WORKER JUSTICE SOCIAL STATMENTS - ROMAN CATHOLIC

Worker Justice

The obligation to evaluate social and economic activity from the viewpoint of the poor and the powerless arises from the radical command to love one's neighbor as one's self. Those who are marginalized and whose rights are denied have privileged claims if society is to provide justice for all. –From Economic Justice For All, http://www.osjspm.org/cst/q_poor.htm

Workers not only want fair pay, they also want to share in the responsibility and creativity of the very work process. They want to feel that they are working for themselves -- an awareness that is smothered in a bureaucratic system where they only feel themselves to be "cogs" in a huge machine moved from above. –From On Human Work, http://www.osjspm.org/cst/q_work.htm

We consider it our duty to reaffirm that the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner. From Mother and Teacher, http://www.osjspm.org/cst/q_work.htm

Yet the workers' rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at maximum profits. The thing that must shape the whole economy is respect for the workers' rights within each country and all through the world's economy. –From On Human Work, http://www.osjspm.org/cst/q_work.htm

http://www.richmonddiocese.org/ojp/ojp114.htm#Work

The worker has a right to a wage determined according to criteria of justice, and sufficient, therefore, in proportion to the available resources, to give the worker and his family a standard of living in keeping with the dignity of the human person.

• Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris), 1963 [# 20]
  Without the priority of labor over capital there is no possibility of any human morality in the social order.
• Pope John Paul II, On Human Work (Laborem Exercens), 1981
  

Center Priorities (.pdf)

Bulletin Inserts
Child Support (.pdf)
Environment (.pdf)
Housing Trust (.pdf)
Indigent Defense (.pdf)
Payday Lending (.pdf)
Minimum Wage (.pdf)

Advocacy Resources
Advocacy Guide (.doc)
Advocacy Portal (link)
Lending Info. (.ppt)
Richmond Map (.pdf)

For Small Groups
Eco-Stewardship (link)
Prayers for Creation (link)
Poverty Diet (link)

Policy Briefs
EITC (.doc)
TANF Child Support (.doc)
Payday Loans (.doc)
Healing Creation (.doc)
Child Ombudsman (.doc)
Affordable Housing (.doc)
Indigent Defense (.doc)
Minimum Wage (.doc)
Wage & EITC (.doc)
VA Tribes (.link)

Actions
Lending Petition (link)
Title Petition (link)
Wage Petition (link)

Reports
Budget Analysis (.pdf)
Food Stamps (.doc)
Lottery Study (link)

FAQ's (link)

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