THEOLOGY 3 - FINALS
others.
Prof. Veronica Chiarri Dy-Liacco
UNIT 3: LESSON 1 - HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
BIBLICAL ROOTS OF THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
The Old Testament expresses strong concern for a just social order,
expressed as a concern and material help for the poor, the orphan
and the widow; as honesty in business and government dealings;
and as fair and upright dealings with one’s neighbor.
The Old testament concern is true both in the LAW (the first five
books of the Old Testament TORAH/PENTATEUCH - Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy - which contain the
blueprint of Israelite social order), and in the the Prophets (the
prophetic books, in which the individual prophet calls Israel back
to the right path whenever social behavior veers away from the
blueprint given in the Law).
These concerns form the natural context of the Gospels, and are
developed in a distinctively Christian way in the other books of
the NEW TESTAMENT, focusing on the person of Jesus Christ and
our following of him in his Spirit.
• Israel strays away from the law so God sends someone
to remind the people of Israelites to go back to the
blueprint of the law.
Prophet Amos 4:1
• Hear this word you cows of Bashan that are in the
mountain of Samaria which oppress the poor which
crush the needy which say to their masters. Bring and let
us drink
• Means: The luxurious and self-indulgent of fashion in
Bashan - is what Amos talks about - which crushes and
oppresses the needy or the poor.
• They are just concern on what they eat, what they drink
and what they wear.
• Amos talks about a particular group during his time and
God called him to speak for those people. Amos is a
farmer and a simple shepherd.
• Who are these people in today’s generation?
• The corrupt government officials who spend money for
themselves but the money came from the tax paid by
the citizenry.
• It’s not just about the government, the millionaires and
billionaires who have a lot of income they tend to have
extravagant and lavish lifestyles. Also known as the
upper 1%.
• Justice means you are on a look out for any form of
injustice.
• PLDT’s business where gigabytes got expensive during
online learning without consideration of the price.
• We do not know if these rich people care about the
notion of justice. They don’t have concern for the justice
system and the society. It’s lacking.
• Tita’s of Manila - is this a proper way of living given the
inequalities that we see in our Philippine society?
Expensive treatments for beautification of the self.
Reflects with the cows of Bashan written in the book of
Amos.
• Establishing a just social order - Christian con
JUSTICE Video:
• All humans are equal before God and have the right to
be treated with dignity and fairness, no matter who you
are. The Bible shows how we are constantly redefining
good and evil to our own advantage at the expense of
• Self-preservation - taking advantage of the weak
• Injustice towards the vulnerable
• God chose Abraham to teach his family to keep the way
of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.
• Being a good person - righteousness “Tsedeka” hebrew
- ethical standard right relationship between people.
Treating others with dignity. JUSTICE - “Mishpat” hebrew
word - retributive justice ike if steal something pay
consequences. Mishpat in the Bible seeking vulnerable
people and helping them. Mishpat means taking steps
to advocate for the vulnerable and changing social
structures to prevent injustice. SELFLESS way of life.
• Proverbs 31: 8-9, “Bring about just righteousness open
your mouth for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
• Jeremiah 22:3 “Thus says the Lord: Bring about justice
and righteousness. Rescue the disadvantaged, and
don’t tolerate oppression or violence against the
immigrant, the orphan, and the widow.”
• Psalm 146: 7-9, “ The Lord God upholds justice for the
oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets
the prisoner free and he loves the righteous, but He
thwarts the way of the wicked. Rashah - guilty or in the
wrong - mistreats another human ignoring the dignity of
humans.
• Immigrant slave oppressed in Egypt - Abraham and
Israel’s people.
• There is injustice everywhere. History has shown that
oppressed people tend to be oppressors themselves.
• We participate in injustice, actively or passively, even
unintentionally.
• God’s response to humanity's guilt - is His gift which is His
Son Jesus Christ - who lived righteously. Jesus offered his
life to the guilty so they can also be declared righteous
before God.
• Early followers of Jesus followed the righteous path.
• Love your neighbor as yourself - lifetime commitment.
• Prophet Micah, “God has told you, humans, what is
good and what the Lord requires of you. It is to do justice,
to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MIDDLE AGES: FAITH AND REASON
The Medieval Concept of Man and Society
In the Medieval Christian View, man in the image of God was a
creature who could reason, who could act, and who could make
things.
In reason man sought truth, in acting he sought justice, and in
making things he sought usefulness and beauty.
Faith was not opposed to reason nor to science, but was the firm
foundation upon which these things stood.
• The main contribution: faith and reason work together.
