SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL TEACHING
I. Respect the Human Person
The foundation for
Catholic social thought is the proper understanding and value of the human
person. In the words of Pope John Paul II, the foundation of Catholic social
teaching "is a correct view of the human person and of his unique value,
inasmuch as ‘man … is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself.’
God has imprinted his own image and likeness on man (cf. Gen 1:26), conferring
upon him an incomparable dignity" (Centesimus
Annus 11). In a
sense, all Catholic social teachings articulate the ethical implications of a
proper understanding of the dignity of the person.
The concept of
"human rights" has been adopted by popes to communicate that each and
every human being, as a child of God, has certain immunities from harm by
others and merits certain kinds of treatment. In particular, the Church has
been forceful in defending the right to life of every single innocent human
being from conception to natural death. Opposition to abortion and euthanasia
forms the necessary foundation for respecting human dignity in other areas such
as education, poverty, and immigration.
Based on this
foundational right to life, human beings also enjoy other rights. In this, the
Church joins with a chorus of other voices in proclaiming the dignity of the
person and the fundamental rights of man. Nevertheless, this apparent consensus
conceals very serious disagreements about the nature and scope of these rights.
One of the most controversial of these areas in present culture is the
understanding of the family.
II. Promote the Family
The human person is
not simply an individual but is also a member of a community. Failing to
acknowledge the community aspect leads to a radical individualism. A full understanding
of the person considers the social aspects of the individual. The first social
consideration, in order and importance, is the family. It is the basic unit of
society, and it predates and in a sense surpasses all other societies in a
community. Catholic social teaching emphasizes the importance of the family, in
particular the importance of fostering stable marriages where children are
welcomed and educated.
The wider social
network plays an important role in promoting the family. In particular, the
Church has spoken of a "family wage" whereby one breadwinner can
adequately support spouse and children. Social conditions either contribute to
the stabilization or the destabilization of family structures. Social
conditions that destabilize include mandatory and unreasonably long work hours,
a toxic "social culture" that denigrates fidelity, legal dissolution
of the definition of marriage between one man and one woman, and excessive
taxation.
III. Protect Property Rights
Catholic social
teaching from Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) through John Paul II’s Centesimus
Annus (1991) has
defended the right to private property against the claim that the state should
own all things. Even much earlier, St. Thomas Aquinas—whose writings are of
central importance in understanding the foundations of Catholic social
teaching—gave three reasons why private property is essential to human
flourishing:
First because every
man is more careful to procure what is for himself alone than that which is
common to many or to all: since each one would shirk the labor and leave to
another that which concerns the community, as happens where there is a great
number of servants. Secondly, because human affairs are conducted in more
orderly fashion if each man is charged with taking care of some particular
thing himself, whereas there would be confusion if everyone had to look after
any one thing indeterminately. Thirdly, because a more peaceful state is
ensured to man if each one is contented with his own. Hence it is to be observed
that quarrels arise more frequently where there is no division of the things
possessed. (Summa
Theologiae II.II.66.2)
In addition to these
reasons, private property also helps to secure human freedom. A person’s
ability to act freely is greatly hindered if he is not allowed to own anything.
Indeed, without possessions of any kind, a person can be reduced to a kind of
slavery in which labor is not rewarded and speaking against the exercise of
state authority is taken at enormous risk.
The right to private
property, however, is not unconditional. May a person take what is legally the
property of another in order to secure survival? This question was posed in
dramatic fashion in Les Miserables. Does
Jean Valjean, who steals bread to feed his starving family, deserve to be
punished? St. Thomas’s answer is no. In cases when there is no other way to
secure the basic necessities for human survival, taking them from those who
have in abundance is not wrongful because these basic necessities are
rightfully theirs as human beings.
To be sure, Thomas
speaks of cases of "need"—not cases of "want." At issue
here are situations of famine or disaster, where people’s lives are at risk for
lack of basic necessities such as food, shelter, or clothing. These necessities
do not include DVDs, CDs, or TVs, no matter how great the desire for them.
Moreover, such reallocation must be a last resort. One may not take basic
necessities if these necessities could be provided through one’s own work or
through the voluntary assistance of others, be it governmental agencies or
private charities.
Catholic social
teaching also notes that private property can become a kind of idol, leading
people to assess the goal and meaning of human life simply in terms of dollars
and cents. The right to private property also brings with it responsibilities,
in particular the responsibility to care for and promote the common good.
