Chapter 6

The Catholic Social Vision: Developing Catholic

Social Thought

Introduction
This chapter continues to trace the development of Catholic social teaching and thought, in how
theologians have applied and developed the ideas from the documents into understandable
themes and principles to live by. Theologians have continued to be in dialogue with the
magisterium and the documents to articulate the meaning of the Catholic social vision in this
rapidly changing world. Catholic social thought is thus not a static set of principles, but is
dynamic and continuously evolving, in response to the needs and growing knowledge of society.

Learning Objectives
16. Articulate the themes and principles that developed in Catholic social thought
17. Apply these principles and themes to the Philippine context
18. Connect these principles and themes to the Philippines through the lived practices and
worship of the Filipino people

Exposition
Catholic social thought is more than just the official documents of the Catholic Church.
Theologians have distilled the documents into key principles that can be lived out in the
everyday life. All over the world, theologians from all walks of life have also developed their
own understandings of what Catholic ethics means in their particular contexts, rooted in the
different principles of Catholic social teaching.

Here in the Philippines, the themes and principles have also been lived out in particular
ways. With a culture that has been very much defined by the Catholic faith, the Philippines is a
good example of how a specific community articulates its own understanding of the principles of
Catholic social thought and how it lives out these principles.

Themes and Principles of Catholic Social Thought

A person can glean several key principles or themes that are repeated throughout the
documents in Catholic social teaching. Various theologians have articulated these themes and
have fleshed them out further.
Dignity of the Human Person

Central to Catholic social teaching is the belief in the fundamental and intrinsic dignity
that each human being has. This dignity is innate—meaning that no one can take it away from
any person—and is tied to a human person being made in God’s image and likeness, and as part
of God’s cherished creation. All people have dignity—with no exceptions, no matter how
“sinful” or how “different” a person is. This is a grace and gift from God.

In order to defend this human dignity, Catholic social teaching points to the importance
of enforcing human rights as an indicator that human dignity is being protected. Thus, the
documents go to great lengths to argue for the human rights of people. The Catholic Church does
not just defend civil or political rights, but it also defends socio-economic rights. The former are
enshrined in the constitution and in law and often the first to be protected, but the latter, while it
can sometimes be put into law or the constitution, are not often strictly implemented.

