Social Teaching Documents
Major Themes
Notable Quotations
25 Questions
Reading List
Teacher's Toolbox
Web Links
OSJ Homepage
Social Teaching Documents
Major Themes
Notable Quotations
25 Questions
Reading List
Teacher's Toolbox
Web Links
OSJ Homepage
Office for Social Justice
328 West Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55102
(651-291-4477)
Notable quotations from Catholic social teaching
on the theme
of
Alienation
Yet alienation is still a reality in Western societies, because of consumerism, that does not help one appreciate one's authentic personhood and because of work, which shows interest only in profit, and none in the workers, considering them to be mere means.
The Hundredth Year (Donders translation
, #41
Humanity is experiencing a new loneliness; it is not in the face of a hostile nature which it has taken centuries to subdue, but in an anonymous crowd which surrounds men and women and in which they feel themselves to be strangers. Urbanization, undoubtedly an irreversible stage in the development of human societies, confronts humanity with difficult problems. How are men and women to master its growth, regulate its organization, and successfully accomplish its animation for the good of all?
A Call to Action
, #10
A human society is both alienated and alienating if its organization, production, and consumption make transcendence more difficult.
The Hundredth Year (Donders translation
, #41
After the failure of communism, should capitalism be the goal for Eastern Europe and the Third World? The answer is complex. If capitalism means a "market" or "free" economy that recognizes the role of business, the market, and private property, as well as free human creativity, then the answer is "yes." If it means a system in which economic, religious, and ethical freedom are denied, then the answer is "no." Marxism failed, but marginalization and exploitation remain, especially in the Third World, just as alienation does in the more advanced countries.
The Hundredth Year (Donders translation)
, #42
