Workshop: Guide Questions

1) In this Year of the Poor, how

do you describe/illustrate your
deep experience of what you
saw, read or heard on the
situation of poverty;
2) What must the Church do
with this situation?
The CST Paradigm
SEE

GOSPEL
VALUE
JUDGE SIGNS OF THE
TIMES

ACT
4 Sources of CST

1.Scripture
2.Reason
3.Tradition
4.Experience
 What is CST?
An encounter of the Gospel with the problem of
societal life (Massive Poverty: What does the
Gospel say about it.)

 SRS #41 “the accurate formulation of the

results of a careful reflection on the
complex realities of human existence, in
society and in the international order in
the light of faith and of the church’s
tradition.”
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CST
In the social doctrine of the Church, we can
find:
• the principles for reflection
• the criteria for judgment
• directives for action

The social doctrine constitutes a genuine

pastoral priority:
• to interpret today’s reality
• seek appropriate paths of action
John Paul II, SRS No. 41
 “the social problem consists in this, that the
wealth of society is monopolized by a few,
while the majority of the people wallow in
poverty and hopelessness.” Salgado p.9
TWO KINDS OF POVERTY
1. Poverty that liberates.

 Lk. 16:13 “No servant can serve two

masters. He will either hate one and love
the other, or be devoted to one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon.”
 Lk. 9:3 “He said to them, “Take nothing for
the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack,
nor food, nor money, and let no one take a
second tunic.”

 Pope Francis at Manila Cathedral: “only

by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping
away our complacency will we be able to
identify with the least of our brothers and
sisters.
 Abp. Soc Villegas” “It is a scandal for a
priest to die a rich man. We bring to
heaven only what we give away on earth.”
 CBCP message, Opening of the Year of the
Poor 2015: “Church funds and personal
funds are deliberately mixed up. The parish
crawls in financial difficulties while we
sprint and jump with financial security.
Our easy and comfortable lifestyles can
make us numb to the peril of worldliness. It
can make us at ease with ecclesiastical
vanities.”
 Can. 1287 par. 2: “Administrators are to
render accounts to the faithful concerning
the goods they have given to the Church, in
accordance WITH THE NORMS TO BE
LAID DOWN BY PARTICULAR LAW.”

 1.1 Freedom from possessions.

 1.2 Freedom from the possessed.

 1.3 Freedom from the desire to possess.

2. Poverty that oppresses.
 Significance of the CST in the
celebration of the “Year of the Poor”?

 “The merit and glory of Leo XIII is in

committing the Church to the cause of the
poor. Salgado, p. 6,
 From non-commitment the Church now
went to the side of Justice. If in the
previous times the Church appeared not to
care, Leo XIII through Rerum Novarum
saw to it that the problem of poverty form
part and parcel of Church apostolate. The
question of justice and injustice would no
longer be an “extra” or in the fringes of
Church apostolates; it would now be part
of its evangelizing nature. Leo XIII’s
Rerum Novarum constituted an example, a
new path, for succeeding Popes to follow.
A hundred years later, Pope John Paul II
would thus comment on Leo XIII’s Rerum
Novarum in his own social encyclical
Centessimus Annus: “In this way, Pope Leo
XIII, in the footsteps of his predecessors,
created a lasting paradigm for the Church.
The Church, in fact, has something to say
about specific human situations, both
individual and communal, national and
international.” (#5)
“POVERTY IS THE FIRST INJUSTICE,”

G. Gutierrez .
Reasons for Leo XIII’s Decision:
1. “In the first place, Leo XIII saw the
terrible poverty then engulfing the
people. Capitalism destroyed feudalism
and in its wake, created a people, the
masses namely, immersed in utmost
poverty.
As Leo XIII himself says in Rerum
Novarum, there was “abounding wealth
among a very small number and
destitution among the masses” (#1). “The
present age handed over the workers, each
alone and defenseless, to the inhumanity
of employers and unbridled greed of
competitors”. (#6) “A very rich few have
laid a yoke almost of slavery on the
unnumbered masses of non-owning
workers” (#6). Salgado, p. 6.
2. “The second reason were the communists.
When the communists came into existence,
they found the Church on the side of the
wealthy, with its apostolate concentrated on
things of heaven. The Church has become prey
to savage communist attacks.

