By Chris Valley

You can’t see it, or touch it, smell it, taste it, or hear it. But it affects everything you do. It is the economy.

The economy determines whether a family can afford housing, food, health care or transportation. It determines whether people have jobs, and under what conditions they must work.

Last Friday and Saturday, October 17 and 18, over 100 people from across the Archdiocese of Atlanta participated in a workshop on the U.S. bishops’ Pastoral Letter on the Economy. They came from Dalton and Athens, as well as from the inner city of Atlanta and the suburbs of Roswell and Marietta.

The workshop was sponsored by the Southeast Center for Justice, the Office of Religious Education of the archdiocese, the continuing Education of the Clergy Committee, and the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta; in conjunction with the Center of Concern which is a Washington, D.C. based social justice research and training organization.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring the concerns of the pastoral letter to the local level and to ask what the people of the archdiocese can do in order to respond to these concerns.

The keynote speaker and main facilitator was Father James Hug, S.J., director of research at the Center of Concern. A theologian whose academic field is ethics, Father Hug’s interest in the issues raised by the pastoral letter grew out of his research on social issues while at the Woodstock Theological Center of Georgetown University.

In the keynote address, Father Hug stressed three main points; the need to recreate a relationship between economics and faith, the importance of seeing the U.S. economy through the eyes of biblical faith, and creating a faith-filled vision of the economy in the future.

The real question, Father Hug said, is, “How did faith and the economy ever become separated in practice in the first place?” Compartmentalization in life, he maintains, leads to both good and bad result. It allows specialization which has resulted in many advances in science, philosophy and economics among other fields. At the same time, it diminishes the awareness of a relationship between and among fields of endeavor. It is this compartmentalization which has contributed to the separation of economic issues and faith concerns.

“A faith-filled economy,” maintains Father Hug, “is one whose soul is justice.” This justice asks not what do people “deserve,” but rather, “What is it what you really need?”

“In a faith-filled economy, we’ll see the face of Jesus in the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, the persecuted.”

In an effort to bring these concerns to a local focus, on Saturday morning Sister Kathy Tomlin, C.S.J., a staff member of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, moderated a panel of five speakers who told of their experiences with economic issues in the north Georgia area.

Enedina Hernandez is a member of St. Joseph’s parish in Dalton, and works in the textile industry. She has a 10-hour workday, 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Where she works there is equitable pay, but friends and acquaintances who work in smaller mills believe that there is widespread discrimination against Hispanics and women in the areas of pay and promotion, she said.

Sister Marie Sullivan, O.P., directs the Christian Emergency Help Center in Atlanta, which is a part of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta. They receive an average of 30 to 35 calls a day asking for some type of help: rent, food, help to pay utilities bills, for example. She reported that there are an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 homeless people on Atlanta’s streets every night.

There is no “typical” homeless person, Sister Sullivan said. One night last week, one shelter for the homeless had over 30 children with their mothers sleeping there, she reported. These are people pushed out of the mainstream of society by economic factors.

Dr. Joseph Silver has a Ph.D. in political science from Atlanta University. He is assistant vice-chancellor for academic affairs, Georgia Board of Regents, and a parishioner of St. Anthony’s Church. He noted that education often is proposed as a solution to poverty. But he believes that education alone will not reduce the disparity between rich and poor. Discrimination and the economic system still remain to be addressed. Sometimes, he said, professional advancement is not a matter of credentials but a matter of whether or not the employer has discriminatory practices.

Jim Martin is a member of the state House of Georgia, representing District 26 in Fulton County. He commented on the responsibility of people of faith in the political arena. Basic principles are embodied in the American experience, according to Mr. Martin: the sanctity of the person, freedom of conscience, freedom to express opinions, and the sanctity of one’s own beliefs. These principles must be applied on a daily basis and safeguarded, he said.

Rev. Craig Taylor, a United Methodist minister involved in the Wesley Community Centers, spoke of the importance of self-help efforts that are locally-based, small-scale and contribute to the empowerment of people. He himself is a “neighborhood organizer” who has been involved in initiating the South Atlanta Land Trust (SALT) and the Southeast Loan Fund (SELF). These are self-help organizations formed to promote development of residential communities through housing rehabilitation and a revolving loan fund. These organizations entered into negotiation with a major Atlanta bank to provide more capital for local neighborhood development in the low-income areas of Atlanta.

In further comments, Father Hug related these individual experiences to the themes of the pastoral letter. He explained that it was the very process of “hearing people tell their stories and (of) consulting experts” that gave form to the bishops’ document.

The pastoral letter is titled “Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy.” It contains five chapters. The first chapter describes the American economic and cultural experience; the second provides a theological reflection on the church’s biblical heritage and Catholic tradition. The third addresses economic policy proposals in four key areas: unemployment, poverty, food/agriculture, and the international economy. Chapter four addresses cultural policy by describing innovations in economic arrangements which it terms “A New American Experiment.” The final chapter is a call to commitment to act on concerns expressed in the pastoral letter.

The bishops’ statement identifies four priorities for the nation: 1. Fulfilling basic human needs of the poor; 2. Increasing active participation of those “excluded” or marginal in our society; 3. Investing wealth, talent and human energy to benefit the poor and economically insecure; and 4. Evaluating economic and social policy and the organization of the world of work in light of their impact on family life.

The afternoon consisted of small group discussions on means of responding to the principles expressed in the pastoral letter. A summary of recommendations is to be distributed to all participants.

Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan is one of the principal writers of the bishops’ statement. He and a committee of four other bishops have spent over three years in hearings and consultations while drafting the pastoral letter. The document is now in its third published draft. It will be voted on at the next meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. the week of November 9. Upon approval by the bishops, the final version will be released.

Concluding the workshop, Archbishop Donnellan explained that the bishops decided to examine the U.S. economy in order “to help our Catholic people in forming their consciences and in order to participate in the ongoing public debate on the situation of our economy.” Their main purpose, the archbishop said, “is to stir up the consciences of our people and inspire them to do something about the economic issues of our day.”

The archbishop noted that critics say that the pastoral letter displays a “lack of respect for the capitalistic system.” However, he maintains, “it is only by focusing a critical eye on the system that we can correct its deficiencies.”

“When I grew up,” he continued, “my father was a bricklayer He made pretty good money when he had work. But during the Depression there wasn’t much work to be found. And there was no unemployment insurance back then. In fact, there were no such things as paid vacations or health insurance; and as for old age, there was no Social Security system so only those who could save sufficiently could afford to retire.

“But people who believed things should be better began to come together and work for change. All that has improved the American system came about because people looked critically at the American system and found ways to improve it.”

This, the archbishop said is the same task the U.S. bishops have put before American Catholics today.