By Rita McInerney

Catholics are more taken up with the extraordinary wealth of the United States than they are with the Gospel of Jesus, Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, told participants in a conference on the U.S. bishops' pastoral on the economy Friday, Nov. 13.

The bishop celebrated the Eucharist which closed the two-day session presented by the Committee for Continuing Education of the Clergy at the Pierremont Plaza Hotel in Atlanta.

The keynote talk Thursday morning was given by Father William J. Byron, SJ, president of the Catholic University of America. Dr. Anthony J. Ipsaro of Denver, CO, was conference facilitator. The pastoral, "Economic Justice for All" was adopted by the U.S. bishops in 1986.

In his homily, Bishop Gumbleton recalled the message of Pope Paul VI to a world food conference in Rome. A positive will is needed not to waste goods which must be for the benefit of all, the pontiff told food experts from around the world. He used the example of Jesus feeding the multitudes with loaves and fishes and the "collection of the scraps remaining" to illustrate that there is enough food in the world to go around. He said that in today's society, consumption tends to become an end in itself, with contempt for the needy.

"Clearly he has to be talking about the U.S.," Bishop Gumbleton said. "Talking about you and me. We live in a society where consumption is an end in itself."

The heroes of our society, he said, are the list of 400 richest people carried each year by Forbes magazine. This year's list reported 26 billionaires in contrast to 14 listed in 1986.

"It is grossly evil when they are held up as the great American success story in a world where a vast majority of people have an annual income of $1,000.00," bishop Gumbleton said.

"What concerns me about the letter is that the bishop never got down to the root question, never critiqued the capitalist system," a system, he declared, built on greed and in which, as economist Adam Smith wrote, promoting the greed of the individual was advocated.

"How do you, how do I put that together? Until we begin to look at that reality we won't be able to make very much progress in bringing justice and peace into our society and into the world."

Conversion must begin, he said, with the focus on Jesus, with the discovery Jesus says the same thing over and over -- about wealth and greed, about poverty and generosity -- and His determination to bring about radical change. Quoting from the Gospel of St. Luke when Jesus spoke in the synagogue, "he has sent me to bring the good news to the poor…" Bishop Gumbleton asked the group, "How do we get to the point … where His attitude is our attitude?" Reach out, he answered. "More than that, become the poor. There isn’t any miracle way to make it happen. We have to allow God to make it happen … step by step."

Christians must try to pray as Jesus did and discover God's call in the Scriptures, he said. It is there -- in Isaiah, "make yourselves clean, cease doing evil, search for justice," in the other prophets, in the Psalms. "The call to rid ourselves of hypocrisy, worshiping God in the midst of our unjust wealth" is the call throughout Scripture, Bishop Gumbleton said.

Christians must pray with an open heart and be "ready to go where God is taking us. Then we'll begin to let go, then our wounds will be healed over, our light begin to shine like the dawn, ready to be a light to the world, to act with justice, with love. We must open our hearts in love and let it happen."

The talk by Father Byron, "Atlanta and the Pastoral: Job Creation As a Vocational Responsibility," began with his saying, "It is a cause for pride here in Atlanta to know that your late and beloved Archbishop Thomas Donnellan served on the drafting committee of five bishops that produced the letter. We honor his memory as we gather here today."

He traced the "one years" to place the economics pastoral in the tradition of modern Catholic social doctrine, listing encyclicals and messages leading up to the 1986 letter:

1891 -- Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor).

1931 -- Pope Pius XI offered Quadragesimo Anno (On Reconstructing the Social Order).

1961 -- Pope John XXIII issued Mater et Magistra (On Christianity and Social Progress).

1971 -- Synod of Bishops wrote Justice to the World and Pope Paul VI issued an apostolic letter, Octagesima Advenins, on the 80^th anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

1981 -- Pope John Paul II wrote his first encyclical, Laborem Exercens (On Human Work).

"The dignity of the individual human person is the keystone of Catholic social teaching in the 'one years' and in all the years and statements in between," Father Byron said.

The letter on the economy is not, he said, a "technical blueprint for economic reform. Rather it is an attempt to foster a serious moral analysis leading to a more just economy. That is what the bishops set out to do."

