In all relations we ourselves are entitled to respect and owe it to others. In business we may not treat employees simply as a cost; nor in war may we treat civilians and prisoners as things. They are persons like us and must be treated with respect for their humanity.
The second insight of Catholic social thought is that human beings do not flourish as individuals but through relationships to others. We rely on others and have responsibility to others. Society flourishes when persons have strong relationships and agency in social groups and in such institutions as schools, ethnic and religious associations, recreational clubs, cultural groups, industrial unions and associations, and political parties. Governments must support these groups and ensure that they respect others and contribute to the good of the whole society. Both governments and individuals must be bound by a respect for the rule of law which itself affirms the dignity of each human being.
SOCIETY’S SUPPORT
Together these two insights mean that as individuals and as groups we are all entitled to support in society and have a duty to support the flourish of others, particularly those who are disadvantaged. The flourishing of individuals and of groups is tied to the flourishing of others. This is expressed in taxes and levies proportionate to their wealth. A society in which there is gross inequality between the wealthiest and the poor is not a just society. Its measure is how it supports the flourishing of the neediest.
Respect for persons and our shared humanity and flourishing also shapes the relationships between social groups and those between nations. Where there is conflict, for example between employers and employees over wages and conditions and between nations over the control of property these must be resolved by mutual respect, diplomacy and by appeal to national and international arbitration. The temptation to resolve them by the unliteral use of superior power must be resisted by national and international bodies and public opinion.
Our society puts a high value on human flourishing but often sees it as an individual right and entitlement. That view emphasises conflict and competition in resolving disputes. The Catholic tradition represents a more human view.