Duane Gran’s log of thoughts

A Catholic Culture article summarizes the long history of the Church on matters of labor and human dignity. Of particular note to me:

Starting with Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum, often referred to simply as his “labor encyclical,” the Church would indeed have much to say! In fact that Pope placed the Church in between the opposing parties: the capitalists and the socialists. He did so by rejecting both the hare-brained Marxian initiative to do away with private ownership of the material means of production, and the capitalist treatment of human labor as mere merchandise which had made the socialist mad-hatter venture seem credible to so many in the first place.

Every few years I find myself re-reading Rerum Novarum and each time it tempers my persuasion and realigns my sense of the eternal in us all. For all the criticism heaped on the Church, there are few institutions capable of charting a third way between Marx and Smith.

I necessarily attribute such wisdom to the Holy Spirit, but fortunately the fruits of such wisdom is available to all regardless of faith.

Charlottesville had the privilege of hosting President Bush to speak at Monticello for the annual naturalization ceremony on July 4th. Our community made the news regrettably because a handful of people felt that their vocal disagreement with policies unrelated to naturalization deserved attention.

The whole matter is unfortunate. If prodded I’ll gladly detail where my politics differ from this (or any, for that matter) President but there is no point of disagreement that runs so deep that I would distract from another person’s event. I wonder if these hecklers would do the same thing at a wedding or funeral.

On another note — I’ve always found the American celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to be fascinating. Most nations celebrate the date of final victory, but we celebrate the act of declaring. If we hold the truths to be self evident, we also hold in high esteem the power of words to enact destiny. Could there be anything more American than that?

I’ll take the raw optimism of those protesters in 1776 over the raw emotion of today’s protesters any day.