The following comes from an April 11 Catholic Voice article:
A contingent of Roman Catholic priests, parish staff members and parishioners were among the more than 200 people who crowded into a Concord City Council meeting April 5. On the agenda was a vote to choose a developer to turn the former Concord Naval Weapons Station into residential, commercial and office use.
One of the two developers who had made proposals had dropped out, leaving just one.
The Catholic group did not come to support one developer over another, but to ensure that their concerns for low-income housing, just wages and fair employment were heard.
Among the 70 people seeking to speak before the council was Father Richard Mangini, Concord native and pastor of St. Bonaventure Parish.
“We want to ensure that sound principles of justice, diversity and equality drive the project forward in addition to the best principles of economic development,” Father Mangini wrote in the remarks he prepared for the council
A living wage for workers on the proposed project was among the concerns.
“We believe from our Catholic Christian perspective that each person has a right to a living wage. Work and the economy exist for the worker and not vice versa,” he wrote in his remarks.
The Catholic group is asking, too, that project contracts stipulate that the majority of jobs will be available to the residents of Central Contra Costa County.
It’s not the last time the Catholic community will be heard from. Catholics for Justice, Equality and the Future, a coalition of priests, parish staff members who work in social justice, and parishioners, is planning to get together regularly to talk about issues that call for their attention. The coalition will speak on behalf of “people who have no voice,” said Eileen Limberg, adult faith formation director at St. Bonaventure Parish, to “make sure they get justice.”
You can tell when a Catholic priest or person has taken the modernist cool aide when they use the redundant phrase “Catholic Christian.”
So what do you think?
Is this Marxism in disguise?
Or is this traditional Catholicism doing what it should be doing?
Pay attention to your flock, Fr. Mangini. And seek to provide them with Traditional sacraments while you are at it. Among other things, try to reverse the horrid wreckovations that have been caused to once wonderful churches, such as “Queen of All Saints,” in Concord. A grand place has been violated, and turned into a Protestant-looking place of worship. What is the matter with you, Father? Did Christ go to the Romans and demand that Pilate stop their oppression? Pay less taxes? Stop criminal punishments? The answer is: not once (save for tossing some money lenders out of the Temple). Perhaps you need another job, Father.
Economics 101 should be a required course for everyone. Mandating a “living wage” guarantees that those with the least skills are paid ZERO.
St. Christopher, I attended Queen of All Saints for a couple of years a long time ago, before the “wreckovation” as you call it. I just went to the web site to see the current update of the church. I don’t know what you think a Protestant church looks like, but from those I have seen, they could take a lesson from QAS. The church is beautiful and fully Catholic in nature. Let’s keep in mind that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I visited Queen of All Saints website as well and it looks like a perfect protestant sect church.. You want to see what a Catholic parish looks like check this out https://www.stanthonyjc.com/gallery/t3tvb8u3vpthzraax30xs9n7r0g0e2
Canisus, the pictures of St. Anthony remind me of the church in which I grew up: wonderful altar, an “umbrella” used when we transferred the Hosts to the altar of repose on Holy Thursday, etc. Beautiful! I’m glad that there are still parishes like that, but its just not for me at this point in my life. But, it should be available to all who want it.
“But, it should be available to all who want it.” there lies the problem its not, or you have to travel miles to find one… thank you wreckovation ala Vatican 2. Question why is not for you at this point in your life. does it tweak you conscience in way that make you uncomfortable…??? Do you fear Catholic Identity??
St. Christopher, what is the matter with you? Father Mangini is the pastor of one of the largest and most thriving parishes in the Diocese. He is tending his flock when he leads them to the seat of government that can make decisions about the development of the largest piece of land in the city of Concord. He is leading his flock when he fights for a living wage for his people, fights for jobs for his people, encourages the government to make sure that the economy serves the people first. He is following Catholic teachings. He is one of the most revered Priests in Northern California. We could all use a dose of Catholic teaching about the economy.
Fr. Mangini may be well liked; that was never disputed. But he is out of his element in attending to political issues as he is. Moreover, look at his admirers, other priests and bishops that likely do as he does. They need to practice the Faith, a point which you did not answer. Christ did not attack the Romans rule over Judea, or the certainly unfair levels of taxation, or the many other likely burdens imposed on the Jewish worker and family. He did oppose the Jewish leadership, however, often and in the harshest language. The target for Fr. Mangini should be the many unfaithful bishops and priests in America. And, yes, Queen of All Saints (Concord) is a disaster, except to Protestant-Catholics.
Been a while since I took Econ 101. But a living wage does NOT mean the least skilled will be paid ZERO. In a “Perfect Market” [a global assumption for most beginning university courses], each worker will be paid the market value of their output. Only if their product has no value will a worker be paid nothing. Buggy whip makers beware.
Social justice has always been and remains a major part of Catholic teaching.
Econ 101 teaches the Law of Supply and Demand. A person’s employment is contingent on the value of his work exceeding his cost. A mandated minimum wage raises the cost to his employer, requiring that the employee’s work bring in more value. If the employee does not possess the skills to provide this value, he’s out the door. His wage thus becomes ZERO. Minimum-wage laws are cruelest to those with the least skills because it puts the bottom rung of the ladder out of reach.
Actually, the central lesson of Econ 101 is that production is most efficient when marginal cost equals marginal revenue. Therefore, if the marginal cost is raised through a raised minimum wage, the units of production will change right along with it, in a maximally efficient company. There is no such thing as a zero marginal cost. If there were, everything would be free.
The person who explains the fallacy of minimum-wage laws best is Milton Friedman. See his short video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca8Z__o52sk
Bob One: many of the people who post on this website are just mean-spirited. With regards to Father Mangini, the only thing these mean folks want him to do is celebrate all of the sacraments in Latin and pretend that Vatican II did not occur. They long for the good old days when Catholics paid, prayed and obeyed and the emphasis was on following the letter of the law rather than the Spirit! Thankfully, most of us do not live with our heads in the sand!
Not Bob we have the experience of the past 50 years and see the results of the accursed “spirit of Vatican 2” and they are nothing short of a disaster. None of what is being preached or taught in most Catholic parishes today will prepare Catholics for their final hours and when they are to face Christ at the judgement seat…. all of you who think like Bob and Bob One just leave run off to your nearest protestant sect where you can worship your sins freely
There is biblical evidence to suggest that Jesus wants BOTH from us.. beautiful art and architecture as well as honest and just works and deeds… To reject or neglect EITHER is falling into the devil’s hands… Rabidly blind extremists.. BEWARE!
Canisus: You and others seem to be ignoring the social teachings of the Church that have been articulated by many Popes well before Vatican II. Think Rerum Novarum, Pacem In Terris and Populorum Progessio to name just a few.
Bob, I think what bothers a lot of these people, and myself included, is that when Catholics join unions, they often are, as St. Paul put it, unequally yoked with unbelievers. Quite frankly, I would not want to have anything to do with a union that had a character such as Harvey Milk running it. He even took money for his union from the “Rev.” Jim Jones who murdered all those people, and he admitted he knew Jones was dangerous. The problem is almost the same with joining any political party sad to say.