Catholic Social Teaching
The Gospel has consequences for how we treat one another, in the family, at work, and in public life.
Catholic social teaching is the Church’s reflection on how to live the Gospel in society. Its roots are in Scripture and in the practice of the first Christians. As a modern body of teaching it is usually dated from 1891, when Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Rerum Novarum on the condition of workers. Popes and councils have developed it ever since.
It is not a political program and does not belong to any party. It offers principles by which every political and economic arrangement can be judged.
Seven themes
The bishops of the United States summarize this teaching in seven themes.
- Life and dignity of the human person: every person is made in the image of God, from conception to natural death.
- Call to family, community, and participation: we are social by nature, and the family is the first community.
- Rights and responsibilities: every person has rights, and duties that correspond to them.
- Option for the poor and vulnerable: a society is tested by how its weakest members fare.
- The dignity of work and the rights of workers: the economy exists for people, not people for the economy.
- Solidarity: we are one human family, and we are responsible for one another.
- Care for God’s creation: the earth is a gift to be tended, not merely used.
Living it
Most of us will not write policy. We will decide how to treat a coworker, whether to visit a lonely neighbor, what to do with money, how to speak about people we disagree with. Catholic social teaching begins there, in the works of mercy the Church has always practiced: feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and the imprisoned.
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican).