The 1960s have become a mythical period for both society at large and the Catholic Church in particular. Two myths have currency. One sees the period as a golden age of freedom from unreasonable restraints, openness to new ideas and a crossing of restrictive boundaries. The other sees them as an age of license, of abandonment of a moral code, and of loss of cohesive identity.
A book by Vinnies chief John Falzon led me to ponder these myths. In its style, The Language of the Unheard is a throwback to the 1960s. It is written in a variety of voices, from analytical to poetic to anecdotal. It is catholic in the range of writers whom it cites, ranging from popes to Latin American activists, to theorists like Fanon and Marx, and especially little known people who have been marginalised.
Most tellingly, its tone is passionate, combining anger and outrage at the way in which people in Australia are maltreated by the state and excluded by the categories of public opinion. It views society from the perspective of those excluded from its benefits. It insists the remedy for this discrimination must be found in their concerted action. It calls for a quite concrete solidarity with the poor that will empower them to organise to receive justice.
This was the stuff of Catholic activist reflection in the 1960s: the affective tone, the search for wisdom in many places, the belief in direct action by those who are marginalised. It seems surprisingly novel today.
Catholic reflection on matters of justice and poverty plays many of the same notes, but in a different key. Its style is more coolly reflective, offering a bird's eye view of the world of which the poor are part. The solidarity that is key to Catholic social thought is grounded in shared human dignity. It binds the wealthiest citizens to the most impoverished and commits the community to ensure the poorest have an honoured place at the table.
The tone of much Catholic reflection is analytic or exhortatory. Although describing starkly the ills of society, in order to redress them it appeals to people's better nature. In Pope Benedict's thought the petrol that drives the engine of social