<Box: Philippine constitution>

<Here is an excerpt from the 1987 Philippine Constitution:
ARTICLE XIII
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and
enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political
inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for
the common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property
and its increments.
Section 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic
opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
LABOR
Section 3. The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and
unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all.
It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and
negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with
law. They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage.
They shall also participate in policy and decision-making processes affecting their rights and
benefits as may be provided by law.
The State shall promote the principle of shared responsibility between workers and employers
and the preferential use of voluntary modes in settling disputes, including conciliation, and shall
enforce their mutual compliance therewith to foster industrial peace.
The State shall regulate the relations between workers and employers, recognizing the right of
labor to its just share in the fruits of production and the right of enterprises to reasonable returns
to investments, and to expansion and growth.
AGRARIAN AND NATURAL RESOURCES REFORM
Section 4. The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program founded on the right of
farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they
till or, in the case of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof. To this end,
the State shall encourage and undertake the just distribution of all agricultural lands, subject to
such priorities and reasonable retention limits as the Congress may prescribe, taking into account
ecological, developmental, or equity considerations, and subject to the payment of just
compensation. In determining retention limits, the State shall respect the right of small
landowners. The State shall further provide incentives for voluntary land-sharing.
Section 5. The State shall recognize the right of farmers, farmworkers, and landowners, as well
as cooperatives, and other independent farmers' organizations to participate in the planning,
organization, and management of the program, and shall provide support to agriculture through
appropriate technology and research, and adequate financial, production, marketing, and other
support services.
Section 6. The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or stewardship, whenever
applicable in accordance with law, in the disposition or utilization of other natural resources,
including lands of the public domain under lease or concession suitable to agriculture, subject to
prior rights, homestead rights of small settlers, and the rights of indigenous communities to their
ancestral lands. The State may resettle landless farmers and farmworkers in its own agricultural
estates which shall be distributed to them in the manner provided by law.
Section 7. The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of local
communities, to the preferential use of the communal marine and fishing resources, both inland
and offshore. It shall provide support to such fishermen through appropriate technology and
research, adequate financial, production, and marketing assistance, and other services. The State
shall also protect, develop, and conserve such resources. The protection shall extend to offshore
fishing grounds of subsistence fishermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall receive a
just share from their labor in the utilization of marine and fishing resources.
Section 8. The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the proceeds of the agrarian
reform program to promote industrialization, employment creation, and privatization of public
sector enterprises. Financial instruments used as payment for their lands shall be honored as
equity in enterprises of their choice.
URBAN LAND REFORM AND HOUSING
Section 9. The State shall, by law, and for the common good, undertake, in cooperation with the
private sector, a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available
at affordable cost, decent housing and basic services to under-privileged and homeless citizens in
urban centers and resettlement areas. It shall also promote adequate employment opportunities to
such citizens. In the implementation of such program the State shall respect the rights of small
property owners.
Section 10. Urban or rural poor dwellers shall not be evicted nor their dwelling demolished,
except in accordance with law and in a just and humane manner.
No resettlement of urban or rural dwellers shall be undertaken without adequate consultation
with them and the communities where they are to be relocated.
HEALTH
Section 11. The State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health
development which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services
available to all the people at affordable cost. There shall be priority for the needs of the under-
privileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women, and children. The State shall endeavor to provide free
medical care to paupers.
Section 12. The State shall establish and maintain an effective food and drug regulatory system
and undertake appropriate health, manpower development, and research, responsive to the
country's health needs and problems.
Section 13. The State shall establish a special agency for disabled person for their rehabilitation,
self-development, and self-reliance, and their integration into the mainstream of society.
WOMEN
Section 14. The State shall protect working women by providing safe and healthful working
conditions, taking into account their maternal functions, and such facilities and opportunities that
will enhance their welfare and enable them to realize their full potential in the service of the
nation.
ROLE AND RIGHTS OF PEOPLE'S ORGANIZATIONS
Section 15. The State shall respect the role of independent people's organizations to enable the
people to pursue and protect, within the democratic framework, their legitimate and collective
interests and aspirations through peaceful and lawful means.
People's organizations are bona fide associations of citizens with demonstrated capacity to
promote the public interest and with identifiable leadership, membership, and structure.
Section 16. The right of the people and their organizations to effective and reasonable
participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making shall not be
abridged. The State shall, by law, facilitate the establishment of adequate consultation
mechanisms.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 17.
1. There is hereby created an independent office called the Commission on Human Rights.
2. The Commission shall be composed of a Chairman and four Members who must be
natural-born citizens of the Philippines and a majority of whom shall be members of the
Bar. The term of office and other qualifications and disabilities of the Members of the
Commission shall be provided by law.
3. Until this Commission is constituted, the existing Presidential Committee on Human
Rights shall continue to exercise its present functions and powers.
4. The approved annual appropriations of the Commission shall be automatically and
regularly released.
Section 18. The Commission on Human Rights shall have the following powers and functions:
1. Investigate, on its own or on complaint by any party, all forms of human rights violations
involving civil and political rights;
2. Adopt its operational guidelines and rules of procedure, and cite for contempt for
violations thereof in accordance with the Rules of Court;
3. Provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights of all persons
within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad, and provide for preventive
measures and legal aid services to the under-privileged whose human rights have been
violated or need protection;
4. Exercise visitorial powers over jails, prisons, or detention facilities;
5. Establish a continuing program of research, education, and information to enhance
respect for the primacy of human rights;
6. Recommend to Congress effective measures to promote human rights and to provide for
compensation to victims of violations of human rights, or their families;
7. Monitor the Philippine Government's compliance with international treaty obligations on
human rights;
 8. Grant immunity from prosecution to any person whose testimony or whose possession of
documents or other evidence is necessary or convenient to determine the truth in any
investigation conducted by it or under its authority;
9. Request the assistance of any department, bureau, office, or agency in the performance of
its functions;
10. Appoint its officers and employees in accordance with law; and
11. Perform such other duties and functions as may be provided by law.
Section 19. The Congress may provide for other cases of violations of human rights that should
fall within the authority of the Commission, taking into account its recommendations.