IV. Work for the Common Good
Pope John XXIII
defined the common good as "the sum total of social conditions which allow
people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more
fully and more easily" (Pacem
in Terris55). This good is common because only together as a community,
and not simply as isolated individuals, is it possible to enjoy, achieve, and
spread this good. All people are obligated to work towards making the common
good a greater and greater reality.
Sometimes the common
good is misunderstood to mean simply the common desires or interests of the
multitude. But the common good, as Pope John Paul II noted, "is not simply
the sum total of particular interests; rather it involves an assessment and
integration of those interests on the basis of a balanced hierarchy of values;
ultimately, it demands a correct understanding of the dignity and the rights of
the person" (Centesimus
Annus 47). The common
good, in other words, is not simply what people happen to want, but what would
be authentically good for people, the social conditions that enable human
flourishing.
Human flourishing is
multifaceted because the human being as such has many dimensions. Human
fulfillment includes a physical dimension of health and psychological well
being. If a country does not have sufficient pure drinking water, nourishing
food, and a relatively toxin-free environment, human beings will not be able to
achieve their full potential. Moreover, human flourishing has an intellectual
dimension that can be helped or hampered by educational opportunities or the
lack thereof. Finally, each of us bears an ethical or moral dimension that will
be frustrated without the avoidance of vice and the cultivation of virtue. The
common good includes all these elements, the loss of any one of which can
hinder our seeking of fulfillment.
However, the common
good, as important as it is, is not the greatest good. The ultimate fulfillment
of every human person can be found only in God, but the common good helps
groups and individuals to reach this ultimate good. So, if social conditions
are such that people are inhibited or deterred from being able to love God and
neighbor, then the common good has not been realized.
Participation and
solidarity are two other fundamental principles of Catholic social thought.
Participation is defined by the recent Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church as when each
[C]itizen, either as
an individual or in association with others, whether directly or through
representation, contributes to the cultural, economic, political and social
life of the civil community to which he belongs. Participation is a duty to be
fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility and with a view to the common
good. (189)
Solidarity, a frequent
theme especially in the writings of Pope John Paul II, is more than a
[F]eeling of vague
compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near
and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit
oneself to the common good. That is to say to the good of all and of each
individual, because we are all really responsible for all. (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 38)
V. Observe the Principle of Subsidiarity
Some Christian
thinkers conceive of the state or government as being established simply to
repress evil desires and evil people. In Catholic thought, the government also
has a more positive role, namely to help secure common good. Pope John Paul II
put the point as follows:
It is the task of the
state to provide for the defense and preservation of common goods such as the
natural and human environments, which cannot be safeguarded simply by market
forces. Just as in the time of primitive capitalism the state had the duty of
defending the basic rights of workers, so now, with the new capitalism, the
state and all of society have the duty of defending those collective goods
which, among others, constitute the essential framework for the legitimate
pursuit of personal goals on the part of each individual. (Centesimus Annus 40)
The government has
many necessary and indispensable functions to play, roles that cannot be
accomplished by individuals acting alone or even by smaller groups in society.
Yet states and governments often exceed their legitimate role and infringe upon
individuals and groups in society so as to dominate rather than to serve them.
To combat this tendency, Catholic social thought emphasizes the principle of
subsidiarity. Non-Catholics also have discovered this principle. Abraham
Lincoln wrote: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a
community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all or
cannot so well do, for themselves—in their separate and individual
capacities." Government should be as small as possible, but as big as
necessary to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished that cannot be
accomplished in any other way. National defense, interstate cooperation, and
treaties with other nations are obvious examples of matters properly undertaken
by the federal government. Administration of the criminal justice system is
another example of a matter that properly pertains to government. On the other
hand, the government should not intervene to attempt to alleviate all problems.
