19. The Social Doctrine of the Church
1. Concept and Content
1a) Part of the Doctrine of the Church
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 is desired by God. During his earthly life, Christ—while stressing that his mission was the eternal salvation of man—showed concern for solving material needs.1 Moreover, Christian revelation leads us to a deeper understanding of the laws of social life.2 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.
Natural philosophy shows the substantial unity of man, which implies that a real concern for him must address all the needs of his nature. Following the example of her Master, the Church takes up the cause of man. She demands that the rights that arise from man’s dignity be respected, and that social and political conditions allow the legitimate exercise of these rights. “It is certainly asked of us to examine the social question with real commitment. For the Church has to protect the dignity of man. If she neglected to do so, she would fail in her duty and lose her credibility in the proclamation of the Gospel and care for eternal salvation.”3
This should not lead us to forget that the ultimate satisfaction of human desires lies beyond this earthly condition. Moreover, God’s plan for man unfolds amid the inescapable limitations that are imposed by the first sin and by succeeding sins: pain, death, deficiencies, and injustices. Also, through these miseries, the glory of God can shine in man (cf. Jn 9:3).
There is a deep, internal, and organic relationship between the Church and the world—understood as the whole of human history, with its advances and declines. This relationship is not due to some merely external coordination; the two need one another. In the final analysis, it is the Catholic—a member of the Church and a citizen of civil society in his own right—who has to carry out this task:
God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us everyday, in the laboratory, in the operating theater, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home, and in the immense panorama of work.4
Whatever is truly human has a place in the heart of the Church, which feels identified with the history and fate of mankind. As a consequence, the Church addresses her message to all people, who share the same aspirations and together make up society and history.5 “As far as Catholics are concerned, we must not forget that the fulfillment of the mission that Christ entrusted to his Church has immediate social repercussions.… Cooperating toward the attainment of the social function of human activities is not the exclusive prerogative of Catholics; it is the responsibility of all men.”6
The social doctrine of the Church is not taught as an addendum to Catholic faith and morals, but as a consequence of them. Therefore, far from setting social progress as its goal, it shows that the goods of this world are transitory and relative—their value stems from their transcendent origin and purpose.
1b) Faith and Social Doctrine
Faith is the supreme criterion of the social doctrine of the Church. Concern for social matters stems from faith. Revelation shows man as an image of God, and as the center and peak of visible creation. He is destined to multiply and rule over it. Therefore, any subservience of man to inferior creatures or his own products is incompatible with the divine plan, since it debases the dignity that God has granted him.
On the other hand, since this dignity is based on the spiritual soul, all men possess it in the same degree. This excludes any unconditional subservience to other men. Both questions—human dignity and its implications for human relations—are the decisive principles of the social doctrine of the Church. “Man is no longer seen merely as a being with material needs, but as God’s image, called to continue God’s creation in work; chosen to put himself, until the return of Christ, in the service of the making of the new heaven and the new earth.”7
Faith enlightens the relations among men, endowing them with a fraternal character: All are children of the same Father. “Faith throws a new light on all things and makes known the full ideal which God has set for man, thus guiding the mind towards solutions that are fully human.”8
The hinge of social questions is Christian love for one’s neighbor. The measure of that love is the theological virtues, whose peak is love. “To love like God is not to set limits to it. Happy are those who make room for a child who arrives unexpectedly and who is rejected by others.… This same openness of heart calls you to take heed of everything that can improve the lot of humanity.”9
1c) Legitimate Autonomy of Temporal Institutions
The doctrine of the Church acknowledges the legitimate autonomy of earthly institutions and realities. This autonomy means that, “by the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique.”10
On the other hand, the values that are intrinsic to created nature stem from the Creator. Therefore, any attempt to make them independent from the Creator will make them void. The Church absolutely rejects that sort of autonomy: “If by the term ‘the autonomy of earthy affairs’ is meant that material being does not depend on God and that man can use it as if it had no relation to its creator, then the falsity of such a claim will be obvious to anyone who believes in God.”11
Sin taints the goodness of created beings. The believer must restore them to their original condition. He must discover their ordination to the human person, which God has given them. And he must reject the false ordination that people sometimes give to created goods by becoming subject to them.
Human beings, as members of society, have rights and duties. Moreover, the faithful should fulfill their duties and exercise their rights under the light and guidance of faith. They should apply the Law of God to the earthly city by being consistent in their beliefs.
Laymen ought to take on themselves as their distinctive task this renewal of the temporal order. Guided by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church, prompted by Christian love, they should act in this domain in a direct way and in their own specific manner. As citizens among citizens they must bring to their cooperation with others their own special competence, and act on their own responsibility; everywhere and always they have to seek the justice of the kingdom of God.12
No temporal occupation or human institution—including the wide field of culture—should be built without regard for the Law of God.