How many of these sections are respected in our country or your local community?>

Another indicator is human flourishing—where people are developing not just physically
and financially but also emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, there is human
flourishing—and this human flourishing is often explained in terms of the concept of the
common good.

Common Good

Catholic social teaching emphasizes individual human rights, but always situated in the
context of the common good. The official definition of the common good is the “sum total of
social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment
more fully and more easily.” 159 It is these conditions that allow for human flourishing and that
allow each individual human being to be the best person he or she can be. Concretely, this means
structures that allow for people to access their needs and contribute to the community through
their work. Such structures would include a functioning healthcare system, an economic system
that does not reduce the person to just his or her output, and a food culture or system that
respects the place of human beings in creation by fostering sustainable consumption.

The common good is about ensuring the human dignity and unique gifts of each person in
the context of a community where people are connected to each other and to creation. The
individual and the community are not mutually exclusive—they are deeply intertwined and to pit
them against each other, in the same way absolute individualism and collectivism have, would be
a mistake. Thus, while community is important in Catholic social thought, it is never to the point
where the individual human person is lost or forgotten.

Justice

In order to describe the dynamic between the individual and the collective, Catholic
social teaching highlights the importance of justice. Justice is described in three ways, based on

159
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” Vatican.va, 2004,
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_comp
endio-dott-soc_en.html. Hereafter referred to as CSDC. CSDC 164.
the interaction of individuals with other individuals, and individuals with the collective
community.

Picture 1. Three Forms of Justice

The first form of justice is the form that governs the interaction between individuals. This
is called commutative justice, and this acknowledges that, first of all, human beings are radically
social and interdependent. It also emphasizes that each person has certain rights and duties, as
outlined in Pacem in Terris, and should respect the rights and duties of other people as well. For
example, as a member of the community, a person has the right to

The second form of justice describes how an individual relates with the state. This is
called contributive justice, wherein people contribute to society based on their ability. This
acknowledges that not everyone has the same gifts or talents or material wealth, and thus each
person helps the common good and flourishing based on what he or she can do or give. For
example, in terms of financial power, a tax system that is tiered rather than a flat absolute
amount takes into account that not everyone has the same amount of wealth. Its criteria may even
include family size and dependents, and the source of wealth as well.

The third form of justice reflects how the state treats individuals. This is called
distributive justice and is understood as the state distributing resources to people according the
needs of the people. This is an equitable rather than just equal distribution of resources, which is
done in tandem with taking down systemic barriers that may cause inequality. There are certain
individual or systemic circumstances that can lead to people needing more than others, and this
becomes the criteria for distributing resources. For example, people with disabilities are part of
the population; in terms of number and financial power, they would not, however, have enough
money to ensure that all buildings and sidewalks were accessible. Thus, the state takes on the
task of ensuring that sidewalks have ramps that are wheelchair friendly, or that public buildings
and transit should be accessible via elevators or ramps.

Sample photo to describe the difference between equality and equity

These three justices are essential aspects of the common good and are based on a
particular theological anthropology that assumes that people are fundamentally interconnected
and affect one another. CST is grounded in a theological anthropology, a theological description
of what God’s:

…revelation says of humans and their existence. First, “man was created to the
image of God” (Genesis 1:26). Second, “God did not create man as a solitary
figure; from the beginning ‘male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1:27). By
his innermost nature man is a social being, and unless he relates himself to others
he can neither live nor develop his potential” (Vatican II 1965: 12). God “has
willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of
brotherhood” (Vatican II 1965: 23)…Third, Jesus, the image of the invisible God
(Colossians 1:15), Christians believe, is the perfect human, and this perfect human
“fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Vatican
II 1965: 22). God’s incarnation in Jesus creates a solidarity between God and
humans and between humans themselves. “Mindful of the Lord’s saying: ‘By this
will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’
(John 13:35), Christians cannot yearn for anything more ardently than to serve the
[people] of the modern world ever more generously and effectively.” That service
offered “generously and effectively” is a key to understanding what is required,
for “not everyone who cries ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but those who do the Father’s will . . . [and] the Father wills that in all [humans] . .
 . we recognize Christ our brother and love Him effectively in word and deed”
(Vatican II 1965: 93). 160

