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The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church

Part One

THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD

SOCIETY & THE WORLD IN TRANSITION

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Societythe aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community

Moral Teachings on Social Matters

• From the Gospel, the Church receives wisdom about man's social living. She proclaims man's dignity and the demands of peace and justice.

•When human rights or the salvation of souls requires, the Church makes moral judgments on economic and social matters. She has a mission distinct from political authorities. The Church is concerned with temporal goods because they are ordered to man's salvation. She tries to inspire right attitudes to goods and economic relationships.

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The Values of Catholic Social Teaching

The Early Church in The Roman Empire up to 325

• House Churches• Closed society• Acts 2: All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart.• Martyrs and Catacombs

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The Didache – circa 100 AD

• Be not a stretcher forth of the hands to receive and a drawer of them back to give. If you have anything, through your hands you shall give ransom for your sins. Do not hesitate to give, nor complain when you give; for you shall know who is the good repayer of the hire. Do not turn away from him who is in want; rather, share all things with your brother, and do not say that they are your own. For if you are partakers in that which is immortal, how much more in things which are mortal?• And the way of death is this:…not pitying a poor man, not laboring for

the afflicted, not knowing Him Who made them,…turning away from him who is in want, afflicting him who is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners. Be delivered, children, from all these.

Early Middle Ages & Feudalism

• Monasteries & Hospitality• Hospitals• Leprosaria• Orphanages

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Growth of Cities after 1200

• Mendicant Orders• Guilds• The forces of the economic and spiritual alterations of the

Renaissance and of the Reformation irrevocably altered the status of the poor. Beginning in the 16th century new confessional ideas in a variety of European locales saw the poor progressively lose their religious status as spiritual intercessors and begin to be viewed by many from a more socioeconomic lens.• Capitalism: the economic center and its exploitation of the

periphery - reasons for both wealth and poverty generation

Reformation & Ottoman Threat

• Wars of Religion 1524 to 1648• Fall of Constantinople 1453• Sieges of Vienna 1529 & 1683• Mercedarians and the Trinitarians,

Vincentians, Sisters of Charity

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Spanish – Portugese ColonialismEnglish Opportunism

• Conquest of Indigenous peoples• Missionary cooperation• Human Rights• Slave Trade

The Enlightenment 1685 - 1815

• 1. Human autonomy is the means and end of Enlightenment• 2. The importance of reason - a. Freedom means being able to think rationally

for yourself. b. Reason will lead us to the truth.

• 3. Enlightenment is universal. All humans are equal by nature.• 4. Progress- Human history is the story of progress in the human condition.• 5. Secularism - Religion and politics should be separated. One’s method of

worship should be a private matter.

• 6. The centrality of economics to politics - A society’s well-being depends on how its economy is structured. (Adam Smith)

• 7. The ideal of popular government - People are capable of ruling themselves. The aristocracy is not the only class that deserved to rule. (John Locke et al)

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The Industrial Revolution

• Overcrowding in expanding cities (quadrupled in size)• Anonymity and lack of familial-social support• Lack of sanitation, light and health care• Pollution• Unsafe working conditions• Overwork (60+ hours) for low wages• Child labor• Widening gap between rich and poor

Nationalism

• 1789 & Napoleon• Kulturkampf & Catholic Action• German – Austrian• Balkans• France – Spain• Italy

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Revolutions, Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche

• Metternich – Legitimacy & Stability• 1848 Revolutions• 1848 The Communist Manifesto• 1859 The Origin of Species• 1891 Thus Spake Zrathrustra, The AntiChrist, Beyond Good and Evil

Pius IX & the Syllabus of Errors• "Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole

arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil." • "All the truths of religion proceed from the innate strength of human

reason; hence reason is the ultimate standard by which man can &ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths."

• Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to a continual and indefiniteprogress, corresponding with the advancement of human reason.

• "Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christianreligion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church."

• "The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church."• "In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held

as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship." • "Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of

reason, he shall consider true."• "It has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming

to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship."• The Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct

or indirect.• "The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms

with, progress, liberalism and modern civilization."

