See, judge, act NOT file: theologian tells Vatican conference

Addressing a Vatican conference to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magister, Jesuit theologian Father Peter Henriot noted that the method recognized by the encyclical was see, judge, act, not see, judge, file.

Father Henriot, an American who now works in Zambia, was addressing the international congress "Justice and globalisation: From Mater et Magistra to Caritas in veritate" hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 16-18 May.

Applying the method in his talk on "Equity Policies," Father Henriot noted that the “'see, judge, act' advances active policies to advance equity policies for proper balance of
production and distribution of wealth."

"But please avoid the all-too-common: See, Judge, File!" he warned.

Australian Brian Lawrence, who spoke on the "valuation and remuneration of labour", noted the impact of the Church's teaching on labour issues dating from Pope Leo's encyclical Rerum Novarum.

"Another theme that comes through various encyclicals and Gaudium et Spes," noted Lawrence, who was a formernational leader of the YCS in Australia, "is the importance of starting from life.

"Applied Catholic social doctrine is a response to changing realities," he said, citing Mater et Magistra Paragraph 236 where Pope John XXIII refers to the see-judge-act.

Another Jesuit, Father Sergio Bernal Restrepo, from the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota, Colombia was another to highlight the significance of the method.

"John XXIII proposed for this (social action) training, the use of the famous method applied by the then Monsignor Cardjn in his groups of young workers, namely the
SEE-JUDGE-ACT paradigm.

" Without ignoring the problems that the process can involve, there is no doubt that this methodology has been a force for good in forming individuals and groups committed to acting in history as conscious Christian citizens who are fully aware that they belong to civil society without contradicting their Christian identity.

"It is disturbing to discover how within the same Church that this way of acting and training in action, has met with strong resistance in conservative circles, who are often ignorant of reality and sometimes too committed to defending their own interests.

However, the Churches of Latin America have been able to defend this method, which was recently forcefully relaunched as a useful tool for pastoral action by the bishops gathered in Aparecida, Brazil," Father Restrepo said.

Caritas International President Cardinal Oscar Maradiago Rodriguez was another to highlight the method.

"The reality in which the principles of the (Church's) Social Doctrine is applied is a local reality, namely the social, cultural, economic and political lives each ecclesial community," Cardinal Maradiaga said.

"It is  in the midst of the practicalities of the life that Christian men and women experience that they they analyse events and judge them in the light of the Word of God and the Social Doctrine in order to make concrete findings for action," Cardinal Maradiaga explained.

CELAM, the Conference of Latin American bishops, teaches this method as part of its training for social pastoral agents.

"Each training module consists of three parts which follow the see-judge-act methodology," Cardinal Maradiaga continued.

"The program is targed at pastoral agents involved in the social dimension of the Church who have completed secondary studies," he added.

Meanwhile, Brazilian Professor Daniel Seidel noted the role played by the Cardijn movements - University YCS, YCS, YCW and Rural YCW - in promoting democracy in that country.

"Since its foundation the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) has been active agent for the consolidation of Brazilian democracy, and was preceded in this role by the specialised youth Catholic Action movements," he told the conference.

"In this perspective and in response to the dicrediting of Brazilian politics during the 1990s, the CNBB in 1996 launched a Fraternity Campaign, which carried over from the Lenten campaigns that were launched in 1964, on the theme of 'brotherhood and politics'. Following the see-judge-act method, the campaign proposed as a concrete action to launch the first popular initiative law passed in the Brazil national congress."

"One million and thirty nine thousand signatures were collected from 1996 to 1999 resulting in the adoption byu Parliament of the Law 9480/99 (in only 29 days!). This Law makes it an offence to buy votes and to use government administrative machinery during an election campaign," Professor Seidel noted.

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Cardijn and Rerum Novarum

This month we remember not only the 120th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's landmark encyclical on the condition of the workers, Rerum Novarum, but also its successor encyclicals, which together have helped build the foundations of Catholic social thought and teaching.

Today, Rerum Novarum is well recognised as the first of the Catholic Church's social encyclicals. For the first time, the Church formally recognised the right of workers to organise in trade unions. The encyclical also laid out the elements of a just wage that would orient workers' demands for many decades into the future.

Published in 1891 at the height of the European Industrial Revolution, Rerum Novarum was also a key formative document in the life of the young Joseph Cardijn who was later to found the Young Christian Workers movement. Aged nine years, he read the encyclical aloud to his illiterate father.

It was a document that would have a decisive impact on his whole life as an advocate for the workers, particularly young workers.

Later, in 1931, when Pope Pius XI, published the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno to mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, he made specific reference to Cardijn's emerging YCW movement.

“The ranks of the workers themselves are already giving happy and promising signs of a social reconstruction,” Pope Pius XI wrote. “To Our soul's great joy, We see in these ranks also the massed companies of young workers, who are receiving the counsel of Divine Grace with willing ears and striving with marvelous zeal to gain their comrades for Christ.” (Paragraph 140)

Thirty years later, Cardijn would suggest to Pope John XXIII that he also write an encyclical to mark the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

“It is time the Church talked about work again,” Cardijn told Pope John during a private audience in March 1960. “The issue is not the same now in 1960 as it was in the time of Leo XIII or Pius XI.”

“No-one could have foreseen then its present dimensions, its universality, its technological aspect, its influence on every race and on young people generally. An encyclical dealing with the world of work today would have an impact even greater than Rerum Novarum or Quadragesimo.”

“But it needs to be a positive encyclical, open to the collaboration necessary,” Cardijn told the Pope, warning him gently against a document that would simply condemn various evils.

“Write your ideas and send them to me,” the Pope told Cardijn.

The result just over a year later on 15 May 1961 was the encyclical Mater et Magistra.

This was the encyclical that would formally endorse the “see, judge, act” method as part of Catholic social teaching.

“There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice,” Pope John wrote (Paragraph 236).

“First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act.”

Later this teaching would also be taken up by Vatican II, notably in Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

For this reason, the Cardijn Community International plans to promote a three year campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of Vatican II from 2012-2015.

In a world where the industrial revolution has reached every continent to become a truly global phenomenon, let us recall Cardijn's own contribution to the Church's social thought and practice.

- Cardijn Community International, 17 May 2011

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