The Catholic Teaching On Social Justice

By Mathew Engelking


To fully understanding the catholic teaching on social justice one must look deeper than the obvious elements of canon. For the Roman Catholic Church's assertion of certain moral boundaries which a functioning and godly society must hold in place runs long and deep through centuries of philosophy and theological debate. Therefore one must look at the history of their thinking on a number of different issues, rather than try and answer the question as a whole.

The term solidarity comes up again and again in church doctrine, as does the term human dignity. These ideas refer to the belief that people are created in the image of God and therefore have specific rights and responsibilities to one another. Human rights are therefore a basic tenet of the religious ideology but those rights are often debated within the Vatican.

Where human dignity and solidarity amongst men is most commonly expressed is charity. Charitable acts are considered the closest one can get to a pure enactment of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Showing kindness to those members of society who are vulnerable is the embodiment of what Christ thought us.

The teachings on this topic go on to define the motivation for charity as being just as important as the act itself. Charity is not done out of empathy or guilt but out of a common obligation shared amongst humanity. This desire to separate the sentimental from the charitable is very important in Catholicism and understanding this area is crucial to fully understanding these teachings.

In terms of the economy the teachings are virulently pro-labor, though with a strong belief in the necessity for a free market. The concept of Distributionism teaches us that the means of production should be shared out amongst the population and not controlled by government. In order to protect the worker, however, the Church also believes in greater equality in the distribution of money.

The Church also believes that human beings have the right to work, to be educated and to be treated when sick. There is a responsibility on those with wealth to help those without. As with all these teachings a heavy emphasis is on the protection of those stricken by poverty.

As relates to the environment the Catholic teaching on social justice considers all men and women to be signed up to a social mortgage. This means we have the right to use the goods we find upon the planet so long as we take on the responsibility to protect the earth also. They believe too that these goods are there to be shared amongst people.




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Posted by: Unknown - Wednesday, October 17, 2012

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