It should not surprise you to learn that +Rembert Weakland, OSB, opposed Leo XIII in the matter of 'just wage.' What should surprise you is that all the other US Bishops fell into line with Weakland.
In an essay published in Catholic World Report, Theo. Misiak outlines the history of Catholic teaching on the matter of wage-justice. Recall that Catholic teaching on "justice"--going back to Thomas Aquinas--has two threads:
...The conservative and liberal sides (“conservative” and “liberal” are used here for lack of better terms) stressed different aspects of justice. The Church defines justice as rendering each his due (CCC, 1807). In the case of wages, the Church holds to the distinction between distributive justice (that workers receive the resources they need in order to live their vocation) and commutative justice (equality in exchange) (CCC, 2411; also see Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, II, II, 61). Commutative justice protects both parties of an exchange because it requires that each gives up something of the same value. If one receives more than what is given up, then one gains at the expense of the other and the exchange contract is unjust. Put another way, it honors the dignity of both parties to the transaction. As reported by RenĂ© Holaind, Cardinal Zigliara responded to a dubia regarding Rerum Novarum and confirmed that the employer is required to pay according to commutative justice. Any amount above that is paid out of the virtue of charity. (By the way, Zigliara took part in the drafting of Rerum Novarum.) Pope Pius XI reiterated this teaching when he stated, “Relations of one to the other must be made to conform to the laws of strictest justice – commutative justice, as it is called – with the support, however, of Christian charity.” (Quadragesimo Anno [(QA], 110)....
In other words, "commutative justice" is 'a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.'
Then there's "distributive justice," which calls for MORE than 'commutative justice' in the immediate contract; it is the foundation for 'family wage.' The Church does not deny the necessity of 'commutative justice,' but acknowledges that it cannot rest solely on a wage.
...the Church teaches on faith and morals but their application to specific policies is a matter of prudential judgment left to the properly formed conscience (see Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41; CCC, 68, 563). There are many ways of tackling worker poverty, such as the negative income tax, vocational associations [guilds or sometimes unions], occupation-specific wage boards, training workers for better-paying jobs, social insurance programs, or creating industry funds to supplement workers’ incomes. These proposals, including the minimum wage, have benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. The magisterium never defined the minimum wage as morally superior to the alternatives....So how did this understanding that the Church blesses a 'minimum wage' come about?
Good old Monsignor John A. Ryan--and Rembert Weakland.
...Msgr. John A. Ryan was the primary proponent of the liberal view. He interpreted the papal teaching on wages through the lens of progressivism. Downplaying the need for commutative justice in wage contracts, he believed wages must satisfy distributive justice. The virtue of charity puts an obligation on the employer for the welfare of the workers. However, since distributive justice is what a community owes its citizens (CCC, 2411), replacing charity with distributive justice implies that business owners have the moral burden to fix social problems regardless of whether they contributed to creating them or even have the ability to address them...
(N.B.: Ryan was ordained by +John Ireland, who held "Americanist" views condemned by Leo XIII. Ryan was--apparently--influenced by his Bishop.)
Moving on:
...Ryan got a chance to promote his ideas at the conclusion of World War I when the Administrative Committee of the National Catholic War Council (a predecessor of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) asked him to write the 1919 Bishops’ Program of Social Reconstruction. The document contains a wish list of the progressive platform, including a call for minimum wage laws. The Program was controversial, even within the Church, as noted in The Catholic University of America’s American Catholic History Classroom. Ryan later became head of the Administrative Committee’s Social Action Department (SAD), where he formulated the bishops’ response to economic issues. The following decades saw a tug-of-war between the liberals and conservatives within the hierarchy....
Mgr. Ryan persistently lobbied and lectured Congress, going so far as to 'forget about' parts of Catholic teaching while doing so. Although he did not officially represent the US Bishops, he worked in a bureau of theirs and was never officially restrained from his vigorous advocacy of Liberal (quasi-Socialist) wage policy disguised as 'justice.'
...In the post-Vatican II era, the bishops deemphasized vocational groups [guilds] and fully embraced the legislated minimum wage. In their 1969 Labor Day Statement, the concern about evangelization, the development of virtues and the salvation of souls is gone and replaced by social programs. In their 1986 pastoral letter, “Economic Justice for All”, the definition of justice was changed to be something measured by “the treatment of the poor” (16), leaving no room for commutative justice. Ryan’s replacement of charity with distributive justice is now the teaching of the US bishops....
The 1968 letter was principally written by +Rembert Weakland, Archbishop of Milwaukee. Surprised? You shouldn't be. But it is ironic in the extreme that the Catholic Church typically under-pays its workers in comparison to civil (or other-denomination) employees with comparable duties.
"Social Justice" only goes so far, you know.
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