Both align towards truth. Fallacy: if you’re a science
person you cannot align faith (this is the attitude of the
people during the medieval age)
•
There is always widespread injustice in society. Jesus is the only
way for us to live in the way of the Torah. It is only through receiving
the life of Jesus Christ that we can follow Christ in His spirit. Jesus is
the one who is truly just in his life. - This is the CHRISTIAN
DEVELOPMENT in the new testament.
Torah - in diaspora.
Medieval video:
CHRISTIAN MIND OF THE MEDIEVAL AGES
Dark ages - Age of Light
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4th to 11th Century conqueror invades England
• The Clash of the Gods
• Famous Ruins Pompeii
• ROTAS Squares - found in Syria, inscribe in houses
• Displayed outside the house
• Rotas square letters are important since it can form a
CROSS which means Paternoster - OUR FATHER prayer
• Alpha and Omega in Roman form - beginning and end
• Roman catacombs
• One true God
• Charm to ward off evil
• What do we owe? Medieval man invented the university.
• Law, medicine, philosophy, theology - anywhere in
Europe
• Thomas Aquinas - studies Philosophy in Europe
• Medieval man believed that God made the world as an
ordered whole.
• Copernicus - priest, astronomer.
• Nicholas of Cusa - philosopher and priest
• Documents of ownership, forgeries of this.
During that time influence by showing concern. Influence
creation of laws and deal with corruption.
In later Middle Ages, the Church exerted a potent influence upon
law. Widows, orphans and helpless folk in general were protected
by the Church, which also dealt with corruption in commerce and
social life such as falsification of measures, weights and coins;
forgeries of documents; libel and scandal; perjury, including false
witness and failure to perform an oath or vow.
CHALLENGES TO CHURCH TEACHING ON SOCIETY: EMERGENT
IDEOLOGIES OF THE MODERN AGE
At the start of the modern age the Church stood between two
emergent ideologies that competed with each other for control
of nation states and their economies;
Unregulated Capitalism - the pursuit of profit without regard for
humanitarian costs
• Before church regulates commerce
• As response to abuses marxist came
Marxist Socialism “communism” - the pursuit of ideological social
change without regard for personal rights and freedom.
Heavy machineries are operated by people. Children are used
to working in factories because they are a cheap source of labor.
Usually young boys.
SUMMARY OF LESSON 1
Social justice and the ideal of the just society go all the way back
to the Old Testament.
The first five books of the Old Testament, what we Christians call
the Pentateuch and what the Jewish people call the Law, contain
as part of the Old Covenant the blueprint of the just Israelite
society willed by God. It expresses strong concern for the
marginalized and less fortunate members of society, in the image
of the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner. And it
mandates their care and protection. The prophetic texts of the
Old Testament, in turn, contain the witness of the ancient prophets
and the divine condemnation spoken through them, whenever
Israelite society deviated from the just social order that had been
willed by God in the Old Covenant.
This ancient Jewish concern for social justice was the natural
context inherited by Jesus and the writers of the New Testament.
However, in the Christian gospels, this concern finds its new center
not in the Law nor even in the Old Covenant, but in the person of
Jesus Christ himself. And the Church of Jesus Christ, in as much as
it follows Him in His Spirit, is called to live that same justice in her
individual members and as a body.
The written moral teaching of the Church began heavily in the
realm of person to person morals; that is, the morals required of
individuals. Even then, however, Christian writing and activity that
defied unjust social practices of the day can be seen even in the
earliest days of the faith. We saw this in the early Christian stand
against the ancient Roman practice of infanticide. The
development of the Church’s social doctrine can be traced
onwards from there, onwards after the fall of Rome, and through
the Middle Ages.
As the centuries passed and the institutions of the Church began
to take their place beside the secular institutions of Medieval
society, the Church began to respond more and more to the wider
social issues of the day. In the later Middle Ages, the Church
already exerted a potent influence upon law. Widows, orphans
and helpless folk in general were protected by the Church, which
also dealt with such a wide range of semi-secular offenses as
falsification of measures, weights and coins; forgeries of
documents; libel and scandal; perjury, including false witness and
failure to perform an oath or vow.
There were various other respects in which early medieval law was
influenced by the Church. It was largely through the work of clerics
that the field of criminal law was first extended to cover offenses
not only against individuals but also those that tended to
undermine the social order. A religious Christian idea of marriage
replaced the pagan one of sale or contract, and the Church
repeatedly intervened to protect the wife, who was no longer to
be considered as simply a possession of the husband.
Ecclesiastical protection was also extended to persons who had
been legally freed from slavery by previous owners, to prevent
their return to slavery. At this time, in the work of St. Thomas
Aquinas, the Church also formulated its distinctively Christian view
of private ownership, a view which it still holds today. In this view,
man has the natural right to own private property, but this
ownership is not absolute and must always serve the common
good.
