An Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching Matthew 25:40 Matthew 25:40.

An Introduction toCatholic Social Teaching

Matthew 25:40

We choose to live grounded in your love, God of goodness,And to proclaim your wisdom, the path of justice and peace.

We are thankful for your call,For the Spirit that graces us,

For the social issues that engage us, and for the communities that embrace us.

You have gifted us and called us by name.Even in times of darkness we are moved toward

The Light of your Word.

We form the word peace,We sing out the word justice,

And we become, again and again,Part of the chorus that echoes

Your music, your hope, your vision.Jane Deren

Thanksgiving for the Call

What is Catholic Social Teaching?

Catholic Social Teaching is deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition.

Pope John Paul II wrote, “The Church’s social teaching finds its source in Sacred Scripture, beginning with the book of Genesis and especially in the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles. From the beginning it was part of the Church’s teaching...(It was) developed by the teaching of the Popes on the modern “social question,” beginning with the encyclical Rerum Novarum.”

John Paul II, On Human Work, 3.

Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching is Social.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable action they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: what I think, say, do, and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse.”

Benedict XVI Spe Salve, 48



...is an expression of the Church's ministry of teaching. It is not only the prerogative of the institutional church, but of the entire community. “It is the expression of the way that the Church understands society and of her position regarding social structures and changes. The whole of the church community – priests, religious, laity – participates in the formulation of this social doctrine.

(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

Jesus proclaims his ministry

When the book of the prophets was handed to him, he unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me;Therefore he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,To proclaim liberty to captives,Recovery of sight to the blind

And release to prisoners,To announce a year of favour from the Lord.”

Rolling up the scroll he gave it back to the assistant and sat down.Luke 4:16-20

“Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road, and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:32

Jesus and Scripture

Main themes

• Option for the Poor

• Care for God’s Creation

• Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

• Solidarity

• Rights and Responsibilities

Option for the Poor

Delay not to give. This rather is the fasting that I wish,

....sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless....

Isaiah 58:7

I ask you, how can God’s love survive in a man who has enough of this world’s goods yet closes his heart to his brother when he sees him in need?

1 John 3:17-18

Care for God’s Creation

• The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.

Genesis 2:15

• Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity – however invisible- have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made.

Romans 1:20

Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terrace on injustice; who works his neighbour without pay...

Jeremiah 22:13

At the end of every three years you must take all the tithes of your harvests for that year and deposit them at your doors. Then the Levite (since he has no share or inheritance with you), the stranger, the orphan, the widow........may come and eat.... So shall Yahweh your God bless you in all the work that your hands undertake.

Deuteronomy 14: 28-29

Solidarity

• These are the things you should do: speak the truth to one another; let there be honesty and peace in the judgements at your gate.

Zechariah 8:16

• If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it.

1 Corinthians 12:26

Rights and Responsibilities

• Never turn your face away from any poor man and God will never turn his from you.

Tobit 4:7

• Talk and behave like people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom........but the merciful need have no fear of judgement.

James 2:12-13

Tea Time !


• Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is the result of the church’s reflection upon human beings in society.

• Examines realities of life – economic, social political - from the point of view of the Catholic faith.

• Church’s response to a complex, challenging and changing world

• Not a fixed body of work – but evolving, relevant

The History of Catholic Social Teaching

• Developed fully over last 100 years.

• Foundation of contemporary teaching - encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in 1891, Rerum Novarum.

• On the Condition of Labour

• Industrial Revolution: poverty, exploitation, health

• Protection of basic economic and political rights; priority of labour over capital

• The church now speaking out on social issues

• Quadragesimo Anno - Reconstruction of the Social Order (Pius XI, 1931)

• Mater et Magistra - Christianity and Social Progress (John XXIII, 1961 )

• Pacem in Terris – Peace on Earth (John XXIII , 1963)


• The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, (Gaudium et Spes, 1965) - duty to ‘examine the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel’

• Justice in the World - Synod of Bishops, November, 1971, ‘constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel’


• Growing social consciousness and concern in official church teaching. Principles of CST are an intrinsic element of the Gospel message.

• Paul VI - Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 1967

• John Paul II: ‘to teach and to spread her social doctrine pertains to the Church's evangelizing mission and is an essential part of the Christian message.’ Centesimus Annus (1991).


