VOLUME: 28 ISSUE: 32 DATE: 19990128 SIZE:
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Father Vitillo/Church Social Teaching
Three principles of Catholic social teaching - subsidiarity, participation and solidarity - along with "the foundational truth of the sanctity and dignity of human life (at all stages from conception to natural death) and the Gospel mandate of option for the poor ... could serve as a beacon of light to guide our shaping of a 'metropolitan agenda' to address the problems of our cities and suburbs alike," Father Robert Vitillo, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human
Development, said in a Dec. 4 address in St. Louis to the Gamaliel Foundation's National Leadership Assembly. The foundation has established community organizations in major Midwestern cities and states to address community development and the distribution of resources in metropolitan areas. In an address that examined "some of the religious and value-based lessons which should inform and guide our search for technical solutions and for the construction of a metropolitan agenda," Vitillo commented that "the serious problems faced by our society in the United States can be partially explained by the often-antagonistic but always interdependent relationship between our cities and our suburbs." He cited data showing, for example, that poverty is higher in cities than in suburbs; poverty is concentrated in certain neighbor-hoods; and cities face a serious gap in jobs and education. Several signs of hope in the effort "to address urban and suburban problems which confront us daily and threaten our own future" were discussed by Vitillo. He said that it is important not to "deceive ourselves into thinking that we could find some shortcuts or easy solutions. The sinful structures of our society have taken centuries to build and require our long-term commitment to undo." Vitillo's text follows.
I consider it a great privilege and honor to be able to attend this national leadership assembly of the Gamaliel Foundation and to be offered the opportunity to share some reflections with you on this most important topic to which you have dedicated your entire gathering - that of metropolitan organizing.
In preparing for this talk, I found my mind and heart reverberating with one specific passage of Scripture - many of you may find this to be a familiar passage since it comes from St. Paul - a writer who has made a profound impact on the very roots of the Gamaliel Foundation:
"Now the body is not one member, it is many.... If the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,' would it then no longer belong to the body? If the body were all eye, what would happen to our hearing? If it were all ear, what would happen to our smelling? As it is, God has set each member of the body in the place he wanted it to be.... Even those members of the body which seem less important are in fact indispensable.... If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members share its joy."(1)
Although most exegetical scholars tell us that in this passage Paul is referring to the union between all members of the church and Christ himself, I sincerely believe that we pay no disrespect to the Scripture by applying this same analogy to the necessary relationships which must be preserved and enjoyed by all members of society - by those living in cities, suburbs and rural areas - by those who with greater or lesser access to the resources which God created and destined for use by all of us, the children of God.
I must confess at the outset of this reflection that I am no expert in the metropolitan agenda. Between the years of 1986 and 1995, a crucial period of development for many of the phenomena which we will be discussing during these days, I lived and worked outside the United States. As a staff member for the global confederation of Catholic Church-sponsored social service and development organizations in 160 countries of the world, I focused much of my attention and energy on the so-called "developing" countries of the South.
There I began to feel the tragic pain of the majority of our world's population - more than 90 percent - which has access to less than 10 percent of the world's goods even though most of the world's natural resources are located in the very countries in which they live. In countries of the South, I was scandalized by the elite lifestyles of the wealthy minority, who seemed to be oblivious to the plight of the masses flocking to the cities in search of work and then forced to live in hovels outside the gated and guarded estates of the rich. I was enraged at the policies of our own U.S. government, as well as that of other Northern nations, the international monetary organizations, and private investors who enticed national leaders in the South to mortgage the very soul of their people by contracting for foreign debt at exorbitant rates of interest - at the expense of meager but vital educational, health and social services for the people.