Who has not heard of the communist cry,

calling religion “the opium of the people”?
Engels likewise called religion “the first and
foremost moral means of action upon the
masses”, the most powerful means of keeping
the masses at bay, of perpetuating namely the
wealth of the oppressors and the poverty of
the masses.
3.A third reason was the situation that
Leo XIII found himself in at the time.
Though not exactly poor (the Papacy
and the Church in general was still
wealthy), Leo XIII felt himself
oppressed. The Italian leaders Cavour
and Garibaldi had grabbed the Papal
States, and Leo XIII probably felt like a
prisoner in the small remaining enclave
that was the Vatican. Oppressed Leo XIII
went against the establishment, writing
Rerum Novarum in favor of the
oppressed workers of society. Salgado, p. 7.
Isaiah 42: 1.4.6-7 “Here is my servant
whom I uphold, my chosen one with
whom I am pleased, upon whom I have
put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice
to the nations . . . Until he establishes
justice on the earth; the coastlands will
wait for his teaching . . . I, the Lord have
called you for the victory of justice. I have
grasped you by the hand; I formed you
and set you as a covenant of the people, a
light for the nations, to open the eyes of
the blind, to bring out prisoners from
confinement, and from the dungeon,
those who live in darkness.”
Lk. 4:16-18 “He stood up to read and was
handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He
unrolled the scroll and found the passage
where it was written: ‘The spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he has anointed me to bring
glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the
attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in
the synagogue looked intently at him. He said
to them, ‘Today this scripture passage is
fulfilled in your hearing.’”
 Major
Document
 Rerum
Novarum
The Condition of
Labor
Pope Leo XIII
May 15, 1891
Quadragesimo Anno
Reconstruction of the
Social Order
Pope Pius XI
May 1931
 Mater et
Magistra
Christianity and
Social Progress
Pope John XXIII
May 15 1961
Pacem in Terris
Peace on Earth
Pope John XXIII
April 11 1963
 Gaudium et
Spes
The Church in the
Modern World
Vatican II
December 1965
 Populorum
Progressio
The Development
of Peoples
Pope Paul VI
March 26, 1967
Justice in the
World
Synod of Bishops
November 30, 1971
 Evangelii
Nuntiandi
Evangelization in
the Modern World
Pope Paul VI
October 26, 1975
 Laborem
Exercens
On Human Work
Pope John Paul II
1981
Sollicitudo Rei
Socialis
On Social
Concerns
Pope John Paul II
December 30, 1987
Centesimus
Annus
The Hundredth
Year
Pope John Paul II
May 1, 1991
Compendium of
the Social
Doctrine of the
Church
Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace
2004
 Caritas in
Veritate
On Integral
Human
Development in
Charity and Truth
June 29, 2009
MAJOR THEMES
OF CATHOLIC
SOCIAL
TEACHING
1. Life and Dignity of the
Human Person

All people are sacred, made in the

image and likeness of God. People do
not lose dignity because of disability,
poverty, age, lack of success, or race.
This emphasizes people over things,
being over having.
 2. Common Good

The human person is both sacred

and social. We realize our dignity
and rights in relationship with
others, in community. “We are one
body; when one suffers, we all
suffer.” We are called to respect
all of God’s gifts of creation, to be
good stewards of the earth and
each other.
3. Rights and Responsibilities

People have a fundamental right to

life, food, shelter, health care,
education and employment. All
people have a right to participate
in decisions that affect their lives.
Corresponding to these rights are
duties and responsibilities to
respect the rights of others in the
wider society.
4. Option for the Poor & Vulnerable

The moral test of a society is how

it treats its most vulnerable
members. The poor have the
most urgent moral claim on the
conscience of the nation. We are
called to look at public policy
decisions, processes and social
systems in terms of how they
affect the least, the last and the
lost.
 5. Dignity of Work and the
Rights of Workers
People have a right to decent and
productive work, fair wages,
private property and economic
initiative. The economy exists to
serve people, not the other way
around.

•The primacy of labor over capital

6.Solidarity

We are one human family.

Our responsibilities to each
other cross national, racial,
economic and ideological
differences. We are called
to work globally for justice
and peace.
 7. Care for God’s creation

The goods of the earth

are gifts from God. We
have a responsibility
to care for these goods
as stewards and
trustees, not as mere
consumers and users.
(Principle of Stewardship)
 8. Principle of Subsidiarity

“The principle of subsidiarity protects the

people from abuses by higher level social
authorities and calls on these same authorities
to help individuals and intermediate groups to
fulfill their duties. This principle is imperative
because every person, family and intermediate
group has something original to offer to the
community…the principle of subsidiarity is
opposed to certain forms of centralization and
welfare assistance and to the unjustified and
excessive presence of the State in public
mechanism.”(#187)
9. Call to Family, Community
and Participation

The family is the central social

institution that must be
supported and strengthened,
not undermined. While our
society often exalts
individualism, the Catholic
tradition teaches that human
beings grow and achieve
fulfillment in community.
10. Universal Destination of the
Earth’s Goods
The misuse of the world’s
resources or appropriation
of them by a minority of the
world’s population betrays
the gift of creation since
‘what belongs to God
belongs to all.’
 Maraming
SALAMAT!
THANK YOU!