This is the final segment of our series, Catholic Social Teaching. We have covered a lot of ground, and it is time now to give a resume and tie it all together.

Catholic social teaching holds much interest for many people since it deals with a just social order in the world. Most everyone is interested in what goes into a good society, a just world, a world where every man, woman, and child can enjoy a decent standard of living befitting their human dignity. By its very nature, a teaching which addresses so broad a topic must be broad in its principles, and short on specifics. The principles stated here apply to every sovereign society under the sun, and must make allowances for the unique character of each society.

Catholic social teaching finds its clearest expression in the social encyclicals of the popes who lived during the 20th century, beginning with Pope Leo XIII. It has been said that the popes are very progressive in their social teaching, or public morality, but very conservative in their private morality. The reason for this is obvious. We do not have much control over society at large, but we do have the ability to give direction to our private lives. When a pope gets specific in his moral teaching, e.g., when he teaches that abortion is intrinsically evil, he is usually labeled "conservative."

It would be a mistake to spend all our energy speculating about what could be done in the public sector, over which we have little control, and give little attention and energy to the private sector, over which we have a great deal of control. Does it make any sense to berate unjust social structures (like unjust distribution of property and material wealth) while ignoring the sexual ethics? If our marriages and family life are deteriorating through a high divorce rate and the wanton destruction of our unborn children, does it make any sense to talk about the ideal economic order?

Catholic social teaching does not exist in a vacuum. It is only one dimension of the moral order which encompasses every dimension of human life. When we talk about morality, we usually mean the choices and acts of individual moral agents over which they have full control. Indeed, this is where morality begins, if it is to exist at all. But since we live in an increasingly interdependent world, we must take the entire human family into consideration., A private morality and a public morality complement one another. You cannot have the one without the other. The Church cannot restrict her attention to a sexual ethic, or to a business ethic, a medical ethic, a political ethic, or a military ethic. They all come together in the societies in which we live.

Moral teaching takes the shape of principles and norms. These principles and norms point to moral truths which are universal, objective, and timeless. They apply to everyone and everywhere, for all times. They help us understand God’s design for His human universe. This great design exists, and we can know it. Once we understand it, we can freely choose to abide by it in the decisions we make, and in the ways we give direction to our lives. 

Recall the schema for a just society which was presented in our very first segment. (Use this ideogram again.) Every just society will have these components. First, a society is composed of many Families. We all belong to a family. The family is the basic unit of a society, and a society is no better, or strong, than its families.

Second, every society has within it the Church and the State, or government. The Church and the State provide different services to a society. The Church deals with the spiritual and eternal order. The State deals with the temporal order. Since we are citizens of two worlds - this world for 70 - 80 years, and the Kingdom of God for eternity - we need the services of both the Church and the State. They must complement one another, cooperate with one another. One cannot substitute for the other.

If death were the annihilation of a human person and all that he or she strove to accomplish, then we would not need the Church. We could be satisfied being good pagans. But the human spirit rejects the idea of annihilation; it yearns for immortality. God did not crate us for this life only. Heaven is not here. The Church must teach faith truths and moral truths. She must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, and assist us in accomplishing the real purpose for which God created us. All her teaching authority and power to sanctify comes from our God and Master, Jesus Christ.

The state must govern. It does this by coordinating all the components of society, by protecting all our human rights, and by promoting the fulfillment of all our duties. The state also derives all of its authority from God. While it can legislate man-made positive laws, it is accountable to a higher law, which is God’s law, the moral order. No government is exempt from this.

Third, every just society requires an economic order which is effective and efficient in providing for our basic material needs. We design our own economic systems to serve our needs. Marxist varieties of socialism have not worked in eastern European countries, or Africa. Democratic varieties of capitalism have a better record in the free world. Neither of these two economic systems are without faults, but the latter has fewer faults.

Fourth, every just society needs a political order to govern and regulate the many components within a society. Every political system is a man-made entity, but if it is to be authentic and just, then it must conform to objective criteria. Objective criteria for measuring the effectiveness and justice of a government are the basic human rights: civil, religious, economic, and political. Does a government discriminate among its peoples? Does it allow for freedom of religion, freedom of expression, of assembly, elections of public officials, multi-party politics, and self-regulation? Is a government accountable to a higher law, the natural law, or is it confined to the prevailing ideology? These kinds of questions become very practical and concrete when we consider what should happen in Lithuania, the Ukraine, Nicaragua, and South Africa. What kinds of political reforms should the United States support? What kinds of political pressures should we resist?

Fifth, within every society there are many mediating structures, which lie between the state and the individual citizen. There are many varieties of fraternal organizations; women’s clubs, unions, neighborhood groups. All of these require a clear vision of the common good of society if they are to work in the best interests of society.

Sixth, and last, the cultural centers of a just society have a distinctive role to play. They exist to preserve and hand on the major accomplishments of previous generations. They prepare today’s youth for tomorrow’s responsibilities. The problem here is that educational centers and their organizations can become beholden to various ideologies such as secular humanism and become propagandizers for ideology. In this century we have seen totalitarian governments such as Nazi Germany and Russia re-written their history texts to better coincide with facts of history. A democracy can also fall prey to a reigning ideology, or to a fashionable way of accounting for reality.

