Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching is defined by The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society. Modern Catholic social teaching has been articulated through a tradition of papal, conciliar, and episcopal documents that explore and express the social demands of our faith. The depth and richness of this tradition can be understood best through a direct reading of these documents (Schnurr, “Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions”). Catholic social teaching offers moral principles and values that are extremely needed in this time. However, in this time of excessive violence in our country and around the world, the Word of God and call to justice need to be proclaimed and shared in layman’s term with a sense of urgency.

The meaning of catholic social teaching seems to be very broad and difficult to conclude although it is outlined with seven principles. The seven principles of Catholic social teaching summarized are; respect the human person, promote the family, protect property rights, work for the common good, observe the principle of subsidiarity, respect work and the worker and pursue peace and care for the poor. Although these seven principles seem easy to grasp, many episcopal documents of the Catholic Church are not clear and easy to understand. However, what is very clear is their belief in Jesus and him being fully God and fully human as well as the infallibility of the pope.

The Catholic Church mission is to continue the works of Jesus Christ and to make his name known and loved. The mission of the Catholic Church and the scope of social teaching must be taught together and not separated. Reports from the Task Force on Catholic social Teaching and Catholic Education noted that there are many innovative efforts by Catholic educators to communicate the social doctrine of the Church, however, it is...