Summary Case

In this letter, the Catholic Church addresses economic issues that cause inequality especially to the poor. They believe that some economic decisions that do not consider the morality of the "option for the poor" may result to undesirable consequences. With this, they prescribed moral principles to be followed to ensure proper decisions in the future.

The very first point they made is that since a human person is sacred, the economy should serve people and not the opposite. The teaching of "love our neighbor" not only promotes oneself, but also promotes the good of the community as a whole. Also, a fundamental question must be asked: "Does economic life enhance or threaten our life together as a community?" This is important because this question considers all of the members in the community such as those who are needy. Jesus gives importance to the needy as stated in St. Matthew's Gospel that people are judged based on "how we respond to the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger." The community must strive to help the needy, and the first way to do that is to fulfill the basic needs of the poor. This will be the first step in eradicating poverty. The letter gives action-oriented statements because the purpose of the letter is to challenge the reader not only to think differently, but to act differently.

Men and women--as the caretakers of God's creation--work together in order to create the economy. This creation must consider both the material and spiritual needs being fulfilled. The United States--even though it is one of the largest economies and it has made a huge advancement in improving the life standards for all--still face challenges today. These challenges include the pollution of natural resources, depletion of natural resources and the most challenging of all--people losing jobs due to low wage rates abroad which results to unemployment. The direct consequence of this unemployment problem is when unemployment increases, poverty increases as well.

The goal promoted by the Catholic Church is to have "biblical justice". This implies that in every business or personal decision, one must consider the good for all especially the poor. Injustice is shown by being "treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race." The love and care for the poor is also expressed by the late Pope John Paul II wherein he said that the poor people's needs must have a higher priority than the rich people's desires--that employee's rights must take over the profit maximization goal of most of the businesses today.

Critique Analysis:

For my critique analysis, I will focus on two main points--how work affects people's lives in general and helping the poor.

In this letter, they emphasized the work-related phenomenon that concurs