The Social Doctrine of the Church Catholic Social Teaching Talk 1

Prayer (from the US Bishops) Father, your truth is made known in your Word. Guide us to seek the truth of the human person. Teach us the way to love because you are love. Jesus, you embody Love and Truth. Help us to recognise your face in the poor. Enable us to live out our vocation to bring love and justice to your people. Holy Spirit, you inspire us to transform our world. Empower us to seek the common good for all persons. Give us a spirit of solidarity and make us one human family. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

What do the rich owe the poor? The universal destination of goods; charity, justice and the limits of property

Key principles Key principles: 1. Dignity of the human person 2. The common good These are both background to the universal destination of goods 3. Subsidiarity 4. Solidarity

What to consider One crucial implication of the common good is the principle of the universal destination of goods Compendium paragraphs This touches on the relationship between charity and justice: what is ‘owed’ implies justice rather than charity (almsgiving) alone.

What to consider 1.Paragraphs : the origin and meaning of the universal destination of goods 2.Paragraphs The idea of private property 3.Paragraphs The preferential option for the poor What they say and comment on these

1: Origin and meaning: paragraphs ‘God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity’ (GS 69, Compendium 171) Genesis 1:28-9 God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members.

Origin and meaning: paragraphs : Each person must have access to the level of well-being necessary for his full development. It has priority with regard to any system; all other rights including property rights and the right of free trade must be subordinated to this norm. 173: regulated interventions and a juridical order are necessary

Origin and meaning: paragraphs : An invitation to develop an economic system inspired by moral values Wealth creation has a positive function Promoting the well being of all men and all peoples 175: Call to overcome temptation to possess- as Christ did.

Origin and meaning: paragraphs Comment: A radical principle forming the framework for an analysis of private property. Implies a giving wider than that of immediate goals and family. Implies perhaps that if some have more than they need this might be owed to those who have less than they need.

Origin and meaning: paragraphs Comment Levels of wealth: 1. Luxury- more than what is needed 2. Need- prudentially determined 3. Absolute poverty/basic need

Private property: paragraphs Private property is an ‘essential element of an authentically social and democratic economic policy’ But ‘not absolute and untouchable’- ‘the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone’ 177 There must be benefit for others The temptation to idolatry 181

Private property: paragraphs Comment: 1.The Church Fathers 2.St Thomas Aquinas 3.Modern commentators and papal encyclicals

Preferential option for the poor: A focus of special concern where ‘living conditions interfere with proper growth’ Worldwide A real responsibility for the poor (183) Different kinds of poverty- material, cultural, religious. Giving alms is a work of justice as well as charity. Justice and charity

Preferential option for the poor: Comment 1. Justice and charity: their meaning and relationship- what is owed? 2. Who are the rich and the poor? 3. What should I be doing?

The universal destination of goods i) Do you think we should be encouraged to think more of the responsibilities of the household towards others, rather than relying on the state/government? Is this part of what is meant by the ‘Big Society’? ii) Do you think you have superflua? How can we judge what is luxury and what is need?

Charity in truth: giving or the principle of gratuitousness Charity is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine Giving in order to receive (the market) Giving out of duty (public obligation, the state) Giving- ‘quotas of gratuitousness and communion’

Some implications What does this all mean for our responsibilities as Catholics Householders Citizens?

Useful website addresses

Books for further reading An Introduction for Catholic Social Teaching, Rodger Charles SJ, Family Publications J Finnis, Aquinas, OUP Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church Continuum De Berri/Hug, Catholic Social Teaching 4 th Edition Catholic Social Conscience ed Keith Chappell and Francis Davis