“God is love” (1 John 4:8) might be a good starting place for any summary of Catholic Social Teaching. God’s love became incarnate in Jesus Christ, who taught us a ‘new commandment’, to love one another as he has loved us (John 15:12). This love is not an abstract quality to be admired, but a virtue, something we do by the grace of God. We seek the good of the other, with no regard for reward or affirmation. Love is the greatest social commandment, which respects other people and their rights. Love insists on justice, the determination to ensure that all people have what is due to them to live a fully human life, as a right. This is known as the universal destination of goods (Gaudium et Spes, 1965). Love makes us capable of seeking justice and inspires us to a life of self-giving (Catechism, 1889). Love is the wellspring of Catholic Social Teaching.

We are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), which means that we are made in love and for love. God’s plan for our life on this earth is that we live in peace and harmony with Him, our fellow human beings, and all created things (Gaudium et Spes, 13). This is our dignity and vocation as human beings. Sin disrupts this harmony and is the source of injustice and violence in the world. Poverty - when people live in situations of misery or exploitation - is not natural, but the result of unjust choices by individuals or unequal distribution of the goods of the earth. It is designed into systems and institutions and can be designed out by advocacy for justice.

Jesus came among us to restore us to the dignity which had been demeaned by sin, poverty and oppression. We are called to take part in this liberation, this salvation, and help to restore dignity to all people, to be agents of love, justice and peace in the world. The love of God urges us on (2 Cor 5: 14). Our divine origin and eternal destiny in God is the source of our dignity. Every human being has intrinsic worth, an inner calling to be loving, and a specific mission based on their skills and qualities to contribute to a better world.

Catholic Social Teaching is rooted in sacred Scripture, the teaching of the Church, natural law and our own experience of the world. It is rooted most deeply in the values of the Gospel. It is from its roots in love that the fundamental social values of truth, freedom and justice are born and grow (Compendium, 205). From these values comes the principles to guide the building of a society worthy of human beings. Catholic Social Teaching is primarily concerned with how we live together in society, the rightness of our relations with each other, and is especially concerned with people who are not thriving due to unjust relationships, or a lack of the resources due to them. This is the preferential option for the poor, which is God’s option.

These values of the Gospel, the fundamental reference points of the renewal of the social order - love, justice, truth and freedom - also require the personal exercise of virtue. Catholic Social Teaching is nothing without action. It is an invitation to be loving, to do justice in the world. The primary (human) virtue we are asked to learn and cultivate is prudence, in other words practical wisdom in action. Prudence seeks to understand the concrete situation as widely and deeply as possible and to discern in the light of the Gospel what needs to be done to build up the Kingdom of God. In Catholic Social Teaching this becomes the See-Judge-Act method (Pope John XXIII, 1961).

Prudence aims to bring about justice, that firm will to give what is due to God and our neighbour. Of all the types of justice referred to in the Christian tradition, CST places most importance on social justice, that is the justice that regulates social relationships (eg between workers and employers), with a particular emphasis on the conditions that allow all people to flourish. The pursuit of justice is supported by courage, the determination to pursue what is good even in the face of opposition or public ridicule. Finally, our work is maintained by temperance, which is our determination in our lifestyle to use the goods of the earth justly, with a view to those who have less than is due to them. Temperance will help us to avoid a hardening of heart due to selfishness and anxiety (Luke 21: 34; 12:34).

The human virtues can be acquired by education, by practice, by being done repeatedly. We become more prudent, more discerning, by practising prudence, especially in a community. The virtue of prudence, which is directed towards the good - a more just and loving world - deepens in us as we practice the See-Judge-Act approach which was first outlined in the social teaching of Pope John XXIII. But the human virtues are animated by the theological virtues of faith, hope and above all love. The love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) is the driving force of all our work for justice.

