Losing work

Does the Church say anything about being out of work?

Yes: it calls unemployment a wound, and it says that others owe the unemployed help. “Unemployment almost always wounds its victim’s dignity and threatens the equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to him personally, it entails many risks for his family.” CCC 2436 The Compendium of the Church’s social teaching calls it “a real social disaster”, above all for the young. CSDC 287

A person’s worth does not come from the job. “The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work”, and everyone “should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family”. CCC 2428 Those out of work “suffer the profound negative consequences that such a situation creates in a personality” and “run the risk of being marginalized within society”; young people, women, the less skilled, people with disabilities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the illiterate are hit hardest. CSDC 289

The duty to act falls on society. “Full employment” remains “a mandatory objective for every economic system oriented towards justice and the common good”. CSDC 288 John Paul II wrote that governments and the other bodies that shape labour policy must “act against unemployment, which in all cases is an evil”, and that unemployment benefits are “a duty springing from the fundamental principle of the moral order in this sphere, namely the principle of the common use of goods or, to put it in another and still simpler way, the right to life and subsistence”. Laborem Exercens 18

The same teaching asks for help back into work: courses “for adults seeking re-training and for the unemployed” are called indispensable, and people “need concrete forms of support as they journey in the world of work”, so that it will be “less difficult to cope with periods of change, uncertainty and instability”. CSDC 290

These paragraphs are not in the Catechism’s own order. The one that answers the question directly is placed first; none has been left out.

2436

It is unjust not to pay the social security contributions required by legitimate authority. Unemployment almost always wounds its victim's dignity and threatens the equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to him personally, it entails many risks for his family. Cf. LE 18.

2427

Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Cf. Gen 1:28; GS 34; CA 31. Hence work is a duty: "If any one will not work, let him not eat." 2 Thess 3:10; Cf. 1 Thess 4:11. Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work Cf. Gen 3:14-19. in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Cf. LE 27. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.

2428

In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. the primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work. Cf. LE 6. Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.

287

Work is a fundamental right and a good for mankind, Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1046-1047; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 9, 18: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 598-600, 622-625; John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (25 April 1997), 3: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 14 May 1997, p. 5; John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 8: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 91 (1999) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1999), 382-383. a useful good, worthy of man because it is an appropriate way for him to give expression to and enhance his human dignity. The Church teaches the value of work not only because it is always something that belongs to the person but also because of its nature as something necessary. Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 128. Work is needed to form and maintain a family, Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 10: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 600-602. to have a right to property, Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 103; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 14: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 612-616; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 31: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 831-832. to contribute to the common good of the human family. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 16: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 618-620. In considering the moral implications that the question of work has for social life, the Church cannot fail to indicate unemployment as a “real social disaster”, John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 18: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 623. above all with regard to the younger generations.

288

Work is a good belonging to all people and must be made available to all who are capable of engaging in it. “Full employment” therefore remains a mandatory objective for every economic system oriented towards justice and the common good. A society in which the right to work is thwarted or systematically denied, and in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, “cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace”. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 43: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 848; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2433. An important role and, consequently, a particular and grave responsibility in this area falls to “indirect employers”, Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 17: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 620-622. that is, those subjects — persons or institutions of various types — in a position to direct, at the national or international level, policies concerning labour and the economy.

289

The planning capacity of a society oriented towards the common good and looking to the future is measured also and above all on the basis of the employment prospects that it is able to offer. The high level of unemployment, the presence of obsolete educational systems and of persistent difficulties in gaining access to professional formation and the job market represent, especially for many young people, a huge obstacle on the road to human and professional fulfilment. In fact, those who are unemployed or underemployed suffer the profound negative consequences that such a situation creates in a personality and they run the risk of being marginalized within society, of becoming victims of social exclusion. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2436. In general, this is the drama that strikes not only young people, but also women, less specialized workers, the persons with disabilities, immigrants, ex-convicts, the illiterate, all those who face greater difficulties in the attempt to find their place in the world of employment.

290

Maintaining employment depends more and more on one's professional capabilities. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 66: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1087-1088. Instructional and educational systems must not neglect human or technological formation, which are necessary for gainfully fulfilling one's responsibilities. The ever more widespread necessity of changing jobs many times in one's lifetime makes it imperative that the educational system encourage people to be open to on-going updating and re-training. Young people should be taught to act upon their own initiative, to accept the responsibility of facing with adequate competencies the risks connected with a fluid economic context that is often unpredictable in the way it evolves. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 12: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 605-608. Equally indispensable is the task of offering suitable courses of formation for adults seeking re-training and for the unemployed. More generally, people need concrete forms of support as they journey in the world of work, starting precisely with formational systems, so that it will be less difficult to cope with periods of change, uncertainty and instability.

Laborem Exercens Sep 14, 1981

From the Catechism

From the Social Doctrine

From the Magisterium