Happy Labor Day to all. I take this opportunity to share with you a too often hidden gem of Catholic Social Teaching: Subsidiarity. This principle is says that things should be done by the smallest entity possible. In other words, if I am capable of taking care of my health needs, I should. If my neighbor is not, I should help them. The city and the government at large, notice, are not in this equation.
Subsidiarity means personal responsibility that enables and cultivates sincere love of neighbor. When persons are forced (through subtle or obvious means) to depend on outside forces for their well-being, their personal dignity and the dignity of WORK - which we celebrate today - is completely undermined. This is why Pope John Paul II, in Centesimus Annus, wrote that the welfare state “leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.”
The Catholic Church thus defends, as always, the TRUTH that solidarity is nurtured and freely possible only when accompanied by authentic subsidiarity. For example,consider that I am taxed in order to give medical aid to the poor. This money first cycles through a mega-government and countless beauracracies. Along the way precious dimes and dollars are siphoned off to keep said cycle running. In the end someone, somewhere gets some help. Note, that I was never really FREE to give the money in the first place, but compelled by law. This is solidarity without subsidiarity.
What if, instead, I took that money and donated directly to the charity of my choice? 100% of the money given would go directly to whom I consider most in need, locally or otherwise. This would be solidarity and subsidiarity at its finest.
Really, not very confusing. Clear defense of the sacred rights of each human worker, his property, and his obligation to be a good steward to his neighbor.
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