The laity should learn to distinguish carefully between the rights and the duties which they have as belonging to the Church and those which fall to them as members of the human society. They will strive to unite the two harmoniously, remembering that in every temporal affair they are to be guided by a Christian conscience, since not even in temporal business may any human activity be withdrawn from God’s dominion.13
1d) Catholic Doctrine and Private Interpretation
A clear distinction should be made between the doctrine of the Church and its interpretation by Catholic authors. The social doctrine of the Church consists of philosophical and theological knowledge about the essence and order of human society, and the norms derived from them. The contribution of social philosophy is based on the social condition that is rooted in the nature of man. Social theology also contributes, insofar as the social situation is relevant for the pursuit of eternal salvation.14
The social doctrine of the Church proposes principles for reflection, extends criteria for judgment, and gives orientations for action. Besides the immutable moral principles of the social order, the Church also provides specific judgments, which are the application of the principles to the changeable situations that follow the free development of history. The principles are deduced from natural reason and the spirit of the Gospel, which includes and surpasses them.15 Evaluative teachings or judgments, on the other hand, will depend on the needs of the different historical periods.16
If the Social Doctrine of the Church does not intervene to authenticate a given structure or to propose a ready-made model, it does not thereby limit itself to recalling general principles. It develops through reflection applied to the changing situations of this world, under the driving force of the Gospel as the source of renewal when its message is accepted in its totality and with all its demands.17
The social doctrine of the Church extends to the different natural social orders, which are the field where human activity takes place. These are the family, the state, the economy, civil institutions, intermediate associations, labor organizations, international relations, property, education, and culture. These realities are studied in light of the corresponding philosophical principles, like the relationship between person and society, the content and demands of the common good, and the principle of subsidiarity.
What the Church is ultimately interested in, however, is man’s orientation to his last end through earthly realities; it is through them that man reaches his eternal destiny. Therefore, the sources that enlighten and confirming the philosophical principles are Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s own Magisterium—taken and understood as inseparably united.18 If the Church also passes judgment on temporal actuations, it is because no human activity can be built independently of the Law of God.19 Besides, it is man’s responsibility to restore to created beings their true condition, now obscured by sin.
The Church requires assent to general social principles and to the exhortations that are based on these principles that she may issue regarding some specific circumstances. The Church, however, leaves the application of these teachings to the responsibility of the faithful. The Church will not get involved in technical aspects, and will admit a legitimate diversity of solutions.20 Laymen who are committed to action must keep the perennial moral principles and be guided by a prudent assessment of each specific situation. This is their way of assuming their personal responsibility.21
Pius XI coined the expression “Doctrina de re sociali et oeconomica” in order to distinguish the social doctrine of the Church from the personal opinions of Catholic authors.22 This is not meant to disavow these opinions, but to distinguish doctrine from personal interpretations. Doctrine is binding for all Catholics in the field of social action. Personal interpretations are left to the responsibility of their proponents, and are compatible with other lines of action. Whatever force personal interpretations may have comes from the three sources cited above: Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium.
2. Purpose of the Social Doctrine of the Church
2a) Fulfilling the Commandment of Christ
In her social doctrine and action, the Church is faithful to the commandment that Jesus Christ gave her before his Ascension for the benefit of all peoples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). As we have seen, the pursuit of salvation for all people implies the defense of all the demands of human dignity.23
Christian revelation contains the total truth about man. The Incarnation sheds a universal light on human existence. Therefore, neither man’s being nor any of his temporal activities is indifferent to the message that was preached by Christ.
Called as they are to bear witness to truth, the pastors of the Church have from Christ himself the mission and the authority to tell man the whole truth about man and the requirements of this truth. These requirements, since they spring from the perennial identity of the human person, transcend all historical situations, and precisely for this reason they are capable of guiding in every place and time the commitment of the Christian, who is called to “impress the divine law on the affairs of the earthly city.”24
2b) Establishing the Kingdom of Christ
The social doctrine of the Church aims at establishing the kingdom of the justice and love of Christ. Moral law extends to the different fields of human activity—economic, social, or political—insofar as these fields are not governed exclusively by the technical norms stemming from their specific objects.
