Unit II LESSON 3: NATURE OF THE

SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH

Presented by:
JOSELITO G. GUTIERREZ, PhD
 Activity: Problems of our Society
• Divide the class into eight groups. Members
of the group will choose their representative
who will present their platform/advocacy.
• Guide Questions:
• What are the problems of the
nation/world today (choose one)?
• What are the solutions do you propose?
• Each group will be given a limited time
allowing their representative to deliver their
piece. Agreed Rules must be strictly followed.
Nature of the Social Teaching of the Church
The Social Teaching of the Church is at the core of Christianity. It
needs to be pointed out that Jesus is an active agent in the renewal
of the Society. His proclamation of the Kingdom of God means that
certain practices in the community would even have to be renewed in
order to show to the people that indeed God’s reign is at hand, even if
at the same time, it cannot be fully fulfilled in the present.
A. The Truth of Faith
• The First Christians were true
followers of Christ in the sense that
they have endeavored to persevere
in the ministry that Christ has
started. This is especially shown in
their commitment to equality,
respect and love for each other.
• Moreover, decisions in their
communities are done “in
remembrance” of the memory of
Christ.
A. The Truth of Faith
• The Middle Ages Church,
despite the infamous abuses of
some members of the hierarchy
and the clergy, remains faithful
to Christ’s call to bring about the
reign of love in our communities.
• Important thinkers in the Middle
Ages especially Thomas Aquinas
continues to talk about justice
and charity for the poor.
A. The Truth of Faith
• The challenge to aid the needy in the community has become more
pressing with the emergence of modern ideologies that were brought
about mainly by the Industrial Revolution.
• Capitalism and Socialism were two ideologies that were both
supposedly aimed at improving the conditions of every person’s life.
However, because of their neglect to talk about God in their
endeavours, they have instead also contributed to the increasing
problems of poverty and injustice in the community.
• Hence, the modern social encyclicals were Catholic contributions to
the talk about human flourishing pointing out especially the
important points from these two ideologies.
A. The Truth of Faith
• The Catholic Church has issued important documents in order to
officially announce its stand on pertinent social issues that confront
our communities at particular moments in history.
• These are Catholic contributions to the talk about human flourishing
based on important principles such as the dignity of the human
person, subsidiarity, solidarity and the preferential option for the
poor.
• Moreover, each of these documents, while sensitive to the historical
conditions of particular times, are grounded in the Tradition of the
Church that finds its beginning in the person and ministry of Jesus
Christ.
a. The Human Person as the Image of God
• Church’s understanding of human dignity - is the conviction that the
human person occupies a central role in the creation of God, and that the
human person is the only creature that is created in the image and
likeness of God, and is the only creature that has the capacity for God.
• Human dignity is a core-concept in the social teaching of the Church. The
Church believes that the human dignity is a concept that is both inviolable
and inalienable, that is, it can never be compromised regardless of the
circumstances and consequences of the action.
a. The Human Person as the Image of God
• The apex of the affirmation of human dignity
is the coming of Christ. Christ embraces
humanity through the mystery of
Incarnation, which affirms that humanity is
central to God’s plan.
• The centrality of the dignity of the human
person is even highlighted more with the
Paschal Mystery of Christ. He showed us
that the cross is not a meaningless symbol,
but is rather a testimony of God’s love.
 b. Celebrating our Shared Humanity, Our
Human Interconnectedness
• Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham and
the people of Israel is Yahweh’s own
initiative and gift which is even beyond
what humanity deserves.
• The covenant is an expression of
Yahweh’s willingness to reach out to His
people.
• In turn, the covenant becomes the
people’s assurance that Yahweh will
never abandon them.
b. Celebrating our Shared Humanity, Our
Human Interconnectedness
• Moreover, “there comes from the
Decalogue a commitment that concerns
not only fidelity to the one true God, but
also the social relations among the
people of the Covenant… The gift of
freedom and the Promised Land, and the
gift of Covenant on Sinai and the Ten
Commandments are therefore intimately
linked to the practices which must
regulate, in justice and solidarity, the
development of Israelite society.
b. Celebrating our Shared Humanity, Our
Human Interconnectedness
• A society that wishes and intends to
remain at the service of the human
being at every level is a society that has
the common good – the good of all the
people and of the whole society – as its
primary goal.
• In the diversity of cultures, the natural
law unites peoples, enjoining common
principles. Since something of the glory
of God shines on the face of every
person, the dignity of every person
before God is the basis of the dignity of
man before other men.
c. Toward a Just and Humane Society
according to God’s Plan
• God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and peoples so
that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the
guidance of justice (CSDC, 165).
• 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 fairness and solidarity.
• Everyone has the right to enjoy the conditions of social life that are
brought about by the quest for the common good.
c. Toward a Just and Humane Society
according to God’s Plan
• Pope Pius XI: ‘the distribution of created goods, which, as every
discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest evils
due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the
unnumbered property less, must be effectively called back to and
brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is,
social justice. This then prompts the Church to call for a more just
distribution of the world’s wealth (CSDC 171).
• Man, then, must never forget that his capacity to transform and in a
certain sense create the world through his own work… is always
based on God’s prior and original gift of the things that are.
B. The Paradigm of Love and Justice versus
the Way of Violence

Love is the most identifying value

of the Church's social teaching. It
is what makes us uniquely
Christians. It is, in fact,
unachievable without grace, but
the grace is freely supplied to the
willing, which is grace itself.
a. The Way of Love and Justice

