Social Teachings of the Catholic Church

What are the sources of CST?

- Revelation / Scripture
- Reason / Natural Law
- Tradition
- Experience
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How does CST use scripture?
- Sometimes passages are cited directly in the text of encyclicals, to borrow an insight
or to justify a judgment.
 E.g in Quadragesimo Anno (QA) of Pope Pius XI quotes a verse in
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to urge us to develop bonds of
solidarity, since, as Paul writes, if one part suffers, all parts suffer with
it.
- Sometimes biblical materials are used more indirectly to evoke a sense of urgency or
obligation.
 E.g. in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis of John Paul II wanted to inspire a
greater sharing of resources between rich and poor nations and alludes
to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
- This use of scriptures in CST reveals a confidence in the relevance today of God’s
word in scripture.
- Some Cautions:
o The use of Sacred Scriptures as proof text: an isolated text is used to prove
an assertion for the present time w/o considering the difference between
the biblical and contemporary contexts. There is also a danger of taking
the text out of its original biblical context.
o One cannot apply SS in a timeless manner to different historical situations
o SS is not confronted with the same moral problems we have today.
Reason/Natural
- Aside from the revelation in scripture, Catholic Theology holds that we can also
access God’s will by the use of reason.
- Catholic theology has an optimistic view of the operations of human reason to seek
the truth.
- One specific way of using reason in ethics is to use natural law reasoning.
- The natural law approach to ethics has the fundamental belief that God created the
universe with a specific purpose.
- God so created human beings with enough intelligence that they can use their reason
to observe the natural world and make reliable judgments about God’s purposes and
how our behavior may cooperate with God’s plans.
- There are two strains of interpretation in the natural law tradition.
o The Order of Nature: focused on the physical and biological structures
given in nature as the source of morality. The order of nature
interpretation of natural law suggests a blueprint or maker’s instructions
theory of natural law which supports physicalism over personalism. It is a

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 natural fundamentalism which makes the law of God and the rule of nature
one.
o The Order of Reason: focused on the human capacity to discover in
experience what befits human well-being. In the order of reason, nature
includes the total complexity of human reality taken in all its relationships
and with all its potentials. Nature is constantly changing; it continues to
make a new demand on us. As a result, change, revision and development
would be constitutive of natural moral law. What pertains to nature is
accessible to all and provides the potential with which human creativity
must deal in order to achieve human wholeness. The order of reason
approach is more visible in catholic social teachings.
- Natural law helps direct our freedom in moral matters but it does not determine the
specific course of action we should choose. At best, we can draw general principles
from natural law, the most basic is to seek and promote the good and avoid,
whenever possible, the evil. Other such principles are: preserve life whenever
possible, do no harm, protect the innocent. That is why natural law is called a
skeleton law. We use reason to find the best ways to implement these principles
through concrete actions.

How is natural law used in CST?

- Natural law has been used, particularly, in the early encyclicals, to criticize unjust
arrangement of property and wages. Leo XIII and Pius XI saw how the unjust
distributions of property and unfair wages have cause great poverty and starvation for
millions. This situation of suffering was seen as a violation of God’s purpose for the
world and thus they called for a change in the capitalist order, calling for just wages
suitable not only for the survival but also the rise of families from poverty and
socially responsible use of property. Even if civil law did not require better treatment
of workers, the popes used a higher law, natural law, to demand the preservation of
life and greater respect for the aspirations of workers and their families to rise above
poverty.

Tradition
- when we talk about tradition as a source of CST, we refer to all the previous
reflections on social issues that have gone on within Christian Theology
- an easy way to trace the source of previous reflection on social issues is simply to
check on the footnotes of the social document. Most of the encyclicals have
references to not only to previous documents but also to great figures in the history of
the church who have written or spoken on social issues, such as Augustine and
Aquinas.
- By looking at the history of theological thinking on specific social issues one can
trace a growth or development in social teachings.
o E.g. private property – Fathers of the Church have denounced
greed and selfishness in their time and advocated a radical sharing
of property. St. Thomas forged a compromise between teaching of
the Fathers on sharing of goods and the social situation that
required ownership of private property. He used natural law

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 reasoning to make a distinction between the ownership and the
use of property. He applied the teachings of the Fathers on
sharing to the use of property while keeping private ownership of
goods as a necessary social principle in a world marked by sin.
o The use of force –before Constantine, the early Christian
communities were pacifist and rejected shedding of blood. By the
time of Augustine, when violent heretical movements were
threatening Christian society, he advocated the use of military
force when absolutely necessary to preserve order. He founded the
tradition of just war which was later developed by Aquinas and
Francisco Suarez and a strict list of conditions was formed which
can justify a defensive war. This theory of just war would be later
refined and re-applied to various situations of war as modern
warfare continues to change.

Experience
- Part of the task of CST is to read the signs of the times and to help people of faith to
also read and interpret the sign of the times
- 3 steps process:
 Take a careful look at the situation
 Make an accurate judgment of situation and how best to respond to it
 Act courageously and vigorously upon what has been learned
- SEE – JUDGE – ACT
- A more elaborate version of SEE-JUDGE-ACT is a four step process usually called
pastoral circle
 EXPERIENCE
 SOCIAL ANALYSIS
 THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
 PASTORAL PLANNING
II. Method: Pastoral Cycle
- EXPERIENCE: requires insertion into a local situation and gathering of data about
social problems and their effects. Needs courage and a willingness to enter into
unfamiliar, uncomfortable and even dangerous situation. Getting hands dirty.
- SOCIAL ANALYSIS: asking hard questions about the causes of injustices and the
connection of the issues, trying to see who or what is responsible behind-the-scenes
for social problems and what systems or patterns of activity perpetuate them. This
step may require the assistance of experts. However, it is good to have a healthy sense
of skepticism about how much we are told. The best thing to do is to listen to all sides
before making a judgment. It is very important to make one’s own independent and
critical judgment, because the whole process can be defeated by giving into a
misleading interpretation.
- THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION: this step accompanies social analysis and gives us
tools to make proper judgments about social realities. This stage reminds us that the
data we gather must be viewed in the light of faith. It is here where Scriptures and the
documents of CST are most useful, providing us new insights and raise new questions
which may be overlooked if we just use social analysis.

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 - PASTORAL PLANNING: to design programs of action that, by taking advantage of
previous experience and reflection upon lessons of the past, will be helpful in meeting
upcoming challenges
- The pastoral circle is completed when we are able to return to the experience
equipped with what we have learned so far.
- This is not one-time episode but is an ongoing process. Less of a circle but a spiral,
- At the end of each project we do not end up where we started but we are in a better
location, better informed of our social context and better prepared to take effective
action in the next round of involvement.

How is Catholic social teaching connected to social ministry?

- Catholic Social Teaching is related to social ministry because if offers wisdom and
guidance on dealing with the social issues of our day. It analyzes economic, political
and societal influences and offers a synthesis of the issues with an eye towards
creating a society that is a more fair and equal. It calls us to build a society that most
resembles God’s kingdom on earth. (www.catholiccharities-md.org)

7 Principles of CST

- Dignity of the Human Person

- Call to Family, Community and Participation
- Rights and Responsibilities
- Preferential Option for and with People who are Poor
- Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
- Solidarity
- Care for God’s Creation