“ The moral test of any society is based on

how the most vulnerable are treated.

Saint John Paul II, Address on Christian Unity in a Technological Age, Toronto, 1984

A2A Lagustan, Ma. Sophia Carmela; Laylo, Edrian Vincent G.; Makalintal, Ralph Anthony; Maranan, Jere Mae
Definition
• Does not mean
pitting one group
against another
• but rather, it calls us to --> assisting those who
strengthen the whole are most vulnerable
community

• Christians are called to

• look at the world from the perspective of
the marginalized and
• to work in solidarity for justice.

Option for the Poor

Pope John Paul II expanded the use of “option to the poor” to include
spiritual as well as material poverty.

Option for the Poor

“ It does not tell us how we are to
achieve it, it only lets us know that
in our lives as Christians, we are
called to give up some of our God-
given breath to care for the poor.
--Pope Benedict XVI--

Option for the Poor

Scriptural Basis/Catholic Social Teaching
• From the Scriptures we learn that the justice of a society is tested and
judged by its treatment of the poor.

Option for the Poor

Scriptural Basis/Catholic Social Teaching

• God's covenant with Israel was dependent on the way the community
treated the poor and unprotected

• —the widow, the orphan and the stranger (Deut. 16.11-12, Ex. 22.21-27, Isa.
1.16-17).

Option for the Poor

Scriptural Basis/Catholic Social Teaching
Throughout Israel's history and in the New Testament, the poor are
agents of God's transforming power.

• In the gospel of Luke, Jesus proclaims that he has been anointed to

bring good news to the poor (4.1-22).

• Similarly, in the Last Judgment, we are told that we will be judged

according to how we respond to the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner
and the stranger (Matthew 25.31-46)

Option for the Poor

Scriptural Basis/Catholic Social Teaching

“
… the mere fact that some people are born in places with fewer
resources or less development does not justify the fact that they are
living with less dignity. It must be reiterated that “the more fortunate
should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more
generously at the service of others.” To speak properly of our own
rights, we need to broaden our perspective and to hear the plea of
other peoples and other regions than those of our own country. We
need to grow in a solidarity which “would allow all peoples to
become the artisans of their destiny,” since “every person is called to
self-fulfillment.
- Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 190

Option for the Poor

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern

World)
It says, “To be Christian, is to be one with the poor”.
“ The joys and the hopes, the grief and the anxieties of the [people]
of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted,
“
these too are the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the followers
of Christ.
What can we do?

Preferential option for the poor ≠ Optional = verb, not noun

Choice to lift up the poor and disadvantage

Option for the Poor

As followers of Christ, we are challenged to make a preferential option
for the poor.

Option for the Poor

What can we do?

create conditions for marginalized voices to be heard,

Joining community involvement activities
In our own simple ways, always be open to help other people

to defend the defenseless,

and to assess lifestyles, policies and social institutions in terms of
their impact on the poor
To always include in our goal the conditions of the marginalized and to make
this an inspiration in reaching this goal
Option for the Poor
“ The moral test of any society is based on
how the most vulnerable are treated. God’s
love is universal, so this principle does not
intend that we should focus on the poor to
the exclusion of others, but rather that we
are called to prioritize those who are in most
need of our Solidarity.
Saint John Paul II, Address on Christian Unity in a Technological Age, Toronto, 1984

Option for the Poor