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Socialism & The Organized Labor Movement

• 1864 The First International – Marx & Engels• 1889 The Second International – Paul Lafargue• 1919 The Third International – Lenin

• 1820’s – beginnings of organized labor.• Opposition to it strengthened socialism.• Labor unrest, strikes, violence

Leo XIII

• Well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. During his reign, the Roman Catholic Church achieved an international prestige it had not enjoyed since the Middle Ages.

• “By the way, Thomas Aquinas is the bomb !!!!”

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Americanism

• Leo warned the American church hierarchy not to support the unique system ofseparation of church and state.• In 1898, Leo lamented an America where church and state are "dissevered and

divorced", and wrote of his preference for a closer relationship between theCatholic Church and the State• Leo XIII also expressed concerns about the Cultural liberalism of some American

Catholics. He emphasized that Catholics should obey the magisterial teachingauthority of the Church. In general, he deemed it dangerous to expose children toschools that would prove to be detrimental to their Christian upbringing. ThePope derided the idea that all opinions should be aired publicly, as he felt certainspeech could harm general morality.

Modernism

• Pope Pius X condemns modernism as embracing of every heresy.• A rationalistic approach to the Bible, characteristic of the Enlightenment, took a

protomaterialistic view of miracles & of the historicity of biblical narratives. Thisapproach interpreted the Bible by focusing on the text itself before considering whatthe Church Fathers had taught about it. This method was accepted by Protestants• Secularism briefly stated as : the best course of action in politics & other civic fields

is that which flows from a common understanding of the Good by various groups andreligions. Church and State should be separated.

• Modern philosophical systems, such as Kant and Bergson inspired modernist thought.• Theological rebellion in contradistinction to the Church's official policies.

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Benedict XV & War

• 1914-1922• Leo XIII had made a proposal for peace at a conference on

disarmament in which took part at The Hague on May 18, 1899.• On that occasion, some of the 26 nations taking part in the conference

acknowledged the Pope as a mediator in conflicts because of his“universal paternity.”• Benedict XV continued the commitment to peace of his predecessors,

and developed the Church’s doctrine on just war.• New arms would overshadow the difference between combatants and

non-combatants• Wrote five encyclicals on peace, and two apostolic exhortations.• Benedict XV formed the basis of the modern network of nunciatures.

Pius XI, Facism & Communism

• 1917 Communism in Russia• 1919 Facscism in Italy• 1923 Nazism in Germany (sporadic communist uprisings)• 1929 The Great Depression• 1933 Spain (Spanish Civil War) & Nazi Germany

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World War II and Pius XII

• Trapped in Facsist Italy• Kept Rome an open city• Protected Jews• Post WWII Italy had the strongest Communist party in the West• Greece, Iran, Korea, Viet-Nam• Nuclear Weapons• 1948 – UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Cold War, Colonialism and John XXIII

• Arms Race• Cuban Missile Crisis• Independence of Former Colonies• Congo Civil War & UN•Modern Communications• Population “Explosion”

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Vatican II

• The Church in the World• Religious Freedom• Ecumenism• Non Christian Religions• Collegiality with Bishops• The Laity• Use of Vernacular• Modern Communications• Religious Renewal

“In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men's own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God's superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.” John XXIII

Paul VI and E-W Conflict and Competition

• The Viet-Nam War• The Six Day War• Nigeria – Biafra• Internationalization of the Church• Enculturation

• The Revolution of Rising Exectations

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John Paul II vs Communism

• Solidarity in Poland• Cooperation with President Reagan

John Paul II vs Capitalism

• Free Market• Oligarchs•Wealth Distribution Disparity• Debt

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John Paul II vs Technological Idolatry

• Reproductive Technology• Labor Replacement

Benedict XVI

• Bioethical Technology (stem cells,cloning, gene manipulation)• Integral Human Development (MNC’s, mobilityof labor, environment, culture, technology)• None’s and Rejection of Religion• Rejection of the West (Putin, China, Islamists)

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Francis vs the Globalization of Indifference

• Disparity between Developed & Undeveloped World•War• Famine• Pollution• Climate Change• Refugees• Human trafficking• Rise of the Alt-Right

And that’s the way it is……

•Next week……

The Sources and Foundations of the Social Teaching