Hotline Asia -- Social Concern Notes

Question & Answer || Church Teaching || Thinking About Justice

Introduction

"BUT ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN CAN..."

Chan Kwok Keung, a fine happy five year old, lives on Cheung Chau. But his father is concerned: "Through the years I have seen many Cheung Chau boys like my son. Once they reach upper primary school, they no longer listen to their parents. Many don't exercise. They smoke. Take drugs. They spend money on luxuries. They waste time with the computers. Others study so hard that they ruin their health and their spirit. Some must have expensive basketball shoes and mobile phones. Some join one of the Cheung Chau gangs. There is just too much peer pressure.

Social Teachings of the Church

"The experience of his own weakness urges man to call in help from without. We read in the pages of Holy Writ: 'It is better that two should be together than one: for they have the advantage of their society...'[Eccles. iv, 9,10] 'A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city.'[Proverbs 18:19]...and it is this also which makes them band themselves together in association of citizens with citizen...For to enter into a 'society' of this kind is a natural right of man; and the State must protect natural rights; and if it forbids its citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own existence." [Pope Leo XIII (1891) "Condition of Labor" in The Five Great Encyclicals, ed. By Gerald C. Treacy .S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1939) p. 23-24.]

Thinking About Justice

1. In 1891, how do you think employers felt about the above words by the Holy Father?
2. List some reasons why employers sometimes fire workers who try to form associations?
3. How do the Hong Kong and Chinese governments protect the rights of citizens to associate?
4. Now what advice do you have for Mr. Chan?

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