What Is Catholic Social Teaching?

The Church’s “Best Kept Secret”

Catholic social teaching has sometimes been called the Church’s best-kept secret. Many Catholics have never heard of it. Yet it is a rich body of teaching on how human beings should live together in society: how work should be treated, how wealth should be used, what the state is for, and what we owe the poor.

It is not a political programme. It is the Gospel applied to the life of society (CCC 2419–2425).

Where It Comes From

The Church has always had something to say about justice. The Old Testament prophets thundered against those who oppressed the poor, and Jesus identified Himself with the hungry, the stranger and the prisoner (Matthew 25:31–46). The Fathers of the Church preached about the duties of the rich.

But modern Catholic social teaching is usually dated to 1891, when Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”). The Industrial Revolution had created terrible conditions for workers. Leo XIII defended the rights of workers to a just wage and to form associations, while also defending private property against socialism.

Since then, popes have returned to these questions again and again. Key documents include:

Quadragesimo Anno (Pius XI, 1931)
Pacem in Terris (John XXIII, 1963)
Populorum Progressio (Paul VI, 1967)
Laborem Exercens (John Paul II, 1981), on human work
Centesimus Annus (John Paul II, 1991)
Caritas in Veritate (Benedict XVI, 2009)
Laudato Si’ (Francis, 2015), on care for our common home

In 2004 the Church published the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which gathers the teaching together in one place.

The Key Principles

Catholic social teaching is usually summed up in a handful of principles.

1. The Dignity of the Human Person

Everything begins here. Every human being is made in the image of God and has a dignity that no society, government or market can take away. Society exists for the person, not the person for society (CCC 1929–1933).

2. The Common Good

The common good is the sum of the social conditions that allow people, as groups and as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily (CCC 1906). It includes peace, security, a just legal order, and access to what people need to live a truly human life: food, shelter, work, education, health care and freedom of religion.

Everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the common good, not only governments.

3. Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity means that a larger body should not take over what a smaller one can do for itself (CCC 1883). Decisions should be made at the lowest appropriate level: the family, the local community, the parish, voluntary associations. Higher levels, including the state, should support these smaller communities, not replace them.

This principle protects against an over-powerful state that smothers families and local communities.

4. Solidarity

Solidarity means recognising that we are all responsible for one another. St John Paul II described it not as a vague feeling of compassion, but as a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good (CCC 1939–1942).

Subsidiarity and solidarity balance each other. Without solidarity, subsidiarity can become indifference. Without subsidiarity, solidarity can become a state that controls everything.

5. The Universal Destination of Goods

God created the earth and its goods for the whole human race (CCC 2402). The Church defends the right to private property, which is necessary for freedom and for the security of families. But that right is not absolute. Property carries a social responsibility. Those who have more than they need have a duty to help those who lack what is necessary (CCC 2403–2406).

6. The Preferential Option for the Poor

The Church calls Christians to give special attention to the poor and vulnerable (CCC 2443–2449). A society can be judged by how it treats its weakest members. This does not mean the rich are excluded from God’s love, but that the needs of the poor have a special claim on our conscience.

7. The Dignity of Work

Work is not merely a way of earning money. It is a way in which human beings share in God’s work of creation and provide for their families (CCC 2427–2428). Workers have a right to a just wage, sufficient to support a family in dignity, and to safe conditions, rest and the freedom to form unions (CCC 2433–2436).

8. Care for Creation

Human beings are stewards, not owners, of creation. The Church teaches that we have duties towards the natural world and towards future generations who will inherit it (CCC 2415).

Neither Left Nor Right

Catholic social teaching does not fit neatly into modern political categories. It defends private property, the family, and religious freedom, and it rejects socialism. It also defends workers’ rights, a just wage and care for the poor, and it rejects an economy driven by unrestrained profit.

Catholics of good will can disagree about how best to apply these principles. Questions such as tax rates, particular welfare schemes or specific economic policies are matters of prudent judgement, where reasonable people may differ. But the principles themselves are not optional. Every Catholic is called to accept them.

Living It Out

Catholic social teaching is not only for politicians and economists. It is lived in ordinary ways: paying employees fairly, being honest in business, giving generously to the poor, caring for an elderly neighbour, taking part in public life, and voting with an informed conscience.

As St John Paul II often said, the Church’s social teaching is part of her moral teaching. It is the command to love our neighbour, applied to the way we build our common life together.

Go deeper: What Is the Universal Destination of Goods — Does the Church Oppose Private Property?