People are understood to be persons-in-community, “being fundamentally related to the

community even while individuality is maintained…societal well-being is not, as our common
experience testifies, a natural outcome of separate individuals seeking their own interests
mediated by the market; rather, it is grounded in the understanding that one’s humanity is
intrinsically bound to the wider community. 161

This is important because this is a radically different understanding of the human person
when compared to contemporary culture’s understanding of the human person. Contemporary
culture often emphasizes a “mythic individualism” that idealizes the “self-made man or woman”
who has been able to create himself or herself into who he or she is. However, no one is an
island, as the famous saying goes, and each person’s life and situation is the product of not just
that person’s decisions and values, but also by other people’s decisions and values. It is thus this
understanding of human beings as radically interdependent that sets the stage for the principles
of subsidiarity and solidarity.

Subsidiarity and Participation

How justice and the common good is achieved is also an important aspect of Catholic
social teaching. A crucial aspect of moving towards the common good is allowing all people to
participate in the common good and in society. Thus, Catholic social teaching advocates for
creating avenues and areas wherein people can actively engage in contributing to the community.
This allows for meaningful work, as well as the use of people’s various talents and gifts. This
assumes that each person has something good and unique to offer.

Connected to participation is the instrumental principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity

acknowledges the importance of allowing the lower order societies to do what they can in
situations, particularly if it is them who are most affected, rather than depending on higher order
organizations absorb these lower-order groups. Thus, local government units or grassroots
movements to develop communities, for example, should be supported by the higher national
government units or corporations, rather than the larger bodies simply coming into the
community and doing everything. Similarly, problems in a particularly locale should be
addressed with input and work from the people actually living there, rather than simply by
experts who may know a lot about the problem, but are not necessarily affected directly by the
problem:

In order for the principle of subsidiarity to be put into practice there is a

corresponding need for: respect and effective promotion of the human person and the
family; ever greater appreciation of associations and intermediate organizations in

160
Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, “Solidarity and Catholic Social Thought,” Journal of Religion and
Society, no. Supplement 16 (2018): 133.
161
Eleazar Fernandez, Reimagining the Human: Theological Anthropology in Response to Systemic Evil, Kindle
Edition (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2004), loc. 2518.
 their fundamental choices and in those that cannot be delegated to or exercised by
others; the encouragement of private initiative so that every social entity remains at
the service of the common good, each with its own distinctive characteristics; the
presence of pluralism in society and due representation of its vital components;
safeguarding human rights and the rights of minorities; bringing about bureaucratic
and administrative decentralization; striking a balance between the public and private
spheres, with the resulting recognition of the social function of the private sphere;
appropriate methods for making citizens more responsible in actively “being a part”
of the political and social reality of their country. 162

Solidarity

Solidarity is a key principle that springs from the understanding of the human being as
radically connected and interdependent, with equal rights and among creation. It is “not a
‘feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near
and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the
common good. That is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really
responsible for all.’”163

In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to go beyond itself, to take on the specifically
Christian dimensions of total gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation. One's neighbor
is then not only a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality
with everyone else, but becomes the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One's
neighbor must therefore be loved, even if an enemy, with the same love with which
the Lord loves him or her; and for that person's sake one must be ready for sacrifice,
even the ultimate one: to lay down one's life for the brethren.164

This becomes an important virtue to cultivate, particularly in a world where broken relationships
abound: the relationship between people themselves, between people and creation, and even
people with themselves are ruptured, and solidarity moves people to heal this brokenness. In a
broken world where it easy to be indifferent to the needs of others, solidarity becomes the
antidote: “God is not indifferent and we find the moral imperative in scripture, CST, and the
virtue of solidarity, to make God’s and Jesus’s identification with the least our example and to
confront the globalization of indifference.” 165

This can demand some form of downward mobility from the rich, even in working with
those who are marginalized and oppressed. It demands care for the other and shuns the prevailing
attitude of indifference and callousness that can so easily creep into the daily life. “Solidarity

162
CSDC 187.
163
CSDC 193.
164
CSDC 196.
165
Salzman and Lawler, “Solidarity and Catholic Social Thought,” 146.
shapes our lifestyle, which will depend on each one’s vocation.” 166 This does necessarily mean
being destitute; rather, it is about being “uncomfortable with superfluities” in the face of poverty.

