MATTHEW

25: 31 - 46
 QUESTIONS:

1. What have you understood from the Gospel reading?

2. What is the challenge of Jesus to those who were listening

to Him?
THE CHURCH RESPONDS
TO THE CHALLENGE OF
CHRIST
IN THE GOSPEL
THROUGH THE
CATHOLIC SOCIAL
TEACHING.
 THE CATHOLIC
SOCIAL TEACHING
Lesson 6
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
DOCTRINE:
1. Know and explain the meaning, history, sources and significance
of the Catholic Social Teaching
2. Identify contemporary social and moral issues that affect the
society
MORAL:
3. Develop social awareness and consciousness to the different issues
and concerns in the community
4. Cultivate a sense of responsibility and accountability by adapting
ways to counter these social realities
WORSHIP:
5. Embrace Christ’s call for care and compassion for the “poor”
6. Pray for personal and societal healing from social and moral
injustices
 ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

I would like to explain Catholic Social Teaching to a The term solidarity means…
friend by saying…

Who wrote the social encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the What does it mean to be a steward of creation? How does
Condition of Labor)? When was it written? What was it this definition guide you in your relationship with God’s
about? creation (human beings as well as the earth)?

Describe several ways that you promote justice in your A time when I helped someone who was spiritually or
home, school and world. materially poor was…

My favorite social justice hero is _______ because… Living as a disciple of Christ means…

To me, justice means… The call to family, community, and participation means…

The dignity of work and the rights of workers means… What is the difference between a right and a
responsibility?
CST IN 3
MINUTES
 The Catholic Church has a rich history of social
teaching that helps us live positive, meaningful, and
holy lives through an understanding of our
relationship and responsibility to others. This
teaching has guided the lives of the Christians since
OVERVIEW the beginning of the Church. Modern Catholic social
OF CST teaching has been addressed and explained in Church
documents since 1800s. Catholic social teaching
promotes Catholic identity and helps ensure that we
treat those around us and our environment with
dignity and respect. It gives us the guidance to live
our faith and navigate our modern world.
 THEMES OF CST
• Life and Dignity of the Human Person
• Call to Family, Community and Participation
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
• The Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers
• Solidarity
• Care for God’s Creation
“Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh, is entrusted to the
maternal care of the Church. Therefore, every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the
Church’s very heart; it cannot but affect Her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of
God and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the world and to every creature (cf.
Mark 16:15).” — St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), no. 3

“When we speak of mankind, we must never forget the various attacks on the sacredness of human life. The
plague of abortion is an attack on life. Dying on the job because the minimum safety standards are not respected is
an attack on life. Death from malnutrition is an attack on life. Terrorism, war, violence; so is euthanasia. Loving
life means always taking care of the other, wanting the best for him, cultivating and respecting her
transcendent dignity. — Pope Francis, Address to Meeting of the Science and Life Association

LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

 LIFE AND
DIGNITY OF THE
HUMAN PERSON
•STOP abortion
•STOP euthanasia
•STOP racism
•STOP genocide
•STOP torture
•STOP unjust war
•STOP slavery
•STOP poverty
 CALL TO FAMILY, COMMUNITY AND PARTICIPATION

“While building up the Church in love, the Christian family places itself at the
service of the human person and the world, really bringing about the ‘human
advancement’ whose substance was given in summary form in the Synod’s Message to
families: ‘Another task for the family is to form persons in love and also to practice
love in all its relationships, so that it does not live closed in on itself, but
remains open to the community, moved by a sense of justice and concern for others, as
well as by a consciousness of its responsibility towards the whole of society’.”— St.
John Paul II, The Family in the Modern World (Familiaris Consortio), no. 64

“Local individuals and groups can make a real difference. They are able to instill a
greater sense of responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect
others, a spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land…. Social problems must be
addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds.” —
Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si'), nos. 179, 219
CALL TO FAMILY, COMMUNITY
AND PARTICIPATION

UPHOLD marriage
UPHOLD family
UPHOLD local communities
UPHOLD the common good
“We must speak of man’s rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the
means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care,
rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the
event of ill health; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or
whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood.” — St. John XXIII,
Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris), no. 11

“In human society one man’s natural right gives rise to a corresponding duty in other men; the duty, that
is, of recognizing and respecting that right. Every basic human right draws its authoritative force from
the natural law, which confers it and attaches to it its respective duty. Hence, to claim one’s rights and
ignore one’s duties, or only half fulfill them, is like building a house with one hand and tearing it
down with the other.” — St. John XXIII, Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris), no. 30

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

 RIGHTS AND
RESPONSIBILI
TIES
PROVIDE food
PROVIDE water
PROVIDE shelter
PROVIDE education
PROVIDE employment
PROVIDE health care
PROVIDE religious freedom
PROVIDE free expression
“‘The Church’s love for the poor… is a part of her constant tradition. This love is inspired by the Gospel of the
Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor…. Those who are oppressed by poverty are the
object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since Her origin and in spite of the failings of many of
Her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense and liberation.’” — Catechism of the Catholic Church,
nos. 2444 and 2448, quoting The Hundredth Year (Centisimus Annus), no. 57, and Freedom of Conscience
(Libertatis Conscientia), no. 68

“The poor not only suffer injustice, they also struggle against it!… Solidarity means that the lives of all take priority
over the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means fighting against the structural causes of poverty and
inequality; of the lack of work, land and housing; and of the denial of social and labor rights. It means confronting
the destructive effects of the empire of money: forced dislocation, painful emigration, human trafficking, drugs, war,
violence and all those realities that many of you suffer and that we are all called upon to transform... Love for the
poor is at the center of the Gospel.” — Pope Francis, Address to the First World Meeting of Popular Movements

OPTION FOR THE POOR AND VULNERABLE

OPTION FOR THE POOR AND VULNERABLE

CARE for the sick

CARE for the elderly
CARE for the disabled
CARE for the unborn
CARE for victims
CARE for prisoners
 DIGNITY OF WORK AND
RIGHTS OF WORKERS
“The obligation to earn one’s bread by the sweat of one’s brow also presumes the right to do so. A society
in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach
satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society
attain social peace.” — St. John Paul II, The Hundredth Year (Centesimus Annus), no. 43

“In many cases, poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work, either because work
opportunities are limited (through unemployment or underemployment), or ‘because a low value is put
on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal
security of the worker and his or her family.’” — Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth (Caritas in
Veritate), no. 63, quoting St. John Paul II, On Human Work (Laborem Exercens), no. 8
DIGNITY OF WORK AND RIGHTS OF WORKERS

PROTECT just wages

PROTECT benefits and security
PROTECT union rights
PROTECT immigrant rights
PROTECT private property
PROTECT economic initiatives
 SOLIDARITY

“Solidarity 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.” — St. John Paul II,
On Social Concern (Sollicitudo rei Socialis), no. 38
 SOLIDARITY

WELCOME strangers
WELCOME immigrants
WELCOME diversity
WELCOME peace efforts
 “On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human
family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help
of nature itself — God’s gift to his children — and through hard
work and creativity. At the same time we must recognize our
grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a
condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to
CARE FOR cultivate it.” — Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth (Caritas in
Veritate), no. 50
GOD’S
CREATION “A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it
must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment,
so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor….
Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to
be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an
unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.” —
Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si’), nos.
49, 91
 CARE FOR
GOD’S CREATION

PREVENT environmental
degradation
PREVENT pollution
PREVENT resource depletion
PREVENT species extinction
PREVENT environmental
injustice
 AUGUSTINIAN VALUE:

SOLIDARITY AND
JUSTICE