"The Democratic US presidential hopeful, Bernie Sanders, brought his political revolution to the Vatican on Saturday, where he was granted a five-minute audience with Pope Francis.....he had met the pontiff on Saturday morning and discussed the need to inject morality and justice into the world economy, a view Sanders said he and the pope both share."
On April 15, Sanders was the only presidential candidate invited to speak at an event at the Vatican. The Vatican was celebrating the 25th anniversary of
Centesimus Annus. Twenty five years earlier Pope John Paul II had written this encyclical expounding on the Vatican's stand concerning labor and workers.
In his
speech Sanders is praising Pope Francis and the Centesimus Annus principles.
Sanders said:
Our challenge is mostly a moral one, to redirect our efforts and vision to the common good. Centesimus Annus, which we celebrate and reflect on today, and Laudato Si’, are powerful, eloquent and hopeful messages
What does
Centesimus Annus say about Sunday?
Point #9
another right regarding the condition of the working class, one which I wish to mention because of its importance: namely, the right to discharge freely one's religious duties. The Pope wished to proclaim this right within the context of the other rights and duties of workers, notwithstanding the general opinion, even in his day, that such questions pertained exclusively to an individual's private life. He affirms the need for Sunday rest so that people may turn their thoughts to heavenly things and to the worship which they owe to Almighty God.28 No one can take away this human right, which is based on a commandment; in the words of the Pope: "no man may with impunity violate that human dignity which God himself treats with great reverence", and consequently, the State must guarantee to the worker the exercise of this freedom.
It would not be mistaken to see in this clear statement a springboard for the principle of the right to religious freedom, which was to become the subject of many solemn International Declarations and Conventions, as well as of the Second Vatican Council's well-known Declaration and of my own repeated teaching. In this regard, one may ask whether existing laws and the practice of industrialized societies effectively ensure in our own day the exercise of this basic right to Sunday rest.
Centesimus Annus itself was issued on the 100th anniversary of
Rerum Novarum , an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor, which was even more explicit as to what it means to "ensure" Sunday rest.
41. From this follows the obligation of the cessation from work and labor on Sundays and certain holy days. The rest from labor is not to be understood as mere giving way to idleness; much less must it be an occasion for spending money and for vicious indulgence, as many would have it to be; but it should be rest from labor, hallowed by religion. Rest (combined with religious observances) disposes man to forget for a while the business of his everyday life, to turn his thoughts to things heavenly, and to the worship which he so strictly owes to the eternal Godhead. It is this, above all, which is the reason arid motive of Sunday rest; a rest sanctioned by God's great law of the Ancient Covenant-"Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day,"(31) and taught to the world by His own mysterious "rest" after the creation of man: "He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
#57 To sum up, then, We may lay it down as a general and lasting law that working men's associations should be so organized and governed as to furnish the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property. It is clear that they must pay special and chief attention to the duties of religion and morality, and that social betterment should have this chiefly in view;....
Let our associations, then, look first and before all things to God; let religious instruction have therein the foremost place, each one being carefully taught what is his duty to God, what he has to believe, what to hope for, and how he is to work out his salvation; and let all be warned and strengthened with special care against wrong principles and false teaching. Let the working man be urged and led to the worship of God, to the earnest practice of religion, and, among other things, to the keeping holy of Sundays and holy days.
Finally we also see Sanders praising the
Laudato SiThe Laudato Si is Pope Francis encyclical "On Care of our Common Home".
He also mentions the importance of Sunday being set apart
# 237. On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance....The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, “so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Ex 23:12). Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centred on the Eucharist, sheds it's light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.
Notice how these documents place Sunday under the mandate of the ten commandments.
And remember -- this isn't just a "sermon" in the Catholic church where we would expect calls for Sunday keeping, Euchrist, Mary adoration, etc. -- this is a political outline of globalized proportions to change the world.
