Catholic Social TeachingWhat is Catholic Social Teaching?Catholic Social Teaching (CST), also called Catholic Social Doctrine, is the collective name given to the Roman Catholic Church’s various pronouncements on matters of social justice. These pronouncements usually take the form of Papal Encyclical Letters, which are topical studies sometimes prepared by a commission of experts but ultimately authorised by the Pope for wide circulation. The name ‘encyclical’ comes from the Latin encyclicus, meaning ‘circular’. CST has its origins in the Gospel and the great prophets of Israel, but is also shaped by contemporary social sciences. It articulates the social dimensions of Jesus’ message. When Jesus proclaims sight to the blind, freedom to slaves, healing to lepers, and refuge for orphans, widows and strangers, he is not only promising individual salvation, but also inaugurating a new society, the ‘kingdom of God’, ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. CST took a decisive turn in the late nineteenth century, given the diabolical conditions of workers in the laissez faire boom of industry in Europe. In 1892 Pope Leo XIII produced Rerum Novarum (meaning literally ‘Of new things…..’), arguing that capital should not dominate labour, but that capital and labour were complementary, and asserting the rights of workers to form unions and to receive a just wage.1 Since then the Church has entered into social debates at several critical periods. CST does not offer an ideology, nor does it offer a political program. The Church’s teaching is essentially theological in nature, but it is grounded in the critical social questions of the day and draws on emerging truths established through contemporary social, economic and political sciences. In 1992. in celebrating the centenary of Rerum Novarum, John Paul II thus wrote of Catholic Social Teaching: This teaching…is to be found at the crossroads where Christian life and conscience come into contact with the real world. [it] is seen in the efforts of individuals, families, people involved in cultural and social life, as well as politicians and statesmen, to give it a concrete form and application in history. (Centesimus Annus, §59) While the foundations of CST in the Gospel remain constant, Catholic Social Teaching develops as society evolves. Over the past century, four principles that constitute the very heart of CST have emerged. They are:
These principles are of both a general and a fundamental character. They underpin a set of interrelated rules for engagement at every level of society and the body politic. They shape CST’s middle road between extreme capitalism and extreme socialism, between individualism and totalitarianism, between anarchy and tyranny, and between paternalism and instrumentalism. They also shape CST’s more radical teachings on self-sacrificing love and the preferential option for the poor and as the ultimate strategies to achieve community, peace, freedom and love. In recent years Catholic Social Teaching has spoken more positively of the importance of human rights. The following six sections unfold each of the four fundamental principles and then consider the Church’s teaching on human rights and some particular applications of Catholic Social Teaching in the area of public policy. The Dignity of the Human PersonIn a word, this principle stands for freedom. The inviolable dignity of the human person, independent of race, creed, gender, sexuality, age or ability, is the foundation of Catholic Social Teaching. No human being, therefore, can be ‘used’ in such a way that their own dignity and freedom are compromised. The Church insists on the dignity of the human person for both theological and philosophical reasons. Theologically, every person has dignity because every person is believed to be created in the image of God and every person is saved through the self-sacrificing love of Jesus, a love that the community of the faithful continues to express. Every person, no matter how wounded, is therefore to be reverenced as a sacrament of God’s love. Philosophically, and in particular following the philosophy of personalism, the human person is seen as being of unique and irreplaceable value because he or she is potentially open to the infinite and the fullness of being, and therefore connected with all other beings. In the personalist view, the human person is primarily a ‘subject’ rather than an ‘object’, and spiritual well-being is ultimately more important than physical well-being, though both go together. A person is therefore important because of who he or she is rather than because of what he or she produces, because of relationships rather than because of material possessions. Persons should have the freedom to ‘be’ and to ‘become’, and society is the place in which human beings come to fulfilment. Persons therefore have equal dignity and equal rights. The rights and freedoms of persons, however, are related to and moderated by, the principle of the common good. The Common GoodIn a word, this principle stands for interdependence.The principle of the common good asserts that every person and all peoples should have sufficient access to the goods and resources of society so that they can reach their fulfilment more completely and more easily. ‘Goods’ includes not only material goods like property and possessions, but also social resources like education and health care. The principle of the common good is closely akin to the principle of social justice. The principle of the common rests on the dignity, equality and interdependence of all persons. The common good, the Church argues, can be the only authentic reason for the existence of any human society. Society exists because people are interdependent and people achieve fulfilment through being together. Thus, when we work together to improve the well-being of people in our society, or to improve the well-being of people in the world community, we are working for the common good. Politicians, in particular, have the difficult task of ensuring the common good through the balancing of sectoral interests and the requirements of justice. CST is radical in its claim that people are more important than material goods. The principle of the common good balances rights to personal possessions and community resources with the needs of the disadvantaged and dispossessed. The Church thus declares its ‘preferential option for the poor’. In 1988 Pope John Paul II wrote of the Option for the Poor: 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, and to the logical decisions to be made concerning the