• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A health care worker in Royal Oak, Mich., tests for the coronavirus
A health care worker in Royal Oak, Mich., tests for the coronavirus outside Beaumont Hospital March 17, 2020. (CNS photo/Jim West)

On Labor Day, remember sacrifices of essential workers, archbishop says

September 4, 2020
By Archbishop William E. Lori
Filed Under: Commentary, Coronavirus, Feature

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

This year, our nation’s observance of Labor Day carries a sobering significance. We are painfully aware of the sacrifices that so many “essential” workers have made over the last several months, sadly too often sacrificing their very lives in their service to others. As well, we feel deep concern for all who have suffered a loss of employment due to the shutdown of so many aspects of our lives.

It is especially disconcerting to witness how this impact has highlighted entrenched disparities in our social and economic systems. As Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, points out in the annual USCCB Labor Day statement, “[T]he virus has spread widely among essential workers such as meat packers, agricultural workers, healthcare providers, janitors, transit workers, emergency responders, and others. As a result, low wage workers, migrant workers, and workers of color, have borne a disproportionate share of the costs of the pandemic.”

Since the publication in 1891 of Rerum Novarum on the “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor,” the Catholic Church has consistently stood for the rights of workers and especially the marginalized in society. Today, our solidarity especially with the working poor, the unemployed, and communities of color who too often bear the brunt of unjust economic disparities, is more important than ever.

In continuing this tradition of the Church, we must recognize anew our urgent responsibility to shine the light on inequities in preparing people for gainful employment, challenging hiring practices that deny opportunity and perpetuate homogeneity rather diversity in our workplaces. Importantly, we remain fully committed to the work begun through our archdiocesan Racial Justice initiative to speak out against racial injustice, to promote social and economic equity, and to take action to change structures within and without the Church that contribute to these disparities.

We are mindful as well of our rural and working class communities who are equally shouldering the burden of our current-day challenges. In the face of such great need, we must do all we can throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore to reach across racial, geographical, economic and other barriers to share generously our compassion, our support, and where we can, our material assistance with our brothers and sisters.

Let us take time this weekend to reflect on how God might be calling us to a renewed understanding of how we lives our lives, and how we must act to right the economic and social injustices of our society. As Pope Francis reminds us, “Our civilization — so competitive, so individualistic, with its frenetic rhythms of production and consumption, its extravagant luxuries, its disproportionate profits for just a few — needs to downshift, take stock, and renew itself.” (Letter to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020)

May the words of our Lord inspire our efforts to bring comfort to all who seek our help: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Copyright © 2020 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Archbishop William E. Lori

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

How to grow in faith for back-to-school

New law will help families access America’s Catholic schools

Our faith is not afraid of questions

Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Question Corner: Does reception of the Eucharist replace confession?

| Recent Local News |

Grillo Family Reflection Space

Loyola University Maryland receives $1 million gift supporting aspiring educators, creation of reflection space

Sister Miriam Jansen, former director of international programs at Notre Dame of Maryland, dies at 86

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Men’s religious leaders confront change with fraternity and faith

Sister Rose Sylvia Lindner, S.S.N.D., dies at 91

Radio Interview: The true story of ‘Xavier Rynne’

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Loyola University Maryland receives $1 million gift supporting aspiring educators, creation of reflection space
  • Festival of digital missionaries celebrates faithful witness in the digital age
  • Sister Miriam Jansen, former director of international programs at Notre Dame of Maryland, dies at 86
  • Movie Review: ‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’
  • New law will help families access America’s Catholic schools
  • Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon
  • How to grow in faith for back-to-school
  • US prelates head to Japan on ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’ amid nuclear fears old and new
  • World will hear young people’s joy, shouting for peace on earth, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en