jules constant van gestel a commentator on the church’s social teaching
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Jules Constant van Gestel
a Commentator on the Church’s
Social Teaching
The ‘Radiophonic Preacher’
• Turnhout 1899-1978 Lier
• Studied at École Supérieure pour Travailleurs, Belgium
• Doctorate on religious socialism, then professorship at Louvain
• Chaplain to Belgian Red Cross
• Helped develop institutions of higher education for women before WWII
Sacred Eloquence
• Early articles on art & theory of preaching
• Interest in new media:– radio, film then television– young OP group to introduce film to Flemish
Catholic circles– member of Belgian radio board, Pontifical
Academy for Social Communications
Rutten’s Student
• Rutten ‘discovered’ him & convinced him to research on religious socialism (PhD 1932)
• Quadragesimo Anno (1931) opposed any reconciliation between Christians & socialists
• Explains careful wording of van Gestel’s thesis: – argued Marx’s atheistic materialism meant he did not
emphasise ethics enough– analysed Christian Socialist movements in Germany,
Switzerland, Netherlands, France & Belgium
Christian Socialism
• Protestant churches less central authority, more liberty to engage with socialism– Swiss theologian Ragaz: “From Jesus Christ to Marx,
from Marx to Jesus Christ”• Christian faith & ethical requirements of the
Gospel inform each other– socialism lives from a moral idea, thirst for justice– religious socialism a minority - almost no political
influence, but intellectual weight– Christianity needs awareness of social injustice, but
socialism is limited to earthly realities• Stimulated debate in Belgium
Dialectic of Church & CST• Sub-editor of OP journal Kultuurleven
– column on ‘sociology & law’
• Commentary on Church magisterium– translated basic texts from Latin– CST as teaching principles, not scientific doctrine
• Introduction to the Social Teaching of the Church (1950)– noted importance of Protestant social ethics– only explicitly mentions Bible & encyclials
• Dialectic process:– academic work prepares official teaching– doctrine a starting point for Catholic scholars
Encycliology
• A loyal commentator, using his dialectic method• Defended Quadragesimo Anno
– not accepting corporatism in the exisiting (fascist) state
– countered by principle of subsidiarity
• Mater et Magistra shows church principles:– “Individual human beings are the foundation, the
cause & the end of every social institution”
• Disappointed by change of direction to “signs of the times” in Gaudium et Spes
Distributism & Property
• Felt close to Vincent McNabb’s ideas– linked Distributism to shift in Church teaching on
property rights
• Pius XII radio message on 50 years since Rerum Novarum:– private property a natural, fundamental human right– only this, not collectivism, will aid the masses– some redistribution necessary to promote right use
• Injustice of land distribution in Latin America a theme in van Gestel’s courses on international justice
Limits
• Distributist ideas were in the socio-economic chapter of Gaudium et Spes:
• “it is the right of public authority to prevent anyone from abusing his private property to the detriment of the common good”
• Yet van Gestel failed to comment on them
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