Silence is not always Golden

A version of this blog by Isabelle first appeared in The Scottish Catholic on 28 October 2022

https://www.scottishcatholic.com

Silence is golden when we are seeking God’s voice in our lives.  But sometimes silence is not golden – we talk of the ‘silent assassin’, of the ‘silent killer’ in our diets and as Christians, we know that to stay silent in the face of injustice, injury and inequality is not acceptable

The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can only be protected and a healthy community achieved, if human rights are protected and responsibilities for all are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.  We cannot stay silent in the face of inequality.

Our faith calls us to love God and to love our neighbours in every situation, especially our sisters and brothers living in poverty. By living our faith, we can make the justice, love and peace of God present in our unjust world.  But this cannot be an exclusive ’club’ or a sense that we are better and separate from society: this justice, love and peace can only be realised and protected through our relationship with society-at-large. We must love our neighbour, locally and globally, and prioritize the good of the human family over commercial interests.

“God intended the Earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner.” —Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 69

Each of us is part of the human family and we are all interconnected and interdependent. We must see ourselves in others and collaborate towards solutions. Solidarity is a recognition that we are “all in this together”. 

This is not a cheap political  slogan – although it has been hijacked on many occaisons, but it is a fundamental basis of our Catholic social teaching.

Pope Franics in 2014 reminded us that

”Solidarity is to act in terms of community, of the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few. It is also to fight against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labour rights.

It is to confront the destructive effects of the empire of money: forced displacements, painful emigrations, the traffic of persons, drugs, war, violence and all those realities that many of you suffer and that we are all called to transform”

Pope Benedict in Caritas in Veritate, used his voice to proclaim that the economy must serve people, and not the other way around.

”All persons have a right to dignified work, and to fair wages and working conditions. Work is more than a way to make a living: it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation”.

Our own Archbishop William Nolan has been speaking about this very issue in the last few weeks.  He has not stayed  silent about the obvious injustice and inequality in recent economic actions of government.  He says, benefits must be rasied in line with inflation; its all very well to stand on pavements during lockdown and clap for workers – but they deserve more than empty gestures and  rhetoric,  they need to be paid proper wages.

Surely the real mark of any society is based on how the most vulnerable are treated. God’s love is universal, so this principle does not intend that we should focus on the poor to the exclusion of others, but rather that we are called to prioritize those who are in most need of our Solidarity.

The needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich; the rights of workers over the maximization of profits; the preservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion; production to meet social needs over production for military purposes. —The words of Saint John Paul II, Address on Christian Unity in a Technological Age, Toronto, 1984

So what about us?  Are we staying silent  in the face of inequality, injustice and injury in our communities and our country today?  Have we forgotten the tenets of catholic social teaching?    Have we forgotten the words of Martin Niemöller, written in respoinse to the Nazi policies in Germany last century?

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

If we choose to ignore these messages from our Church Leaders and those who have suffered at the hands of greed, we do so at great peril. 

Now is the time to find our voice and remember that silence in the face of wrong is not golden and in fact saying nothing can be construed as agreeing and condoning behaviours and actions of others.

If we are waiting until we are sure, then to quote St John Henry Newman, “If we insist on being a sure as is conceivable.... we must be content to creep along the ground and never soar”.   

Newman understood that silence was not an option in the face of injustice or untruths. He left all he knew to convert to Catholic Church and lived out the remainder of his life in pastoral by visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison.  John Henry Newman recognised that it is in being in communion with others and working against inequality that we see and hear God.

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, But God declared:

 “Go down again – I dwell among the people.”

All of this speaking truth to power and living and working in solidarity takes courage, but we have to find that courage and stand up to be counted in our society.  It is important that we have our voices heard against the cruel policies of governments that seek to divide and undermine society.