A welfare or "nanny" state, offering cradle-to-grave security and
attempting to provide for all human needs, expands the state beyond its proper
scope and violates the principle of subsidiarity. Pope John Paul II explained:
Malfunctions and
defects in the social assistance state [or welfare state] are the result of an
inadequate understanding of the tasks proper to the state. Here again the
principle of subsidiarity must be respected: A community of a higher order
should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order,
depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of
need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of
society, always with a view to the common good. (Centesimus Annus 48)
This overreaching by
the state leads to situations that are both inefficient and detrimental to
human welfare:
By intervening
directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the social assistance
state leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public
agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by
concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous
increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood
and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to
those in need. (Centesimus
Annus 48)
When should the state
intervene and when should governmental authority refrain? Such questions are
difficult to answer outside of the concrete situation, for they depend upon
prudential judgments about particular situations. People of good will,
including Catholics who are attempting to put into action Catholic social
teaching, may legitimately disagree about whether a given piece of legislation
or governmental intervention is warranted to alleviate a social problem. Many
social questions, such as, "Should this welfare benefit be offered to
people in this particular situation?" do not admit of an answer that would
be binding upon all Catholics. Nevertheless, all Catholics are obliged to work
to find solutions to contemporary social problems in light of the Gospel and
their best practical wisdom.
VI. Respect Work and the Worker
According to Genesis,
God not only creates man but puts him to work naming the animals and caring for
the garden. Obviously, this task was not given to Adam because God was too
tired to finish the job. Rather, human work participates in and reflects God’s
creative and providential care of the universe. Even before the fall, man is
created to till and keep the Garden of Eden, to imitate God’s work in creation
through human work. After the fall, work becomes at times a toilsome task, but
work remains part of man’s vocation from God. Any honest work can be
sanctified, offered to God, and made holy through the intentions of the worker
and the excellence of the work done.
Furthermore, workers
are not mere drones, means to the production of capital for owners, but must be
respected and accorded the opportunity to form unions to secure collectively a
just compensation. In Catholic thought, the right of association is a natural
right of the human being, which therefore precedes his incorporation into
political society. Indeed, the formation of unions "cannot … be prohibited
by the state" because, as Pope John Paul II notes, "the state is
bound to protect natural rights, not to destroy them; and if it forbids its
citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own
existence" (Centesimus
Annus 7). The Church
was instrumental in helping workers form unions to combat the excesses of
industrialization.
VII. Pursue Peace and Care for the Poor
Peace means more than
just an absence of violent conflict. Peace is the "tranquility of
order" in Augustine’s phrase. War between nations may be necessary at
times—but solely in order to restore peace. The Catholic Church from at least
the time of Augustine has endorsed "just war theory." Pacifism
rejects outright waging war as morally evil for a variety of reasons, some
secular (violence breeds violence) and some religious (Jesus acted
non-violently). Realism, in the context of the ethics of war, contends that war
has no rules whatsoever, aside perhaps from survival of the fittest. Just war
theory is a mean between pacifism and realism, a mean that has been explicitly
adopted and appealed to by most contemporary governments. As articulated by the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, the criteria for a just war include that:
[T]he damage inflicted
by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave
and certain; all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be
impractical or ineffective; there must be serious prospects of success; the use
of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be
eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in
evaluating this condition. These are the traditional elements enumerated in
what is called the "just war" doctrine. The evaluation of these
conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who
have responsibility for the common good. (CCC 2309)
Recent discussions have
addressed the question of whether a "preemptive" war, a war launched
into order to prevent attack, could be justified according to traditional just
war teaching. Other discussions question, given contemporary technology,
whether a just war is possible.
These questions
notwithstanding, the fact remains that peace involves a just ordering of
society. This just order of society also includes solicitude for the poor. Not
only the direct or indirect effects of individual actions, but also wise social
policies are necessary for a just ordering of society, social policies that
must take into account the likely effect on the poor.
As noted, Catholic
social teaching does not address exactly how this should be done in every
society. It may be that aggressive social action through the intervention of
governmental policy is necessary. It may be that private and voluntary
initiatives of religious groups (such as St. Vincent de Paul) and secular
groups (such as the United Way) should take place. It may be that businesses
should be compelled by law or voluntarily adopt policies that aid the poor. It
may be that families and private persons should undertake the responsibility.
Most likely a combination of governmental, social and religious, and individual
initiatives are needed. What exactly will help the poor (and society in
general) will not always be clear in every situation, but every Catholic has an
obligation to think seriously and act purposely to aid those suffering around
them and around the world.
These seven principles—respect
for the human person, promotion of the family, the individual’s right to own
property, the common good, subsidiarity, the dignity of work and workers, and
pursuit of peace and care for the poor—summarize some of the essentials of
Catholic social teaching from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI. However, at the
heart of Catholic social teaching is something both simple and noble: an effort
to make the actions and words of Jesus real again today to transform and uplift
social life for all people in light of the gospel.
