CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING: Our ‘Best Kept Secret’ Chris Keating Adelaide Catholic Justice and Peace C o m m i s s i o n

Catholic Social Teaching: Our ‘Best Kept Secret’ Catholic Social Teaching (also known as Catholic Social Doctrine) sums up the teachings of the Church on social justice issues. It promotes a vision of a just society that is grounded in the Bible and in the wisdom gathered from experience by the Christian community as it has responded to social justice issues through history.

Catholic Social Teaching A Social Wisdom based on: -biblical insights, -tradition of early writers of the Church, -scholastic philosophy, -theological reflection and -contemporary experience of People of God No “easy answers to hard problems” No “blueprint for the perfect society”

Three Elements The social teachings are made up of three different elements: principles for reflection; criteria for judgement; and guidelines for action. Principles for reflection apply across many different times and places, but guidelines for action can change for different societies or times.

Three Elements Criteria for judgement may be thought of as ‘middle axioms’ mediating between the highly authoritative but necessarily general and abstract principles for reflection, and the details of the concrete social reality. They are less authoritative than the principles for reflection but more so than the guidelines for action.

Three Elements Guidelines for action are always dependant on contingent judgements and the information available through human knowledge. There is frequently scope for legitimate differences of opinion among believers on a range of social justice issues.

Methodology: See, Judge, Act Since Vatican II the methodology that has been promoted asks us to read the ‘signs of the times’ using the ‘see’, ‘judge’, ‘act’ method that Cardjin made popular in workers’ and students’ movements. It asks us to work inductively, looking first at the social justice issues as they exist in our communities, before assessing what is happening, and what is at stake. Finally we need to discern what action to undertake in response. (See Mater et Magistra, Encyclical Letter of Pope John XXIII, On Christianity and Social Progress, May 15, 1961, n. 236)

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 1.Link between the religious & social dimensions of life In Catholic social thought, religion addresses the whole of life, personal, communal and structural. The “social” – the human construction of the world – is not “secular” in the sense of being outside God’s plan, but is intimately involved with the dynamic of the Reign of God. Therefore faith and justice are necessarily linked closely together.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 2.Dignity of the human person Every person has an essential dignity by virtue of the fact that they are created in the image of God. In stressing the dignity of each individual human being, the Church emphasises that humans are created by God as social beings. We are more than just isolated individuals. We are called to solidarity with one another, because we are all really responsible for all. Human dignity is fulfilled only in community.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 3.Option for the poor Christians are required by the Gospel to make a deliberate choice to be on the side of the poor. This involves a willingness to stand side by side with those in poverty and other victims of injustice, to see the world through their eyes, to be willing to learn from them, and to treat them as equals and not as objects of one’s pity.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 4.Link between love and justice Love and Justice are not in competition or conflict. Justice is love structured in society. Love without a passionate commitment to justice is an underdeveloped, deformed type of Christianity.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 5.The Common Good The purpose of government is the promotion of the Common Good. Individuals and groups within society have an obligation to pursue not only their own interests but the good of all. The governing and administrative bodies of a society are obliged to safeguard and promote the common good, as well as the good of the society’s component parts (continued...)

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 5.The Common Good The State has a positive and active role to play in society, including in the economy, to promote and ensure the good of all. State intervention in the economy is necessary to prevent exploitation of the weak by the strong and unscrupulous and to secure the good of all members of the community in important areas such as health, education and the provision of basic services. The principle of subsidiarity means that governments need to devolve responsibility to the people or groups most directly affected

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 6.Participation a right and obligation Everyone has the right to participate in the decisions that affect her or his life All people share both a right and an obligation to participate in the social life and decision-making of the community. Membership of communities implies that we should be more than merely passive recipients of decisions made by others.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 7.Economics should serve human needs and purposes The economy needs to be subservient to human needs and human purpose. That is, the economy is part of society, serving it, and not the other way around. The economy is made for human beings, not human beings for the economy. Catholic Social Teaching stresses the importance of work for human dignity and creative action in the world. Employment is a basic right, which allows people to participate more fully in the economic life of the community.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 8.Stewardship and Property God intended the earth and all it contains for the use of every human being and people, without excluding or favouring anyone. This principle applies to all products, resources and opportunities. Although the Church has consistently upheld the right to private property as a basic human right, it emphasises that this right is not absolute or unchangeable. The right to own private property is in fact subordinated to the right to common use and to the obligation to share.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 9.Solidarity We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, wherever they live. We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Learning to practice the virtue of solidarity means learning that "loving our neighbour" has global dimensions in an interdependent world. In particular the rich nations have responsibilities toward the poor nations and the structures of the international order must reflect justice.

10 Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching 10.Peace and Justice Promoting peace is the mission of Christians, and requires working for justice. Two strands in the Catholic social tradition related to war and peace. Both share the presumption against the use of force: the Just War Theory, has evolved two sets of criteria for engaging in war. (Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello). Christian Non-Violence: Another, equally valid strain of the tradition emphasizes the non-violence of Jesus and Christians’ witness in their own lives to non-violent approaches to conflict resolution.

A Developing Tradition Care for God's Creation: We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just a slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God's creation. Death Penalty: “Cruel and Unnecessary” Pope John Paul II (EV n. 56); Catechism of the Catholic Church (2 nd Edition); Statements from US, Australian Bishops Previous examples: Usury, Slavery, Torture Pope John Paul II’s Jubilee Year apologies

“The Gift of Water” Statement from the Bishops of the Murray-Darling Basin 2004 “As bishops who live and work in the Basin, we would like to add our voices in support of the rivers and all those working to save them, and reflect on the Murray-Darling Basin from the perspective of Christian faith. We see its life-giving waters as a precious gift of God for the common good. We see human beings as responsible before God for the well-being of the river system. We are called to live more sustainably and grow in ecological wisdom and practice, so that the generations to follow inherit a healthy and bountiful Basin as intended by God.”

Contact Us Adelaide Catholic Justice and Peace Commission Catholic Diocesan Centre, 39 Wakefield Street, Adelaide, SA 5000 T: F: E: Executive Officer: Mr Chris Keating Chairperson: Mrs Betty Fox Office Manager: Mrs Angela