Testimony of Rev. Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Rebuilding Economic Security: Empowering Workers to Restore the Middle Class Tuesday, March 10, 10:00 p.m.
Twenty-three years ago, the U.S. Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy. While I am not a Catholic, I frequently refer to the wisdom of Catholic social teaching. That letter began by saying:
“Our faith calls us to measure this economy, not by what it produces but also by how it touches human life and whether it protects or undermines the dignity of the human person. Economic decisions have human consequences and moral content; they help or hurt people, strengthen or weaken family life, advance or diminish the quality of justice in our land.”1
With that foundation, the Bishops went on to observe that:
“The way power is distributed in a free market economy frequently gives employers greater bargaining power than employees in the negotiation of labor contracts. … The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. … In the words of Pope John Paul II, ‘The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, especially in