Dear sisters and brothers,
During this Labor Day weekend, our nation honors the dignity of human labor—whether they be white collar worker, blue collar worker, citizen, undocumented, urban, suburban, or rural workers.
It is long standing teaching to support working people, based on the innate dignity of the human person. Pope St. John Paul II frequently wrote about the dignity of the human worker. In 1986, he addressed a large crowd of people in Sydney, Australia: “It must be said over and over again that work is for people, not people for work. Every consideration of the value of work must begin with the worker, and every solution proposed to the problems of the social order must recognize the primacy of the human person over things…The worker is always more important than profits and machines.”
The primacy of the human person stems from our God-given dignity. God created each of us in the image of the Triune God. Our dignity grants us not only rights for ourselves, but also responsibilities to others, without distinction based on age, race, gender, immigration status or other aspects of our identity. Our right to life includes a responsibility to ensure everyone has what it takes to live, including meaningful work, a just wage and the freedom to join a union. Unions are the surest way to protect our rights at work.
Pope Leo XIII enshrined the Church’s support for workers’ rights in the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” in 1891. He was responding to economic changes brought about by the industrial revolution of the late 1890’s. In our current time of great socio-economic change, Cardinal Robert Prevost selected the papal name of Leo XIV in respect to Pope Leo XIII. In his first meeting with the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo XIV offered the Church’s social teaching to the world. “In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that poses new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
Sisters and brothers, in the greater New York City area, we have workers from all walks of life. What do we have in common? God has called each of us to respect the dignity of work and of working people. As we celebrate Labor Day, we must remember it is more than a day off or a picnic. Rather it is a sacred day to honor the human dignity of working people!
Blessed Labor Day to all,
Brother Domingo Martinez, OFM
Brother Domingo is currently assigned to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi from July 2025 to July 2026 for his pastoral year of formation. He is studying at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois to be a Franciscan priest. Before joining the Franciscans, Brother Domingo worked for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) for fifteen years at its headquarters in Washington D.C. Once ordained, Brother Domingo hopes to be a labor priest.