Catholic Church Urges Reflection on Labor Amid Spiritual Quests of Young Adults

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Faith Desk

In Short: The Catholic Church is emphasizing the importance of labor and work through its teachings, as young adults seek spiritual guidance.

Full-length group portrait of four adults and a young boy in front of a house (AM 77018-1) — Photo: Collins, Tudor Washington, 1898-1970, photographer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in 2004 by the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, compiles centuries of Catholic teaching on labor. "It’s a beautiful reflection on human work in the world and a very mature and in-depth discussion of the place of work, the place of labor, and the communal nature of it," Oubre told EWTN News.

Father Oubre, a priest of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, is the spiritual moderator of the Catholic Labor Network, which promotes Catholic teaching about work and labor unions. "What I find over and over again that the Church — our Church — gives us wonderful documents of guidance, and we never go back and read them," he said.

The Catholic Labor Network dedicates its entire sixth chapter to human work and labor, its place in God’s plan, its role in society, and the rights and duties of workers. "It quickly came home to me," said Augherton, managing editor of the Arlington Catholic Herald, the diocesan news outlet, in the 1990s. "Catholic Mass was celebrated in a big auditorium with the altar on a stage, and it’s a privilege to interact with Catholics who serve in that building, many who are in parishes in our diocese," he added.

With the help of allies in the Louisiana Legislature, Father Oubre threatened to cut off state benefits to Catholic schools, such as free textbooks, lunches, and bus transportation, and called for a boycott of Catholic schools and a financial boycott of the church. After Rummel warned certain members of the Church against any further attempt through word or deed to hinder his orders or provoke the devoted people of this venerable archdiocese to disobedience or rebellion, in the matter of opening our schools to all Catholic children, he excommunicated Perez and two other leading segregationists.

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“The Compendium gathers together in one place those rights that are found in Catholic social teaching, whether it’s Rerum Novarum, or Quadragesimo Anno, or Centesimus Annus, and synthesizes them,” Oubre told EWTN News, referring to the respective encyclicals of popes Leo XIII, Pius XI, and John Paul II.
But are Catholics, and others, aware of these resources?

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