But it is only the moral law that, just as it commands us to seek our supreme and last end in the whole scheme of our activity, so likewise commands us to seek directly in each kind of activity those purposes which we know that nature, or rather God the Author of nature, established for that kind of action, and in orderly relationship to subordinate such immediate purposes to our supreme and last end.25
The Church desires that the laws of justice and charity rule supreme over the social order.26
2c) Christian Principles as the Foundation of Justice
The social doctrine of the Church tries to show that justice is based on Christian principles. The same revealed principles that inspire the Christian’s behavior also inspire justice. “Social justice is true only if it is based on the rights of the individual. And these rights will be really recognized only if we recognize the transcendent dimension of man, created in the image and likeness of God, called to be his son and the brother of other men, and destined to eternal life.”27
2d) The Way to the Reconstruction of Society
One of the objectives sought by the Church in proclaiming her social doctrine is the establishment of a social order that is based on the truth about man and society. In the process, the root of the disorders that are plaguing the present situation of society is discovered.28
We are aware of our responsibility to take up this torch that our great predecessors lighted, and hand it on with undiminished flame. It is a torch to lighten the pathways of all who would seek appropriate solutions to the many social problems of our times.29
This reconstruction can be achieved only by applying the social doctrine of the Church. It cannot be achieved by mere technical improvements or by raising the standards of living: “But all will come out well if the social teaching of the Catholic Church is applied, as it should be, to the problem.”30 This implies the acceptance of the basic principle of the social doctrine of the Church: “Individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings.”31
3. Sources of the Social Doctrine: Revelation and Natural Law
The Church bases her social Magisterium on two sources: revelation and natural law. “The new order of the world … must rest on the unshakable foundation, on the solid rock of natural law and of Divine Revelation.”32 These two sources are not alien to each other. The moral precepts that were preached by Jesus Christ—the peak of revelation—include and surpass the natural law. Man can know the natural law with the unaided power of his natural reason. However, this knowledge is liable to error, due to the disordered inclinations that are left by original sin and personal sins. Believers, on the other hand, enjoy a guarantee of infallibility thanks to revelation as taught by the Magisterium, which confirms natural precepts.
The sources of the social doctrine of the Church are the Old and New Testaments. Especially relevant are the Book of Genesis and, above all, the Gospels and the apostolic writings. These teachings provide the light that illumines the social needs of every historical period to solve what has been called “the social question.”33
4. The Church’s Right to Issue her Social Doctrine
4a) The Religious Mission of the Church
As a consequence of her religious mission, the Church is responsible for directing temporal realities to God. This is affirmed in several documents of the Magisterium:
Christ did not bequeath to the Church a mission in the political, economic, or social order: the purpose he assigned to it was a religious one. But this religious mission can be the source of commitment, direction, and vigor to establish and consolidate the community of men according to the law of God.34
The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, “when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it.” In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.35
4b) Judging the Social Order
The Church must judge whether or not the bases of the social order are in agreement with divine law. The diverse ordinations of the temporal realities are not unimportant for the attainment of man’s supernatural destiny—human life is inscribed in that ordination. Therefore, the Church has the right and the competence to pass judgment on that social ordination, in the light of moral principles and revelation. This undeniable right of the Church is based on objective reality.
It is unquestionable competence of the Church, in that aspect of the social order in which this comes close to, or even touches upon the moral sphere, to judge whether the foundations of a given social set-up are in conformity with the immutable order manifested by God the Creator in the natural law, and by God the Redeemer in Revelation.36
4c) The Teaching Mission
It is the role of the Church to draw out and put forward the teachings that are contained in the Gospel, which are the only starting point for a solution to social conflicts.37 The Church’s social teaching finds its source in Sacred Scripture. From the beginning, it was the basis of the Church’s teaching, her concept of man and life in society, and, especially, the social morality that she worked out according to the needs of the different ages.38
The solutions that are proposed by the Church are not—and should not be—mere theories. However, the Church does not espouse a specific technical solution to social and political problems. “By its nature and mission the Church is universal in that it is not committed to any one culture or to any political, economic or social system.”39 There is room, therefore, for a legitimate pluralism.
4d) Solving Social Problems
The Church has the right and the duty to contribute to the solution of social problems. Her contribution is centered on questions related to morals.
The deposit of truth that God committed to Us and the grave duty of disseminating and interpreting the whole moral law, and of urging it in season and out of season, bring and subject to Our supreme jurisdiction not only social order but economic activities themselves.40
The purpose of the Church’s contribution is to make sure that the solutions to social problems respect the immutable moral laws. This helps to engrave the law of God in the earthly city, whose order should be a reflection—albeit imperfect—of divine perfection.
5. Duties of the Faithful
5a) Diffusion
All the members of the people of God must know the social doctrine of the Church. Its study should not be undertaken for a merely theoretical or informative purpose. It is part of the knowledge that Christians must have of their social duties and the specific way to fulfill them. “Consequently, a purely theoretical instruction in man’s social and economic obligations is inadequate. People must also be shown ways in which they can properly fulfill these obligations.”41
5b) Implementation
The social doctrine of the Church must be practiced. The believers’ assent to such doctrine would not be sincere if their works were to deny it.
