Since you are the resident expert on Catholic theology can you help me with this. I was at our local Borders looking through the Catholic encyclopedia and I came across this teaching. That the concept of “equal pay for equal work” is a mortal sin.
Catholics are required to pay employees wages based upon their need. A man with no children must be paid less that a man with 4 children and 6 more than 4 ect…
Is this correct? This sounds completly unworkable in a capitalist system. Can you educate me?
Which Catholic Encyclopedia is this? (Publisher? Editor?) And what was the entry under which you found the statement? I’d be really curious to look this one up since the whole mortal/venial sin issue is rarely pointed out except in fairly turgid discussions on morality.
Tom~
I dunno about Catholic, but the concept that pay should be based on need is common in many socialist (and former communist) countries.
The capitalist American mind, of course, tends to rebel at this when it comes to paying for position and work performed, rather than paying for family size. However, the concern is often expressed in things like company-provided life insurance – if a married wage-earner dies leaving an unemployed spouse (presumably, a wife) and three children, the family has more need (and therefore gets higher benefits) than if a single wage-earner dies who has no dependents. Most French firms, for instance, base their company-provided life insurance on some such system. And I have to say, capitalist though I am, it’s hard to argue with it.
One small problem with this system is that the people with the greatest need would tend not to get hired.
“Let’s see now. I can hire Julie at $8/hr, but if I hire Bob it would have to pay $10/hr. Bye, Bob.”
I must admit to being unfamiliar with that teaching, and a quick persual of my Catholic Encyclopedia isn’t turning anything up.
If you could give me a sense of what article it was in, or under what heading you found it… anything to help me track it down… I would appreciate it.
In general, though, I am a little skeptical of such a broad brush-stroke; that is, of the wage practice you describe being automatically labelled a mortal sin.
For a mortal sin to exist there must be deliberate, full intention and knowledge on the part of the intellect of the sinner and full consent on the part of the will of the sinner, all in the context of a gravely serious matter.
While there are some matters that are always grave – for example, hatred of God – even that is not always a mortal sin, since it must be combined with full knowledge and full consent. In other words, you must deliberately decide to hate God, knowing the consequences, and that hatred must arise not from an impassioned anger, but from a sense of will that is not inflamed by passion, before even that grave a act is considered a mortal sin.
With that understanding, we can see it is unlikely that acts such as “setting of pay scales based on ability insteda of need” are automatically rendered mortal sins.
The distinction between mortal and venial sin derives from a description in John 16, where he describes some sins that are “unto death” and some sins not “unto death” – that is, mortal and venial.
The classic explanation for the distinction of mortal and venial sin is from St. Paul in First Corinthians, where he explains in detail the distinction between mortal and venial sin. “For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it; because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.”
By wood, hay, and stubble are analgous to venial sins which, built on the foundation of a living faith in Christ, do not destroy charity, and from their very nature do not merit eternal but temporal punishment. Just as wood, hay, and stubble are gathered together in a house but do not become part of the permanant structure of the building, so, too, are venial sins multiplied in man. The spiritual edifice remains, and for these man may suffer the fire of temporal tribulations in this life, but nonetheless ultimately obtain eternal salvation.
In any event, I’d like to see the text you read. But so far as I’m aware, the conduct you describe is not a mortal sin.
- Rick