Christian Social Responsibility in
a Post-Katrina City
Edward B. Arroyo, S.J.
Based largely on the thought of the late Richard McCormick, S.J.
A City on the Banks of a River
 At first all was well
 Then
 Physical ailments
 More and more sickness, among plants and
animals too
 Even the fish got sick
 It got so serious, it seemed nothing could help
A City on the Banks of a River
The people met to discuss their options, and asked:
1. What steps would I personally think about taking?
2. How far would I be willing to go toward discovering the
root(s) of the problem?
3. How far would I be willing to go toward changing these root(s)
in order to alleviate the problem?
4. What are some societal problems in our country or world that
are similar to the one portrayed in this story?
5. What does our Christian faith tell us about these problems?
6. Which of these societal problems could God be calling us to
address?
A City on the Banks of a River
Tonight, my friends, we are those people in such a city!
We ask ourselves:
1. What is our Christian Social Responsibility?
2. What can I do?
3. What can we do?
3000+ Years of Biblical
Justice Teaching
 Social Covenant
 Prophetic Challenge
 Poor, Widows, Orphans,
Strangers
2000 Years of Christian
Justice Teaching
 Good news to the poor
 Release of the captives
 Freedom for the oppressed
 What you do for the least…
2000 years of Christians
committed to social discipleship
 Saints in service of neighbor, such as
 Vincent de Paul
 Peter Claver
 Others closer to home, such as
 Katherine Drexel
 Henriette de Lille
117 Years of more
specific Catholic Social
Teaching
1891: Rerum Novarum
2008?
110+ years of Catholic Social
Thought
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
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1891 Rerum Novarum (Leo XIII)-Workers
1931 Quadragesimo Anno (Pius XI)-Subsidiarity
1961 Mater et Magistra (John XXIII)-Socialization
1963 Pacem in Terris (John XXIII)-Rights
1965 CHURCH/MODERN WORLD (Vat II)
-Responsibility in this world
 1967 Populorum Progressio (Paul VI)-Development
 1971 Octogesima Adveniens (Paul VI)-Political Action
110+ years of Catholic Social
Thought
 1971 JUSTICE IN THE WORLD (Synod II)
-Justice and Love
 1975 Evangelii Nuntiandi (Paul VI)-Liberation
 1981 Laborem Exercens (John Paul II)-Work
 1983 CHALLENGE OF PEACE (US)-Arms
 1986 ECONOMIC JUSTICE (US)-Pref Option
 1987 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (John Paul II)
-Solidarity
 1991 Centesimus Annus (John Paul II)-Market
What’s missing?
What more is needed?
A Call to Action
Personal Responsibility
Effective Action
Why so ineffective?
 We have socially dormant consciences
 A Big Gap between
 Articulated Christianity -- What we
say
 Lived Christianity -- What we do
Social Paralysis
 We imagine this means
challenging changes in our lives
 We think: “I can’t do that.”
 We don’t feel free enough
The Dormant Social Conscience,
based on:
 Ignorance
 Inadequacy
 Apathy
Ignorance, rooted in
 Dualistic Mentality:
 Discontinuities:
 This world / Other world
 Piety / Practice
Ignorance, rooted in
 Individualism
 Solely one on one relationships
 Charity, but not justice
Dualism
+
Separatism
+
Individualism
=
Inadequacy &
Hopelessness &
Apathy
Creating a Socially Sensitive
Conscience:
 Against Apathy  Feeling Right
 Against Ignorance  Thinking Right
 Against Inadequacy  Acting Right
Feeling Right
 Sensitivity to other’s hurt
 We need passion, not just
cerebral analysis
 Passion > Compassion
Feeling Right
 Increasing challenge in modern,
media-driven world
 Mediated “news” chips away at our
moral horror
Feeling Right
 The feeling is vanishing from our culture
 Don’t want to get involved
 Not in my back yard
How to “Feel Right”
 Experience injustice, see it
 Beginning of Christian social
wisdom, compassion  passion
What are some of your feelings
about your recent post-Katrina
New Orleans experience?
Here-and-Now Wheel
Draw the circle as shown. Then write in the four main feelings you identify in yourself
right here-and-now. Then, outside the circle, write down the source of those feelings.
Why?
Why?
Feeling
Feeling
Why?
Feeling
Feeling
Why?
Once you have identified your feelings and their sources you can then bring this to
prayer or talk it over with someone.
What are some of the feelings
surfaced in your groups?
What are some of the sources of
these feelings surfaced in your
groups?
Creating a Socially Sensitive
Conscience:
 Against Apathy  Feeling Right
 Against Ignorance  Thinking Right
 Against Inadequacy  Acting Right
Thinking Right
 Correcting separatism and individualism
 Liberation Theology can help
 Liberation already but not yet complete
Thinking Right about Christ
1
 Jesus Christ: our Supreme
Liberator (Paul VI)
Freedom from sin and death
Liberation into the fullness of
humanity
Thinking Right about moral evil
2
Selfish bondage to personal sin
But also its effects
Institutions which oppress,
alienate
Thinking Right about freedom
3
 Christian Freedom from selfish bondage to
personal sin
 But also freedom from the structures,
institutional patterns which oppress,
alienate
 Freedom from AND freedom for.
Thinking Right about the
Church, a sign of Liberation
today
4
 Church’s role in liberating from
enslavement,
 Personal
 Institutional
Thinking Right theologically
5
 About social sin
 About Christ the liberator
 About social liberation
 About the church
Thinking Right: correcting
exaggerated Individualism
 Beyond any individual’s “fault,’
social sources of enslavement:
 Structural
 Institutional
Thinking right about two types of
enslaving or liberating structures
 Operational = Concrete patterns
of behavior
 Ideological = Value systems
behind, underneath, guiding the
operation
Thinking Right about
Operational Structures