The work of building up the Kingdom of God on earth is the work of the head, heart and hands, in other words Truth, Love and Justice. If any dimension is missing, then we are out of kilter. We can be busy with the works of justice, but without love we are in danger of worldly activism and misplaced priorities. As Paul says, without love, “I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13: 3). The prerequisite for a real transformation of relationships in society is the inner transformation of the human person, a conversion of heart, an openness in faith to the love of God. This seemingly interior focus is not a distraction from the works of justice. On the contrary, it imposes an obligation to work for the reform of society’s living conditions so that they conform to the norms of justice (Compendium, 42).

In the industrial age, Catholic Social Teaching has taken the form of a series of papal encyclicals (letters) beginning in 1891 with Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII. The Pope was concerned with the ‘social question’, specifically what was happening to the workers and their families in industrialised societies, where poverty and exploitation were rampant. The main thread of the encyclical, indeed the golden thread of all the encyclicals since, is the value of the human person, imprinted with the image and likeness of God (Pope John Paul II, 1991), thus conferring on all men and women an essential dignity, irrespective of any qualities they possess. This is the foundation for the permanent principles of CST which run through the social teaching of the popes.

You may find many different versions of the principles of CST. Depending on where you look, there will be seven principles, eight pillars, nine themes, and so on. None of these versions are wrong as such, but the Church does consistently refer to four permanent principles: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity (Compendium, 160; DOCAT, 84). These principles are interrelated and should not be taken in isolation. When they are applied together, we can understand a social situation in greater depth.

We have noted that the dignity of the human person is intrinsic to human beings and is related to their vocation on this earth, to be self-giving. Another key feature of dignity is that it is entrusted to us (Pope John Paul II, 1987). When a person is unable to realise their own dignity - for example, an unborn child, a person who is sick, or very old - their dignity is on our hands. The Church protects and promotes the dignity of the person from conception to natural death. Furthermore, the Church’s social teaching has increasingly argued for attention to be paid to the structures and systems in society which promote, or undermine, dignity. For example, where is there dignity, or not, in the benefits system, in the asylum system, in the prison system? The Church is called to proclaim the good news of human flourishing, and denounce injustice and degradation.

The central focus on the dignity of the human person leads to the principle of the common good, since human beings are first and foremost relational, and come to maturity in communities, beginning with the family. The common good, in its classical definition in CST, is the sum total of conditions which allow people to reach their fulfilment, that is to flourish as human beings. For the Church, the common good means the good of all and the whole person, not just their spiritual dimension. In CST, integral human development means that the dignity of a person is safeguarded not just when they are fed and clothed, which is their right, but also when they can fulfil their God-given potential as a human being (Gaudium et Spes, 1965). At the heart of the Church’s understanding of the common good is that no one is left behind.

Solidarity is the principle which highlights the relational nature of the human person, the equality of all in dignity and rights and the common goal of all humanity to live in a society reconciled and in harmony through justice and love, anticipating in this life the kingdom of God in the next (Compendium 82, 192). Solidarity is the awareness that we are all deeply interconnected, that we need each other, that we are all responsible for all. The antithesis of solidarity is the self-interest and individualism which has increased in the age of neo-liberal economics, especially in the last four or so decades. This ideology has torn at the fabric of society, damage which needs to be repaired. We are better together.

Solidarity is not just a principle of the interconnectedness of all people, it is the moral virtue that is determined to challenge and change the systems and institutions - whether at local or national level - which embody the structures of sin and injustice and distort the relationships between people. We are called not just to sporadic acts of generosity but to combat the structural causes of poverty, inequality and the denial of rights (Pope Francis, 2020). We are called to shift the dial, in other words, from compassion, to compassion and justice. We are not just pulling people out of the river, but looking upstream to find out why people are in the river in the first place and to do something about that.

The life of Jesus of Nazareth is God’s great statement of solidarity with the human race, especially those who are marginalised by poverty or stigmatised by shame. Jesus came to bring light and life to all people, to restore dignity and hope. In the light of faith, we see other people as living images of God, not just people with needs. This inspires our self-giving, the love at the heart of our solidarity. This applies all the more so with people who are least able to realise their own hope and dignity - the sick, the hungry, the naked, the stranger, the imprisoned - with whom Jesus forever identifies himself: “You did it to me” (Matthew 25: 40).

