Seventh Key theme of Catholic Social Teaching

 In this handout we are looking at the key themes of the Catholic social teachings. We are focusing on the theme of colonialism and economic development.


When we think about the global exploration in fifteenth century, we rarely hear or think about the fact that there were priests and pastors on those same boats as soldiers. These priests and pastors conducted baptisms and conversion that were forced just as much the land of the natives were forced to be given over to the whites. And it is claimed at the same time that these same priests and preachers  were against the violence of the slave trade and the genocide of the natives.


Next thing that is brought up is that catholic social teaching focuses on the gaps between the rich and the poor and how we must address that as a community and as individuals. They say that we all have an obligation to not ignore the sufferings of the poor, even though it is not in our own homeland. World poverty is everyone's problem and ignoring it is giving in to selfishness and isolation.
The second part of this social teaching had to do with no longer just pondering these problems, and giving vague suggestions for fixing them, but now to confront them head on. No longer looking at the past for blame but looking towards the future and these generations now and condemning them for continuing these bad habits and poor thinking and actions.
Paul VI was the one to say this, and he said that each economy must be restructured because they were all made to fit their own needs, and it was time that all economies were there to serve all humans. He said that there must be land reform in third world countries and more international aid in those poor countries. It is focused on changes of the entire WORLD economy.
It is also mentioned that it is impossible to be a quick change, but rather it will be a slow and gradual change, one that will only propel forward if many individuals do their part when they can.

Racism

Well, this was quite an interesting read. Two things caught my attention.


The first was about racism. Even after industrialization and the abolition of slavery, there were still ideas of racism spreading, but this time, instead of advocating against it through religious regions, they advocated for racism through science! Let's just let that sink in. Science, of all things, propelled racism. Obviously these so called scientists were a little biased. They used science to say that the human skulls of whites were larger and more advanced than those of the minorities and blacks. That's crazy. So, not only do people's fears about physical differences prevent them from giving blacks the same respect as themselves(whites), but now the so called "inside" differences are too. And not only that, but because of this whole idea of germs and the theory of that coming out, there were fears about touching these "inferior" races because touching them could compromise your health and the future of the whites. It's quite depressing to think about. and it's even more depressing to think about how I would have acted back then. If that was the way of thinking, and science backed it up, why would anyone question it, if science was to provide the proof for all things and science seems absolute?


The second thing to catch my eye was the "scramble for Africa". Like, wait, what? European powers negotiated for these lands, acting as if no one was on these lands. That would make me so frustrated if I lived in Africa. I'm glad that they gave resistance and made them work for it. They didn't go down without a fight, and it took years and years for some of the powers to conquer places. But I guess, science said they weren't really the same as them, so it was alright for them to take over, because it was their duty to help these inferior races. They needed to be civilized, no longer to be the savages of their race.

Industrial revolution.

This chapter already starts of interesting, with the words of Ghandi saying the machinery produces too fast and will exploit the villagers. But once it started, even his hometown couldn't help but indulge in the machinery type of lifestyle. It's kind of like modern times. There are people who think badly of cellphones but there is honestly almost no way around it. Almost every culture and community has embraced it and it is now part of our life, and if you do not have one, it is hard.

There were cons and pros to this industrial revolution. We are where we are in society because of it, well when it comes to technology and all that, but at the same time, where we are isn't such a good thing either. The impact of the industrial revolution of our environment is detrimental and it is only a matter of time before we ALL feel the effects of it. There is only one earth as far as we know, and eventually our environment won't be able to support the amount of people in it. We are ruining our own environment with our advancements.

Echoes

I realize this blog is late, but I am going to post it anyway.

