Social Catholicism: Origins, Youth, and Women’s Roles
Social Catholicism: Origins and Development
Born in Europe, social Catholicism was closely linked to the intransigent anti-liberal causes within the Church and the Catholic world. This arose from the triumph of the liberal revolution and the consolidation of secularizing movements since the mid-nineteenth century. Catholic social action and educational works emerged, promoting the discovery of new forms of poverty on a large scale, generated by the industrial revolution.
Social action and social reform were fundamental dimensions of education. The aim was not just to remedy deficiencies and material needs, but to preserve or restore communities supposedly under the influence of dechristianized liberals, socialists, and anarchists. The Catholic Worker’s Circle (France, after the Paris Commune of 1871) exemplified this. The partnership model was ideal for integrating different aims of early social Catholicism: religious and moral instruction, economic support, care, and recreation.
The model of social reform advocated by early social Catholicism stemmed partly from respect for social hierarchies and perceived natural inequality. It favored protective intervention by the state, appeals to Christian morality and good labor practices, and aimed to rebuild social harmony against inhuman capitalism and socialist revolution. The paternalistic and religious-moral model of the circle faced a crisis when Leo XIII issued his encyclical, expressing a preference for guilds but acknowledging the legitimacy of trade unionism. In subsequent years, the principle of pure and free professional unionism, focused on defending professional interests and detached from employer protection, gained traction. This participatory and democratic method was interrupted by the condemnation of Pope Pius X. These tendencies reappeared and would become prominent from the 1930s, with the birth of the JOC (Young Christian Workers) and the survey method.
Youth and Education Initiatives
Works related to youth education were twofold:
- Those for the working classes: These addressed the lack of schooling and care for marginalized youth in the emerging urban world. Examples include Catholic Worker’s Circles for children and general partnerships, as well as popular schools promoted by various Catholic associations.
- Those assigned to the entire child population: School boards were established to continue the catechesis of children, as a form of Catholic perseverance, and as a secular response to the offensive of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the consequent elimination of religious teaching in schools.
The Role of Women
These initiatives arose in a climate of confrontation with secularism, opposing feminist movements and addressing women’s work outside the home and its perceived dire consequences for the family model. For social Catholicism, the growing incorporation of women into factories called for special protective legislation that preserved women’s roles as mothers and wives. Therefore, preference was given to work at home, preserving women’s morality at work (separation of sexes), and protecting mothers.
The work of preserving and protecting women workers was part of a “Christian feminism” movement. This movement reaffirmed the traditional roles of women as mothers and wives while recognizing the new social and economic realities, trying to best prepare women for the dual role of mothers and workers. Catholic initiatives also included works for the education and training of women in general, especially the middle classes, such as the Institute of Culture and Popular Library for Women, created in Barcelona in 1909.
Workers’ Education and Social Action
In both labor circles and unions, the emphasis on values, education, savings, and pensions can be considered generic tools of popular education, a Catholic initiative parallel and alternative to initiatives founded by liberals or socialists. In the context of “university extension” works, “Catholic Adult Education” and similar programs emerged. Moreover, there was a tendency for committed labor activists and propagandists to create institutions to prepare the Catholic Workers’ elite, such as Social Workers and the Institute.