• In the Church’s perspective, love as a value

is “the highest and universal criterion of the
whole of social ethics.” (CSDC, 171)
• “From the inner wellspring of love the
values of truth, freedom, and justice are
born and grow. Love is what makes us able
to see the other as a friend, as another self,
so that the needs and requirements of
others seem as one's own.” (CSDC, 205)
a. The Way of Love and Justice
• Love presupposes and transcends justice. This means that love builds
upon justice just like grace builds upon nature.
• For what happens when love meets justice, look at the cross of Christ,
the cross of Christ which is our law. Without justice, there is no love.
Without justice, love does not survive. Justice is the prerequisite of
love. Justice is fulfilled by love.
• Kant insisted that, in justice, the law of punishment was a categorical
imperative which admitted no exception. For if justice goes, there is
no longer any value in human beings living on the earth. Kant is
entirely correct. A world without justice is, to be sure, too horrible to
behold.
a. The Way of Love and Justice
• However, a world with justice but
without love is equally as bad or worse.
Human relationships cannot be governed
solely by the measure of justice. The
prophet Malachi tells us that God
requires more than doing justice. He
requires us to love mercy and to walk
humbly with Him (Malachi 3:3).
• Summum ius, summa iniuria was a
Roman maxim mentioned by Cicero. It is
a brilliant, ambiguous saying which can
be translated, “extreme justice is the
greatest injustice,” or an "extreme
justice is an extreme wrong.
 a. The Way of Love and Justice
• Here is a truly radical challenge: to take
love, which, as St. Thomas mentions in his
Summa Theologiae, is the form of the
virtues, and to socialize it or institutionalize
it into social and political charity. This task
is the modern challenge of our time.
• Social charity makes us love the common
good. It makes us effectively see the good
of all people, considered not only as
individuals or private persons but also in
the social dimension that unites them.
(CSDC, 207)
a. The Way of Love and Justice
• We need a new world order that is
grounded not only on secular values but
on Christian love, on social and political
charity, which is identical with solidarity,
i.e., a direct demand of human and
Christian brotherhood.
• Social and political charity is not
exhausted in relationships between
individuals, but extends to the network
formed by communal relationships, which
is precisely the social and political
community; it intervenes in this context
seeking the greatest good for the
community in its entirety. (CSDC, 208)
b. Versus the Way of Violence
• The Church does not approve the use of violence and the use of arms
because it is aware that violence only leads to more violence, which
often results only in new forms of oppression.
• Violence is never a proper response. The Church proclaims that
violence is evil, that violence is unacceptable as a solution to
problems, that violence is unworthy of man.
• Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth, the truth of our
humanity. Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the
life, the freedom of human beings.
C. Understanding ‘critical collaboration’ with
the State
The Church recognizes its
autonomy from the State.
However, many understand this
to mean that the Church should
not be involved in political
issues, or with politicians and
public policies. This is not the
meaning of the separation of
Church and State.
a. From Separation
• What really is the meaning of this separation? There are three main
ideas:
1. the state has no official religion,
2. the state should not discriminate any religion; and
3. the Church should not control or dominate any religious group,
the police or armed unit of the State.
• The principle of the separation of Church and State is a reaction to
some medieval arrangement of church-sponsored religions or a State
persecution of some undesirable religions.
a. From Separation
• In order to respect the autonomy
of the Church, the State shall not
establish one religion as the
religion of the State.
• It shall not favor one religion over
the other.
• It shall foster the freedom of all
religious beliefs and should not
interfere with their practices
unless these actions become
detrimental to public order.
a. From Separation
• In order to respect the autonomy
of the State, the Church prohibits
its ministers and priests to run for
public office or, if they do, they
should resign from their ministry as
priests.
• This is also done in order to guard
the Church’s role as agent of unity
as exemplified in a community of
different political persuasions.
a. From Separation
• Separation of Church and State does not mean, however, that the
Church and its ministers cannot take a stand on social, economic and
political issues affecting the welfare of the people.
• And, if taking sides on these issues necessitates choosing one
candidate over another, the Church can encourage its members to
pursue their own options to address the situation according to its
moral values.
• In the end, it is the individual Christian who decides based on his or
her own conscience, not its leaders or ministers.
b. To Cooperation
Using a bicycle, one can
surely reach his or her
destination if the two wheels
are consistent in moving to
the same direction. The same
is true with the relationship
between the Church and
State, i.e., both have the same
goal of reaching the common
good and realizing the
Kingdom of God.
b. To Cooperation
• The distinction between the Church and the State does not imply a
complete separation, nor does it mean that the Church should restrict
her activity to the private and spiritual sphere.
• Certainly the Church “cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at
the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in
the fight for justice.” (Benedict CVI, Deus Caritas est)
• The Church has the right and the duty “to teach her social doctrine,
to exercise her role freely among men, and also to pass moral
judgment in those matters which regard public order when the
fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls
require it.” (Gaudium et Spes, 76)
b. To Cooperation
Both the Church and those who govern society are seeking to serve
mankind (although under different titles), and they “will carry out this
service with greater efficacy, for the good of all, the healthier and
better is the cooperation between them.” (CSDC, 425)
Assessment:
• Write a one page reflection paper
discussing: What aspect of the
Christian paradigm that I could see
relevant in my life?
• 11” font Times New Roman, 1.5
spacing, 1x1x1x1 margins in a short
bond paper.
• To be submitted next meeting

• Note for the Teacher: online submission can be done

using UST Blackboard.