Patrick McPartland/Staff Photographer - Occupy Buffalo demonstrators still continue to camp at Niagara Square.

For several months now, people have camped out in cities throughout the country, protesting the growing economic inequity and corporate democracy in a movement called Occupy Wall Street. Buffalo is no different, as locals have parked in front of City Hall and are bearing down for the cold winter months.

While some of the beliefs of the Occupy movement share some similarities with Catholic social teaching, the Church and the occupiers remain independent from each other. Still, a local Catholic organization is considering ways to acknowledge the Occupy movement.

The Justice and Peace Commission, a diocesan organization focused on Catholic social teaching, is exploring how to respond to the Occupy movement. While it’s far from an official diocesan endorsement, Sister M. Jean Sliwinski, CSSF, commission chairwoman, admires the occupiers.

“The disparity gap growing between the rich and the poor, and the middle class struggling so far to stay afloat – I think that’s what really spurred the Occupy movement,” she said. “At the same time this is going on, so many of the social services are being cut back, which just adds to the problem and poverty. The basic moral test for our society is how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst. As Americans, we call for liberty and justice for all. With the Occupy Wall Street, their basic pretenses are in line with Catholic social teaching, but right now it hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the Church or the diocese.”

According to the Occupy Wall Street website, it is “a people-powered movement that … is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.” 

“We’re really looking to the moral aspect of it,” Sister Jean said. “Not necessarily physically joining the people of Occupy Buffalo, but we really want to support the moral aspect of what they are trying to accomplish. We are asking for people to join in prayer and to be courageous enough to speak to their political leaders and ask them to support legislation that is fair and looks out for the most vulnerable among us.”

The global economic crisis has not gone unnoticed by the Vatican either. In October 2011, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a document to reform the international finance systems and suggest a public regulatory office that would oversee all global finances. 

“Every individual and every community shares in and is responsible for promoting the common good,” the document said. “Faithful to their ethical and religious vocation, communities of believers should take the lead in asking whether human family has adequate means at its disposal to achieve the global common good.”

Pope Benedict XVI also shared his thoughts in his 2009 encyclical “Charity in Truth” and said there was “an urgent need of a true world political authority” that would give third-world nations better representation when it comes to global finance.

“In that document, he talks a lot about social ethics,” Sister Jean said. “He calls us to moral action and he talks about justice and the common good in a global society (and how they) need to recognize the rights of individuals and people.

“Part of the crisis that we have is caused by the emphasis on profit, and that has led to disastrous results. We see a lot of that with the economic and financial crisis that we’re experiencing right now, so he’s calling for a new kind of economic activity that is not only driven by profit, but it is driven with fairness and pursuit of the common good.”

While the United States is considered a first world nation, recent news alluded to the “haves and have-nots” in our own country. Recent census data revealed that nearly half of all Americans have fallen into poverty or are classified as low-income people. Unemployment has also remained high over a three-year period, rising to 10.1 percent in October 2009 and remaining at above 9 percent until November 2011.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to the bishops in September 2011 about unemployment and poverty, calling for a living wage that promotes human dignity.

“The common good will not advance, economic security will not be achieved and individual initiative will be weakened when so many live without the dignity of work and bear the crushing burden of poverty,” Archbishop Dolan said. “Individuals and families, faith-based and community groups, business and labor, government at every level, all must work together and find effective ways to promote the common good in national and economic life.”

Sister Jean notes the Church’s and Occupy Wall Street’s desire for economic equity are independent of each other, but arise from the struggles many people are going through now.

“People are struggling on their own right, and the Church, because of its moral obligation to the people, can see how they’re suffering, so the Church is also responding to that,” she said. “It’s not difficult at all to see what’s going on, even in our own country when you see the dysfunction of our own government.”

Many of the Occupy movements around the country have increased tension with law enforcement officials, and at times, have turned violent. However, the Occupy Buffalo movement has worked with police and elected officials since its inception to create better relationships and protest in a legal, nonviolent manner, although a splinter group of Occupy Buffalo had an incident that resulted in one arrest in late December.  Buffalo’s Network of Religious Communities has also issued a statement supporting Occupy Buffalo’s non-violent methods, as has the Justice and Peace Commission.

“There is a lot of local community support for them,” Sister Jean said. “I do respect the way they are carrying themselves here in Buffalo.”

Not everybody approves of Occupy Wall Street’s movements. Just mentioning this story on the Western New York Catholic’s Twitter feed drew positive and negative comments. Sister Jean acknowledges there is a political tightrope Catholic officials are walking when talking about Occupy Wall Street.

“While the movement does support economic justice, we don’t have a clear idea of what their total agenda is,” she said. “As a Church, we could not offer our total support without having a clear understanding of that agenda. We’re trying to gain some more information from them, but I certainly admire their courage to stand up.”

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