Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Teachings of the
Church
II. DEVELOPMENT
OF CST
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church
DeBerri and Hug, et. al. Catholic Social
Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003
Curran, Charles E. Catholic Social Teaching,
1891-Present: A Historical,
Theological and Ethical Analysis (Washington:
Georgetown University Press, 2002).
1.BIBLE
primary source
of catholic social
ethics
O. T. CONCEPT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL:
Belongs to a
community.
Works for justice
within that
Concern for the poor:
Anawim, Widows,
Strangers, & Orphans.
OLD TESTAMENT
"Do not take advantage of a
widow or an orphan." Exodus
22:22
Not interested in
methodological and
systematic approach towards
social ethics.
Jesus = Model for
CST
= Active Social Advocate
Instances:
Interaction with the
outcasts of society
Criticism of social
injustices
2. First 1 Thousand Years
movement towards
systematic and
scientific
understanding of
relationship
between:
secular and
sacred
3. Early part of the 2nd
Millennium:
Relationship between:
Individuals
Individuals and State
State and Individuals
Happy marriage
between Church
and State
But: Church
continued to
speak about
social-moral
issues
Historical
Background:
Happy
marriage
between Church
and State
Divorce
Age of
Enlightenment
4. 18TH & 19TH CENTURIES:
GROWTH OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
Emphases:
Individual &
Human Freedom
stressed freedom
of individual and
power of human
reason
divorced from
any relationship
c. POLITICAL
LIBERALISM
stressed the role
of individual
citizens,
decisions made
by
majority vote
without
Age of
Enlightenment
Affected Catholic
Social teaching and
Social life
Allowed the
entrepreneur
to do
whatever
he/she wants
in pursuit of
profit with no
concern for
others
Emergence of New Ideologies
Result:
employee
dependency,
high
unemployme
nt, abuse of
employers
6. 20TH CENTURY:
CATHOLIC FASCINATION
WITH THE
MIDDLE AGES
The middle
ages
epitomized
the Christian
ideal:
The social person in
an organic society.
Social solidarity
marked the
7. SOCIALISM
The modern
socialist
movement had
its origin largely
in the working
class movement
of the late 19th
century.
condemned
Emergence of New Ideologies
Socialism
Reaction vs.
negative
effects of
capitalism
Denounces
private
property
Karl Marx Helped
establish and
define the
modern
socialist
movement,
socialism
implied the
abolition of:
distribution of
wealth are
subject to social
control:
DIRECT: exercised
through popular
collectives such
as workers
councils.
INDIRECT: exercised
on behalf of the
people
community
or worker own the
Means of
production.
Means of
production:
anything necessary
for labor to produce
- machines, tools,
plant and
equipment, land,
raw materials,
money, power
Modern CST (which began with
Leo XIIIs Rerum Novarum in
1891) is a response to these
political, economic, and social
problems
Factors that Influenced
Catholic response to
Economic and Political
questions: