To the editor:
I applaud Bill Dagnon for his well-researched and well-written letter that appeared recently (Catholic Herald, April 28). It is not a coincidence that stagnating wages for lower and middle-class Americans parallels the decline of the labor movement over the last 30 or 40 years. The reasons for the decline are varied, but, to put it simply, due to steady erosion of U.S. labor laws, it is now easier to “bust” a union than it is to form one.
Strangely silent on this topic has been the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Although they have had a wealth of Catholic teaching on social justice embodied in a number of papal encyclicals and pastoral letters that span the last 150 years or so on which to draw, they remain mute. It is as though ever since Roe vs. Wade became the law of the land, they have been overcome with a paralysis of the mind and spirit that prevents them from addressing anything else.
Perhaps, when the decline in income of lower and middle-class Americans is reflected in a decline in Church revenue, they will spring into action. I only hope that it’s not too late.
Jerome Joyce, Madison