Subsidiarity has been a consistent principle of the Church’s social teaching. It is not possible to promote the dignity of the person without promoting and defending the groups and associations of civil society, beginning with the family, which people naturally form and in which they grow into human beings capable of living together, learning from each other, celebrating life in all its richness. These ‘intermediary bodies - whether it’s a choir, a football team, or a trade union - strengthen the social fabric and the networks of relationships which allow us to be fully human.

The classic formulation of subsidiarity is by Pius XI (1931), who stated that it was gravely wrong to give to a higher association what a lower organisation could accomplish. Human beings flourish in groups and associations, beginning with the family. These groups should never be absorbed into workings and decision-making of larger groups. Their initiative, freedom and responsibility must not be supplanted (Compendium, 186). A key characteristic of subsidiarity is participation. Every person, as a citizen, has a right to contribute to the cultural and political life of the community to which they belong, with a view to the common good.

Subsidiarity also comes with a health warning. When intermediary bodies and associations become fixated with their own identity markers and aggressively defend their membership against the ‘not us’, then the group could be undermining the common good. Pope Francis has identified one of the obstacles to the common good in the current age as the culture of walls, erecting barriers - either physical or legal - to exclude the stranger and to protect the interests of the group. Intermediary groups must always be at the service of the common good (Compendium, 187).

Although it is not one of the four permanent principles, the increasingly urgent focus on the climate crisis, especially in the Magisterium of Pope Francis, means that the care of our common home has a prominent place in Catholic Social Teaching. Some would event argue, given the existential threat to the planet, that this should be the central concern. In fact, it fits within the existing principles. With a renewed emphasis on integral ecology, Pope Francis teaches that life to the full is a circuit of loving relationships: with God, our neighbour (especially the poorest) and all created things. Our current rate of consumption - which for many in affluent societies is far beyond what is needed for a dignified life - is destroying the earth and disproportionately affecting those who contribute least to environmental damage. The principles of solidarity, the preferential option for the poor, and the universal destination of goods insist that we live more temperate lives and advocate for climate justice (Pope Francis, 2015). We were given responsibility for the earth to ensure that its plentiful resources could sustain all people.

Vatican II, the highest level of the Church’s teaching, urges all believers to perfect the works of justice under the inspiration of charity (Gaudium et Spes, 72). This work arises when the disciple seeks first the Kingdom of God which inspires us to a deeper love for our fellow human beings. This love is not a vague feeling of compassion but a determination that our brothers and sisters live dignified lives in peace and justice. In our communities, we are called to see where the need is, the hurt, the injustice; to judge (discern) what the Gospel tells us about this situation; and then to act, with the resources and skills we have, in collaboration with people of goodwill, to restore dignity and hope, to re-weave the fabric of community (Pope John XXIII, 1961).  

Selected quotations from the Church’s social teaching (1891-2020)

“As regards the State, the interests of all, whether high or low, are equal. The members of the working classes are citizens by nature and by the same right as the rich; they are real parts, living the life which makes up, through the family, the body of the commonwealth; and it need hardly be said that they are in every city very largely in the majority. It would be irrational to neglect one portion of the citizens and favour another, and therefore the public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the comfort of the working classes; otherwise, that law of justice will be violated which ordains that each man shall have his due.”

Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891), 33

“No man may with impunity outrage that human dignity which God Himself treats with great reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation of the eternal life of heaven.”

Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891), 40

“To each, therefore, must be given his own share of goods, and the distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice.”

Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931), 58

“Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.”

Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931), 79

“Labor, as Our Predecessor explained well in his Encyclical, is not a mere commodity. On the contrary, the worker's human dignity in it must be recognized. It therefore cannot be bought and sold like a commodity.”

Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931), 80

“The permanent validity of the Catholic Church's social teaching admits of no doubt. This teaching rests on one basic principle: individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings. This fact must be recognized, as also the fact that they are raised in the plan of Providence to an order of reality which is above nature.

