4.
1 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
Jesus did not come only for spiritual reason or the salvation of souls but to liberate people from any
forms of evil and oppression.
Pope Francis – Lumen fidei (in the light of faith)
“Faith thus appeared to some as an illusory light, preventing mankind from boldly setting out in quest
of knowledge”
Proclamation of Jesus Christ – “Good News” of salvation, love justice, and peace is not readily
received in today’s world, devastated as it is by wars, poverty, and injustices.
Magisterium (church teaching authority)
⎯ put into writings the Catholic Social Teachings (CST) or Social Teaching of the Church (STC)
The Church felt the need to become involved and intervene in a new way: the res novae ("new
things") brought about by these events represented a challenge to her teaching and motivated her
special pastoral concern for masses of people.
Pope Leo XXIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (The Condition of Labor) 1891.
• very first social written document
• opened the door for the Church to be more vocal on social structures and conditions of people
in the society.
Social Teachings of the Church
• moral principles that can guide Christians and Filipino citizens in general in their moral attitudes
and decisions.
• These Church's teachings are not primarily technical solutions to specific problems, but rather
of the following:
1. moral principles and priorities that can guide the response to ongoing problem:
2 criteria for evaluating social issues; and
3. recommendations for creative pursuit for common good.
Faith - part and parcel of our social life, which the social teaching of the church requires.
Baptism – united with Christ and initiated into his community or Church.
We cannot be called truly “Catholic” unless we hear and head the Church’s call to serve those in need
and work for justice and peace.
4.2 THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH
The inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching.
Book of Genesis
• one of the sources for Christian understanding of the very nature of the human person.
• it gives a profound meaning and purpose of what it means to be human for he or she has a
special place in God's creation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him, male and female he created them. "Man occupies a unique place in creation:
• he is "in the image of God":
• in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material worlds:
• he is created "male and female: and
• God established him in his friendship.'
The human person is not just something: he or she is someone for he or she possesses dignity. He or
she has the capacity to look deeply into oneself, and fully give and enter into relationship with God and
with others.
Part of the dignity of the human person is the capacity to share, love, and enter into a relationship. As
we relate with others, we become more aware of who we are.
As a philosopher once said, "the other is a mirror to us." This human capacity was affirmed by CFC by
saying. "Persons are open and relational by nature. No man is an island; we grow into our full selves
as persons only in relating to others.
PCP II stresses that any "situation such as the concentration of economic wealth and political power
in the hands of the few is an affront to human dignity and solidarity.
Human dignity and solidarity are fundamental value from which our development as a people must
proceed"
Principle of subsidiarity
• among the most constant and characteristic direction of the Church's social doctrine and has
been present since the first great social encyclical is impossible to promote the dignity of the
person without showing concern
• This is the realm of civil society, understood as the sum of the relationship between individuals
and intermediate social groupings, which are the first relationships
• Gives us the idea that problems should be solved at the smallest and most intimate level
possible
All people are created in the image of God and thus, all human life from conception to natural death is
sacred
Government – has the responsibility of promoting the common good
Through the mystery of Christ, we became the children of the father and temples of the holy spirit.
The basic dignity that each person possesses comes from God; therefore, all forms of discrimination
are always wrong
Solidarity – helps keep people living in rich nations from being indifferent to the poverty and lack of
basic human rights.
