ANNE TUOHY outlines the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and addresses three papal encyclicals which promote these teachings. 

Catholic Social Teaching emerges from the very heart of our faith tradition. It is the name given to the body of Church teaching that outlines the social and communal rights and obligations of the Catholic community. The United States Catholic Bishops Conference describes Catholic Social Teaching as a central and essential element of our faith. Its roots are in the Hebrew prophets who announced God’s special love for the poor and called God’s people to a covenant of love and justice. It is a teaching founded on the life and words of Jesus Christ, who came “to bring glad tidings to the poor . . . liberty to captives . . . recovery of sight to the blind” (Lk 4:18–19), and who identified himself with “the least of these,” the hungry and the stranger (See Mt 25:45).

Ten Core Principles

Catholic Social Teaching is built around 10 core principles and is fundamentally concerned with the well-being or flourishing of communities. These principles seek to shape our social and communal relationships in ways that more clearly reflect the love and justice of God.

The central principle of Catholic Social Teaching is the affirmation of the dignity of the human person. This is woven throughout all the Church’s teachings and grounded in the intimate relationship between God, humanity and the world outlined in the first chapters of Genesis. The creation of the human person in the “image and likeness of God” as the final gift of creation makes human life both sacred and relational. So human persons are valuable in and of themselves and flourish when they live in “right relationship” with God, one another and creation.

The other core Catholic Social Teaching principles of the preferential option for the poor; the common good; human rights and responsibilities; responsibilities of Governments; participation; economic justice; the stewardship of creation; the promotion of peace; and global solidarity, are understood within the framework of human dignity.

These principles are not exclusive nor do they stand in isolation from each other. For example, the preferential option for the poor requires us to honour the dignity of all human persons and advocate for economically just systems. Similarly, a key focus for the principle of the role of government is the protection of human dignity and promotion of the common good. And the pursuit of the common good demands the stewardship of creation and economic justice be taken seriously. The interconnection of these principles and the way they work together can be seen in the following brief exploration of three Social Teaching documents.

Of Revolutionary Change

The first official teaching on social issues in modern times was Rerum Novarum (1891) which dealt with the conditions of labour and the rights of workers. Published by Pope Leo XIII this was a ground-breaking document that critiqued the unequal distribution of wealth and the wretched social conditions that accompanied the industrial revolution. Rerum Novarum insisted all workers had the right to legal protection from exploitation and argued human dignity and equality of persons was the basic starting point for a moral vision for society. At a time when many believed some people were intrinsically more valuable than others Rerum Novarum’s claim to a common human dignity was quite radical. Although it is 125 years since the publication of this document the exploitation of vulnerable workers is still happening. The high levels of global migration and increasingly unequal distribution of wealth has created a new group of vulnerable workers and working poor whose plight, like those in the industrial revolution, we are obliged to address.

The Social Concern

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) engaged the social and ethical concerns of global development in the late twentieth century. It is one of many Church documents written to draw attention to the dehumanising effects poverty and the unequal distribution of goods has on communities. However, this encyclical was unique as it was the first time Pope John Paul II formally addressed the reality of structural or social sin. If the dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society, the way society treats its poorest and most vulnerable members is the moral measure of that society. Accordingly, this document condemned social structures that did not work to reduce poverty or promote a more equitable access to goods and services as inherently unjust.

John Paul II noted the global cooperation so hopefully anticipated in Populorum Progressio (1967) had failed to protect the poor. Global solidarity was seriously weakened as global communities were marked by isolationism, imperialism and exaggerated concerns for security.

Thirty years after Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, the “super-development” of wealthy nations and the lack of practical concern for the poorest and most marginalised groups has been a major factor in widening the gap between the rich and poor. Isolationism and the national security concerns of the 1980s have grown and the commitment to global solidarity has deteriorated to the extent that many countries are unwilling to respond humanely to the plight of the world’s refugees.

Praised Be

The latest document in the body of Catholic Social Teaching is Laudato Si’ (2015). Laudato Si’ engages the current ecological crisis as an issue of social justice that has urgent social, spiritual, cultural, political, geographic, scientific and economic implications for the entire planet. This wide-ranging document explores the fracturing of the relationship between humanity and creation, critiquing the inherently unjust social, economic and political attitudes and structures that have allowed the exploitation of creation for the benefit of the powerful.

Pope Francis highlights the deep and essential connections between the health of our human communities and the health of our planet, emphasising we have ethical responsibilities that extend beyond our personal interests or national borders.

Like Rerum Novarum and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Laudato Si’ highlights the reality that it is the poorest communities and the poorest nations who are the first and most deeply affected by unjust systems. So how we organise our societies in economics and politics through policy and law, and how we treat creation in our access to and use of our common resources, impacts not only on the humanity of others but on the integrity of our own humanity.

The Social Teachings of the Church are not pious or personal demands but concrete and communal expressions of the justice, mercy and compassion of God. And while their key focus is on the flourishing and well-being of communities, they start with the dignity of each and every human person and extend to the well-being of creation itself.

In challenging us to reflect the nature of the God who created us, Catholic Social Teaching clearly reminds us we are ethically obligated to structure our social and communal relationships so that “whatsoever we do for one of the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for God” (Mt 25:40).

Published in Tui Motu Magazine Issue 212 February 2017:4-5.