Preferential Option for the Poor

As seen in the chapter on the Church of the Poor, the option for the poor is an important
perspective and principle in the Catholic Church that permeates its understanding of itself, its
ethics, and its liturgy. While the word “option” might make it seem non-compulsory, it actually
means it’s a special choice that takes primacy in the Church: “it affects the life of each Christian
inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ, but it applies equally to our social
responsibilities and hence to our manner of living.” 167

The Church's love for the poor is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, by the
poverty of Jesus and by his attention to the poor. This love concerns material poverty
and also the numerous forms of cultural and religious poverty…Prompted by the
Gospel injunction, “You have received without paying, give without pay” (Mt 10:8),
the Church teaches that one should assist one's fellow man in his various needs and
fills the human community with countless works of corporal and spiritual mercy. 168

Such a choice thus implies several things. It implies that the poor have a primary say and are a
primary criterion in the way of being and acting in the Catholic Church. It also emphasizes the
privileged role that the poor have in evangelization and in bringing God’s message to the world.
Thus, in whatever the Church does, the option for the poor places it squarely on the side of the
marginalized and oppressed of this world, such as the financially poor, people who are oppressed
because of their race, gender, or ethnicity, and people who may be caught in violent situations,
and those who are not in positions of power and who are passed over as unimportant.

The Universal Destination of Goods and the Right to Private Property

Catholic social teaching first and foremost stresses that the earth and everything on it is
for all creation—human beings, animals, plants, and everything in between—and thus everything
is made to be shared by all of creation and not just concentrated in the hands of a few. “The
principle of the universal destination of goods is an invitation to develop an economic vision
inspired by moral values that permit people not to lose sight of the origin or purpose of these
goods, so as to bring about a world of fairness and solidarity, in which the creation of wealth can
take on a positive function.” 169

At the same time, the Catholic Church acknowledges the importance of having the right
to private property. It allows for creativity and helps a person improve his or her quality of life. It

166
Dean Brackley, The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of
Ignatius of Loyola (New York, USA: Crossroad Publishing, 2004), 100.
167
CSDC 182.
168
CSDC 184.
169
CSDC 174.
is understood by the Catholic Church as a natural right, which means that it is a right that people
have as part of being human under natural law; this would include other rights such as a right to
life. “The Church's social doctrine requires that ownership of goods be equally accessible to all,
so that all may become, at least in some measure, owners, and it excludes recourse to forms of
‘common and promiscuous dominion.’”170 Thus, while the right to private property as argued in
Catholic social teaching is a natural right, it is not absolute, and that this right is to be exercised
in the context of the society and the common good.

Filipino Catholic Social Thought

How does the Philippine Church apply the principles stated above? Aside from the earlier
chapter’s discussion of the Philippine Church working to become a Church of the Poor, there are
other points in history where the Catholic faith commitment pushed for societal change. Though
people were not eloquently articulating or explaining the principles or the documents in Catholic
social thought, the people’s reading of Scripture and Tradition encouraged them to work for a
more just society.

