Outline Of Facing The Challenge Of Social Sin Today 5vd31

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FACING THE CHALLENGE OF SOCIAL SIN TODAY By Pasquale T. Giordano, S.J. 1. What is Social Sin? a. Social Sin refers to situations and structures that attack basic human rights and dignity, and infect social relationships between communities and nations. b. In his encyclical, Sollicitudo Re Socialis, On Social Concerns, (nos. 35-37) issued in 1987, John Paul II declared that these “structures of sin” can be traced back to the personal sin of individuals, the result of the interrelated actions of many people, not just one person, and their roots are the all consuming desire for profit and the thirst for power, selfishness. c. We are only too aware of the reality of social sin permeating many areas of life in the Philippines such as graft and corruption, resulting in poverty, injustice and violence. We are also aware of cultural values that diminish the human and mar the image of God in the Filipinos. Such cultural values are often at the root of all that is evil in Philippine society. “Corruption is not only an economic problem but a profoundly ethical one … This corruption is not just political, not just ethical, but it is a spiritual problem. There is corruption within, not just in the system but in the spirit, in the psyche. It has become a way of life, a social cancer.” Albert Alejo,

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S.J. “Daya at Lya:Pagmumunio sa Etika ng Pagkakatotoo,” Tinig, Loyola (February, 2001): 4-5. 2. We must begin at the personal level: a. Every human being is created in the image of God and because of this possesses an inalienable , Godgiven human dignity. He is tasked to be His faithful steward in caring for the earth and all creation (Gn. 1:26-28). b. However, disobedience and sin have spawned a cycle of alienation and turning away from God’s way of holiness (Gn 3-11). The Fall of Adam and Eve (Gn. 3) is followed by the killing of Abel by Cain and the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gn. 4: 1-16). The story of the Tower of Babel tells us of the desire of man to be like God (Gn. 11: 1-9). c. We all have this original sin. We are not responsible for it, but we must deal with it. Moral life requires that we recognize in ourselves this tendency to sin, this “shadow side”, this concupiscence. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans bewails this tendency: “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but what I hate. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me… For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” (Rom 7:1519). d. Personal sins are acts committed when we reject God, our own true selves, and others. Factors which determine the gravity of a sin are: the nature of the act, whether it is intrinsically evil, the

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intention of the doer, and the circumstances relevant to the sin committed. e. The Three Senses of Conscience: i. the basic sense of responsibility that characterizes the human person, the drive to do the good; ii. the exercise of moral reasoning as a person searches for objective moral values, formation of conscience, magisterium of the Church; iii. the judgment by which we evaluate a particular action, determined by the second sense of conscience. Timothy E. O’Connell, Principles for a Catholic Morality, revised edition. (San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1990): 109-118. f. Educating Ourselves in “Freedom for Excellence”: five natural inclinations: to the good, to the true, to self-preservation, to sexual union and rearing of children, to life in society, to community. i. First Stage: Discipline to guard us against concupiscence; ii. Second Stage: Personal Progress and the Development of Virtue: four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, courage, and temperance; three theological virtues: faith hope and love iv: Third Stage: Maturity of Age and Freedom: we become more fully human and rejoice in doing everything in love.

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v: Good moral character and the connaturalized heart: A heart converted to the Lord and to the love of what is true and good (Rom 12.2) is called a “connaturalized” heart. St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Jesus’ saying: “He who does what is true comes to the light” (Jn 3:21), gratuitousness. Servais Pinckaers, “Freedom for Excellence,” The Living Light (Summer 1996): 56-68. 3. We move to the social level a. The grasping and invasive tentacles of social sin intrude into our lives at every turn and corner. It permeates the very essence of modern society: graft and corruption, economic oppression, terrorism and breakdown of peace and order, narco-politics, pornography and prostitution, human trafficking, poor working conditions, environmental degradation, salvaging and killing of one’s enemies, violations of human rights, cheating and lying in business. We often end up rationalizing our misdeeds with the excuse: “Everyone does it,” or “That’s just the way it is.” b. Hormis Mynatty presents many helpful insights on social sin. He defines social sin as the conscious and willful participation of a group or society in cooperating with sinful social structures, maintaining and perpetuating them, and failing to do anything

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to change them when possible. From the perspective of a fundamental option based on the Kingdom of God, it is the refusal of the community to cooperate in the History of Salvation. There is a need to move beyond an individual, personal, or private understanding of sin. The social, economic, political, cultural, and religious structures are the concrete realities where sin and grace are made manifest. Insofar as they foster love, justice, and liberation, they reveal the presence of grace and the presence of the Kingdom of God. Structures cannot be though of apart from human responsibility. An institution or social structure never exists in and of itself, independent of the individuals composing it. Both individuals and groups contribute to the maintenance and perpetuation of sinful structures as they take advantage of them or neglect to change them when possible. People are not only the victims but also the agents of sinful social structures. While participation in them need not be sinful in every instance and in the case of every person, we must be careful we do not benefit nor promote these sinful structures. We may seem powerless to be able to do anything about the situation. Yet we cannot remain apathetic. He believes the key lies in responsible communal activity for social transformation.

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H. Mynatty, “The Concept of Social Sin,” Louvain Studies 16 (1991): 3-26. c. “The Culture of Life” versus “The Culture of Death:” Pope John Paul II presents penetrating insights about this reality of social sin his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life. “(To get to) the deepest roots of the struggle between the ‘culture of life” and the “culture of death” … we have to go to the heart of tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism . When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to love the sense of man, or his dignity and his life (#21). This ‘culture of life” must be developed with skill and serious commitment through education for social transformation. The soul of a society is presented in its cultural values. It reveals its fundamental option –its response to the innate human desire for God and to God’s offer of love in Christ. This is present as the social ethos or value system that pervades the whole social life, ing, legitimizing and sustaining the social structures and institutions. 4. Social Sin references to questions in “Catechism of Caritas in Veritate:” a. #12 Problems with Economy: superdevelopment of a wasteful and consumerist kind and situations of dehumanizing deprivation;

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b. #15 Respect for Life: anti-birth mentality, strong birth control measures, euthanasia; c. #16 Fundamentalism, religious fanaticism, terrorism; d. #19 Make the market not a negative force but a positive force: promote transparency, honesty, responsibility, gratuitousness. e. #23: Profoundly new way of understanding business enterprises: concern not only with shareholders but with stakeholders as well; f. #26: Population question: low birth rates in many developed countries, reduce sexuality to pleasure and entertainment; g. #31: Environment: responsibility to the poor, future generations and humanity as a whole; either making the environment untouchable, a pantheism, neo-paganism or abusing it for development. h. #36: Practical Atheism: keeping religion and God from the public domain. i. Sexual tourism: exploitation and moral degradation, immoral and perverted forms of conduct; need to develop a tourism that promotes genuine mutual understanding, rest and healthy recreation (#61).