It is vitally important, therefore, that Our sons learn to understand this doctrine. They must be educated to it. No Christian education can be considered complete unless it covers every kind of obligation. It must therefore aim at implanting and fostering among the faithful an awareness of their duty to carry on their economic and social activities in a Christian manner.42
6. Development of Social Doctrine
6a) A Doctrine for All Times
The principles on which the social doctrine of the Church is based have a permanent validity: They are based on the nature of man and the spirit of the Gospel.43 The nucleus of God’s will for human relations is to be found in the New Testament. These principles must serve as the basis for interpreting the complex evolution that has taken place in the last decades. The maintenance of these principles accounts for the internal connections and consistency of all the teachings of the Church.44
A consequence of such principles is the commitment to peace and justice, which has been a constant feature of the development of the social doctrine of the Church. One key to its understanding is the concept of work, seen from the point of view of the good of man.45
The encyclical Rerum Novarum appeared in 1891 at a time of deep social and economic transformations. New ideologies opposed to Christian principles—liberalism and socialism—had appeared to solve the new problems. Against liberalism’s reduction of work to a mere commodity, Leo XIII defended the human value of work and the rights of labor, which the state must protect. Against socialism, the Pope defended the priority of man—endowed with dignity and rights—and of the family over the state.
In his encyclical Mater et Magistra, John XXIII enumerated the great changes that have taken place in the scientific, technical, social and political fields since the publication of Rerum Novarum.46 Nevertheless, he said:
Our purpose is not merely to commemorate in a fitting manner the Leonine encyclical, but also to confirm and make more specific the teaching of Our predecessors, and to determine clearly the mind of the Church on the new and important problems of the day.47
Until the publication of Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, the social doctrine of the Church had focused on a just solution to the problem of labor. Later on, its scope progressively increased to accommodate the problems of the development of peoples and the just distribution of wealth.
6b) The Social Question and Universal Solidarity
More recent encyclicals, like Mater et Magistra (1961), Pacem in Terris (1963), Populorum Progressio (1967), Laborem Exercens (1981), Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), and Centesimus Annus (1991) tackled the problem of universal solidarity within the frame of the social question.
At present, the social question has acquired universal dimensions. It demands attention, at the same time, to the solidarity among all peoples and to the individual needs of each one. In this regard, developed countries have a special responsibility to help the development of the less fortunate ones. Only solidarity among all peoples and nations, and the concern of each member of each social group and nation for the common good will make possible the urgently needed reforms.
Let everyone consider it his sacred duty to count social obligations among man’s chief duties today and observe them as such. For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do men’s obligations transcend particular groups and gradually extend to the whole world.48
To be especially avoided is the excessive concentration of political and economic power, which has already been denounced by Pius XI.49 Its avoidance will allow a greater participation of all affected parties in the common responsibilities and decisions, thus making solidarity effective.
Although limits are sometimes called for, these obstacles must not slow down the giving of wider participation in working out decisions, making choices and putting them into practice.… Thus human groups will gradually begin to share and to live as communities. Thus freedom, which too often asserts itself as a claim for autonomy by opposing the freedom of others, will develop in its deepest human reality: to involve itself and to spend itself in building up active and lived solidarity.50
Footnotes:
1. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 4.
2. Cf. GS, 1; CCC, 2419–2425.
3. John Paul II, Address to Workers in Commemoration of Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1981.
4. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá, 114.
5. Cf. GS, 1–3.
6. Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, Mons. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y el Opus Dei (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 1982), 41.
7. John Paul II, Address to Workers in Commemoration of Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1981.
8. GS, 11.
9. John Paul II, Address to the Youth in Lourdes, Aug. 15, 1983.
10. GS, 36.
11. Ibid.
12. AA, 7; cf. CCC, 2420.
13. LG, 36.
14. Cf. Joseph Hoeffner, Fundamentals of Christian Sociology (Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press), 14.
15. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 15; CCC, 2423.
16. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 3.
17. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 42.
18. Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Youth in Lourdes, Aug. 15, 1983; CCC, 2422.
19. Cf. LG, 36; GS, 43.
20. Cf. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 49–50.
21. Cf. Ibid., 48–50; St. Josemaría Escrivá, “Passionately Loving the World,” in Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá.
22. Cf. Antonio Millán-Puelles, “Doctrina Social de la Iglesia,” in Sobre el Hombre y la Sociedad (Madrid: Rialp, 1974).
23. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 1–6.
24. John Paul II, Address to the Meeting on the Encyclical Rerum Novarum sponsored by the Italian Episcopal Conference, Oct. 31, 1981; cf. GS, 43.
25. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 43.
26. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 39.
27. John Paul II, Homily in the Mass for the Youth in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, July 1, 1980.
28. Cf. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 15.
29. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 50.
30. John XXIII, Enc. Ad Petri Cathedram, 13.
31. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 219.
32. Pius XII, Enc. Summi Pontificatus, 29; cf. CCC, 2422.
33. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 3.
34. GS, 42.
35. CCC, 2420; cf. GS, 76.
36. Pius XII, Address, June 1, 1941.
37. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 2.
38. Cf. Ibid., 3.
39. GS, 42.
40. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 41.
41. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 230.
42. Ibid., 227–28.
43. Cf. Ibid., 15.
44. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 2.
45. Cf. Ibid., 3; CCC, 2421.
46. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 47–49.
47. Ibid., 50.
48. GS, 30.
49. Cf. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 107–108.
50. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 47.