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
Political
Economic
Social
Familial
Religious
What institutions influenced the
human disaster Katrina? How?
 Neighborhoods?
 Families?
 Schools?
 Health care?
 Politics?
 Government
 The Economy?
 Churches?
Thinking Right about Ideological
Structures
 Inhuman value systems, “isms” for
example:
 Materialism: things > persons
 Totalitarianism: power > participation
 Authoritarianism: control > service
Other values become subordinate






Human life, dignity, rights?
Family and Community?
Dignity of work, rights of workers?
Option for the poor?
Care for God’s creation
Solidarity and Common Good?
Creating a Socially Sensitive
Conscience:
 Against Apathy  Feeling Right
 Against Ignorance  Thinking Right
 Against Inadequacy  Acting Right
Acting Right
 Social responsibility involves getting to the
sources of injustice, influencing institutions
such as :





Government
Community
Non Governmental Organizations
Business
Policy decision makers
Power important for acting right
 Personal Power
 Collective Power
 Political Power
 Intermediate Organizational power
No neat formulas
 Christianity doesn’t tell us what to do in the
face of structural injustice, experience does.
 Need Corporate effort.
Qualities
 Participatory
 Willingness to enter a process
 Listening, experimental approach
 Patience
Changing structures:
 Changing minds
 Changing hearts
 Changing beliefs and values
 Takes time
 Takes collaboration
 Takes patience, endurance
No surer way for enslaving
structures to thrive than for
good people to make only
short term efforts
People who hope against hope
 Christ urging us to
 Feel right
 Think right
 Act right
 To be socially responsible.
People who hope against hope
 Patterned on the life / death of Jesus
 It is Christ urging the coming of his
kingdom,
We can now ask ourselves?
 Do I have a dormant social conscience, or am I
becoming more socially awake?
 What can I/we do to
 Feel right?
 Think right?
 Act right?
EXPERIENCE
 What are my FEELINGS about the
experience of the poor? (Anger? Apathy?
Guilt? Compassion? Hope? Boredom?
Resistance? etc.) Are there any specific
social issues behind people’s troubles which
may trigger these feelings?
SOCIAL ANALYSIS
 What do I THINK about the experiences
and feelings? Are my feelings appropriate?
What do they tell me? What might be some
of the root causes behind some of the
troubles experienced by the poor? What
social structures, institutions are involved?
Are there any historical roots to their
situation? Is there one issue among the
many which I think is at the root?
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
 How do my feelings and thinking relate to
the values and biases of the Bible, Jesus, the
Gospel, the Christian Tradition?
ACTION PLANNING
1. How can I ACT right on the bases of my
experiences and reflection upon them?
2. What power do I have?
3. How can I build this up through collaboration
with others?
4. What public policies might have a beneficial
effect upon the issues and people’s troubles?