At the end of the 11th century, as commerce began to develop in
Europe, European society experienced the emergence of two
new classes of people: the middle class and the extremely poor,
who were often reduced to begging. Governments during this
time attempted to ban poor people from public areas and
institute vagrancy laws to keep beggars out of cities. In response,
the Catholic Church moved to aggressively protect the poor,
insisting that they were entitled to basic rights. The Church
attempted to protect these rights by exempting the poor from
court fees in ecclesiastic courts and by providing free legal
counsel, food, shelter and alms. However, it was the emergence
of powerful new technologies that changed the human
economic and social landscape, and the emergence of
accompanying ideologies, that prompted the first explicitly
Catholic social teaching.
In the 1800s the Agricultural Revolution gave rise to the Industrial
Revolution, which was fueled by the new ideology of Industrial
Capitalism. No longer needed on farms, people moved to the
cities. There the new mechanical means of production set up and
owned by wealthy capitalists required more and more cheap
human labor in order to generate greater profits. The headlong
pursuit of wealth by industrial capitalists during this time,
unrestrained by any existing laws, came at great human cost. Not
only men, but also multitudes of women and children labored
long hours in physically dangerous jobs, without concern for their
safety and with little rest, with meager pay, and with no assurance
that they could keep their jobs. Laborers who did not wish to work
under these conditions simply found themselves out of work.
Within secular society there were two distinctive reactions to the
abuses of Industrial Capitalism. One reaction was a labor rights
movement that pushed for the passage of laws that protected
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the laborer from abuse, and that promoted labor rights and labor
unions. This movement was a grassroots movement led by people,
often holding Christian values, who had been laborers themselves.
The other reaction was ideological, in the form of socialist
movements that envisioned a new society in which all private
property was eliminated, thus removing the very basis of
capitalism, and where all industry was owned by the state. This
ideological reaction was led by young university trained
intellectuals. Foremost among these intellectuals were Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, who developed the concepts of
revolutionary Marxist socialism. The grass roots labor rights
movement against capitalism took hold in the United States and
England. The fruits of this movement would spread to the other
nations of Western Europe. The second, ideological route found
pockets of support in continental Europe.
It was in Russia after World War I that another young intellectual,
Vladimir Lenin, led the first successful Marxist revolution. Lenin and
his revolutionary army overthrew the government of Tsar Nicholas
II and established Marxist socialist rule under the Russian
Communist Party. In 1924 after Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin began
to take increasing command of the Communist Party, and in time
became de facto dictator of what was now called the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR. By this time, however, the
economy of the USSR had begun to lag far behind the economies
of western nations. Stalin undertook drastic, dictatorial measures
in the effort to catch up, resulting in peasant revolts against the
government, and the removal of large sections of the population
into remote concentration camps. It was the first of several mass
terrors that Stalin applied to his own country in the name of
economic and social improvement. By the time Stalin’s regime
came to its end with Stalin’s death in 1953, the estimated total
number of deliberate killings made under the regime in the name
of socialism range from 9 to 20 million.
It was in response to these vast social and economic upheavals,
and the injustices and abuses of labor that came in the wake of
the Industrial Revolution, and it was in response to the new
competing ideologies of Capitalism and Socialism, that the
Church produced its first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum. We
shall look at the social encyclicals of the Church in our next lesson.
Suffice it to say that to this day in its Catechism, the Church
maintains the Christian view articulated by St. Thomas, and
explicitly refuses to embrace either capitalism or socialism. What
she offers, instead, is what she has always offered: The person and
Spirit of Jesus Christ.
UNIT 3: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL TEACHING
OF THE CHURCH LESSON 2 – SOCIAL
ENCYCLICALS: OFFICIAL PUBLISHED TEACHINGS
OF THE POPE
RERUM NOVARUM: ON CAPITAL AND LABOR (1891)
Ø In response to the humanitarian crisis caused by
unbridled capitalism, and in response also to the rising
dangers of Marxist Socialism (“Communism”), Pope Leo
XIII issued the encynclical “Rerum Novarum: On capital
and labor” in 1891.
Ø Rather than reject capitalism, Pope Leo laid our the
basic rules that a capitalist society must follow in order
to protect the humanity and dignity of its workers.
Ø New things that sprung up that the Church needs to
address.
Ø This was late 19th century, ground breaking encyclical
Ø 1st encyclical to address social concerns
Ø Workers rights haven’t been heard before, so it’s the 1st
time
Ø New thing to talk about workers right. Capitalism is
abused. This rerum novarum, influenced countries all
over the world.