Upon my return to the United States, I found myself shocked and disheartened to find that many of the same structural injustices underlying the North/South development divide had exacerbated the already sinful racial divisions in our country as well. In the spirit of a "newcomer" to the very country in which I was born, I set out on a search to understand better the growing gap between haves and have-nots in our society, the epidemic of violence that now plagues not just our city streets but our suburban and rural areas as well, the hopelessness of so many in the land of opportunity to which my grandparents had emigrated, the shameful scandal of racism and ethnic hatred which has blighted this "American experiment" from the moment in which it was conceived.
The serious problems faced by our society in the United States can be partially explained by the often antagonistic but always interdependent relationship between our cities and our suburbs. In a report titled The State of Cities 1998, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development presented some relevant facts in this regard:
-"Central cities' share of metropolitan populations continues to decline. Although most central cities are growing slowly, only 11 of the 30 largest cities in 1970 have more people in them today than two decades ago. These population losses frequently translate into a shrinking municipal tax base....
-"Middle-class families are still leaving central cities. Since 1970, nearly 6 million middle-income and affluent families have left central cities. At the same time, between 1985 and 1995 the number of high-income families (defined as 150 percent of median) that located in suburbs grew by 16 percent, compared with just 2 percent for central cities. When asked why people are leaving cities, two answers most commonly cited are the poor quality of urban schools and the relatively high rates of urban crime.
-"Poverty in cities is higher than in the suburbs. While overall poverty rates have dropped, poverty is more concentrated in distressed urban areas. Despite a drop in central city poverty rates between 1993 and 1996, one in every five urban families lived in poverty in 1996, compared with fewer than one in 10 suburban families. And there is a growing dichotomy in rates of minority poverty.... Poverty in cities disproportionately affects minority populations - 72 percent of the poor in cities are minority.
-"Poverty remains highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods. The persistence of discrimination in the housing market leads to discrimination in our cities.... Almost one in four African-American and Hispanic residents of central cities live in census tracts where more than 40 percent of their neighbors are poor, compared with only 3 percent of the white urban population. Such high-poverty areas are often plagued by severe social dysfunctions such as violent crime and drug abuse, as well as family problems such as teen-age pregnancy."
-Cities face a serious gap in available jobs to meet the skills level of urban residents. "While more jobs are being created in cities, there is a sizable but manageable mismatch between the number of low-skilled jobs and the number of urban residents who need such work."
-"Cities face an education gap.... In both 1994 and 1996, 60 percent of the children in urban school districts failed to achieve basic levels of competency in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress... In the nation's 20 largest urban school districts, more than half of all students never graduate.... Violent attacks and fights are much more common in city schools ... than they are in suburban schools.... A recent General Accounting Office study found that 38 percent of central city schools (serving more than 5.5 million students) had at least one inadequate building and two-thirds (with more than 10 million students) had at least one inadequate building feature, such as a roof or plumbing."(2)
One phenomenon which contributes to the problematic just presented is that of suburban sprawl. Brookings Institute senior fellow Anthony Downs has identified the following 10 traits of suburban sprawl:
-"Unlimited outward extension of new development.
-"Low-density residential and commercial settlements, especially in new-growth areas.
-"Leapfrog development jumping out beyond established settlements.
-"Fragmentation of powers over land use among many small localities.
-"Dominance of transportation by private automotive vehicles.
-"No centralized planning or control of land uses.
-"Widespread strip commercial development.
-"Great fiscal disparities among localities.
-"Segregation of specialized types of land uses in different zones.
-"Reliance mainly on trickle-down to provide housing to low-income households."(3)
I realize that many of you here present in this assembly are much more competent than I to analyze these situations and to strategize on how best to overcome the separations among city, suburb and rural area and thus to arrive at a just and adequate way forward which can assure the survival of humankind in this country and in other parts of the world as well. During this reflection, I would prefer to examine some of the religious and value-based lessons which should inform and guide our search for technical solutions and for the construction of a metropolitan agenda.
I will speak from my own religious tradition - that of Judeo-Christian roots, which have been further evolved and enriched by Catholic social teaching. I am certain, however, that those of you who hail from other faith traditions will be able to recognize and identify with some common values which do, in fact, transcend all religious denominations.
