With all its day-to-day pressures, the work environment is not the first one would think of in terms of faith. However, the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality at Manresa and the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, both in Dublin, believe that faith is an integral part of work and its absence can only be to the detriment of workers, their managers and their customers.
The two groups are jointly running a new programme, "Making Links: Faith and the Workplace". This series of evening events will address a number of work-life issues in the light of the Catholic Church's social teaching and the search for an authentic spirituality rooted in gospel values.
According to Paddy Carberry SJ, director of Manresa, modern Ireland has to ask itself some serious questions. "While we have made a tremendous success of our economy, what is happening our country's soul? What has happened to our capacity to dream? Have we got a vision for ourselves any more? Or is this it?"
Fr Carberry says that Manresa is determined to engage with the issues that face us in Ireland today and to enter into dialogue with the relevant bodies and groups. "I believe our problems today - including the lack of clear leadership and vision, the growing prevalence of addiction and its associated problems of violence and social breakdown - can best be addressed in the context of the broader picture: Where are we going as a nation? What is our vision for the future? What values do we want to pass on to the coming generation?
"Our aim in this programme is to help participants to integrate their faith in God with greater clarity in making decisions, more effective leadership, openness to new challenges in life, a deeper vision and commitment, and a sense of mission and inner peace." The programme is spread over seven evenings and will focus on an introduction to Catholic social teaching as it relates to work.
Drawing on papal encyclicals such as Laborem Exercens and Rerum Novarum, the rights of workers, the role of private property, the duties of workers and employers, the issues of ownership, labour and capital, matters of justice, respect for families and international trade will be examined.
The dignity of the individual at work and the dignity of work will also be looked at by Fr Peter McVerry SJ, who says that, "through work. . . our own dignity is affirmed and we contribute to the well-being of humanity". However, he acknowledges that the reality of work for many people is very different.
Globalisation issues, including the dilemma of billions of people who are still living in desperate poverty, will also be addressed.
The question as to what our responsibilities are will be posed. Is real and sustainable development still achievable, in a world of growing inequality?
Catholic social teaching maintains that work makes family life possible. Aspects of the teaching will be considered in the light of work and family life in Ireland today. The "workplace" is a key arena in the task of addressing the current environmental crisis, not just in the sense of reducing wasteful practices and harmful production, but more positively in terms of devising technical and political solutions to that crisis.
What insights can Catholic social teaching offer as we try to work for sustainability? The important issue of leadership formation and the role of discernment in making important work and life decisions will also be examined.
According to Gerry O'Hanlon SJ, of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice: "At a time when commentators often speak of a moral vacuum at the heart of our public discourse, Catholic social teaching appears as a refreshing antidote. It is not secularist: it locates a respectful reading of ordinary life within the religious story.
"But neither is it fundamentalist: the religious story is not a literal reading, but can do justice to the proper laws of secular reality. It can reward the effort to get to know it a little better. It can be a real beacon of hope of our times. It is a treasure, a pearl of great price; let's claim it."
The seminars on "Making Links: Faith and the Workplace" will take place in Manresa, Jesuit Centre of Spirituality, 426 Clontarf Road, Dollymount, Dublin 3, every fortnight from Wednesday, September 19th from 7:30pm-9:30pm. Further information is available from www.manresa.ie.
Cormac McConnell is business development manager at Manresa, Jesuit Centre of Spirituality.