ownership and use of goods. (See Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §42) The Church’s teaching on the common good both anticipates and supports current public policy discussions for the improvement of economic and political institutions. First, for example, Michael Sandel, long time Professor of government at Harvard University, devoted his 2009 Reith Lectures to ‘A New Citizenship: The Prospect of a New Politics for the Common Good’. Sandel argues: Whatever reforms may emerge, one thing is clear: the better kind of politics we need is a politics oriented less to the pursuit of individual self-interest and more to the pursuit of the common good.2 SubsidiarityThis principle stands for participation and empowerment. The principle of subsidiarity recognises that civil society consists of a network of institutions and associations, and it respects the appropriate autonomy and authority of such bodies. In other words, States should support, promote and develop the social groups and networks that make up society. Put negatively, States should neither interfere in nor restrict the initiative, freedom and responsibilities of small elements of society. (The principle of the common good, however, moderates the rights of any sub-elements of society to harm the good order of the wider community.) Practically speaking, the principle of subsidiarity opposes totalitarian centralised government and encourages the delegation of authority and resources to appropriate levels in society, so that decisions can be made on the ground by those closest to the issues and concerns they face. The principle recognises, however, that on various occasions it may be appropriate for the State to step in to supply certain functions. The principle of subsidiarity respects and encourages participation at all levels of society: Participation in community life is one of the greatest aspirations of the citizen, called to exercise freely and responsibly their civic role with and for others. (see Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §§44-45) SolidarityThis principle stands for love and action. Solidarity is more than a feeling of vague compassion for victims of tragedies: On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good. That is to say, the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. (see Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §38) The principle of solidarity is traced back to the Gospel of Jesus and the command to love our neighbour as ourself. Solidarity is found in a commitment to the good of one’s neighbour with the readiness, in the Gospel sense, to ‘lose oneself’ for the sake of the other instead of exploiting them, and to ‘serve them’ instead of oppressing them for one’s own advantage. (see Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, §38) Philosophically, the principle of solidarity highlights the intrinsic social nature of the human person and the fact that we are all interconnected. Further, it explores the idea that as members of society we are in debt to society: we owe something back to the society that surrounds us with goods. Even further still, solidarity takes us into the mysticism of self-sacrifice and love for one another, arising out of a sense of the profound unity of all beings, the many being one. Catholic Social Teaching and Human RightsAlthough human rights are not identified as a fundamental principle of CST, the language of rights has been prominent from the assertion of the rights of workers to a just wage to the defence of the right of every person to life. The Catholic Church has strongly supported the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948. Thus Pope John Paul II described the Universal Declaration as ‘a true milestone on path of humanity’s moral progress’ (address to United Nations, 1979). In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI addressed the United nations in similar terms: The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly demonstrates that respect for rights, and the guarantees that follow from them, are measures of the common good that serve to evaluate the relationship between justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and conflict. The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security. The Church insists on the complementarity of rights and duties, however, seeing them as indissolubly linked in the human person who possesses them. For this reason, the Church’s primary focus is on the human person and the common good, rather than on human rights. The two approaches are nonetheless entirely compatible. Some Particular Applications of Catholic Social TeachingThe four key principles of Catholic Social Teaching have been applied to particular social questions arising at critical times in recent history. As a result, a series of positions have been developed. For example,
Catholic Social Teaching and Public PolicyCatholic Social Teaching offers an explicit contribution to public policy discussions. Like much public policy, it is in part shaped by social sciences. Again, like much public policy, it is also shaped by the ethos of the people, given that the ethos of the people can arguably be interpreted as the fruits of the good spirit moving among them. It may differ from public policy, however, in being based on what it sees as fundamental moral and spiritual values, rather than on a particular ideology, or political expediency or on instrumentalist strategies aimed at discovering ‘what works’ to achieve particular ends. Appendix:Catholic Social Teaching: Key DocumentsA summary of Catholic Social teaching can be found in the Vatican’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Strathfield: St Pauls, 2004), also available at: The key documents of Catholic Social Teaching are listed below (the official translations regrettably do not generally use inclusive language):
Catholic Social Teaching linksFor local links, see:
For comprehensive international sites, see:
For an on-line library of documents and commentaries on Catholic Social Teaching, see: 1 A list of the key documents of Catholic Social Teaching is provided below in an appendix to this paper. 2 Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lb6bt. Sandel wants ‘to think about whether we need to foster deeper moral and spiritual values in our public life’ and argues that. ‘Whatever reforms may emerge, one thing is clear: the better kind of politics we need is a politics oriented less to the pursuit of individual self-interest and more to the pursuit of the common good.’ |
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