The Jewish Testament is replete with warnings and concerns uttered by the prophets with regard to the human tendencies to selfishness, excess and idolatry and to the tragic consequences - both on the ancient cities and their inhabitants - which will be borne out by such sinful behavior. Time after time, the prophets "bargained" with God to save or to grant rebirth to their cities -and most especially, the holy city of Jerusalem - simply because 1,000 or a 100 or 50, or 10 or even one inhabitant kept the faith or repented of sin. The prophet Isaiah offered this plaintive description of God's wrath when such repentance could not be found:
"The Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and prop [all supplies of bread and water].... I will make striplings their princes; the fickle shall govern them, and people shall oppress one another, yes every man his neighbor....
"The Lord rises to accuse, standing to try his people...: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the loot wrested from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding down the poor when they look to you?...
"The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with necks outstretched, ogling and mincing as they go, their anklets tinkling with every step, the Lord will cover the scalps of Zion's daughters with scabs and the Lord shall bare their heads....
"Instead of perfume there will be stench, instead of the girdle, a rope, and for the coiffure, baldness; for the rich gown, a sackcloth skirt. Then, instead of beauty: Your men will fall by the sword, and your champions in war; her gates will lament and mourn as the city sits desolate on the ground."(4)
When we consider the excesses represented by our modern gated communities or the stench of toxic wastes and brownfields in today's aging cities and the violence which robs present-day urban youth of their most precious gift - that of life itself, we might seriously ask whether Isaiah's prophetic powers brought him to a clear vision not only of his own day but also of our current era.
In my belief, it was not coincidental that Jesus took recourse in the prophet Isaiah as he stood up in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth, to announce the beginning of his public ministry:
"When the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, he unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord.'"(5)
Those of us familiar with the Christian tradition are only too aware that the dual commandment of Jesus - based firmly in Old Testament roots - to love God above all things and to love one's neighbor as oneself - went unheeded by the majority of his contemporaries and of those who followed after him. Thus we read of the tears which Jesus shed over the holy city Jerusalem:
"Coming within sight of the city, he wept over it and said: 'If only you had known the path to peace this day; but you have completely lost it from view! Days will come upon you when your enemies encircle you with a rampart, hem you in and press you hard from every side. They will wipe you out, you and your children within your walls, and leave not a stone on a stone within you, because you failed to recognize the time of your visitation."(6)
It was reflection on these and many other texts of both the Old and New testaments that led the biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann to conclude:
"The future of the city, Jerusalem and our town, hinges on a rigorous either/or: Either redeployed resources according to God's large passion for the hungry, homeless, and naked - or endless self-serving that yields no communion, no light, no vindication, no healing, no water, no feeding, no delight, no nothing. I am not a scare preacher. But I remind you of what we know most and best: God is not mocked. One acute mode of mocking is self-serving technological consumerism. Another mocking is self-serving religion, which traffics in vested interests. We know better. The future hangs on a slice of bread, a welcoming bed, a shared coat."(7)
Firmly grounded in Scripture and in the long tradition of works both of charity and of justice, the century-old resource of Catholic social teaching can bring additional enlightenment to the subjects at hand. I would like to focus on three particular principles of this body of teaching which have been identified by our popes and bishops as hallmarks on which "authentic" human development must be founded. These principles include subsidiarity, participation and solidarity.
The principle of subsidiarity was defined as follows by Pope Pius XI in a 1931 encyclical:
"Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do" (Quadra-gesimo Anno, 79).
In his book, Doing Faithjustice, Father Fred Kammer offers a specific but easily comprehensible explanation of this principle:
"Subsidiarity insists that all parties work in ways that build up society, and that each one does so in ways expressive of their distinctive capacities. This underscores the importance of families, neighborhood groups, small businesses, professional associations, community organizations, and local, state and national government. It also underscores the importance of international organizations to respond to needs and concerns of international scope."(8)
The principle of participation was strongly affirmed by Pope John XXIII in his encyclical "Peace on Earth" (No. 26), as follows, "The dignity of the human person involves the right to take an active part in public affairs and to contribute one's part to the common good of the citizens."