We hear it said that economics has to be rooted in morality, that politics has to be rooted in morality, that the military has to be rooted in morality, and so on. Where do you find this "morality"? Where does it come from? Everyone claims that the moral right is on his side, that he occupies the moral high ground. Unless morality is anchored in something very firm, it becomes something like a balloon with many strings attached to it, pushed and pulled, yanked this way and that way, in response to the stronger pressure group.

All morality has to come from religion, and that means from God who is the source of all religion. All morality is rooted, anchored in God. God establishes what is right and what is wrong. He is the Creator and we are the creatures. He has no rivals. He has no beginning, since He always existed. He has no real need for what He created. Vatican I teaches: "God freely created all creatures out of nothing. He did this out of His goodness and all powerful virtue, not to increase His happiness, and not to add to His perfection, but only to manifest His goodness through the blessings He bestows on creatures" (my translation, Dei filius, DZ 1783/002).

God gives each of us, in the normal course of events, 70 - 80 years to live on this planet. Then we die. What we do with our time, talent, and treasure is left up to us. But our choices have consequences. We can either cooperate with God’s moral order, or we can attempt to redefine it according to our preferences, whims, and current fashions. One thing is clear: not every social experiment was successful. We can learn from the past, from history, and refuse to repeat old mistakes.

The starving of millions of Ukrainians into conformity with Stalin’s agricultural reforms in the 190’s was a horrible example of social engineering. The attempt of the Nazis to create a super-race by stamping out peoples they considered inferior, attempting even genocide, is appalling and revolting to any sense of human decency. These social experiments, directed by precise calculation and planning, are directly opposed to the Moral Order. They are evil, not because they failed, but because they violated basic human goods which God established in all human persons. They should never have been attempted. Their perpetrators should have known better.

More subtle forms of violating God’s moral order exist today. They take the shape of worldliness, moral indifference, historicist relativism, and methodical exclusion of the transcendent. We must also include here the destruction of one third of our preborn children in the United States.

We need a vision of how the world ought to be, how it could be. Everyone needs such a vision. Young people just beginning their life’s great project need that vision. Men and women in their prime need that vision. Churchmen and statesmen need that vision. Soldiers have died to protect their country and a way of life. Martyrs have died rather than renounce the truths in faith and morals they discovered in their God. Perhaps we all need to reflect upon what is worth living and struggling for, and what, if necessary, is worth dying for.

It is part of our very nature to want to make this world a better place to live in. Negatively, we want to correct abuses, injustices, and oppressions people suffer under. Positively, we search for better ways to produce food, to manufacture consumer goods, to increase services, to upgrade medical care, improve schooling, and all those things politicians talk about so frequently. This is the responsibility of the citizens of every nation. They are the artisans of their own destiny, the ones with the primary responsibility for good leadership.

What does Catholic social teaching add to all this? It supplies, not solutions, but good guidelines which take the shape of principles. CST cannot tell the people of Poland, for example, how to rebuild their economy or make their new government work. That is not its task. Only the people directly involved can make these kinds of prudential decisions. People look to CST for good guidance in public morality in the same way they look to the Ten Commandments in private morality. Both public and private morality appeal to divine revelation and the natural law for its source. The Ten Commandments do not show us how to live the Christian life in all its particulars in every situation. But they do point us in the right direction. There are some human choices and actions that are so destructive, like murder and adultery, that we should never do them. There are some negative moral absolutes.

There are many positive moral principles which point us in the direction of the good, and leave to our ingenuity how we shall realize the good. For example, CST teaches that private property is a natural right for every man, woman, and child. Property is a means of security which we need in our condition of creatures with recurring material needs. Exactly how this social principle will be implemented is the task of each country and its elected officials. The government is to devise a system for apportioning and regulating property so that the natural resources of the nation are best utilized and developed. These laws governing property will change along with population growth, the development of new means of wealth, and shifts of population. There is both change and continuity in the principles of CST.

One of the most basic social principles deals with the "universal destination of all created goods." This means that all of the material goods our God placed on this earth, e.g., fuel, food, lumber, minerals, etc., were meant to be enjoyed by everyone. That is God’s plan - part of the moral order. It is up to us to make that happen. We know this is true. Take food for example. We know there is more food in the world than what we can consume, and still people starve today. The fault is not with God and His Providence; the fault lies with us and our indolence. Are we willing to take the measures the would win the battle against starvation and malnutrition?

Most of the social problems in the world today are man-made and woman-made. So also are the solutions to these problems man-made. CST points us in the direction any good solution must take in correcting social evils, and promoting the common good. May God assist each of us in benefiting from the guidance of Catholic social teaching.

Sources:

1) Paul Johnson, Modern Times - The World From the Twenties to the Eighties (Harper and Row, N.Y. : 1985).