On Social Justice: Could Glen Beck be the next pope??

With all the attention given to the sex-abuse scandals, there has been little attention to the Church's long-standing teaching on social justice. However, the bishops' position on the immigration issue seems to have made it a "new" source of attack on the Church.

Recently FOX network commentator Glen Beck has attacked all those who use terms like "social justice" and "economic justice" as un-American; even accusing them of being, or being like, "socialists," "communists" or "fascists." More astounding yet, he aims his comments at Christens and specifically at the Catholic Church.

On 25 March Stephen Colbert used his cutting humor to seriously respond to Beck. You can see and hear Colbert's response on the Colbert Report. This segment is extremely funny, partly because Colbert is a Catholic and knows whereof he speaks. At the end of the show Stephen interviews Fr. James Martin, SJ who also has been attacked by Glen Beck.

At the end of the program, Colbert asks Fr. Martin if, in the unfortunate and most unlikely case, that Pope Benedict had to resign and Glen Beck were elected pope, what would he do. With a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face Fr. Martin said, "I'd leave the Church just as Beck recommends."

At bottom, Glen Back is ignorant of, yet still opposed to  the Catholic understanding of the the Gospel message as currently and steadily proclaimed for the last 120 years by the popes. Anyone who wishes to get to the core of the "social justice" doctrine and ethic of the Catholic Church can begin with the following papal encyclicals:

• 1891     Leo XIII         Rerum Novarum
• 1931     Pius XI           Quadrageemus Anno
• 1961     John XXIII     Mater et Magistra
• 1963     John XXIII     Pacem et Terris
• 1967     Paul VI           Populorum Progressio
• 1981     JP II               Laborem Exercens
• 1987     JP II               Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
• 1991     JP II               Centesimus Annus
• 2009     Ben XVI         Caritas in Veritate

See also the Vatican II documents (passim) especially:

• Dignitas Humanae
• Gaudium et Spes

The above links will take you to the Vatican website (English versions). There are "brief versions" on the Vatican website as well as a few commentaries. Commentaries from other sources vary in their interpretation of the documents. Be careful. And know well the source of who makes the postings!!

For the serious person (Catholic or non-Catholic) who wishes to understand the common themes of social justice in the Catholic tradition, it is important to be familiar with the entire social justice teaching of the Church. Glen Beck is most certainly not one of them.