Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

place here: the price of raw materials and energy costs have risen considerably. Dynamically
developing new industrial states are causing German foreign trade great difficulties in numerous
branches of the economy: in the automobile, textile, optical instrument, camera, electronic,
ship- building markets, and others. The countries of the Third World are also building
up their own industry more and more. Thus, for example, India is already in the seventh place
of industrial states of the world. One can also point to causes within society that have unfavorable
consequences for the employment situation: high interest rates, the disruption of the
equilibrium between the wage system and the social expenditure system, the lack of confidence
in a favorable economic development on the part of many entrepreneurs, the tensions
between the modernization necessitated by reasons of competition and the decrease of jobs
occasioned thereby, and so on.
b) The investigation of the causes of unemployment and the adoption of measures concerning
economic policy, business cycle policy, and monetary policy for the elimination of unemployment
is a matter for those responsible, i.e. the parties to collective wage agreements, parliaments,
governments, political parties, and competent scientists. The Church appeals to the
conscience of those responsible. Since the beginning of the industrial age, economic crises
have bro- ken out again and again which have plunged millions of workers and their families
into hardship, even though the need for goods was great and there was no lack of people willing
to work. To take a stance on concrete proposals -for instance, on the proposal to increase
the school-leaving age, to shorten working hours, to set an earlier retirement age, to eliminate
overtime, to raise or lower taxes -is not the Church's business. That is the concern of specialists
and those responsible.
c) The so-called 'indirect employer', i.e. „all the agents at the national and inter- national level
that are responsible for the whole orientation of labor policy“, are of great importance for the
preservation of jobs. Pope John Paul II calls for an „overall planning“ transcending the
boundaries of states, so that unemployment can be overcome. The so-called social question
seems to be shifting more and more from the tension between capital and labor to the tension
between those who have work and those who are unemployed. 22
d) In the face of unemployment, the following tasks are incumbent upon the Church in virtue
of the commission proper to it: it will advocate that the unemployed be not labeled either
openly or secretly as unwilling to work. The unemployed do not need sympathy, but understanding
assistance. Many withdraw and avoid contact, so that all the worries and all the disappointments
in the families of the unemployed pile up and these can often lead to dangerous
crises. Parish churches and Catholic social organizations should determine the number of the
unemployed in the parish, analyze the situation, and make themselves aware of emergency
cases. They should be helpful to the unemployed in dealing with the authorities, give information
about the local and regional job market, point out measures for continued professional
training, and establish connections between the unemployed and companies in which jobs are
still to be found. Some groups of the unemployed require particular assistance and help:
young people, foreigners, disabled persons, people whose health is impaired, elderly people,
unskilled people, those unemployed for longer periods of time, and similar groups. Parish
churches and organizations should offer opportunities in their youthcentres and parish halls
for meaningful employment of their imposed free time. It is not easy to achieve and permanently
secure the four great goals of a healthy national economy: full employment, stable
prices, economic growth, and foreign trade balance. All are called to common responsibility
and to action under obligation to the common good.
22 Laborem exercens, 18
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