In fact, Pope Pius XII had written in a similar vein, "The human individual, far from being an object, a merely passive element in the social order, is in fact ... its subject, its foundation and its end."
In their document which celebrated "A Century of Social Teaching," the U.S. Catholic bishops captured the essence of the principle of solidarity, especially as it has been crafted and molded by our Holy Father Pope John Paul II:
"We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic and ideological differences. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers (cf. Gn. 4:9). In a linked and limited world, our responsibilities to one another cross national and other boundaries. Violent conflict and the denial of dignity and rights to people anywhere on the globe diminish each of us. This emerging theme of solidarity, so strongly articulated by Pope John Paul II, expresses the core of the church's concern for world peace, global development, environment and international human rights. It is the contemporary expression of the traditional Catholic image of the mystical body."(9)
I would like to submit that these three principles of subsidiarity, participation and solidarity, as well as the foundational truth of the sanctity and dignity of human life (at all stages from conception to natural death) and the Gospel mandate of option for the poor, be utilized by us as a true test of the validity for all our actions to promote the well-being of our "neighbors" and of society as a whole. The same principles could serve as a beacon of light to guide our shaping of a "metropolitan agenda" to address the problems of our cities and suburbs alike.
It is my belief that the Catholic bishops of the United States were inspired and guided by these truths and principles when they established the Catholic Crusade Against Poverty in 1969 and renamed it the Campaign for Human Development in 1970. Listen to the 1969 resolution of the bishops in that regard:
"The problems of poverty, racism and minority tensions require of us a constant re-evaluation of our investments of human energy and financial resources....
"Besides the services in finances and personnel that can be grouped under present programs of Catholic Charities, inner-city parochial schools and other church-sponsored agencies, there is an evident need for funds designated to be used for organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power in their own communities....
"We ... believe that this new effort can lead the people of God to a new knowledge of today's problems, a deeper understanding of the intricate forces that lead to group conflict and a perception of some new and promising approaches that we might take in promoting a greater spirit of solidarity among those who are successful, those who have acquired some share of the nation's goods, and those still trapped in poverty."(10)
Since its founding, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has become the largest private funder of organizations which empower the poor and work to eliminate poverty and injustice in the United States. Funds are raised through an annual collection in the country's Catholic parishes. Grants are allocated to community self-help and economic development projects on the basis of need, regardless of religious affiliation. These projects must be directed and controlled by people who themselves are living in poverty.
CCHD also educates parishioners about Catholic social teaching and Christian responsibility for and with the poor. Over the years, CCHD has provided more than $250 million in grants and loans to more than 3,000 self-help projects. CCHD-funded groups have
assisted in securing passage of federal and state legislation on child support, family and medical leave, community reinvestment and affordable housing.
CCHD has been pleased to offer significant funding to some 28 projects associated with the Gamaliel Foundation; we have done so because we have faith in your ability to address the root causes of poverty on the local, metropolitan and regional levels. On the other hand, I would like to take this opportunity to ask for the support of Gamaliel-affiliated organizations to assist CCHD in our goals in both dioceses and parishes, to promote the annual CCHD collection and to raise consciousness and commitment to the principles of Catholic social teaching on which CCHD was founded.
Pope John Paul II affirmed the efforts by such organizations as CCHD when he proclaimed in his encyclical "On Social Concerns":
"Positive signs in the contemporary world are the growing awareness of the solidarity of the poor among themselves, their efforts to support one another and their public demonstrations on the social scene which, without recourse to violence, present their own needs and rights in the face of the inefficiency or corruption of the public authorities. By virtue of her own evangelical duty, the church feels called to take her stand beside the poor, to discern the justice of their requests and to help satisfy them, without losing sight of the good of groups in the context of the common good" (No. 39).
