The Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies co-hosted a conference with the AFL-CIO on "Erroneous Autonomy: A Conversation on Solidarity & Faith." It was covered by Time, National Catholic Reporter, Religion News Service, Salt + Light, and El Pregonero. See below.
From: Time Date: June 16, 2015 Author: Elizabeth Dias
Cardinal Donald Wuerl spoke in front of a sparkling mosaic on Monday morning, and he was not in a church. The backdrop was not even Biblical, at least not technically. Instead the mosaic was a wall-sized portrait honoring workers at the AFL-CIO headquarters, where Wuerl, Catholic archbishop of Washington, was speaking alongside the labor organization's president, Richard Trumka. Together, the two men championed care for workers.
Wuerl and Trumka are less odd couple than one might think. Both are Catholic, both are in "exile from western Pennsylvania," as Trumka put it, and both make it a priority to advocate for workers who are poor and immigrants. Both are also hoping that Pope Francis' upcoming visit to the U.S. in September will be an opportunity to build momentum toward around supporting workers and immigrants. "Just the fact that he is coming here, not even that he has arrived yet, has brought renewed hope to the people all through the labor movement," Trumka said later at a small press conference about the event. "He is coming here in a moment of renewal," Wuerl added. "His focus will be to energize the faithful and through that, give new hope to the whole community."
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From: National Catholic Reporter Date: June 17, 2015 Author: Tom Roberts
The rekindled alliance between labor and the Catholic church received the equivalent of an imprimatur Monday when Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl in an opening address during an event at AFL-CIO headquarters declared that Catholic social teaching "explicitly recognizes organized labor as instruments of solidarity and justice."
The relationship between religion and labor is nothing new. For Catholics, the official link goes back to Pope Leo XIII's landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, and popes since have spoken forcefully on workers' rights, especially the right to organize.
Of late, however, there is considerable evidence that the relationship is advancing in new ways, spurred in part by the example of Pope Francis and by a reaction against cultural forces opposed to unions and advancing a libertarian ethos that, in its most aggressive expressions, has little tolerance for discussion of the common good.
Wuerl's address kicked off the second seminar headlined "Erroneous Autonomy," organized by the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America. The first, held a year ago, discussed "The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism" and featured Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucgalpa, Honduras, and chairman of the pope's Council of Cardinals.
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From: Religion News Service Date: June 16, 2015 Author: Mark Silk
The feeling in America's House of Labor was upbeat Monday when a clutch of Catholic bishops led by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl showed up to celebrate solidarity with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Last Friday's defeat of "fast-track" authority in the House of Representatives had put a spring in labor's step, and the bishops, representing what passes for the left wing of the U.S. hierarchy, were looking forward to this week's roll-out of Pope Francis' climate encyclical.
The occasion was a one-day conference organized by Catholic University's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and the AFL's policy shop. Was this a re-creation of the old Catholic-Labor alliance? Certainly wishful talk was in the air.
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From: Salt + Light Date: June 15, 2015
On Monday, June 15, 2015, Cardinal Donald Wuerl gave the keynote address at the AFL-CIO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on the Catholic Ideal of Solidarity and the New Evangelization. Read the full text of his address below:
I have been asked to speak about the Catholic ideal of solidarity in our contemporary world and the need for a reawakening of this vision of life, social justice, social development and economic development rooted in faith. More recently we speak of such a renewal of appreciation of this long-standing teaching on social justice and its articulation today as an aspect of the New Evangelization. In short we will discuss how we understand our shared human condition, and our interrelatedness, or obligations to one another which we call solidarity. Then we shall look at how we share that vision as part of the New Evangelization.
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From: El Pregonero Date: June 15, 2015 Author: Miguel Vivanco
El cardenal Donald Wuerl, arzobispo de Washington, recordó este lunes, durante una conferencia organizada por AFL-CIO uno de los sindicatos más importantes en Estados Unidos, que la solidaridad con los más pobres no debe limitarse al aspecto económico, sino que debe estar articulada en el marco de la Nueva Evangelización.
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