As we continue this focusing on our Catholic Pro-Life stance and praying in preparation for another crucial election, we have scriptures that remind us of the many who are suffering in our world, and how often those in power “lord it over them (the suffering weak)” and Jesus reminds us who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God. Mindful of His answer, it would be good for us to be educated by our Catholic Social Teaching.
Why do we study Catholic Social Teaching? Catholic Social Teaching corresponds to one of the three "Constitutive Elements of Church"
- Scripture-- hearing the Good News WORD
- Sacraments-- worship, prayer life, etc. WORSHIP
- Social Mission-- action for social justice WORLD
In his Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict stresses the basis of the Church's Social Teachings and its relation to faith, reason, and charity in action:
This dynamic of charity received and given is what gives rise to the Church's social teaching, which is caritas in veritate in re sociali: the proclamation of the truth of Christ's love in society. This doctrine is a service to charity, but its locus is truth. Truth preserves and expresses charity's power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history. It is at the same time the truth of faith and of reason, both in the distinction and also in the convergence of those two cognitive fields. Development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems besetting humanity, all need this truth. (Para 5)
How is Catholic Social Teaching related to the history of the Church? Is it just an addition to Church teachings from the Second Vatican Council?
While there has been a growing emphasis on this third element of the Church since Vatican Council II, the social mission of the Church has deep biblical and magisterial roots. Vatican II re-animated the social mission of the early church.
The following are excerpts from the U.S. Bishops' findings in "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions"
where they reflect on the need to re-emphasize social teaching in Catholic education in general and in the life of Catholics in particular:
- Catholic social teaching is a central and essential element of our faith. Its roots are in the Hebrew prophets who announced God's special love for the poor and called God's people to a covenant of love and justice. It is a teaching founded on the life and words of Jesus Christ, who came "to bring glad tidings to the poor . . . liberty to captives . . . recovery of sight to the blind"(Lk 4:18-19), and who identified himself with "the least of these," the hungry and the stranger (cf. Mt 25:45). Catholic social teaching is built on a commitment to the poor. This commitment arises from our experiences of Christ in the Eucharist…
- Catholic social teaching emerges from the truth of what God has revealed to us about himself. We believe in the triune God whose very nature is communal and social. God the Father sends his only Son Jesus Christ and shares the Holy Spirit as his gift of love. God reveals himself to us as one who is not alone, but rather as one who is relational, one who is Trinity. Therefore, we who are made in God's image share this communal, social nature. We are called to reach out and to build relationships of love and justice.
- Catholic social teaching is based on and inseparable from our understanding of human life and human dignity.Every human being is created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ and therefore is invaluable and worthy of respect as a member of the human family. Every person, from the moment of conception to natural death, has inherent dignity and a right to life consistent with that dignity. Human dignity comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment.
In the Gospel today according to Mark, Jesus says: “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
As it was taught by Jesus and still taught by our Catholic Church today, it remains clear that the moral test of our society is how the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable are faring. By this standard we are falling short.
God Bless,
