Social Sin
Excerpted Texts from Justice in the World:
“… serious injustices … are building around the human world a network of domination, oppression and abuses which stifle freedom and which keep the greater part of human from sharing in the building up and enjoyment of a more just and more loving world.” (no. 3)
“Listening to the cry of those who suffer violence and are oppressed by unjust systems and structures…” (no.5)
“… Church’s mission … redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.” (no. 6)
“Listening to the cry of those who suffer violence and are oppressed by unjust systems and structures…” (no.5)
“… Church’s mission … redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.” (no. 6)
Comments:1. “Social Sin” today refers to situations and structures that attack basic human rights and dignity, and infect social relationships between communities (#789, Catechism for Filipino Catholics). It is also used to describe situations or structures which cause or support evil, or fail through complicity or indifference to redress evils when it is possible. Such sinful structures are always rooted in personal sin (#1206, CFC).
2. JW was the first and most explicit Church teaching on unjust, sinful situations, systems, institutions or structures of sin. 3. JW enumerates three types of Social Sin: a. Structures which systematically oppress human dignity and violate human rights and impose gross inequality between the rich and the poor. PCP ll carefully explains how sins like pride, selfishness, greed, and hatred come to infect habitual patterns of human interaction. This produces “sinful social structures” which can harden into institutions. Some terrible effects of these sinful structures are seen in the uncared for, malnourished “street children,” the wretchedness of the jobless and homeless, the crimes, graft and corruption, continued widespread violation of basic human rights (PCP ll, 82). Structures of sin, therefore, “are rooted in personal sin and thus always linked to the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate them, and make them difficult to remove. Thus they grow stronger, spread and become the source of other sins, and so influence people’s behavior” (SRS 36) b. Situations which promote and facilitate greed and human selfishness. c. Complicity is attributed to people who do not take responsibility for evil being done or who silently allow oppression and injustice. It requires a certain degree of cooperation, whether moral (through advice, encouragement or agreement), or material (through external acts). Applicable Cases or Situations Situations pertaining to Justice as essential to Christian Faith and to new concept of sin ... more |
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