Catholic Social Teaching Overview

Catholic Social Teaching is a set of seven principles that the church considers a just way to live in today’s world. Through documents by church officials the Catholic Social Teaching principles are reinforced. The teachings address ways we can change the world we live for the positive and take steps toward solving injustice.
Catholic Social Teachings is multifaceted in what it chooses to address. The principle “Life and Dignity of the Human Person”   is the belief that all people’s lives are worthwhile. No person insignificant or less worthy than the next, and all people are more precious than things. “Call to Family, Community, and Participation” speaks to our duty to serve and participate in community and thus seek a common goal and good with other people. Every person is guaranteed “Rights and Responsibilities.” Survival rights include water, food, while thrival rights include things such as education, and responsibilities include the right to work towards the good of the community. The “Option for the Poor and Vulnerable” puts those in need first in line for what it is that they need to thrive. “The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers” include the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative, Catholic Social Teaching hopes to insure these needs are met. “Solidarity” explains that we are one family working towards a common goal of justice and peace and “Care of God’s Creation” hopes that we as a family treat the earth with respect and make sure that it’s condition stays favorable to life forms on this planet.
In 1961before globalization had become a reality, Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Mater et Magistra or "Christianity and Social Progress" took on explaining relations between rich and poor nations through Catholic Social Teaching. The encyclical covered the option for the poor and vulnerable by asking help from rich countries in assisting poorer nations...