Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching is an area of Catholic doctrine which is concerned with human dignity and the common good in society. It addresses oppression, the role of the state, subsidiarity, social organization, social justice, and wealth distribution. CST's foundations are considered to have been laid by Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum novarum, of which interpretations gave rise to distributism, Catholic socialism and Catholic communism, among others. Its roots can be traced to Catholic theologians such as Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo. CST is also derived from the Bible and cultures of the ancient Near East.
According to Pope John Paul II, the foundation of social justice "rests on the threefold cornerstones of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity". According to Pope Benedict XVI, its purpose "is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just ... has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice ... cannot prevail and prosper." Pope Francis, according to Cardinal Walter Kasper, made mercy "the key word of his pontificate... Scholastic theology has neglected this topic and turned it into a mere subordinate theme of justice."
Catholic social teaching is critical of modern social and political ideologies of the left and of the right, such as liberalism, atheistic forms of socialism and communism, anarchism, atheism, fascism, capitalism, and Nazism, which have been condemned by several popes since the late nineteenth century. It has tried to strike a balance between respect for human liberty and concern for society, including the weakest and poorest. It has distanced itself from capitalism, with John Paul II writing:
History
Catholic social doctrine is rooted in the social teachings of the New Testament, the Church Fathers, the Old Testament, and Hebrew scriptures. The church responded to historical conditions in medieval and early modern Europe with philosophical and theological teachings on social justice which considered the nature of humanity, society, economy, and politics. During the era of mass politics and industrialization, Catholic social teaching needed to account for "the social question": the social dislocation, economic suffering, and political turbulence which arose from modernization. Since the early 19th century, a number of Catholic thinkers responded to the revolutionary tide begun by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. A new synthesis of Catholic natural law primarily influenced by the writings of Thomas Aquinas, combined with the new social sciences of politics and economics, was embraced by the Vatican by the middle of the century; however, it took several decades for this synthesis to become established in Catholic social teaching. Pope Leo XIII, in a series of encyclicals spanning 20 years, formalized the modern approach to Catholic social teaching which combines evangelical teachings on love with natural law and social-scientific arguments about what constitutes human prosperity. These principles have been consistently reiterated by later popes over the subsequent century and more.''Rerum novarum''
The publication of Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum novarum, on 15 May 1891 began the development of a body of social teaching in the Catholic Church. It was written when the once-agrarian populations of Italy and western Europe were undergoing rapid urbanisation in newly industrialized cities, with many living in squalor and poverty. Similar trends developed in the Americas. Pius IX had seen the end of church control of the Papal States, and become isolated in the Vatican. Pius had railed against the unification of Italy during the Risorgimento, which consumed the last years of his pontificate, and lost the faith of the Romans, who voted to join the newly integrated Italy in 1870. Scholars have written that Leo, when he became pope without being temporal ruler of three million mainly-rural subjects, saw that the new industrial working class was the responsibility of the church; Rerum novarum was a response to the competition of communism, which analyzed in works such as Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto the social conditions facing the industrialized poor. Rerum novarum begins by saying that "some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class ... so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the labouring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself."Leo wanted to reject the solutions offered by communism: "hose who deny these rights do not perceive that they are defrauding man of what his own labour has produced." He declared a "most sacred law of nature" that humans have the right to private ownership, inheritable property, and providing for their children "all that is needful to enable them to keep themselves decently"; the "main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected".
He disputed a central idea of communism: that class war was inevitable, and rich and poor were inexorably driven to conflict. Leo stressed the need for justice as central to religion, with the church the most powerful intermediary to achieve justice and peace.
That justice relied on the equality of rich and poor, and extended to all citizens of a country. It went beyond the principle that "the interests of all, whether high or low, are equal", to include a demand that "public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the comfort of the working classes".
Leo elevated the family from the concepts of serfdom and economic interest by giving its interests, moral authority and importance "at least equal rights with the State". The state would be guilty of a "pernicious error" if it exercised intimate control of a family. But "extreme necessity" should "be met by public aid" when a family was in need – the pre-eminence of the needs, protection and independence of a family unit was central to the teaching of the encyclical.
He stressed the equity of the employer-employee relationship. There should be shown "respect in every man for his dignity as a person", balanced with proper performance of "the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon"; "capital cannot do without labour, nor labour without capital".
Where the rights of the poor and the worker are in jeopardy, they must be especially protected; the rich and powerful have other means of protecting their interests. The state must legislate to protect workers from low pay, over-long working hours or over-taxing work, and avail themselves of the protection provided by trade unions.
Reaction
The encyclical was followed in parts of Italy with the creation of social movements which advocated the alleviation of local social concerns. Members of the church became involved in worker-support campaigns, for example a campaign for cotton workers. Financial and moral support for a strike which began on 22 September 1909 in Bergamo was provided by Bishop Giacomo Maria Radini-Tedeschi and Father Angelo Roncalli, who saw the need for "pastoral modernity" in the church.Support for social movements became unpopular, however, when Pope Pius X replaced Leo in 1903. Catholic involvement in Italian political life had been banned under previous popes; Pius allowed a network of spies to identify and report on supporters of social and political movements, and subjected them to questions, apostolic visits and pressures to desist.
Rerum novarum dealt with persons, systems and structures, the three co-ordinates of the modern promotion of justice and peace now integral to the church's mission. It was followed by a number of encyclicals and messages on social issues; forms of Catholic action developed worldwide, and social ethics was taught in schools and seminaries. To mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno expanding on some of its themes.
Pope John XXIII
During the post–Second World War period, attention turned to the problems of social and economic development and international relations. Pope John XXIII released Mater et magistra, subtitled "Christianity and Social Progress", on 15 May 1961. The encyclical expanded the church's social doctrine to cover relations between rich and poor nations, examining the obligation of rich countries to assist poor countries while respecting their cultures, and the threat of global economic imbalance to world peace. John expanded further on this on 11 April 1963 in Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to Catholics and non-Catholics. In it, he linked the establishment of world peace to the laying of a foundation consisting of proper rights and responsibilities between individuals, social groups, and states from the local to the international level. John exhorted Catholics to understand and apply social teachings:The encyclical, issued at the height of the Cold War, also denounced the nuclear arms race and called for a stronger United Nations.
Second Vatican Council
The primary document from the Second Vatican Council concerning social teachings is Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World, which is considered one of the council's chief accomplishments. Unlike earlier documents, the constitution covered a range of issues governing the relationship of social concerns and Christian action. It asserts the fundamental dignity of each person, declaring the church's solidarity with those who suffer and those who comfort the suffering:Other conciliar documents, such as Dignitatis humanae also apply to the church's present-day social teachings on freedom.