• None of us can think we are exempt from concerns for the poor and for social justice

• An authentic faith always implies a deep desire to change the world

• People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens

Catholic Social Teaching‘The Church’s Best Kept Secret’

Pope Francis - places great emphasis on


The Documents of Catholic Social Teaching

• Encyclicals

• Documents of Vatican 2

• Documents from Bishops’ Conferences (eg Scottish Bishops' Statement on Peace and Disarmament, 1982; the Common Good – English Bishops, 1996)

• Other church documents

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004

Guiding principle of the Social Teaching of the Church

• Made in the image and likeness of God

• ‘the incomparable value of every human person’. (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995)

• ‘Individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution’. (John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, 1961).

• Basis of a vision for society in which all human beings can truly flourish

Dignity of the Human Person

Main themes

• Option for the Poor

• Care for God’s Creation

• Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

• Solidarity

• Rights and Responsibilities

Option for the Poor

• Recognises there are people who are poor and their need urgent

• They are in special need, and therefore have a special claim on Christians

• The Option or the Preferential Option recognises this claim

• Poor are not better or more loved by God - they are in circumstances which need an urgent response

Option for the Poor

“He who has the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in

him?” Everyone knows that the Fathers of the Church laid down the duty of the rich toward the poor in no uncertain terms. As St. Ambrose put it: ‘You are not making a gift of what is yours to the

poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich’.

Paul VI, On the Development of Peoples, (Populorum Progressio), 1967

Option for the Poor

This is an Option, a special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the

Church bears witness. It affects the life of each Christian inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ, but it applies equally to our social responsibilities and

hence to our manner of living.

John Paul II, The Social Concerns of the Church, (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis)

1987


• Earth belongs to God

• We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation.

• We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation

• Ethical and sustainable consumption


The web of life is one. Our mistreatment of the natural world diminishes our own dignity and sacredness, not only because we

are destroying resources that future generations of humans need, but because we are engaging in actions that contradict

what it means to be human. Our tradition calls us to protect the life and dignity of the human person, and it is increasingly clear that this task cannot be separated from the care and defence of

all of creation.

USCCB. Renewing The Earth, 1991


We are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment. This responsibility knows no boundaries. In

accordance with the principle of subsidiarity it is important for everyone to be committed at his or her proper level, working to overcome the prevalence of

particular interests.

Benedict XVI, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2010.

The ‘Green’ Pope


• Labour over capital. People before profit. The economy must serve the people

• Decent and fair wages, the organization of unions - protect the dignity of work by protecting the rights of the workers

• Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God's creation



The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach

satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain

social peace

John Paul II: The Hundredth Year, (Centesimus Annus), 1991

I would like to remind everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets,

that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity:

“Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life”.

Benedict XV1, Charity in Truth, (Caritas in Veritate), 2009quoting

The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), 1965


Solidarity

• Recognition that we belong to one human family; our interdependence is a positive factor

• Participation in the building up of community – common good

• Promotion of the rights, development, full potential of all people

• Is a way of “being with” our sisters and our brothers around the world.

Solidarity

..is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the

good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.

John Paul II: On Social Concern, (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) 1987

Solidarity

It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral — and not simply economic — act. Hence the

consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in-hand with the social responsibility of the

enterprise. It can be helpful to promote new ways of marketing products from deprived areas of the world, so as

to guarantee their producers a decent return.

Benedict XV1, Charity in Truth, (Caritas in Veritate), (2009)


• Human dignity can be protected only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met

• Rights - fundamental right to life. Also include the right to food, clothing, shelter

• Responsibilities - inseparable from rights – responsibilities to one another, to one’s family and to the larger community


There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties

are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human

life: for example, food, clothing, housing, the right freely to choose their state of life and set up a family, the right to

education, work, to their good name, to respect, to proper knowledge, the right to act according to the dictates of

conscience and to safeguard their privacy, and rightful freedom, including freedom of religion.

Paul VI, The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), 1965


A well-ordered human society requires that men recognize and observe their mutual rights and duties. It also demands that each contribute generously to the establishment of a

civic order in which rights and duties are more sincerely and effectively acknowledged and fulfilled.

John XXIII, Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris), 1963

• is authoritative Church teaching on social, political and economic issues

• is informed by Scripture and reflection on Christian life

• is not an optional teaching

• has no particular political philosophy

• is not a programme


‘...provides principles for reflection and decision-making, criteria and standards for faith centred

action’ (John Paul II)

SO THAT

we can try to live our faith in justice and peace


Some things to think about..

Each of these themes has implications for our faith and for practical action. Choose one or two, reflect on the quotations and then consider:– What are the faith implications?– What is being done/what can be

done – practically – As individuals As a parish – or diocesan -

community As a church

Option for the Poor


Dignity of Work and the Rights of

Workers

Solidarity


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