Some people say that Catholic Social Teaching is the best kept secret of the Church. If that is true, the document Justice in the World, issued by the Synod of Bishops in November 1971, 40 years ago, is may be best kept secret of Catholic Social Teaching. On the website of the Vatican you can only find a translation in Portuguese, and in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which was published in 2004, there is no reference to this document.
But when you talk to people in our network, they will tell you that this document has set the justice and peace agenda for decades, that it has had an impact on their own life and work. It represents a mile stone in the post Vatican II era. This Synod looked at practical ways to implement the Second Vatican Council and gave particular concern on how to articulate the concern for justice as it was expressed in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (1965). It has become the reason why today our Church has such a variety of justice and peace commissions on all levels, from the Vatican to local parish committees all over the world. It contributed to a new awareness in the Church that participation in the promotion of justice and the liberation of the oppressed is a constitutive element in the mission which Our Lord has entrusted to her.
Justice in the World deserves a read once more, not because of its 40th anniversary, but because it challenges also a new generation of Catholics to put word into action. It is not a relic of the past. It could be the basis for a social justice agenda for our Church today.
In this speech I would like 1) to address several questions that are central to the document of the Synod, and 2) to reflect on its relevance on our life today.
Justice in the world
Let us first listen to the opening statement of the Synod document:
1. Gathered from the whole world, in communion with all who believe in Christ and with the entire human family, and opening our hearts to the Spirit who is the whole of creation new, we have questioned ourselves about the mission of the People of God to further justice in the world.
2. Scrutinizing the “signs of the times” and seeking to detect the meaning of emerging history, while at the same time sharing the aspirations and questionings of all those who want to build a more human world, we have listened to the Word of God that we might be converted to the fulfilling of the divine plan for the salvation of the world.
3. Even though it is not for us to elaborate a very profound analysis of the situation of the world, we have nevertheless been able to perceive the serious injustices which are building around the human world a network of domination, oppression and abuses which stifle freedom and which keep the greater part of humanity from sharing in the building up and enjoyment of a more just and more loving world.
4. At the same time we have noted the inmost stirring moving the world in its depths. There are facts constituting a contribution to the furthering of justice. In associations of people and among peoples themselves there is arising a new awareness which shakes them out of any fatalistic resignation and which spurs them on to liberate themselves and to be responsible for their own destiny. Movements among people are seen which express hope in a better world and a will to change whatever has become intolerable.
These words are not a mere repetition of what the Church has traditionally taught. They are not the refinement of abstract doctrine. They are the resonance of a call of the living God asking his Church and all men and women of good will to adopt certain attitudes and undertake certain types of action to foster and promote justice in the world.
The 1971 Synod of bishops was the second general assembly in the history of the Synod. One of the most important advances made by the Second Vatican Council was the idea of collegiality, that authority and leadership in the Church is not vested in the Pope alone, but is a joint responsibility of the pope and the bishops. With the Decree Christus Dominus (1965) the Fathers of the Council brought the role of the bishops of the Church into renewed prominence, as the college that has succeeded to that of the Apostles in teaching and governing the Church, together with the Head of the Church, the Pope. It was decided to have regular gatherings of bishops all over the world with the Holy Father. The 1971 Synod of Bishops issued the document Justice in the World. A draft of this document was prepared beforehand by the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace; from the beginning there was close collaboration of bishops, theologians and expert consultants. And the final document was issued by the gathering of the bishops themselves. At all later Synods the synod fathers handed their recommendations over to the Pope and left it to the Pope to issue the final document. It is very likely that if this had happened in 1971, the final document would have been less radical.
I give you a short summary of the document:
The representative bishops, gathered in synod, acknowledge that it is not their job to elaborate a profound analysis of the situation of the world. The starting point of their treatment of justice and injustice is the tremendous paradox they see in the world: powerful forces are working to bring about a unified world society at the same time that forces of division and antagonism seem to be increasing in strength.
The bishops are very concerned that the world by its perversity contradicts the plan of its creator. They are concerned about oppression, unjust structures and systems, about a set of injustices which constitute the nucleus of today’s problems. They express alarm at the serious injustices which are building around people a network of domination, oppression, and abuses; people suffering violence and being oppressed by unjust systems and structures; the stifling oppressions of today’s world which produce large numbers of marginal people, ill-fed, inhumanly housed, illiterate, and politically powerless; international systems of domination; social structures which place obstacles in the way of conversion and the realization of charity, and systematic barriers standing in the way of solving social problems; various forms of oppression which result in silent, voiceless victims of injustice; oppressive atheization; forms of oppression that restrict individual rights, such as political repression, torture, inhuman treatment of political prisoners and prisoners of war. They announce the hope that the People of God be present in the midst of the poor and of those who suffer oppression and persecution, and they call on the poor, the oppressed and the afflicted, to cooperate in building a just world.
The church has a mission which involves defending and promoting the dignity and fundamental rights of the human person. Therefore the church has the right and the duty to proclaim justice on the social, national, and international level, and to denounce instances of injustice. Our mission demands that we should courageously denounce injustice, with charity, prudence, and firmness. It also demands that we be present in the heart of the world by proclaiming the Good News to the poor, freedom to the oppressed, and joy to the afflicted.
The basic principles applying the Gospel to contemporary social life are found in the documents of the church from Rerum Novarum to Octogesima Adveniens. These principles should be carried over into our systems of education, which should not encourage narrow individualism. Education should promote a human way of life in justice, love and simplicity, and it should come through action, participation, and vital contact with injustice. Its content should involve respect for the dignity of the human person. Our educational efforts should include setting up centers of social and theological research, and we should remember that the liturgy can greatly serve education for justice.
A major concern of the bishops is where the church belongs in the effort to establish justice in the world. At the very opening of the document they state that in the synodal preparations and discussions they questioned themselves about the mission of the People of God to further justice in the world. They then proceed to teach by their example the means to be used by the church in working for justice: scrutinizing the signs of the times, seeking to detect the meaning of emerging history, sharing the aspirations and questionings of other justice workers, and listening to the Word of God.
The church has a mission to give witness before the world of the need for love and justice, a witness to be carried out in church institutions and in the lives of Christians. The church is bound to give witness to justice and recognizes that whoever ventures to speak to others about justice must first be just in their eyes.
And finally, in teaching about action for justice, the bishops of the Synod make a statement which has become a well-known and frequently quoted one: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”
