And from that time, that is, more or less from the middle of the last century, begins the organization of workers on a larger scale in the name of the rights of man, in the name of the value and worthiness of labor. Everything that workers did in the name of their slogans was good.

And today one may say boldly that the cause of labor is the most important one, and that progress, the development and happiness of the whole nation, of all mankind, depends on its just resolution. Workers today have more privileges than they have ever had.

In this reasonable and just struggle for rights, bread for the family and education for children, for common control of the wealth created by the worker, our holy Church stands before the worker like a pillar of tire, and the hand of Christ blesses him in his work.

From an address by Bishop Francis Hodur at a reception for Maciej Leszczyński held in Scranton’s town hall on November 30, 1919. Mr. Leszczyński was in the United States as a delegate to the International Conference of Workers.

The struggle for the protection of workers rights continues. I urge my readers to look into the issue of wage theft and other abuses that are occurring at an alarming rate. Abuses as grave as virtual slavery and forced child labor still occur. Unfortunately, and I know this from first hand experience, this is not history but is happening down the street today. The pictures of abused workers from the early 1900’s are just as real today.

The cry of the abused worker struggling to feed his family, to obtain health care, to actually get paid for the value of his work echos the words from Deuteronomy 26:5-9:

“And you shall make response before the LORD your God, `A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.
Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression;
and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders;
and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.'”

May their cry be heard and may we as a Church respond and lift them up. Bishop Hodur led the effort to lift up our grandfathers and great-grandfathers from hard bondage and this is our heritage and our call. Let us not forget.