On this basic principle, which guarantees the sacred dignity of the individual, the Church constructs her social teaching. She has formulated, particularly over the past hundred years, and through the efforts of a very well-informed body of priests and laymen, a social doctrine which points out with clarity the sure way to social reconstruction. The principles she gives are of universal application, for they take human nature into account, and the varying conditions in which man's life is lived. They also take into account the principal characteristics of contemporary society, and are thus acceptable to all.”

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra (1961), 218-220

“It is not enough merely to formulate a social doctrine. It must be translated into reality. And this is particularly true of the Church's social doctrine, the light of which is Truth, Justice its objective, and Love its driving force.”

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra (1961), 226

“There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice. First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act.

It is important for our young people to grasp this method and to practice it. Knowledge acquired in this way does not remain merely abstract, but is seen as something that must be translated into action.”

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra (1961), 236-237

“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.”

Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (1963), 11

“This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer's entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love, especially regarding the needy.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 21

“There is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since they stand above all things, and their rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all people everything necessary for leading a truly human life, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom...”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 26

“Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfilment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 26

“…the leaven of the gospel…stimulates in the human heart the irresistible demands of dignity.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 26

“This social order requires constant improvement. It must be founded on truth, built on justice and animated by love; in freedom it should grow every day toward a more humane balance. An improvement in attitudes and abundant changes in society will have to take place if these objectives are to be gained.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 26

“God intended the earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus, under the leadership of justice and in the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 69

“Whoever in obedience to Christ seeks first the Kingdom of God, takes therefrom a stronger and purer love for helping all his brethren and for perfecting the work of justice under the inspiration of charity.”

Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965), 72

“In the developing nations and in other countries lay people must consider it their task to improve the temporal order. While the hierarchy has the role of teaching and authoritatively interpreting the moral laws and precepts that apply in this matter, the laity have the duty of using their own initiative and taking action in this area—without waiting passively for directives and precepts from others. They must try to infuse a Christian spirit into people's mental outlook and daily behaviour, into the laws and structures of the civil community. Changes must be made; present conditions must be improved. And the transformations must be permeated with the spirit of the Gospel.

Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (1967), 81

“It is up to the Christian communities to analyse with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country, to shed on it the light of the Gospel's unalterable words and to draw principles of reflection, norms of judgment and directives for action from the social teaching of the Church….It is up to these Christian communities, with the help of the Holy Spirit, in communion with the bishops who hold responsibility and in dialogue with other Christian brethren and all men of goodwill, to discern the options and commitments which are called for in order to bring about the social, political and economic changes seen in many cases to be urgently needed.”

Pope Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens (1971), 4

“Action for justice and participation in the transformation of the world clearly appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, which is to say, of the mission of the Church, in favour of the redemption and liberation of the human race from all oppressive situations.”

Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World (1971)

“Faith in Christ, Son of God and Redeemer, and love of neighbour constitute a fundamental theme of the New Testament writings. According to St. Paul, the Christian life is summed up entirely in the faith that brings about that love and that service of neighbour which implies the observance of the rights of justice. The Christian lives under the law of interior freedom, that is, in a permanent call to conversion of heart, from human self-sufficiency to trust in God and from his selfishness to the sincere love of neighbour. This is how his authentic liberation and the gift of himself for the liberation of men take place.”

Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World (1971)

“In order to achieve social justice in the various parts of the world, in the various countries, and in the relationships between them, there is a need for ever new movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers. This solidarity must be present whenever it is called for by the social degrading of the subject of work, by exploitation of the workers, and by the growing areas of poverty and even hunger. The Church is firmly committed to this cause, for she considers it her mission, her service, a proof of her fidelity to Christ, so that she can truly be the ‘Church of the poor’,”

Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981), 8

“When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a "virtue," is solidarity. This then 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. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned. These attitudes and "structures of sin" are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace - by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one's neighbour with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to "lose oneself" for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to "serve him" instead of oppressing him for one's own advantage (cf. Mt 10:40-42; 20:25; Mk 10:42-45; Lk 22:25-27).”

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), 38

“The teaching and spreading of her social doctrine are part of the Church's evangelizing mission. And since it is a doctrine aimed at guiding people's behaviour, it consequently gives rise to a ‘commitment to justice’, according to each individual's role, vocation and circumstances.”

