Catholic Social Teaching

During the last one hundred and ten years, the Roman Catholic Church has developed a strong Catholic Social Teaching. Based on scripture, several recent popes have articulated a passionate response to various social issues that developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some major themes addressed by the popes include the dignity of the worker and laborer, human dignity and respect for life, and economic justice (Kevin E. McKenna. A Concise Guide to Catholic Social Teaching, 2002). Church Documents and Scripture instruct and encourage the faithful in working for social justice.

Church Documents

“The best way to fulfill one’s obligations of justice and love is to contribute to the common good according to one’s means and the needs of others, and also to promote and help public and private organizations devoted to bettering the conditions of life.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“The council exhorts Christians to perform their duties faithfully in the spirit of the Gospel. It is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are entitled to evade our earthly responsibilities.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“Justice will never be fully attained unless people see the poor person, who is asking for help to survive, not an annoyance or a burden, but an opportunity for showing kindness.”

John Paul II Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus

“All must consider it their sacred duty to count social obligation among their chief duties today and observe them as such. For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do people’s obligations transcend particular groups and extend to the whole world.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“This Council lays stress on reverence for the human person; all people must consider their every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account, first of all, life and the means necessary to living it with dignity”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“The social message of the gospel must not be considered a theory but above all else a basis and motivation for action”

John Paul II Encyclical Letter Cetesimus Annus

“Christians must be conscious of their specific and proper role in the political community; they should be a shining example by their sense of responsibility and their dedication to the common good.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“Therefore, let there be no false opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other. Christians who neglect their temporal duties, jeopardize their eternal salvation.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes

“This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age. Long since, the Prophets of the Old Testament fought vehemently against this scandal and even more so did Jesus Christ himself in the New Testament threaten it with grave punishments.”

Pope Paul VI Encyclical Letter Gaudium et Spes