1a) Part of the Doctrine of the Church
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 is desired by God. During his earthly life, Christ—while stressing that his mission was the eternal salvation of man—showed concern for solving material needs.1 Moreover, Christian revelation leads us to a deeper understanding of the laws of social life.2 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.
Natural philosophy shows the substantial unity of man, which implies that a real concern for him must address all the needs of his nature. Following the example of her Master, the Church takes up the cause of man. She demands that the rights that arise from man’s dignity be respected, and that social and political conditions allow the legitimate exercise of these rights. “It is certainly asked of us to examine the social question with real commitment. For the Church has to protect the dignity of man. If she neglected to do so, she would fail in her duty and lose her credibility in the proclamation of the Gospel and care for eternal salvation.”3
This should not lead us to forget that the ultimate satisfaction of human desires lies beyond this earthly condition. Moreover, God’s plan for man unfolds amid the inescapable limitations that are imposed by the first sin and by succeeding sins: pain, death, deficiencies, and injustices. Also, through these miseries, the glory of God can shine in man (cf. Jn 9:3).
There is a deep, internal, and organic relationship between the Church and the world—understood as the whole of human history, with its advances and declines. This relationship is not due to some merely external coordination; the two need one another. In the final analysis, it is the Catholic—a member of the Church and a citizen of civil society in his own right—who has to carry out this task:
God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us everyday, in the laboratory, in the operating theater, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home, and in the immense panorama of work.4
Whatever is truly human has a place in the heart of the Church, which feels identified with the history and fate of mankind. As a consequence, the Church addresses her message to all people, who share the same aspirations and together make up society and history.5 “As far as Catholics are concerned, we must not forget that the fulfillment of the mission that Christ entrusted to his Church has immediate social repercussions.… Cooperating toward the attainment of the social function of human activities is not the exclusive prerogative of Catholics; it is the responsibility of all men.”6
The social doctrine of the Church is not taught as an addendum to Catholic faith and morals, but as a consequence of them. Therefore, far from setting social progress as its goal, it shows that the goods of this world are transitory and relative—their value stems from their transcendent origin and purpose.
1b) Faith and Social Doctrine
Faith is the supreme criterion of the social doctrine of the Church. Concern for social matters stems from faith. Revelation shows man as an image of God, and as the center and peak of visible creation. He is destined to multiply and rule over it. Therefore, any subservience of man to inferior creatures or his own products is incompatible with the divine plan, since it debases the dignity that God has granted him.
On the other hand, since this dignity is based on the spiritual soul, all men possess it in the same degree. This excludes any unconditional subservience to other men. Both questions—human dignity and its implications for human relations—are the decisive principles of the social doctrine of the Church. “Man is no longer seen merely as a being with material needs, but as God’s image, called to continue God’s creation in work; chosen to put himself, until the return of Christ, in the service of the making of the new heaven and the new earth.”7
Faith enlightens the relations among men, endowing them with a fraternal character: All are children of the same Father. “Faith throws a new light on all things and makes known the full ideal which God has set for man, thus guiding the mind towards solutions that are fully human.”8
The hinge of social questions is Christian love for one’s neighbor. The measure of that love is the theological virtues, whose peak is love. “To love like God is not to set limits to it. Happy are those who make room for a child who arrives unexpectedly and who is rejected by others.… This same openness of heart calls you to take heed of everything that can improve the lot of humanity.”9
1c) Legitimate Autonomy of Temporal Institutions
The doctrine of the Church acknowledges the legitimate autonomy of earthly institutions and realities. This autonomy means that, “by the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique.”10
On the other hand, the values that are intrinsic to created nature stem from the Creator. Therefore, any attempt to make them independent from the Creator will make them void. The Church absolutely rejects that sort of autonomy: “If by the term ‘the autonomy of earthy affairs’ is meant that material being does not depend on God and that man can use it as if it had no relation to its creator, then the falsity of such a claim will be obvious to anyone who believes in God.”11
Sin taints the goodness of created beings. The believer must restore them to their original condition. He must discover their ordination to the human person, which God has given them. And he must reject the false ordination that people sometimes give to created goods by becoming subject to them.
Human beings, as members of society, have rights and duties. Moreover, the faithful should fulfill their duties and exercise their rights under the light and guidance of faith. They should apply the Law of God to the earthly city by being consistent in their beliefs.
Laymen ought to take on themselves as their distinctive task this renewal of the temporal order. Guided by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church, prompted by Christian love, they should act in this domain in a direct way and in their own specific manner. As citizens among citizens they must bring to their cooperation with others their own special competence, and act on their own responsibility; everywhere and always they have to seek the justice of the kingdom of God.12
No temporal occupation or human institution—including the wide field of culture—should be built without regard for the Law of God.
