Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a profound commitment to creation and consequently, that each person has a role to play in promoting peace, justice and love in this world. A Christian’s duty in this narrative is not limited to things ‘spiritual’, or things we might do on Sundays. Catholic Social Teaching touches upon all aspects of life, from the family to international development, how we think of those who are homeless to how we care for the environment, and from how we shop and consume to the rights of workers and the dignity of work.
Each one of us has a vocation for the common good, a call to treat each person as a member of one human family and to treasure the Earth as our common home. Catholic Social Teaching is the Church’s wisdom about how we live this vocation in today’s world.
A person has the right to live. A person 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, a person has the right to be looked after in the event of ill health; disability stemming from work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of one’s own a person is deprived of the means of livelihood.