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), 41

“At stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defence and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.”

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), 47

“It is appropriate to emphasize the preeminent role that belongs to the laity, both men and women, as was reaffirmed in the recent Assembly of the Synod. It is their task to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice.”

Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), 47

“…the main thread and, in a certain sense, the guiding principle of Pope Leo's Encyclical, and of all of the Church's social doctrine, is a correct view of the human person and of his unique value, inasmuch as "man ... is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself". God has imprinted his own image and likeness on man (cf. Gen 1:26), conferring upon him an incomparable dignity, as the Encyclical frequently insists. In effect, beyond the rights which man acquires by his own work, there exist rights which do not correspond to any work he performs, but which flow from his essential dignity as a person.”

Pope John II, Centesimus Annus (1991), 11

"Love for others, and in the first place love for the poor, in whom the Church sees Christ himself, is made concrete in the promotion of justice."

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus (1991), 58

“The Christian's programme —the programme of the Good Samaritan, the programme of Jesus—is ‘a heart which sees’. This heart sees where love is needed and acts accordingly.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (2005), 4

“We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. Those who work for the Church's charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity. Consequently, in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).”

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (2005), 31

“Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40). It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything because, as Saint John teaches (cf. 1 Jn 4:8, 16) and as I recalled in my first encyclical letter “God is love” (Deus Caritas Est): everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (2009), 2

“An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better that we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters.”

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (2013), 183

“I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically. He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by non-Christians. He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness. He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.”

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ (2015), 10

“The Bible teaches that every man and woman is created out of love and made in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26). This shows us the immense dignity of each person, ‘who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons’ (CCC, 357). Saint John Paul II stated that the special love of the Creator for each human being ‘confers upon him or her an infinite dignity’. Those who are committed to defending human dignity can find in the Christian faith the deepest reasons for this commitment. How wonderful is the certainty that each human life is not adrift in the midst of hopeless chaos, in a world ruled by pure chance or endlessly recurring cycles! The Creator can say to each one of us: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’ (Jer 1:5). We were conceived in the heart of God, and for this reason ‘each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary’.”

Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 65

“In the present condition of global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters. This option entails recognizing the implications of the universal destination of the world’s goods.”

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ (2015), 158

“Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labour rights.”

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti (2020), 116

“We must put human dignity back at the centre, and on that pillar build the alternative social structures we need.”

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 168

“The dignity of others is to be respected in all circumstances, not because that dignity is something we have invented or imagined, but because human beings possess an intrinsic worth…”

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 213

“For us the wellspring of human dignity and fraternity is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From it, there arises…the primacy given to relationship, to the encounter with the sacred mystery of the other, to universal communion with the entire human family, as a vocation of all.”

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 277

Recommendations for further reading

A Gift of Love, by Martin Luther King Jr. (London: Penguin Classics, 2017)

Catholic Social Teaching: An introduction for schools, parishes and churches, by Raymond Friel (Chawton: Redemptorist Publications, 2023)

Catholic Social Thought and Catholic Charities in Britain Today: Need and Opportunity, by Ben Ryan (London: Theos, 2016)

Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy, by Tony M. Annett (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press: 2022)

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (London: Bloomsbury, 2004)

DOCAT: what to do? (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2016)

Faithful Citizens: A Practical Guide to Catholic Social Teaching and Community Organising, by Austen Ivereigh (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2010)

Just Money: How Catholic Social Teaching can Redeem Capitalism, by Clifford Longley (London: Theos, 2014)

Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, by Pope Francis (London: Simon and Schuster, 2020)

Love in Action: Catholic Social Teaching for Every Church, by Simon Cuff (London: SCM Press, 2019)

Nature Praising God: Towards a Theology of the Natural World, by Dermot A. Lane (Dublin: Messenger Publications, 2022)

To Heal the World: Catechesis on the Pandemic, by Pope Francis (Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2020

Toward a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times, by Anna Rowlands (London: T&T Clark, 2021)