Ø Communism – rerum novarum upholds the rights of
invidual to right property as taught by Saint Thomas
Aquinas “private property is in accordance with natural
law that people have the right to own private property.
St. Thomas Aquinas”
Ø So, the pope rejected communism and provided just
way that capitalism may be adapted all over the world.
RERUM NOVARUM: ON CAPITAL AND LABOR (1891) ways laid by
Pope Leo XII: important points
• People must not be employed in conditions unsuitable
to their sex and age.
• The worker must not be made to do things beyond his
strength.
• The worker must have time for religion, home, and family.
• The worker must receive a just wage, a wage which
provides for him and his family.
• Capitalists must not exploit poor people to make profit.
• Socialists must not exploit poor people for political ends.
• Workers have the right to form their own independent
unions that protect their own interests (independent
from capitalists and socialists).
• The wealthy have the Christian duty to go beyond justice
and to care for the poor also in charity.
• Workers have the duty being good citizens (poverty is
not an excuse for criminality).
Explanation (additional):
Ø The Pope discourages cheap labor which exists today.
This encyclical insist on just wage.
Ø This injustices still happens in the society. (Ex. Amazon’s
workers).
Ø Socialists are popular in provinces (Ex. NPA – dangerous
elements, try to recruit the poor to join their side. They
have guns, demand support from poor people. People
who encounters NPA don’t have choice but to give
them everything. They are armed and gives them
everything, they can’t say no because people are afraid
of the guns they have. So,e College students are
persuaded to join NPA).
Ø Workers have the right to form independent union (This is
where They can say all their concerns). Employees know
better about their condition than their bosses.
Ø Go beyond justice – towards charity
o Justice is the most important? But in this
encyclical we are called to go beyond justice.
o Justice – social change is the main point. Itbis
also about overcoming the unjust structure in
the society. Correcting the unjust.
o Charity – meeting immediate needs of
community. Treating an individual as a family.
Ø Philippine culture tries to treat everyone with respect
and as a family.
Ø Do not make poverty as excuse for conducting a crime.
1962: PACEM IN TERRIS: WHEN NUCLEAR WAR ALMOST BROKE OUT
between USSR AND USA – Pope John XXIII
Ø John XIII’s intervention im the 1962 cuban missile crisis,
and the subsequent de-escalation of nuclear threats in
1963.
Ø The threat of nuclear war between the United States and
the Soviet Union almost turned into reality during the
Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Ø 1959, Fidel Castro, took control in cuba, (miles from
florida) established cuba as communist nation and
forged union with Soviet Union that alarmed the United
states.
Ø April 19, 1961 – USA attempted removed Castro from
power. Invasion failed and Castro tightened grip on
cuba
Ø August 1962 – established sites from cuba (nuclear
missiles secretly)
Ø October 15 – USA found existence of missiles
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 Ø John F Kennedy – consider strategies as response to this.
Blockade (ships sea surrounding Cuba, did not allow
other ships from Soviet)
o Threat to nation
o Bith sides refused to back down.
Ø October 25 – blockade was challenged for 1st time
o Soviet forced to back down
o Blockade continued
o Ambassador Adlai Stevenson – let soviet admit
the existence of missile bombs
Ø October 28 , 1962 – ended. Secret aggreement, misisles
will be removed in cuba and turkey.
Ø Cuban missile event – intense relationship between USA
and Soviet union. Cold war.
Ø Nikita Krushschev – Soviet Union premier
Explanation (additional)
Ø The one who backs down from the nuclear war, that
nation will look like lost against the other.
PACEM IN TERRIES (peace on earth): On Establishing Universal
Peace (1963)
Ø Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum gave Catholic social
teaching that still holds to this day. But in decades
afterwards, animosity between the world’s Capitalist
and Communist nations deepened, and the threat of
nuclear war became very real.
Ø Pope John XXIII addressed this threat im the social
encyclical Pacem in Terris.
Ø Nikita Krushchev – a man of peace.
Ø Paveway in de-escalation of tension so within the same
year of publication of Pacem in Terris, both sode
stopped all nuclear test. USA rmeoved missiles from
turkey and USSR removed missiles from Cuba.
Ø In the present: Pope steps in when war is happening.
Ø 2013, when USA threat a war on Syria. Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction, but USA did not found any. USA
made false accusations before. Pope Francis made a
plea, call out Obama for peace.
Ø Prayer works
Pacem in Terris important points
• Pope John XXIII issued Pacem in Terris in 1963, when the
nuclear arms race was escalating. It was the 1st
encyclical the Pope addressed for “all men of good will”,
rather than only to faithful Catholics.
