Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

with. Third, one may work on Sunday to prevent an emergency that would otherwise arise, as,
for example, in vitally important public utility companies, where renunciation of Sunday rest
may be necessary out of love of neighbor, for whom a failing supply of water, gas or electricity
would cause a hardship. Fourth, the individual may work on Sunday to avert serious material
damage (harvest work during sustained adverse weather). Fifth, Sunday work is permitted
if it is unambiguously required by the technical necessities of the process of production, for
example, if through the interruption of work on Sunday the materials used in the manufacturing
process would spoil. Nevertheless, there are not sufficient grounds for Sunday work if a
higher income or a better exploitation of invested capital is cited as a reason. Efforts to introduce
the so-called 'flexible working week' are to be judged from this point of view. For those
affected by the flexible working week Sunday would lose its character as determining the
rhythm of work, family, and social life and become a regular day of work on an equal footing
with every other workday; this would come disastrously close to the acceptance of the trend
towards supplanting the Lord's day with just any 'free time'.
CHAPTER TWO: WORKING AND PROFESSIONAL CONDITIONS IN
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS
§ 1 Characteristic Features of the Modem Working and Professional World
1. Work and Profession as self-evident Activity
When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found a small population living carefree in a
luxuriant tropical climate on the Greater Antilles who did not even have a word for 'work'.
Only when the Indians were forced by the Spaniards into the plantations did they form the
concept 'work' by placing the prefix 'almost' before the word 'dying'. To people of the industrial
age this attitude is incomprehensible since taking up a paid profession seems natural to
everyone, even the young girl. Professional position determines not only a person's social
prestige, but, in general, the level of his or her income also. Success in life and professional
success are almost identical. This is so, although professional work occupies only about a
quarter of man's time as a result of the reduction or working hours, and although many have
no deep-seated attachment to their profession, but are accustomed to changing their activity
according to opportunity and wage offer.
Like the self-employed, the civil servants, and the office workers, the laborers do not form a
homogenous group. We distinguish between unskilled workers, semi-skilled workers, skilled
workers, foremen, and master craftsmen.
2.Tensions and Conflicts in the Modern Working and Industrial World
The sober matter-of-factness with which modern people consider work and profession should
not blind us to the fact that the working and professional world of the industrial age is full of
strong tensions, for which three reasons can be adduced.
a) The wage system
In the advanced industrial society more than eighty per cent of the gainfully employed in dependent
positions practice their professions as wage and salary earners. The encyclical Quadragesimo
anno calls this system the capitalistic economy, i.e. one in which „some provide
capital while others provide labor for a joint economic activity“ (Quadragesimo anno, 100).
Even if the wage system does not seize the whole man and violate his freedom of conscience,
his political freedom, and his economic freedom, i.e. the free choice of profession and work-
place, nevertheless, as experience teaches, certain crises threaten us here as well. Will not the
suspicion come upon the employee that the wages paid do not correspond to his or her performance?
Will the economy not be shaken again and again by serious wage disputes? Can
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