Catholic Social Teaching

2015 ◽  
pp. 442-456
Author(s):  
David Matzko McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Rerum Novarum ◽  
The Common

This essay considers the modern tradition of Catholic social teaching (CST). CST finds its roots in the biblical, patristic, and medieval periods, but was inaugurated in particular by Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) and has been sustained by a range of papal encyclicals and conciliar documents since. The documents of CST emphasize that human beings are created for mutual cooperation and a pursuit of common good in social, economic, and political life. The essay considers first CST’s developing account of how social relations may be governed by Christian charity. It then considers the nature of property within economic relations as conceived within CST. The final section considers CST’s reflections on political life, which is understood as primarily personal and dependent on relations of mutual rights and responsibilities that are directed to the common good.

Theology as Work: The Mandatum and the Rights of Labor

Horizons ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134
Author(s):  
Patrick T. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church ◽  
Safe Working

ABSTRACTMany oppose the mandatum as a threat to the academic freedom of Catholic scholars and the autonomy and credibility of Catholic universities. But the imposition of this juridical bond on working theologians is also in tension with Catholic Social Teaching on the rights and dignity of labor. Work is the labor necessary to earn our daily bread. But it is also the vocation by which we realize ourselves as persons and the profession through which we contribute to the common good. Thus, along with the right to a just wage and safe working conditions, Catholic Social Teaching defends workers' rights to a full partnership in the enterprise, and calls upon the church to be a model of participation and cooperation. The imposition of the mandatum fails to live up to this standard and threatens the jobs and vocations of theologians while undermining this profession's contribution to the church.

scholarly journals Catholic Social Teaching as an Explanation of Firm Environmental Impact

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 161-179
Author(s):  
Anne Hetson ◽  
Brian M. Saxton ◽  
Mariah Webinger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Common ◽  
Economic Needs

Environmental sustainability in business has become a highly debated topic as societies decide how best to meet their economic needs and care for the earth. Catholic social teaching (CST) may add theoretical richness to the discussion. We examine solidarity, subsidiarity, and pursuit of the common good as dimensions of a heavy manufacturing, U.S.-based firm’s CST orientation. We find that measures of subsidiarity and common good predict a firm’s environmental performance consistent with CST principles. Results are of interest to academics, policymakers, and citizens who wish to advance the implementation of CST, environmental sustainability, or both.

Is the Common Good Obsolete?

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 261-270
Author(s):  
V. Bradley Lewis ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Intermediate Goods ◽  
The West ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Christian Society

The idea of the common good has been a signature feature of Catholic social teaching and so of modern Catholic engagement in public affairs. It has recently been suggested that the notion is now obsolete due to changes in the culture and politics of the West. In keeping with this suggestion, some argue that Catholics should abandon it in favor of an appeal based on lower intermediate goods in a manner more related to Augustine’s engagement with the largely pagan culture of his time than to Aquinas’s categories tailored to an integrally Christian society. I argue that such a solution misreads aspects of the tradition and of the present political and cultural situation and I suggest some alternative grounds on which Catholic engagement with contemporary public life should proceed and that thinking again about the common good is a necessary part of such engagement.

scholarly journals On Pediatric Vaccines and Catholic Social Teaching

Horizons ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-316
Author(s):  
Conor M. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Common ◽  
Pediatric Vaccines ◽  
Medical Choice

Determining whether, and when, to get one's children vaccinated has become an increasingly controversial decision, often leaving parents fearful of making the “wrong” choice. Part of the challenge stems from the fact that what is rationally optimal for an individual is inherently at odds with the best outcome for the community, meaning that if everyone acted out of self-interest with respect to pediatric vaccines, communal health would suffer significantly. Given these tensions, the issue of pediatric vaccines benefits greatly from the nuanced assessment of Catholic social teaching. Specifically, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace's “four permanent principles” of human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity highlight the issues involved and help parents navigate this significant medical choice with a more informed conscience and a greater sense of their moral responsibilities. The end result is a fruitful alignment between Catholic social teaching and ethics in ordinary life.

scholarly journals Safe Injection Sites: A Moral Reflection

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Steven Bozza ◽  
Jeffrey Berger
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Healthcare Ethics ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Common ◽  
Safe Injection

This article addresses the issue of safe injection sites (SIS) that municipalities in the United States and elsewhere in the world propose to save lives by curbing the instances of fatal overdoses and provide addicts with healthcare services and opportunities for detoxification and social rehabilitation. Drawing on current clinical science and the medical facts regarding substance abuse and addiction, widely accepted bioethical principles, Catholic social teaching, and the common good, it shows the administration and consumption of illicit recreational drugs in an SIS is not a suitable medical intervention and a violation of the core principles of Catholic social teaching and Catholic healthcare ethics. More importantly, municipal governing bodies and the clinicians who staff these facilities cooperate in the evil of illegal drug abuse. Summary: Safe injection sites are morally illicit.

‘Caritas in Veritate’ and Social Love

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret S. Archer
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Caritas In Veritate ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe preliminary part of this paper demonstrates how defective models of personal identity have dominated social theory since the Enlightenment, and indicates their deficiencies for social theorizing and as a basis for the Catholic Church’s social teaching. Part two examines the consequences of conceptions that are incompatible with the four pillars of Catholic social teaching: human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good. Part three examines why recent social teaching is anti-individualist in its emphasis on the connection between personal identity and social relations and endorses relational emergent properties and powers, which are grounded in social realism. These points are held to specify necessary but far from sufficient social conditions required for transforming late modernity into a ‘civilization of love’.

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