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first modern social encyclical, Pope John Paul II proposed sweeping changes among individuals, social structures and business enterprises so that the unjust structures of our society might finally be addressed:
"It is not merely a matter of 'giving from one's surplus,' but helping entire peoples which are presently excluded or marginalized to enter into the sphere of economic and human development. For this to happen, it is not enough to draw on the surplus goods which in fact our world abundantly produces; it requires above all a change of lifestyles, of models of production and consumption, and of the established structures of power which today govern society" (Centesimus Annus, 58).
Before closing this reflection, I would like to point out some signs of hope which can inspire and guide our constant striving to address urban and suburban problems which confront us daily and threaten our own future and, most especially, that of our children.
1. The first sign of hope may be found in your own Gamaliel project, the American Metropolitan Equities Network (AMEN). CCHD has been pleased to designate a substantial portion of its national impact funding to support this project. CCHD supports the AMEN goals to analyze metropolitan disparities and to develop the vision of real policy solutions which could be used dynamically in conversations about regional organizing and in recruitment of additional congregations to join in this process.
CCHD was very pleased to learn that 120 new congregations became members of AMEN regional organizations during the first year of the project and that you plan to recruit an additional 150 institutional members next year. We were also impressed with the relationship Gamaliel has built and formalized with leading experts on regionalism and with its determination to renew the commitment of grass-roots leaders to analyze social problems with a regional lens and to seek regionally based policy solutions and organizing strategies. Perhaps the most significant victories accomplished by the AMEN project so far were the passage of the Transportation Equity Act (which included an allocation of $75 million for Access to Jobs funding) by the U.S. Congress in July 1998 and the commitment of $68 million by the state of Minnesota to create 3,000 jobs by cleaning up environmental sites during the next three years.
In congratulating you for these accomplishments and encouraging you to greater efforts in the future, I would like to quote from the message of Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, in his message to the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations Assembly on Oct. 4, 1998:
"I believe that the racial and economic disparities revealed in the research of Myron Orfield are oppressive and morally unsustainable. A moral society is called to address both racial
discrimination and growing economic extremes between the rich and the poor. One of the most oppressive aspects of racism is that it obscures the issue of economic disparities among families and communities. As citizens motivated by faith and community spirit, you are struggling to understand and clearly communicate these profound issues to the faith community and the entire metropolitan area."
2. In 1995 Bishop Anthony Pilla of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland wrote with much concern to the faithful people whom he was called to lead and serve and pointed out the serious problems which had been created by outmigration from the area's cities and from urban disinvestment by government and private enterprise and financial institutions. He posed the following dilemma:
"If the imbalance of investments continues as it is, we can expect urban decline and all of its negative aspects to spread on an even broader scale. Neighborhoods that had been stable will erode, then suburbs, beginning with those closest to the city. Spreading decline will spawn more stress among people and institutions. It will weaken the fiscal strength of county governments, further jeopardizing the region's capacity to compete in the global economy....
"Continuing in this way will only worsen what already has been severely aggravated over the past 40 years. We must change course if we are to create a society where 'social groups and their individual members [have] relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment' (Gaudium et Spes)."
In his Church in the City program, Bishop Pilla proceeded to elaborate a strategy to turn the course of such social, economic and spiritual disintegration of peoples by calling for:
-The diocese to form a committee on regional land use to lobby for policies that would be "economically, socially, environmentally and morally responsible."
-Churches to meet regularly with government officials, business people and others whose actions affect community stability, job creation and other areas.
-A public-relations campaign to get "good news" from city neighborhoods into the media as a counterweight to stories of crime and hopelessness.
-A diocesanwide lobbying effort to persuade government and business to take a regional approach to dealing with issues.