The laity should learn to distinguish carefully between the rights and the duties which they have as belonging to the Church and those which fall to them as members of the human society. They will strive to unite the two harmoniously, remembering that in every temporal affair they are to be guided by a Christian conscience, since not even in temporal business may any human activity be withdrawn from God’s dominion.13
1d) Catholic Doctrine and Private Interpretation
A clear distinction should be made between the doctrine of the Church and its interpretation by Catholic authors. The social doctrine of the Church consists of philosophical and theological knowledge about the essence and order of human society, and the norms derived from them. The contribution of social philosophy is based on the social condition that is rooted in the nature of man. Social theology also contributes, insofar as the social situation is relevant for the pursuit of eternal salvation.14
The social doctrine of the Church proposes principles for reflection, extends criteria for judgment, and gives orientations for action. Besides the immutable moral principles of the social order, the Church also provides specific judgments, which are the application of the principles to the changeable situations that follow the free development of history. The principles are deduced from natural reason and the spirit of the Gospel, which includes and surpasses them.15 Evaluative teachings or judgments, on the other hand, will depend on the needs of the different historical periods.16
If the Social Doctrine of the Church does not intervene to authenticate a given structure or to propose a ready-made model, it does not thereby limit itself to recalling general principles. It develops through reflection applied to the changing situations of this world, under the driving force of the Gospel as the source of renewal when its message is accepted in its totality and with all its demands.17
The social doctrine of the Church extends to the different natural social orders, which are the field where human activity takes place. These are the family, the state, the economy, civil institutions, intermediate associations, labor organizations, international relations, property, education, and culture. These realities are studied in light of the corresponding philosophical principles, like the relationship between person and society, the content and demands of the common good, and the principle of subsidiarity.
What the Church is ultimately interested in, however, is man’s orientation to his last end through earthly realities; it is through them that man reaches his eternal destiny. Therefore, the sources that enlighten and confirming the philosophical principles are Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s own Magisterium—taken and understood as inseparably united.18 If the Church also passes judgment on temporal actuations, it is because no human activity can be built independently of the Law of God.19 Besides, it is man’s responsibility to restore to created beings their true condition, now obscured by sin.
The Church requires assent to general social principles and to the exhortations that are based on these principles that she may issue regarding some specific circumstances. The Church, however, leaves the application of these teachings to the responsibility of the faithful. The Church will not get involved in technical aspects, and will admit a legitimate diversity of solutions.20 Laymen who are committed to action must keep the perennial moral principles and be guided by a prudent assessment of each specific situation. This is their way of assuming their personal responsibility.21
Pius XI coined the expression “Doctrina de re sociali et oeconomica” in order to distinguish the social doctrine of the Church from the personal opinions of Catholic authors.22 This is not meant to disavow these opinions, but to distinguish doctrine from personal interpretations. Doctrine is binding for all Catholics in the field of social action. Personal interpretations are left to the responsibility of their proponents, and are compatible with other lines of action. Whatever force personal interpretations may have comes from the three sources cited above: Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium.
2. Purpose of the Social Doctrine of the Church
2a) Fulfilling the Commandment of Christ
In her social doctrine and action, the Church is faithful to the commandment that Jesus Christ gave her before his Ascension for the benefit of all peoples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). As we have seen, the pursuit of salvation for all people implies the defense of all the demands of human dignity.23
Christian revelation contains the total truth about man. The Incarnation sheds a universal light on human existence. Therefore, neither man’s being nor any of his temporal activities is indifferent to the message that was preached by Christ.
Called as they are to bear witness to truth, the pastors of the Church have from Christ himself the mission and the authority to tell man the whole truth about man and the requirements of this truth. These requirements, since they spring from the perennial identity of the human person, transcend all historical situations, and precisely for this reason they are capable of guiding in every place and time the commitment of the Christian, who is called to “impress the divine law on the affairs of the earthly city.”24
2b) Establishing the Kingdom of Christ
The social doctrine of the Church aims at establishing the kingdom of the justice and love of Christ. Moral law extends to the different fields of human activity—economic, social, or political—insofar as these fields are not governed exclusively by the technical norms stemming from their specific objects.
