The World Movement of Christian Workers (Mouvement Mondial des Travailleurs Chrétiens) is the Catholic Church's officially recognized association for Catholic workingmen and women. It is a member organization of Vatican's Conference of International Catholic Organizations. The World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW/MMTC) does not have individual members but is a federation of various national movements. The affiliate in the United States is the Catholic Labor Network. In the UK, it is the Movement of Christian Workers. WMCW/MMTC activities are educational and evangelistic. The Movement bases its commitment on faith in Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the social teaching of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

. It is committed to working together with others - regardless of race, culture or creed - to improve their living conditions and build up a society without exclusions. The approach used by the Movement is based on the method developed by Joseph Cardijn to "see-judge-act". The world headquarters of the Movement is in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium.

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

is the working language of the headquarters.

History

Prior to World War II, in many European countries there developed different labor federations for Catholics,

Socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the econ ...

, Communists and liberals. All of these unions were abolished by the Nazi or other Right-Wing regimes in Axis Europe. The Vatican and others believed this division in the labor movement weakened its ability to defeat Nazism and other Right Wing totalitarian movements. After World War II, the Vatican discouraged re-formation of "

Christian trade unions The Catholic Church and politics concerns the interplay of Catholicism with religious, and later secular, politics. Historically, the Church opposed liberal ideas such as democracy, freedom of speech, and the separation of church and state unde ...

" (i.e. Catholic aligned labor unions) although it was not always successful. As an alternative to Catholic-based unions that negotiated contracts and represented workers to management, Christian worker associations were created as an educational, spiritual and social action movement rather than as a specific labor union. In the 1950s, the Catholic workers’ associations of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands decided to join forces to create an international structure to encourage exchanges and knowledge between individuals and different situations; to stimulate solidarity between workers’ movements; to foster the spread of Christian workers’ movements in the world; and to develop the apostolate in the labor world. In 1966, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of

Rerum Novarum ''Rerum novarum'' (from its incipit, with the direct translation of the Latin meaning "of revolutionary change"), or ''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor'', is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, pa ...

, it was given official recognition by the Holy See.

References

{{Authority control International associations of the faithful Catholic trade unions Christian trade unions

Trade unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Labor relations organizations Catholic social teaching Catholic advocacy groups Catholic lay organisations