Awards

• Commended for CPA Book Award for Social Concerns 6 (United States)
• Winner of Catholic Press Association Book Award for Social Teaching (United States).
• Winner of Catholic Press Association, Social Concerns (United States).
• Winner of CPA Book Award for Social Teaching (United States).
• Winner of CPA Book Award for Social Teaching 6 (United States)

Overview

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 drastically changed the delivery of social services in the United States for the first time in sixty years. More than a decade later, according to Catholic social ethicist Thomas Massaro, a disturbing gap exists between the laws we have enacted as a nation and the moral concerns we profess as a people. Massaro contends that ethicists too often focus on strictly theoretical concerns rather than engaging concrete social and political issues, while public policy experts are uncomfortable drawing ethical judgments about legislation. United States Welfare Policy takes a fresh approach to the topic by using Catholic social teaching as a lens through which to view contemporary American welfare policies, citing the tradition's emphasis on serving the needy—including a preferential option for the poor—and the common good. Massaro maintains that the most important outcome of welfare policy is not the cost-effectiveness of programs, but the well-being of individual families. The concluding analysis of this thoughtful study applies Catholic ethical concerns to specific aspects of welfare reform, including the funding mechanisms for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, work participation requirements affecting the bond between mothers and children, eligibility rules, the intrusion of family caps into reproductive decisions, and the imposition of disproportionate burdens upon particular demographic groups. Massaro offers possible alternatives in each case and, as the fight over reauthorization of the welfare act continues, he calls on Catholic churches and clergy and laity to take action and advocate publicly for a more ethical approach to welfare reform.

Full Product Details

9781589011557

Table of Contents

Reviews

Massaro's holistic reliance on theology, political narrative, and an assessment of the law's measurable human impact contributes to a fuller picture of welfare reform than [is] available in most accounts. -- Commonweal [A] valuable resource in setting out what religious social ethics require of a more just welfare policy. -- Politics and Religion

The distinctiveness of this text is that it constitutes an excellent case study of how to connect the ethical principles of a faith-based tradition to a specific public policy. --John Francis Burke, University of St. Thomas This new volume should set moral theology on a new course with its detailed integration of Catholic social teaching and the concrete realities of welfare policy in America. --John T. Pawlikowski, O.S.M.,Catholic Theological Union This well-reasoned study by an expert in Catholic social thought offers an excellent explanation of the Catholic Church's firm belief that the government is morally required to provide for assistance to all persons in the event of sickness, unemployment and old age--it is, in fact, the government's duty to make certain that all persons have those things necessary to preserve human dignity. --Robert F. Drinan, S.J., professor of law, Georgetown University Law Center

Author Information

Thomas J. Massaro, SJ, a Jesuit priest of the New England Province, is associate professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action and coeditor of American Catholic Social Teaching.

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