The Spanish occupation brought with it both colonization and at the same time the
Catholic faith. While Catholicism was admittedly used to keep the local population in line and
subservient to the Spanish government, Catholicism also became a source for revolution.
Reynaldo Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution argued for how the pasyon, the epic narrative of Jesus’
suffering, death, and resurrection was the catalyst and framework for social change. “Instead of
‘taming’ the Filipinos for conversion, it offered a liberating image of Jesus Christ…the whole
spiritual experience…flowed like an undercurrent that overturned the people’s social
consciousness.” 171

Martial Law

A similar transformation occurred during the Martial law era. During the dictatorship of
the late president Ferdinand Marcos, it was then Jaime Cardinal Sin, then Archbishop of Manila,
who strongly criticized the Marcos government and called on people to mobilize on February
1986. Aside from Cardinal Sin, the women religious were especially involved in protests. Even
in the face of violence and possible death:

The people felt empowered to bring the symbols of their everyday religious practices
like the images of Mama Mary, the rosary, Sto. Nino, in facing the lethal tanks of the
military. They also staged a revolution while literally having picnic. They brought
food and music player and they listened to the radio. They walked around visiting
friends and making new friends. They prayed and sang together. It was, at least for

170
CSDC 176.
171
Albert Alejo, SJ, “Popular Spirituality as Cultural Energy,” in Lecture Series III: Context and Expressions of
Filipino Spirituality (Quezon City, Philippines: Institute of Spirituality in Asia, 2004), 49,
http://www.isa.org.ph/pdf/alejo.pdf.
 the entire world watching them on TY, a strange way of facing and phasing out a
dictatorship. 172

To stand, unfazed, in front of tanks and the military is not easy. Yet, many people came together
and rallied to oust a powerful dictator who had sent the Philippines into debt because of
corruption and killed those who opposed him. It seemed even stranger to see no bloodshed, but
rather, singing, giving of flowers, and people simply linking arms to form human barricades in
front of the military.

Fr. Albert Alejo describes this nonviolent approach as a cultural energy. This cultural
energy is rooted in Filipino spiritual practices such as those seen in popular religiosity. He argues
that such cultural energy is what allows people to resist and work against oppression and
injustice:

Cultural energy seems to be what people need to collectively endure pain as well as
to begin a protest or given to just sustain their existence…I supposed it could be
associated with power and this is my point, but if cultural energy is related to power,
it is more the power to will, rather than the will to power. The will to power is
associated either with domination power over somebody or resistance power against
somebody. The power to will is more on moral and spiritual on creative resource to
be or to remain or at least become a people of self-confidence and self-affirmation.
This is what ordinary people are ultimately trying to keep alive in the struggle
against hopelessness. 173

Thus, Catholic popular religiosity has offered meaning and hope for people; it has helped people
continue to strive for social change and at the same time live in the face of injustice. The people
do not simply use books or knowledge to rationally articulate their cause. Rather, it is also lived
out through popular piety and resilience in the daily life. Through Basic Ecclesial Communities
(BECs) in particular, many parishes are able to bring together grassroots communities to promote
participation in the socio-economic and political sphere. Parish social action groups also help
defend the needs and rights of these communities.

172
Alejo, SJ, 49.
173
Alejo, SJ, 51.
Sample photo from rappler: https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-
yolanda/52997-yolanda-opong-survivors-processions as an example of cultural energy at work
after typhoon Yolanda

Conclusion

Catholic social teaching and thought is a vast and rich tradition. It is not easy to read all
these documents and comprehend everything, hence why theologians and various Catholic
offices have distilled the teachings into certain key principles. These principles form the
foundation of Catholic social thought and become the basis for future reflection when new issues
and technologies arise.

These principles exhort people to right living; however, how they are brought to bear in
the concrete daily life is still dependent on the reflection and discernment of the people
themselves, whose context and particular circumstances will affect how these principles are lived
out. The examples given of how Catholic social thought is lived out in the Philippines, for
example, would be similar, but at the same time different, from examples in Latin America that
face the military junta, or from the case of South Korea, where minjung theology (theology of
the people) reflects on their relationship with North Korea. The challenge and exhortation,
therefore, is to adequately reflect on the principles of Catholic social thought as well as the
contemporary situation, in order to help shape concrete actions that will bring about justice in the
community.
 This tradition rejects the idea that religion is simply an opiate of the people, to use the
commonly used quote from Karl Marx. It genuinely seeks to empower people to live a life of
flourishing and authentic development, and as seen in last few examples and the examples in the
next chapters, these principles are not just lip service. These principles have guided various
people and organizations to live their lives in a way that has helped themselves and their
community grow and thrive.