Not having a monopoly on the poor is such a good point! Related to the point about almsgiving as a personal act. I think a consequence of our modern state is that we’ve added a middle man into social welfare. In premodern society the city was heavily identified with the people. When a city provided for its citizens, it was the citizens providing for each other.
Now the city has its own identity separate from the people - the city is a “state,” with its own agenda, resources, and is no longer found within the people. The liberal order says it ought not be within the people in order that it can better serve as the “neutral arbiter.” This is a natural consequence of the person being an individual prior to engagement in his community.
So when governments provide assistance, the Right sees it as something counter to its role as “neutral arbiter” and reemphasizes almsgiving as a private act. The problem is we’ve largely lost nongovernmental social institutions and - more importantly - a culture of neighborliness that would help the poor in the places the government currently does. Government assistance is the modern route for neighbors helping neighbors. I think people need to both accept that while also finding new ways of forming community with the poor. It’s not an either/or.
Thank you for writing something I have been struggling to articulate for years. I look forward to more of your work. “Holy Work, towards a Benedictine Theology of Manual Labor” by Dom Rembert Sorg. He writes, ‘St. Benedict eliminated the class distinction of labor and he Christianized all of it. Indeed, the Holy Rule, looks upon the performance of servile work as sublime conformity to Christ Who put on the form of slave for us, washed our feet and ministered to us.” I think I will read his book again. It’s a very good book.
Great commentary. I was very recently (like literally 7 mins ago before I started reading your article) tempted to despair by the ideological knee jerk reactions from liberal and conservative Catholic responses on Substack. Love this refreshing take. Rather than becoming defensive or offensive, let’s first look at the logs in our own eye. You helped us do that!
Really enjoyed this—Patrick’s take on Dilexi Te flipping the usual boxes is spot on. What I keep coming back to is that the Church has never fit into right-vs-left anyway. It’s folks who see things in binary terms who get thrown for a loop whenever Leo XIV (or any pope) keeps going back to what the Church has always taught. Glad to see so many people digging into the conversation!
“Catholic" is supposed to mean ‘universal,’ not just ‘take your pick: aisle left or right.’ :)
Great article. How do you recommend helping the poor as an individual? In today’s society, it’s so hard to tell when giving is helping and when it’s doing more damage. For me at times it has meant giving up and doing nothing, but I know that is the wrong path.
Agreed with every point. As a child I was poor due to bad decisions by my mother, then as an adult I tried to move up in society, but due to bad decisions and bad luck got struck down into poverity so that I would have been destitute without the kindliness of my family.
Now I have a job that doesn't pay well, and require the dole for extra cash to make ends meet but the job will lead to hopefully a permanent job next year that will pay double my present pay. I've tasted poverty and desperately wish to climb out of it.
But this perspective into poverty, both that which people choose and that which people don't choose is something to be combatted but with understanding for the poor not contempt.
In Canada poverty has been enforced upon the majority of the population by a few wealthy individuals, and it is enforced by them. But I'm seeing in France that things are different and could be different. There's a reason I'm eager to never be out of work and to continue to contribute to France, she has saved me, given me work and succour. I'm uniquely blessed in that I was given the benefit of the doubt and taken on as an employee here.
Poverty isn't a left-right issue but a human one. One which requires the community coming together to combat and to help the individual. To do less is to fail one's brothers and sisters.
A very even-handed reading of Dilexi Te. What I find most striking is how Pope Leo’s warning against “abstracting” the poor exposes a deeper epistemic temptation on both sides: to treat persons as categories rather than concrete realities. Love begins not with a program or market, but with attention; the moral act of seeing the person before the principle. This piece does an excellent job of recovering that Catholic both-and.
Also poverty in America is so different from the rest of the world. Our standard of living is above and beyond even our European first world countries we cannot even comprehend the poverty that Pope Leo was entrenched in in South America.