But it is only the moral law that, just as it commands us to seek our supreme and last end in the whole scheme of our activity, so likewise commands us to seek directly in each kind of activity those purposes which we know that nature, or rather God the Author of nature, established for that kind of action, and in orderly relationship to subordinate such immediate purposes to our supreme and last end.25
The Church desires that the laws of justice and charity rule supreme over the social order.26
2c) Christian Principles as the Foundation of Justice
The social doctrine of the Church tries to show that justice is based on Christian principles. The same revealed principles that inspire the Christian’s behavior also inspire justice. “Social justice is true only if it is based on the rights of the individual. And these rights will be really recognized only if we recognize the transcendent dimension of man, created in the image and likeness of God, called to be his son and the brother of other men, and destined to eternal life.”27
2d) The Way to the Reconstruction of Society
One of the objectives sought by the Church in proclaiming her social doctrine is the establishment of a social order that is based on the truth about man and society. In the process, the root of the disorders that are plaguing the present situation of society is discovered.28
We are aware of our responsibility to take up this torch that our great predecessors lighted, and hand it on with undiminished flame. It is a torch to lighten the pathways of all who would seek appropriate solutions to the many social problems of our times.29
This reconstruction can be achieved only by applying the social doctrine of the Church. It cannot be achieved by mere technical improvements or by raising the standards of living: “But all will come out well if the social teaching of the Catholic Church is applied, as it should be, to the problem.”30 This implies the acceptance of the basic principle of the social doctrine of the Church: “Individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings.”31
3. Sources of the Social Doctrine: Revelation and Natural Law
The Church bases her social Magisterium on two sources: revelation and natural law. “The new order of the world … must rest on the unshakable foundation, on the solid rock of natural law and of Divine Revelation.”32 These two sources are not alien to each other. The moral precepts that were preached by Jesus Christ—the peak of revelation—include and surpass the natural law. Man can know the natural law with the unaided power of his natural reason. However, this knowledge is liable to error, due to the disordered inclinations that are left by original sin and personal sins. Believers, on the other hand, enjoy a guarantee of infallibility thanks to revelation as taught by the Magisterium, which confirms natural precepts.
The sources of the social doctrine of the Church are the Old and New Testaments. Especially relevant are the Book of Genesis and, above all, the Gospels and the apostolic writings. These teachings provide the light that illumines the social needs of every historical period to solve what has been called “the social question.”33
4. The Church’s Right to Issue her Social Doctrine
4a) The Religious Mission of the Church
As a consequence of her religious mission, the Church is responsible for directing temporal realities to God. This is affirmed in several documents of the Magisterium:
Christ did not bequeath to the Church a mission in the political, economic, or social order: the purpose he assigned to it was a religious one. But this religious mission can be the source of commitment, direction, and vigor to establish and consolidate the community of men according to the law of God.34
The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, “when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it.” In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.35
4b) Judging the Social Order
The Church must judge whether or not the bases of the social order are in agreement with divine law. The diverse ordinations of the temporal realities are not unimportant for the attainment of man’s supernatural destiny—human life is inscribed in that ordination. Therefore, the Church has the right and the competence to pass judgment on that social ordination, in the light of moral principles and revelation. This undeniable right of the Church is based on objective reality.
It is unquestionable competence of the Church, in that aspect of the social order in which this comes close to, or even touches upon the moral sphere, to judge whether the foundations of a given social set-up are in conformity with the immutable order manifested by God the Creator in the natural law, and by God the Redeemer in Revelation.36
4c) The Teaching Mission
It is the role of the Church to draw out and put forward the teachings that are contained in the Gospel, which are the only starting point for a solution to social conflicts.37 The Church’s social teaching finds its source in Sacred Scripture. From the beginning, it was the basis of the Church’s teaching, her concept of man and life in society, and, especially, the social morality that she worked out according to the needs of the different ages.38
The solutions that are proposed by the Church are not—and should not be—mere theories. However, the Church does not espouse a specific technical solution to social and political problems. “By its nature and mission the Church is universal in that it is not committed to any one culture or to any political, economic or social system.”39 There is room, therefore, for a legitimate pluralism.
4d) Solving Social Problems
The Church has the right and the duty to contribute to the solution of social problems. Her contribution is centered on questions related to morals.
The deposit of truth that God committed to Us and the grave duty of disseminating and interpreting the whole moral law, and of urging it in season and out of season, bring and subject to Our supreme jurisdiction not only social order but economic activities themselves.40
The purpose of the Church’s contribution is to make sure that the solutions to social problems respect the immutable moral laws. This helps to engrave the law of God in the earthly city, whose order should be a reflection—albeit imperfect—of divine perfection.
5. Duties of the Faithful
5a) Diffusion
All the members of the people of God must know the social doctrine of the Church. Its study should not be undertaken for a merely theoretical or informative purpose. It is part of the knowledge that Christians must have of their social duties and the specific way to fulfill them. “Consequently, a purely theoretical instruction in man’s social and economic obligations is inadequate. People must also be shown ways in which they can properly fulfill these obligations.”41
5b) Implementation
The social doctrine of the Church must be practiced. The believers’ assent to such doctrine would not be sincere if their works were to deny it.
It is vitally important, therefore, that Our sons learn to understand this doctrine. They must be educated to it. No Christian education can be considered complete unless it covers every kind of obligation. It must therefore aim at implanting and fostering among the faithful an awareness of their duty to carry on their economic and social activities in a Christian manner.42
6. Development of Social Doctrine
6a) A Doctrine for All Times
The principles on which the social doctrine of the Church is based have a permanent validity: They are based on the nature of man and the spirit of the Gospel.43 The nucleus of God’s will for human relations is to be found in the New Testament. These principles must serve as the basis for interpreting the complex evolution that has taken place in the last decades. The maintenance of these principles accounts for the internal connections and consistency of all the teachings of the Church.44
A consequence of such principles is the commitment to peace and justice, which has been a constant feature of the development of the social doctrine of the Church. One key to its understanding is the concept of work, seen from the point of view of the good of man.45
The encyclical Rerum Novarum appeared in 1891 at a time of deep social and economic transformations. New ideologies opposed to Christian principles—liberalism and socialism—had appeared to solve the new problems. Against liberalism’s reduction of work to a mere commodity, Leo XIII defended the human value of work and the rights of labor, which the state must protect. Against socialism, the Pope defended the priority of man—endowed with dignity and rights—and of the family over the state.
