Catholic Social Teaching

Friends, Welcome!

I’m so excited that you’ve chosen to join in this endeavor of digging into the practices and principals that make-up Catholic Social Teaching (CST) . What a great way to carry the light of Christ into the world at a time when it is most certainly in need of the love and compassion that the Body of Christ has to offer.

Overview

There are seven themes covered by these teachings, and they are as follows:

Life and Dignity of the Human Person, Part 1

Life and Dignity of the Human Person, Part 2

Call to Community, Family & Participation, Part 1

Call to Community, Family & Participation, Part 2

Rights & Responsibilities

Option for the Poor & Vulnerable, Part 1

Option for the Poor & Vulnerable, Part 2

Dignity of Work & Rights of Workers, Part 1

Dignity of Work & Rights of Workers, Part 2

Solidarity, Part 1

Solidarity, Part 2

Care for Creation, Part 1

Care for Creation, Part 2

As we journey together through these seven themes, my hope is to give you a baseline reading and introduction to the concepts, while offering resources and further reading that you can seek out and delve into, supplementally. I’m dedicating two weeks to each theme. Go at your own pace. If one topic really speaks to you, dig in. If one presents more of a challenge, I am going to encourage you to dig deeper. Try to identify what the rub is. You might ask:

-Is it a new angle or an awareness of a worldview that might require a second look?

-What about this idea chafes with the way that I have learned to integrate faith into practice?

Pay attention! Often God speaks to our hearts most clearly in the turbulent waters rather than in smooth current. Our faith grows most when it is (we are) tested, not when we have grown comfortable. The Gospels have the snarky reputation for ‘comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.’ As pilgrims who have recently journeyed through the Paschal Mystery during Holy Week, we are intimately familiar with the concept and invitation to pour ourselves out on behalf of others, so this should feel like a natural progression.

Lastly, I commit to presenting a nuanced view of each topic. Beautiful as they are, these teachings have at times been wielded like property, heightening division between people rather than for their intended purpose which is to strengthen and build-up the Body of Christ to be at work in the world. If we are doing this correctly, it is my firm belief that we will all be made to question ourselves at one point or another where our comfort zone and Jesus’ call to be disciples rub against one another and that is OK. While I hope that by learning more and incorporating these ideas challenges each of us to grow, I pray that any growth experienced is also nourishing for each of us personally, and that it would have the ripple effect that reaches out beyond our front doors.

There is a lot of ground for us to cover and I want to be a good steward of your time, so let’s gets started!

Context

Where did Social Teaching documents came about? Who wrote them, and to whom were they written? Let’s take a quick jog through history together to get our bearings:

Think all of the way back to what you can remember about 1891—Western Europe was in the throes of the industrial revolution. Workers (including children) were experiencing terrible conditions for paltry wages. Machines had been invented to do the tasks that before required the work of many individuals to accomplish. The steam engine could now carry passengers much more quickly and to far-flung destinations, compared to just a few years earlier. The effects of the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the Enlightenment had left their lingering marks by way of emphasizing the good of the individual and the state while deferring to intellect and reason, pitting the Church and state against each other in terms of how to provide for the common good.

In the United States, Upton Sinclair famously described the appalling working conditions in the Chicago meat packing industry of this time in The Jungle (1905)—for all workers, including children. You may remember the term ‘scab’ from your high school social studies days, used to describe the supply of workers that were inexhaustible and therefore, treated as disposable. When one was killed or injured, another quickly took their place. Families moved from rural communities to urban areas where opportunity for work was greater. Once they arrived, most found inadequate housing and a highly competitive job market, and little pay.

Although these are certainly not isolated historic events, the ratio of human life to easy profit realized, reached new heights in this era. In the eyes of the Pope, the faithful were aligning with the evolving culture of secularism and isolating their moral convictions from their civic participation.

With a front row seat to the divorce of the human condition from ethics in the name of large-scale profit, and no shortage of material to work with, Pope Leo did something new—something unprecedented: He penned an encyclical (a letter from the Pope) to all Catholic leaders of the time (with no guarantee of when the people in the pews would hear or heed) identifying and decrying the de-humanizing evolution of society that saw human persons as means to an end rather than inherently valuable and worthy of protection by their sheer existence: Worthy of safe working conditions, worthy of wages to meet the needs of their families, worthy of affordable housing, worthy of rest from these responsibilities, and so on.

At a culturally and historically skeptical and anti-Christian time, Pope Leo endeavored to hold up a mirror and invite Catholics in particular to see the large-scale and eternal ramifications of an-increasingly secularizing worldview. This first letter was called Rerum Novarum, or, On the Condition of Labor (1891). This was the first document written on this theme of human dignity, but as you will see it is a recurring theme and will not be the last.

“Catholic thinkers located the source of modern problems in secularism, particularly in the divorce of political authority from its divine foundations and the separation of economic life from moral and ethical influence. Excessive individualism had destroyed the rich group life of the Christian era and left ordinary people at the mercy of the absolute state and irresponsible capitalists.”

–Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage.

Rerum Novarum resounded unapologetically the immeasurable worth of every human life as evidenced throughout Scripture, Tradition, and in the words of the saints. It emphasized the duty of the faithful to embrace intellectual, economic, spiritual, social, and moral integrity reflective of the dignity with which they are born. Whether we are workers, employers, leaders, children, or anyone in between, we not only share a common dignity worthy of upholding but a responsibility to recognize it and advocate for it in those around us.

Thus started the collection of letters over the centuries of Popes calling the clergy and the people of God to a higher standard, a standard reflective of the immense value and identity as God’s people and how they are to engage the world, as such. As the speed of worldwide communication has improved, so has the reception of these messages into the hands of the people of God, today. Rather than having to wait to have it sent across oceans, translated, or preached at Mass, they are available online and in most languages. Time and again people have made the suggestion to keep the Church from meddling in social and personal choices, but for a variety of reasons, it is simply impossible to divide the two.

“Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God Who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14), is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart; it cannot but affect her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15).” (Evangelium Vitae, 1995)

Popes have been adding to the conversation ever since as we, the universal Church, grapple with the changing times and our unchanging call to live as disciples and reflective of our identity in God. The singular place for an introduction to this discussion to begin is with the Life & Dignity of the Human Person. Not one concept that follows will make sense unless we understand this underlying principal from the very beginning.

For years the idea that the Church’s beautiful teachings on our obligations and priorities to see and serve the unmet needs in the world, have irked me. I have been scanning the horizon for accessible resources that would serve to introduce everyday people to these basic guidelines for living our faith in the world. When I came up short, I decided to create my own. The following reflections are intended to be used as a guide for those who wish to learn, pray, and integrate the themes of Catholic Social Teaching into their lived experience. I hope you find it a relatable guide through the seven principles of Catholic Social Teaching.