Not having a monopoly on the poor is such a good point! Related to the point about almsgiving as a personal act. I think a consequence of our modern state is that we’ve added a middle man into social welfare. In premodern society the city was heavily identified with the people. When a city provided for its citizens, it was the citizens providing for each other.
Now the city has its own identity separate from the people - the city is a “state,” with its own agenda, resources, and is no longer found within the people. The liberal order says it ought not be within the people in order that it can better serve as the “neutral arbiter.” This is a natural consequence of the person being an individual prior to engagement in his community.
So when governments provide assistance, the Right sees it as something counter to its role as “neutral arbiter” and reemphasizes almsgiving as a private act. The problem is we’ve largely lost nongovernmental social institutions and - more importantly - a culture of neighborliness that would help the poor in the places the government currently does. Government assistance is the modern route for neighbors helping neighbors. I think people need to both accept that while also finding new ways of forming community with the poor. It’s not an either/or.
Thank you for writing something I have been struggling to articulate for years. I look forward to more of your work. “Holy Work, towards a Benedictine Theology of Manual Labor” by Dom Rembert Sorg. He writes, ‘St. Benedict eliminated the class distinction of labor and he Christianized all of it. Indeed, the Holy Rule, looks upon the performance of servile work as sublime conformity to Christ Who put on the form of slave for us, washed our feet and ministered to us.” I think I will read his book again. It’s a very good book.
Great commentary. I was very recently (like literally 7 mins ago before I started reading your article) tempted to despair by the ideological knee jerk reactions from liberal and conservative Catholic responses on Substack. Love this refreshing take. Rather than becoming defensive or offensive, let’s first look at the logs in our own eye. You helped us do that!
Really enjoyed this—Patrick’s take on Dilexi Te flipping the usual boxes is spot on. What I keep coming back to is that the Church has never fit into right-vs-left anyway. It’s folks who see things in binary terms who get thrown for a loop whenever Leo XIV (or any pope) keeps going back to what the Church has always taught. Glad to see so many people digging into the conversation!
“Catholic" is supposed to mean ‘universal,’ not just ‘take your pick: aisle left or right.’ :)
Great article. How do you recommend helping the poor as an individual? In today’s society, it’s so hard to tell when giving is helping and when it’s doing more damage. For me at times it has meant giving up and doing nothing, but I know that is the wrong path.
Agreed with every point. As a child I was poor due to bad decisions by my mother, then as an adult I tried to move up in society, but due to bad decisions and bad luck got struck down into poverity so that I would have been destitute without the kindliness of my family.
Now I have a job that doesn't pay well, and require the dole for extra cash to make ends meet but the job will lead to hopefully a permanent job next year that will pay double my present pay. I've tasted poverty and desperately wish to climb out of it.
But this perspective into poverty, both that which people choose and that which people don't choose is something to be combatted but with understanding for the poor not contempt.
In Canada poverty has been enforced upon the majority of the population by a few wealthy individuals, and it is enforced by them. But I'm seeing in France that things are different and could be different. There's a reason I'm eager to never be out of work and to continue to contribute to France, she has saved me, given me work and succour. I'm uniquely blessed in that I was given the benefit of the doubt and taken on as an employee here.
Poverty isn't a left-right issue but a human one. One which requires the community coming together to combat and to help the individual. To do less is to fail one's brothers and sisters.
A very even-handed reading of Dilexi Te. What I find most striking is how Pope Leo’s warning against “abstracting” the poor exposes a deeper epistemic temptation on both sides: to treat persons as categories rather than concrete realities. Love begins not with a program or market, but with attention; the moral act of seeing the person before the principle. This piece does an excellent job of recovering that Catholic both-and.
In my view, poverty is less an issue than health issues. Good health is the true material wealth.
Also poverty in America is so different from the rest of the world. Our standard of living is above and beyond even our European first world countries we cannot even comprehend the poverty that Pope Leo was entrenched in in South America.
Excellent, balanced piece.