An Introduction to the Principles of Catholic Social Thought

The Correlation of Rights and Responsibilities

The attainment of the worker’s rights cannot … be doomed to be merely a result of economic systems which on a larger or smaller scale are guided chiefly by the criterion of maximization of profit. On the contrary, it is respect of the objective rights of the worker – every kind of worker: manual or intellectual, industrial or agricultural, etc. – that must constitute the adequate and fundamental criterion for shaping the whole economy. (Laborem Exercens, para. 17) Human dignity grounds and is protected by a spectrum of human rights and corresponding duties. Society facilitates participation in all spheres of the social order through inter-related rights and duties. Every person has the right to means that are necessary for the development of life: food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care and the necessary social services. Likewise, all citizens have a duty to respect human rights and to fulfill their responsibilities to each other and to the larger society. The primary duty is to live in solidarity, that is, “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.”

It is important to see that all rights have a corresponding responsibility. “Those, therefore, who claim their own rights, yet altogether forget of neglect to carry out their respective duties, are people who build with one hand and destroy with the other.”

The political rights of all persons set limits on the state, such as the freedom of association and freedom of speech. All persons have economic rights, as well, which set limits on market logic, such as the right to work, a just wage, humane working conditions, and health care.

Related to rights and responsibilities is the dignity of work and the rights of workers. In an economy where too often profits take precedence over the rights of workers, a moral analysis is necessary. The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work not only helps people make a living, it is a continuing participation in God’s creation (Gen. 1:28, Matt. 6:25-34). “The basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily on the kind of work being done but on the fact that the one doing it is a person.”

The dignity of work is Three issues related to work are distinguishable: the dignity of work; worker’s unions and cooperatives; and workers sharing the ownership of the means of production. The dignity of work is safeguarded when worker’s rights are respected. Workers have the strong support of the Church in forming and joining unions and worker associations of their choosing in the exercise of their dignity and rights. “The many proposals put forward by experts in Catholic social teaching … take on special significance: proposals for joint ownership of the means of work, sharing by the workers in the management and/or profits of business. … It is clear that recognition of the proper positions of labor and the worker in the production process demands various adaptations in the sphere of the right to ownership of the means of production.”

Student Reflection:
The people of Fort Lauderdale are able to buy their produce 60% cheaper than anywhere else in the world because of migrant workers. Companies like 6L maximize their profits because migrant workers are paid next to nothing. … I agree with what (John Paul II) says concerning workers’ rights: The attainment of the worker’s rights cannot however be doomed to be merely a result of economic systems which on a larger or smaller scale are guided chiefly by the criterion of maximization of profit. On the contrary, it is respect of the objective rights of the worker – every kind of worker: manual or intellectual, industrial or agricultural, etc. – that must constitute the adequate and fundamental criterion for shaping the whole economy. (Laborem Exercens, #17)

When I worked in the tomato fields alongside migrant workers, I came to the horrible realization that most people of society have no idea how hard these laborers toil to earn enough money to support themselves and their families. They are taken for granted, and in fact exploited, in order for supermarket prices in the United States to be the cheapest in the world. Raise the price of a chalupa at Taco Bell by less than a cent, and wages for migrant workers increase to a living wage.
Sara Vennekotter, Reflection Paper, Migrant Worker Seminar, March, 2002.

Questions for discussion/reflection:
1. In what ways do we need to act to ensure the rights of all persons? In what ways can we further educate others so that individual rights do not preclude the common good?
2. In our society which emphasizes individual rights, where do you observe the call to responsibility?
3. What questions and issues arise for you when you consider purchasing clothing or food, thinking about the workers who made the clothing or provided the manual labor for the production of the food?

(4) The Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

(5) Stewardship and Care for Creation

(6) Subsidiarity