Seven Themes of the Catholic Social Teaching

1. The Life and Dignity of the Human Person

 The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision
for society.
 This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion
and euthanasia.
 The value of human life is being threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of the death penalty.
 The intentional targeting of civilians in war or terrorist attacks is always wrong. Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to avoid
war. Nations must protect the right to life by finding increasingly effective ways to prevent conflicts and resolve them by peaceful
means.
 We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is
whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

Human Person

 As the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms, “the human person, made in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and
spiritual”.
 The human body is human and living precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul.
 As Pope John Paul II has said, the “person, including his body, is completely entrusted to himself, and it is in the unity of body and
soul that the person is the subject of his own moral acts.”
 The human body reveals a human person; and since the body, male or female, is the expression of a human person, a man and a
woman, in giving their bodies to one another, give themselves to one another.
 Finally, the human person, no matter what his condition, is a being of moral worth, the subject of inviolable rights that are to be
recognized and respected by others, including the inviolable right of innocent human persons to life, not to be intentionally killed, and
the right of children to be born in and through the conjugal act.

 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all humans have been born with equality in dignity and rights. For this reason,
they are endowed with enough reason and pure conscience, hence should acts towards one another with a deep spirit of
brotherhood.
 The Era of Enlightenment placed new emphasis on reason and the rational nature of the human person. New and revolutionary
ideas abounded, particularly surrounding the idea of the person, individual rights, and freedom.
 Immanuel Kant is often considered to be the source of the contemporary idea of human dignity, but his conception of human
dignity and its relation to human value and to the requirement to respect others have not been widely understood. ... The requirement
to respect all human beings is one such imperative.

Some saints who have worked tirelessly to fight for the life and dignity of the human person include:

o St. Peter Claver, who was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary. He is the patron saint of slaves, due to his heroic work ministering
to and affirming the inherent worth and dignity of African slaves in Columbia.
o St. Teresa of Calcutta, who we all know worked tirelessly affirming the dignity of life in the poorest and most destitute people living in
the slums of India.
o St. Thomas Aquinas refined the understanding of the human person being created in God's image by interpreting Genesis to teach
that the human person is an "intelligent being endowed with free will and self-movement." The human person has a soul which
endows him/her with the ability to know and love God freely, thereby having a privileged place in the order of creation.
o St. John Paul II expanded the notion of human dignity to say that human life is not only made in God’s image, but has intrinsic worth
and is therefore inviolable.

ISSUES INCLUDE:

Euthanasia- Also called mercy killing. the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a
person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition. The practice is illegal in most countries.
Murder- the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.
Adultery- Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse.
Rape- Unlawful sexual intercourse of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the
consent of the victim.
Abuse- Improper or excessive use or treatment, physical maltreatment, a corrupt practice or custom.
Discrimination- The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
Cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the
reproduction of human cells and tissue.
Embryonic stem cell research- derived from the blastocyst stage early mammalian embryos, are distinguished by their ability to differentiate
into any cell type and by their ability to propagate
Death penalty is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.
The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence.
War is a state of armed conflict between states or societies. It is generally characterized by extreme aggression, destruction, and mortality,
using regular or irregular military forces. An absence of war is usually called "peace".

2. Family Life, Community and Participation

This organization of society moves from the basic unit, the family, to the larger community while ensuring that everyone
participates.

 A community shares a great deal. Its members may have a common history and a sense of a shared identity. They are bound
together by cultural, political and economic structures, and express their shared lives in professional, political and recreational
associations and groups.
 A Catholic understanding of community finds its fullest expression in communion – something that is willed by God and is, indeed, a
gift from God.
 The family is the first place where we learn to become human, it is the ‘cradle of life and love.’ It is the first and fundamental unit of
society and is sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children.
 Marriage and the family are the central social institutions that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined.
 Humans gather in groups. In our Catholic faith, we are One Body with Christ.
 Catholic social teaching urges that parents be supported in their effort to raise well-formed, healthy children. And at the core of the
family is a stable, healthy marriage.
 Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.

“The common good embraces the sum of those conditions of social life by which individuals, families, and groups can achieve their
own fulfillment in a relatively thorough and ready way,” said the Second Vatican Council document, the Gaudium et Spes.

Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds. (Pope Francis,
On Care for Our Common Home)

"People have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the
poor and vulnerable."

"How we organize our society— in economics and politics, in law and policy—directly affects human dignity and the capacity of
individuals to grow in community."

“This nation is not ruled by the majority, it is ruled by the majority who participate.”

Call to participation highlights the freedom for an individual to aid the one’s in need and seeking the overall well-being of their
community.

Basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons. The ultimate
injustice is for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race. To treat
people this way is effectively to say they simply do not count as human beings.

‘Putting them into practice is the sure and necessary way of obtaining personal perfection and a more human social existence.’
(Compendium, paragraph 197)