CATHOLIC

SOCIAL
TEACHINGS
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS
 -It presents the Catholic Christian response to
basic modern social problems.
 - It is a body of social teachings containing
principles for actions and guidelines for
practice to help us respond to our social
responsibility in view of urgent social needs.
 It is the source of wisdom and insights to help
us acquire a truly Christian faith-vision of social
justice and peace.
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS
 The Church’s body of teaching on social
realities based on the Gospel, Church
Tradition, reason and human experience.
 CST is ordinarily assumed to be relatively
new in the Church, but the truth is that,
since the time of Church inception, the
Church has always been engaged in
reflecting on social realities and practical
teaching for the social good of the
people.
 Role of the Church in promoting the
CST?

 It is the reliable source of guidance and

inspiration in living a moral life
 -It is concern with social issues
 -It is the moral center of our society
 - It has a right and duty to speak about
the moral implications of any
economic, political and cultural issues
based on the Gospel values.
 The Role of the Church in the Society

 The Church as the Moral Center

 -It strengthen the spiritual and moral fiber
of society (CFC 1161)
 The Church through its leaders, proposes
moral principles that guides us in our
decisions and actions
 The Role of the Church in the Society

 The Church is called to contribute to the

purification of reason and to the
reawakening of those moral forces
without which just structures are neither
established nor proven effective in the
long run”----- Pope Benedict XVI ( Deus
Caritas Est 29)
Role of CBCP in dealing with social problems?

 What is the -CBCP offers the relevant

aspects of the Christian moral perspective
dealing with the issue at hand.
After 10 years of PCP II (Second Plenary
Council of the Philippines), what are the
innovations made by the Philippine Church?

 -NPCCR (National Pastoral Consultations

on Church Renewal) evaluated how far it
has fulfilled the vision-mission it had
proposed in PCP II and its National
Pastoral Plan.
The Role of the Clergy and the Laity
 Clergy:
They are responsible for evangelizing the faithful ,
bringing the Gospel values into the specific issues of
the day, and clarifying the moral implications of the
current events, and roles of the social structures.
 laity
They are responsible for incorporating the Gospel
values into their families, schools, workplaces and
into the very structures of society.
 Leaders and laity share the same mission of
spreading the Gospel in all areas of human life.
Bothe act as leaven in human society.
 Church and State
Separation/Relation
 -Itprotects freedom of religion
 -Bill of Rights Article 3, Section 5 of the
1987 Philippine Constitution.
 -“No law shall be made respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.”
 -There is no imposed religion in the society
 Sources of CST
 Social Encyclicals by different popes
 Gaudium et Spes (Church in the Modern
World) of Vatican II
 Justice in the World (Synod of Bishops,
1971)
 Interviews with pope
 Studies of Vatican congregations
 Statements from different national
episcopal conferences
 Sources of CST
 Homilies of bishops and priests
 CBCP-timely pastoral letters on various
social issues (poverty, education,
gambling, population growth, elections,
ecology)
CST as Church’s Best kept
Secret
 Characteristics of CST
1. PERMANENT- CST is timeless, never go out of date
in their fundamentals
A. human dignity and solidarity
B. Social justice and Christian love
C. Active non-violence and peace
D. Preferential option for the poor
E. Value of human work
F. Universal destination of the goods of the earth
G. Stewardship and integrity of creation
H. People empowerment
I. Authentic and holistic human development

2. DEVELOPING
 Signs of the times
 Itis the process or intelligible method for
coming to a thorough understanding of
the situation
 How does the Church “ read the signs of
the times” and reach conclusions as to
the kind of social responsibility current
Christian discipleship demands?
 Methods and Sources of CST
1. Sacred Scripture- together with Sacred
Tradition , make up a single deposit of the
Word of God
2. Tradition
3. Reason
4. Human Experience
Reading the signs of the Times
(para 4 of the Vatican II Gaudium
et Spes)
 Isthe process or intelligible method of
arriving at a thorough understanding of
the situation
 See-Judge –Act
(Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra)
1. See (What is happening?)
2. Judge (What is the situation telling us as
Christians?)
3. Act (What are we supposed to do?)
4. Celebrate (Let us share our life and faith
together)
5. Evaluate