A Dignified Livelihood

Background Article

The Church recognizes the dignity of work and the reality that workers have rights. Among these rights is a just wage. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a just wage the “legitimate fruit of work” (2434). Such wages allow workers to provide a healthy livelihood for themselves and their families. Proper compensation for work connects to the common good. When hard-working people do not receive just wages, all of society suffers. The family is affected negatively in terms of relationships and health.

Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner.

Rerum Novarum (“On the Condition of Labor and the Working Classes”), Pope Leo XIII, 45

Profits are never more important than people. Yet sometimes people are marginalized for the sake of the bottom line. Businesses, corporations, and all economic activity are good in as much as they serve the needs of people (CCC 2432). Work, a form of continuing our participation in God’s creation, is our way of providing for a dignified livelihood.

  • How does another worker’s unjust wage affect me?
  • What prices am I willing to pay to support those companies and business who place people over profits?
  • What responsibility do I have to help others seek a dignified livelihood?

Links
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Catholic Campaign for Human Development
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Debating Wages

Unit Activity

A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.
Romans 4:4

In 1938 the US Congress passed (and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed) the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), establishing child labor laws, a minimum hourly wage, and maximum workweek. Have the young people review the US Department of Labor’s Minimum Wage Chart. Then have them find out the minimum wage in your state. How does it compare with the federal minimum wage? Discuss the importance of minimum wages, keeping in mind that a minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer may legally pay workers, and the need for just wages.

Set up a debate involving members of your group with the topic: Should the minimum wage be a just wage? To take sides, participants will need to research the pros and cons of the issue. At the end of the debate, note that the US Bishops have long supported a just economy through decent work and decent wages.

Links
Just Wage and the Federal Minimum Wage, February 2014 (PDF)
from the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development

Selected Quotations from Catholic Social Thought on the Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Labor Unions (PDF)
from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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A Letter for the Children of War

Unit Activity

Identify basic rights that all people including children, should have: life, family, shelter, food, etc. Ask the young people to identify responsibilities they have that accompany these rights.

To exercise one of these responsibilities to advocate for the basic rights of others, have them draft letters advocating for the dignity of every human person, including children. Have each young person write a letter to a US government official, asking them to support a worldwide ban on child soldiers. Consider also writing letters to the United Nations, asking them to stop the armies from forcing children to become soldiers. Letters to newspaper and magazine editors can also be effective. To begin, work as a group to create a basic letter that states the intent of the letter.

Links
Find your US Representative
How to Contact your US Senator
Write or Call the White House

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Healing Children of War

Background Article

In some corners of the earth, especially in the poorest countries, children and adolescents are the victims of a terrible form of violence: they are enlisted to fight in the so-called “forgotten wars.” Indeed, they suffer a doubly scandalous aggression: they are made victims of war, and at the same time forced to play the lead in it, swept away in the hatred of adults. Stripped of everything, they see their future threatened by a nightmare difficult to dispel. Our youngest “brothers and sisters” who suffer from hunger, war and diseases are launching an anguished appeal to the adult world. May their cry of pain not go unheard!

Pope John Paul II, Angelus, March 28, 2004

UNICEF estimates that yearly more than 300,000 children (under the age of 18) are suffering from involvement in armed conflicts around the world (see US State Department’s Fact Sheet). Such sufferings violate the dignity of these children. Many of these children endure human trafficking, labor exploitation, military recruitment, and forced combatants (see the UN’s Six Grave Violations). Some of the worse violators include the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

In 2007, more than 50 countries approved “The Paris Commitments,” to end the use of child soldiers. The US Federal Government actively works to address the needs of children in armed conflict. Various bureaus and agencies (such as USAID) within different departments, like State Department, work on reporting and preventing violations of human rights. In 2008 Congress passed the Child Soldier Prevention Act, which restricts funding and assistance to those governments known for human trafficking and child soldier recruitment.

Children living in countries where wars are taking place need to be protected. The children need to be healed and comforted, then returned to normal society. Some of the countries do not have enough money to help the children on their own. Various organizations and groups within the Catholic Church work to protect children and help them recover. Catholic missions have special recovery homes for children who were forced to fight or who were harmed by war. With the help of Catholic Relief Services, the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate have helped rehabilitate former child soldiers in Uganda (see the Baltimore Archdiocese’s Catholic Review’s article).

  • How much am I aware of the rights of others? Rights I myself have?
  • How do I fulfill my responsibilities related to these rights?

 

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Grade 6 Puzzles

To move pieces drag and drop them, and to turn the pieces use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Unit 1 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 2 Jigsaw

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Unit 3 Jigsaw

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Unit 4 Jigsaw

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Unit 5 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Grade 5 Puzzles

To move pieces drag and drop them, and to turn the pieces use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Unit 1 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 2 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 3 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 4 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 5 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Grade 4 Puzzles

To move pieces drag and drop them, and to turn the pieces use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Unit 1 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 2 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 3 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 4 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org
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Unit 5 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Grade 3 Puzzles

To move pieces drag and drop them, and to turn the pieces use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Unit 1 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 2 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 3 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 4 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 5 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Grade 2 Puzzles

To move pieces drag and drop them, and to turn the pieces use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

Unit 1 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 2 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 3 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 4 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

Unit 5 Jigsaw

Jigsaw by mypuzzle.org

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