Prof. Franz Josef Stegmann Bethlehem Social ... - Ordo Socialis

Stegmann
The guidelines are liberty, justice, peace and reconciliation. In this way, some selfishness and
“ideologisation” of a political or other kind, often not malicious, could be avoided. Such a
"critical unrest function" is important, even if the essence of being a Christian does not, of
course, only consist in being an “unrestful critic of society".
2.4 Removal of inhuman social conditions
The Gospel of St. Luke tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan (see Lk 10.30-37).
While travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, a man was attacked by robbers and left half dead
on the road. Neither a passing priest nor a levite on his way stopped to care for the injured
man, but a man from the pagan Samaria did. The moral of this story may be applied to many
social situations of similar kind.
The Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, published in 1931, states that often "conditions of
economic and social life are such as to create for vast multitudes of souls very serious obstacles
in the pursuit of the one thing necessary, their eternal salvation". 20
Although both statements aim at different goals, they agree in the following way: whenever
people are in great distress, whenever – generally speaking – social or political conditions
obviously and seriously contradict a humane order of society, biblical revelation and Christian
faith directly and in concrete terms demand the removal of such inhuman conditions.
Christians must not be passive in situations in which human dignity and basic human rights
are trampled on. In cases such as this, the biblical message makes a clear political or economic
demand. To use the same metaphor, the man beaten by robbers must not bleed to death,
whether he suffers in a Latin American favela, in a South African township, in a camp for
Congolese refugees, or is on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho.
The Gospel, however, does not prescribe what to do or how to help: ie, whether the helper
should take the injured individual to the nearest inn, patch him up on the spot or help him in
some other way. Jesus also does not prescribe how the helper can ensure that the man is not
attacked again when returning from Jericho; i.e., the Gospel does not state how the "structure
of robbery" is to be removed – all these decisions depend on one's knowledge of facts.
Christian revelation, the commandment to love one's neighbour and the demand of solidarity
ask of Christians that they are committed to shaping a humane life for human beings. But each
person must acquire the knowledge of political, economic and other facts for himself/herself.
In order to do so, political information and economic knowledge are imperative.
3. CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN BEING AS A PERSON
Jesus did not proclaim a new economic programme, and the Gospel is not a political prescription.
The Christian message, however, includes general guidelines and ideas for shaping
a humane social order. This leads to Christian Social Teaching in the stricter Sense and, in
particular, to the Christian understanding of the human being, which forms the basic and core
of this social teaching.
Pope John XXIII draws attention to the starting point in his Encyclical Mater et Magistra,
published in 1961:
"Individual human beings are necessarily the foundation, cause, and end of all social
institutions".
20 Pius XI, After Forty Years‐Quadragesimo Anno (1931), 130.
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