Aug 12 Tue
What are the bases of the Church’s social teaching?
The Christian message has a social dimension, and the Church encourages its diffusion and implementation as an integral part of the Christian conception of life.
The main task of the Church is the salvation of souls. Man, however, can reach salvation only if he strives to establish in his society the order of justice and charity that God desires. During his earthly life, Christ—while emphasizing that his mission was the eternal salvation of humanity—showed concern for addressing material needs.
Moreover, Christian revelation leads us to a deeper understanding of the laws of social life. The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the truth about man. She fulfills her mission of announcing the Gospel and teaches man his own dignity and his vocation to form a communion of persons. She unveils the demands of justice and peace, according to divine wisdom.
The Church’s social teaching is more than a collection of moral exhortations and prohibitions, though it certainly includes both. The Church’s social teaching ‘describes’ the truth and reality before it ‘prescribes’ what we should do about it.
Over the years, the Church has identified what she calls the four “permanent principles” of Catholic social teaching: The dignity of the human person, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good. If one understands these principles and how to apply them, then Catholic social teaching becomes a powerful framework for thinking through some of the thorniest problems of contemporary life. Begin with general principles and then apply them to the particulars of public life. Sounds simple, right?
Not quite.
Knowing the principles that should guide our moral action and applying them is important, but in an age marked by skepticism and relativism, many do not accept these principles. It is one thing for the Church to speak, for example, of “human dignity” or “natural law,” and the faithful accepting these on the authority of the Church. It is another thing to be able to defend, justify, and propose the principles to a world that doesn’t acknowledge the Church’s authority.
Understanding the Church’s teachings on politics or economics requires more than simply applying abstract principles. It requires us to know political life and economic activity.
Grace builds on and perfects nature. We must, then, pay close attention to nature –to the way things are– to better understand how to apply the principles that the Church has developed through two millennia of reflection on Scripture and Tradition.
The solidity the Church provides is based on her conformity to and reflection of the reality of the created world and man’s fallen state.
Accordingly, there are no concrete circumstances in which the Church cannot bring the presence of the Risen Christ. This, ultimately, is the surest proof and guarantor of the truth of the Church’s social teaching: she brings to every circumstance the adequate response to the desire in every human heart for goodness, truth, and life, namely, she brings Christ himself.