In his encyclical Mater et Magistra, John XXIII enumerated the great changes that have taken place in the scientific, technical, social and political fields since the publication of Rerum Novarum.46 Nevertheless, he said:
Our purpose is not merely to commemorate in a fitting manner the Leonine encyclical, but also to confirm and make more specific the teaching of Our predecessors, and to determine clearly the mind of the Church on the new and important problems of the day.47
Until the publication of Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, the social doctrine of the Church had focused on a just solution to the problem of labor. Later on, its scope progressively increased to accommodate the problems of the development of peoples and the just distribution of wealth.
6b) The Social Question and Universal Solidarity
More recent encyclicals, like Mater et Magistra (1961), Pacem in Terris (1963), Populorum Progressio (1967), Laborem Exercens (1981), Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), and Centesimus Annus (1991) tackled the problem of universal solidarity within the frame of the social question.
At present, the social question has acquired universal dimensions. It demands attention, at the same time, to the solidarity among all peoples and to the individual needs of each one. In this regard, developed countries have a special responsibility to help the development of the less fortunate ones. Only solidarity among all peoples and nations, and the concern of each member of each social group and nation for the common good will make possible the urgently needed reforms.
Let everyone consider it his sacred duty to count social obligations among man’s chief duties today and observe them as such. For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do men’s obligations transcend particular groups and gradually extend to the whole world.48
To be especially avoided is the excessive concentration of political and economic power, which has already been denounced by Pius XI.49 Its avoidance will allow a greater participation of all affected parties in the common responsibilities and decisions, thus making solidarity effective.
Although limits are sometimes called for, these obstacles must not slow down the giving of wider participation in working out decisions, making choices and putting them into practice.… Thus human groups will gradually begin to share and to live as communities. Thus freedom, which too often asserts itself as a claim for autonomy by opposing the freedom of others, will develop in its deepest human reality: to involve itself and to spend itself in building up active and lived solidarity.50
Footnotes:
1. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 4.
2. Cf. GS, 1; CCC, 2419–2425.
3. John Paul II, Address to Workers in Commemoration of Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1981.
4. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá, 114.
5. Cf. GS, 1–3.
6. Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, Mons. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y el Opus Dei (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 1982), 41.
7. John Paul II, Address to Workers in Commemoration of Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1981.
8. GS, 11.
9. John Paul II, Address to the Youth in Lourdes, Aug. 15, 1983.
10. GS, 36.
11. Ibid.
12. AA, 7; cf. CCC, 2420.
13. LG, 36.
14. Cf. Joseph Hoeffner, Fundamentals of Christian Sociology (Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press), 14.
15. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 15; CCC, 2423.
16. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 3.
17. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 42.
18. Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Youth in Lourdes, Aug. 15, 1983; CCC, 2422.
19. Cf. LG, 36; GS, 43.
20. Cf. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 49–50.
21. Cf. Ibid., 48–50; St. Josemaría Escrivá, “Passionately Loving the World,” in Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá.
22. Cf. Antonio Millán-Puelles, “Doctrina Social de la Iglesia,” in Sobre el Hombre y la Sociedad (Madrid: Rialp, 1974).
23. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 1–6.
24. John Paul II, Address to the Meeting on the Encyclical Rerum Novarum sponsored by the Italian Episcopal Conference, Oct. 31, 1981; cf. GS, 43.
25. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 43.
26. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 39.
27. John Paul II, Homily in the Mass for the Youth in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, July 1, 1980.
28. Cf. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 15.
29. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 50.
30. John XXIII, Enc. Ad Petri Cathedram, 13.
31. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 219.
32. Pius XII, Enc. Summi Pontificatus, 29; cf. CCC, 2422.
33. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 3.
34. GS, 42.
35. CCC, 2420; cf. GS, 76.
36. Pius XII, Address, June 1, 1941.
37. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 2.
38. Cf. Ibid., 3.
39. GS, 42.
40. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 41.
41. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 230.
42. Ibid., 227–28.
43. Cf. Ibid., 15.
44. Cf. John Paul II, Enc. Laborem Exercens, 2.
45. Cf. Ibid., 3; CCC, 2421.
46. Cf. John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 47–49.
47. Ibid., 50.
48. GS, 30.
49. Cf. Pius XI, Enc. Quadragesimo Anno, 107–108.
50. Paul VI, Ap. Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 47.