3. Through its National Impact Project, CCHD will continue to target funding for multistate networking (such as your own AMEN project) which goes beyond the more traditional local focus of community-based self-help organizations. Such networking frequently adopts a regional or metropolitan approach to contemporary social problems and strives to involve constituencies across urban/suburban, poor/middle-class boundaries.
4. In a new welfare-to-work initiative, CCHD and the Catholic Health Association are co-sponsoring a welfare-to-work initiative in close collaboration with Catholic Charities USA. These organizations will promote the replication of successful models of day care and home care companies which employ low-income people at wages above industry norms and provide for worker ownership of these companies.
CCHD has committed more that $500,000 to this effort from its 25th Anniversary Msgr. Geno Baroni Job Creation Fund. CCHD and CHA are seeking to raise a $2.5 million national pool of funding to provide startup capital for the first eight-10 businesses. Often these businesses, just like their worker-owners, are located in urban areas. The establishment of these businesses also will expand the availability and delivery of high-quality home-health and day-care services in local communities.
5. CCHD's Journey to Justice process involves a structured, parish-based program of reflection and dialogue undertaken by poor (often urban residents) and nonpoor persons (often suburban dwellers) in order to understand better the root causes of structural injustices and to formulate a plan together on how to address such causes. The campaign is making available regionally based mentors who will assist dioceses and parishes to initiate this process in their local communities.
For those of us who are leaders affiliated with the Gamaliel Foundation, for those of us who are people of good will, of deep values and of faith, the path before us is clearly indicated and unswerving in its direction. This path already has been trodden by the prophets of old, by Jesus the Lord and by many who have gone before us in the faith.
We must break down the barriers of sin and division which have separated the rich from the poor, the city from the suburb and rural area, the racial and ethnic minorities from the majority groups and from their common sisterhood and brotherhood in the one family of God. We must organize to find solutions on a regional and metropolitan basis, since none of us are islands apart to ourselves and since our own individual and group well-being is inextricably bound to the common good.
In setting out on this journey, let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we could find some shortcuts or easy solutions. The sinful structures of our society have taken centuries to build and require our long-term commitment to undo. We must look to the foresight and long-term vision of martyrs, saints and leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, who never tired of "fighting the good fight" and who nourished himself and all of us with a love for the Scriptures and deep and abiding faith which indeed was able to move mountains even though it exacted the price of his life here on this earth.
Thus let us respond to the imperative of metropolitan organizing by assisting the members of faith-based organizations to act on their faith and, in so doing, to make real the vision of "authentic" human development which was articulated so poignantly yet also so practically by Pope Paul VI in his prophetic encyclical "On the Development of Peoples":
"It is not just a question of fighting wretched conditions, though this is an urgent and necessary task. It involves building a human community where all can live truly human lives, free from discrimination on account of race, religion or nationality, free from servitude to others or to natural forces which they cannot control satisfactorily. It involves building a community where liberty is not an idle word, where the needy Lazarus can sit down with the rich man at the same banquet table" (No. 47).
Footnotes
1 1 Cor. 12:12-27.
2 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, The State of the Cities: 1998 (Washington, D.C., June 1998), pp. iii-ix.
3 Anthony Downs, "How America's Cities Are Growing: The Big Picture," The Brookings Review, XVI:16, No. 4, Fall 1998, p. 8.
4 Is. 3:1-26.
5 Lk. 4:17-19.
6 Lk. 20:41-44.
7 Walter Brueggemann, Using God's Resources Wisely: Isaiah and Urban Possibility (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), pp.74-75.
8 Fred Kammer, SJ, Doing Faithjustice: An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), pp. 80-81.
9 "A Century of Social Teaching: A Common Heritage, A Continuing Challenge. A Pastoral Message of the Catholic Bishops of the United States on the 100th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1990), p. 7.
10 Empowerment and Hope: 25 Years of Turning Lives Around (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference Campaign for Human Development, 1996), pp. 128-129.v