• Peace in the world can be achieved by orienting all
things towards their divinely established end, their “right
order”.
• All men of good will can recognize these ends and this
right order in the natural law of conscience (one does
not need to be Catholic to see them).
• This right order pertains to individuals, to society, to
governments, and to nations.
• This economy is rightly ordered to the benefit of all
human beings, and must stop serving the nuclear arms
race. Peace talks and mutual nuclear disarmament
must begin.
Additional explanation:
Ø Pope John XXIII previously called for Vatican II because
he wants the CHURCH to be able to speak to all people
NOT ONLY CATHOLICS. Appeal for peace for all men of
good will.
Ø Pope is saying you don’t need to be Catholic to see the
correct order of things. Everyone has the natural law of
conscience.
Ø All of elements have proper ordering. Singles out
economy to stop preserving nuclear arms. Economy
should not produce nuclear weapons, but economy
should be ordered for benefit of all human being.
Ø After and still in influence of Pope both USSR and USA,
signed SALT – Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
Ø SALT Reduced the risk of having all out war between
USSR and USA. Until the fall of USSR in 1991 – end of COLD
WAR. When USSR fell apart.
Laudato Si’: ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME (2015)
Ø Amid the world-wide concern about climate change,
Pope Francis issued the encyclical Laudato Si’, linking
social development to the stewardship of creation.
Ø Individuals, society, and the worldnas a whole must take
responsibility for both the social development of
humanity and the protection of the global environment.
Ø The pope reaffirmed that wealthy nations must help
poor nations
UNIT 4: LESSON 1 – FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF THE
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS
FIRST PRINCIPLE. THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
Ø The sacredness of life and the dignity of each human
being in God's image is the first principle of Catholic
social teaching.
Ø All other principles have meaning and unity only in
reference to this first principle.
SECOND PRINCIPLE.. THE COMMON GOOD
Ø Just as individuals are tasked with doing the moral good,
society is tasked with bringing about the common good.
Ø The common good is the sum total of social conditions
which taken together allow all individuals to fulfill their
vocation in God.
Ø The common good is what brings society into closer
reflection of the kingdom of God, and each individual
closer to their fulfillment as beings made in God's image.
THIRD PRINCIPLE. THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION OF GOODS
Ø God gave the earth to the whole human race for the
sustenance of all its members, without excluding or
favoring anyone.
Ø All created things should be shared fairly by all mankind
under the guidance of justice tempered by charity.
Ø Each person must have access to the level of well-being
necessary for his full development.
Ø Individuals have the right to private property, but that
right is neither absolute nor untouchable.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE. SUBSIDIARITY
Ø It is impossible to promote the dignity of the person
without showing concern for the family, groups,
associations, local territorial realities; in short, for that
aggregate of economic, social, cultural, sports-oriented,
recreational, professional and political expressions to
which people spontaneously give life and which make it
possible for them to achieve effective social growth.
Ø On the basis of this principle, all societies of a superior
order must adopt attitudes of help (“subsidium”) with
respect to lower-order societies.
Ø The principle of subsidiarity protects people from abuses
by higher-level social authority and calls on these same
authorities to help individuals and intermediate groups
to fulfill their duties.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE. PARTICIPATION
Ø The implication of subsidiarity is participation, in which
the citizen, either as an individual or in association with
others, contributes to the cultural, economic, political
and social life of the civil community to which he
belongs.
Ø Participation is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all,
with responsibility and with a view to the common good.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE. SOLIDARITY
Ø Solidarity means extending brotherly love towards our
neighbor in real concrete acts. It is both a social principle
and a moral virtue.
Ø Only by solidarity can Catholics seek to change unjust
social systems or practices.
Ø The moral virtue of solidarity is always directed towards
the common good.
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THE VALUES OF LOVE, TRUTH, FREEDOM, AND JUSTICE
Ø Love is selflessness; it gives birth to all other values.
Ø Truth is objective and universal; it serves love in its desire
for morality.
Ø Freedom means being free for what is good, according
to truth and love.
Ø Justice is practiced in freedom. It means treating people
as they truly deserve, according to truth and love.
UNIT 4: LESSON 2 – THE PHILIPPINE CHURCH AND
THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIO-
CULTURAL SPHERES
CBCP Pastoral message – year of the poor

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CBCP Pastoral message – An invitation to reflect,
pray and act

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CBCP Pastoral message – And God saw it was CBCP Pastoral message – Seek the Common
good Good

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Goodluck sa exams, Fam! Kaya natin to. PE naman next! J
“God always finishes what He starts. He began a good work in you
and He will complete it.”
-Philippians 1:6

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