Is a Union Good or Bad?
CHRIST & NEIGHBOR
When last we met we were discussing the ambiguous record of Roman Catholic institutions toward trade unions, particularly as analyzed in an excellent pamphlet written by Ed Marciniak. We agreed to continue the discussion by addressing the question why anti-unionism is not a “legitimate moral, Christian, Catholic option.”
The title of this column — “Is a Union Good or Bad?” — is a foolish question, a foolish title, and we stuck it up there only to lure the unwary reader into reading the column, if only to find out why anyone should ask such a foolish question.
The question is foolish because a union is a human organization and it is either good or bad depending on the human beings who control it, some being very good, some very bad, and the rest somewhere on a continuum in between.
Unionism is something else. Unionism is simply the principle that human beings working together may derive benefits from banding together in an organization, usually called a union, guild, or association, on the elementary basis that “in union there is strength.”
You May Also Enjoy
I fantasize that some contemporary Nathan the Prophet might chat with the President, not about sins like adultery and murder but about social sins. I’m afraid a Catholic bishop would not be right for the part.
The Church's teaching office is highly centralized, but her finances are highly decentralized -- making for a system prone to mismanagement and abuse.
The “third way” promoted by integralists features a mindset that can be every bit as anti-Christian as the mindset that governs cultural revolutionaries.