Social Doctrine

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine Part Twelve by Bill Droel

Stay in your lane. That’s one paraphrase of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. The word itself is not found in most English dictionaries. It is derived from the Latin word subsidium, meaning help or aid. The idea behind this principle is that higher or bigger entities should assist lower or smaller entities, not usurp them. It can apply to family life, to dealings within business, in schools and other social realms. It generally is invoked in the context of the relationship between government and civil society, including families.

There are other renderings of subsidiarity: small is beautiful, no bigger than necessary, decisions are made as close as possible to those affected by the decision and more. When it is observed, subsidiarity protects freedom by keeping the remote, bureaucratic entities like government or big business from displacing the agency of citizens and consumers. In the same way it teaches people to be responsible. The principle says, never do for others what they can do for themselves (and always do for others what they cannot do for themselves). No paternalism.

Some neoconservatives have wrongly rendered the subsidiarity principle to mean that government that governs least, governs best. Subsidiarity is not anti-government nor is subsidiarity anti-business. There are many situations when big government and big business are the proper entities to address a need. These are situations in which no lower entity can do the job.

Covid-19 and future plagues will not slow down if one family and then another does its best to devise a homemade remedy. Of course, the government and business have not been perfect in their response to Covid-19. There has been poor communication at times, some misguided strategy and inadequate coordination. But government was the only entity capable of keeping payroll accounts flush for businesses forced to close for safety. Government research and investment, paired with large pharmaceutical companies and drug store chains, made possible the manufacturing and distribution of anti-Covid vaccines in record time.

Perhaps in the emergency situation of Covid-19 the government and big medicine overreached, bypassing those institutions closest to those affected. Maybe smaller mediating entities could, for example, improve the rate of vaccine acceptance if they (churches, union halls and neighborhood clubs) were involved in delivering the shots. Credit should be given to those community organizations and some small business associations that on their own step-up to promote anti-Covid strategies.

Subsidiarity is the principle that celebrates those voluntary platoons that stand between ragged individuals and the impersonal forces of government and big business. These are mediating institutions like extended family, congregation, union, ethnic club, professional association, neighborhood organization and the like.

Whenever the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is articulated, someone is sure make the valid objection that Catholic leaders and Catholic institutions do not follow the principle. Catholic leaders repeatedly do not make decisions closest to those affected by the decision.

A grievous example of subsidiarity’s violation is our bishops’ mishandling of deviant Church employees who abuse children. Each terrible incident was managed from the top-down. A small number of officials covered up the deviance, going so far as to not even inform a pastor or a congregation when a known abuser was reassigned to a parish.  No lower entity, like a clergy personnel board, a congregation or a neighborhood, was consulted.

A second difficulty in implementing subsidiarity is the steady decline in participation within mediating groups. Nowadays there are fewer members of all lower entities (parish, union, association or neighborhood group) than in the 1970s. Those who stay involved are devoting less time and energy than the leaders of such groups in years gone by. To be continued…

Droel serves the board of National Center for the Laity in Chicago.