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