He identified five basic principles for this analysis: human dignity, solidarity, participation, preference for the poor, and subsidiarity. "Reason weaves them together, revelation supports the reasoned argument."

Human dignity he called the natural endowment of every human person, with all human rights relating to and depending on it. The bishops used the word solidarity to make the point that human dignity requires association with others, is required for human development. To foreclose on participation by some individuals or groups in decisions which shape their social and economic lives is to disrespect, disregard, or even attack directly their human dignity. Every person has a right not to be marginalized, shut out, put down, isolated. Without participation, human development does not happen.

Subsidiarity he explained by repeating the expression of this principle as stated in Quadragesimo Anno which the bishops quote in the 1986 pastoral: "Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought, of its very nature, to furnish help (subsidium) to the members of the body social, and never destroy them." This principle will protect freedom, initiative and creativity in the economy. It will also justify subsidies where they are really needed."

Preference for the poor -- a biblically-based, specifically Christian norm that measures the conformity of the values and choices of the Christian against the values and choices of Christ "is facing a tough sell in parts of the Catholic community," he said.

In terms of economic survival the poor are the most vulnerable and hence need preferential protection, he said. Thoughtful persons will meet the bishops at the level of principle, and then work in whatever ways talent and circumstance permit, to relate the principles to workable policies, he added.

As the debate on the pastoral continues, Father Byron said he believes the bishops will continue raising the three questions with which they open the letter: "What does the economy do for people? What does it do to people? And how do people participate in it?" Answers that overlook the poor will not be acceptable, he claimed.

All of the issues, he told the audience, call for discussion and analysis. "I can only urge you to read the entire pastoral and discuss and debate the policy issues as you like … I would hope the argument, civilized, constructive, and principled -- will go on for some time to come here in this archdiocese."

"Much remains to be done here to make life considerably more livable for the many poor, unemployed and underemployed persons in your midst," he said, citing the bishops' belief that the most effective social welfare system is a full employment economy, care for those who fall between the cracks and cooperation within regions in developing jobs for those who can work.

He called for talent and commitment, the fixing of the combined attention of pastors and parishes, working cooperatively with others, to create new jobs and services. The talent and commitment will take the combined attention of industry, the universities, the churches and other organizations, he said.

"New job creation for most of America depends, in my view, on the application of technology to services. You have the technology and entrepreneurs; all you need is a release of creativity to produce the jobs."

In places like Atlanta, he said, there is the real and exciting possibility of new job creation through the application of technology to services. "Think for example, of medical services and the experience you have in Atlanta with provision of the highest quality of medical care. Think also of your research potential and the applicability of research to commercial, agricultural and industrial purposes … think about new products that no one else has thought of and ask why they cannot be produced here."

Most new products, he said, are native to the area where they appear and are a good way of putting local talent to work. Such talent discovery and, in some cases, the financing of small experimental projects can be performed with success at the local level without depending on regional, state or national assistance. The question of risk-taking cannot be ignored by developers in a free enterprise economy. When risks disappear, so does freedom and to a large extent, enterprise.

He presented a challenge to "the priests and people of Atlanta … I know that there is a great deal of job creation that you can do yourselves. The bishops would say that many laypersons have a vocation, not just a business opportunity, but more than that -- a genuine call from God to do it."

Too many people, he continued, focus on attracting branch plants or offices from corporations headquartered elsewhere or of "job-napping" -- drawing firms from another area.

"I urge you to think of incubating industries and 'greenhousing' jobs conceived in local initiative and cultivated by regional cooperation," he said. "I also urge you to consider the ecumenical opportunity which is yours here in Atlanta if job creation is your goal and if your strategy toward that goal enlists the cooperation of other religiously-motivate people.

One hundred fifty priests, Religious and laymen and women participated in the sessions.

Participants were grouped by deaneries. Father Richard Kieran, administrator of the Cathedral of Christ the King, addressed the general session Thursday afternoon while a panel presentation that evening was given by Sister Kathy Tomlin, CSJ, of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta; Sister Margaret McAnoy, IHM, director of the Cursillo, and Dr. Don Sabberesse, of St. Thomas the Apostle in Smyrna. Bishop Gumbleton presided at a prayer service Thursday night.