History is something we tend to look at as just the past. It is something that happened and something we need to learn from, although I doubt any learning from history actually takes places in our society, but I digress. So, there are three echoes, and by echoes, the author is saying that there are three things that stemmed from those times and the revolutions that are still prominent in our society and culture today, and will probably be prominent for a really long time. The three echoes are feminism, nationalism, and abolition. Nationalism happens to be my favorite, since I myself am a fellow patriotic citizen! (My car plate cover is that of an american flag, and yes, I cried at the end of white house down when the little girl was waving the american flag). But anyway, I want to focus a little bit on feminism. Feminism then, was literally about getting equality, and getting the rights known to man since man made those laws. So, yeah, good for this women who stood up and stood against men in order to get their rights. But since he does talk about them as echoes, I would like to bring it to the modern times. Feminism now sucks. I am not a feminist, and I will never be a feminist. Feminist now, compared to then, is about being able to do whatever we want, and actually being proud of being sluts and shaming those females who actually are CHOOSING to be stay at home moms, and cater to their husbands.  Which contradicts their whole campaign, which is letting women choose to do what they want, oh, but wait, as long as its within their definition of what a female should do, which is work, and be a slut. Oh man, if feminists back then could see what our feminists are, I wonder if they would stand with them, or against them.

Francoise

I'm going to be writing this as I read, so bear with me.

First thing I notice that caught my eye is that Francoise was raised by her Grandparents, while her parents and her siblings lived nearby. It's definitely different than our society today and one would even say weird. Who knows, maybe that was normal back then. I wonder how that affected Francoise psychology, you know? How different she would have turned out if she was actually raised by her parents and actually lived with her siblings, because living with her grandparents meant that she probably had characteristics matching those of an only child more than that of having siblings.
I mean, my grandparents helped raised me because they ended up living with my parents after we were born, so I guess it's a little like that except for the fact my parents were still my primary caretakers and I lived with them and my sister and brother.

Although Francoise's father was an enlightened thinker, he had peasants, that he actually treated well, but still believed in the differences and ownership between the two. Which, for that time, was actually good. We can't expect people to automatically give up society's way of thinking. It's how they grew up, theo only thing they knew at the time.

Oh, the woes of being a female in those times. Only two options for life: live a virgin life, or getting married, have kids, and be sexually active while taking care of the household or whatever responsibilities came with marriage. I mean, those choices are still okay, but it isn't okay if when they  are the only two options. And Francoise chose the virgin life. and would have rather lived a more simple life than the extravagant life she was born into.

Revolutions

So. Many. Revolutions. I couldn't imagine living in that time where everywhere you looked there was a revolution there. All the Atlantic revolutions had a baseline that was similar, in that they all seemed to help the middle class white men,  but again, each one was distinctly different. 

America's revolution was really about a break away from Britain. Another thing that was noted about our revolution is that we did not really make a new society. the revolution just kind of accelerated the society, which was of a democratic kind. France also seemed to awaken their revolution because of America's. Even though they were having a revolution that was different than ours, America seemed to propel theirs forward. France's revolution had to do with internal political affairs. There were conflicts with the amount of privileges that the elite were getting. You know what was so different about the French revolution and about France in general. Women. Women there were such a prominent part of revolutions and conflicts. They charged, and marched and signed documents, which, you'd think they would get equality, but they did not. In fact, men were starting to feel a little afraid, so they stopped all women's club. You know what else is kind of ironic and funny? The fact that Maximilian Robespierre actually sent thousands and thousands of people to the guillotine, and then he himself was arrested, and accused of tyranny and dictatorship and was guillotined himself. Violence seems to end violence. 

Science

The scientific revolution. Weird to think about when you come from the 21st century. Science and proving things with evidence is so normal, and expected in my time, that thinking about a time when that was not so, kind of makes you step back and realize that changes are constantly occurring. Before this was the normal, it was Religion that was the science. Everything was explained by Religion, and when people started coming out with things that went against the church, it seemed that people started moving toward science for their reasoning. It was things like Copernicus who found that earth was not the center of the universe, as once believed, especially with religion, because it supported the idea of God centering in on Earth and mankind. If I was alive back when that came out, I would have to say that my faith in the church and what I had been learning my whole life would definitely be shaken and I probably would be a confused mess. I guess that's why deism and pantheism came about, because religion is still an important aspect in people's lives, as one can see in these different "regions", but science was kind of an earthquake in what everyone knew religion to be.
And then another thing that stuck out was at the ending of the chapter, when it explained that many ideas and much of our religion now was "borrowing" elements from different ideas and religions into the ones that exist today, like those of North Indian Sikhs.