The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church: Something New and Fresh

The Church's social doctrine is permanent, yet flexible.  It is built on faith, but embraces reason.  Unlike any ideology or science, the Church's social doctrine directs itself to the human conscience, and so is found "at the crossroads where Christian life and conscience come into contact with the real world."  (Compendium, No. 73) 

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - The Catholic Church's Social Doctrine presents itself as a thing utterly unique, a "category unto itself."  It is not a political or social theory.  It is not a political ideology.  It is not an economic ideology.  It is not a social science in the manner that anthropology, sociology, or economics, or political science might be.  It is not a product of culture, custom, or taste, of what Associate Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called "can't helps."  It transcends all those human categories.

The Church's social doctrine bursts forth into man's world as a branch of theology, particularly moral theology, and it confronts us in our time and in our place much like Moses was confronted by a burning bush.  But that social doctrine has not sprung forth like Athena fully formed from the head of Zeus; rather, it has developed and shall continue to develop as it confronts new things, new contingencies, "over the course of time, through numerous interventions of the Magisterium on social issues." (Compendium, No. 72)

It has therefore permanent, unchanging features, and variable, contingent features.  At germ, in its "permanent nucleus"--its "principles of reflection," its "criteria of judgment," its "directives for action," and most fundamentally, its "vital link with the Gospel of the Lord"-it is constant, immutable, and irreformable because it is based upon the law of God and the nature of man.  This permanent nucleus, "moves through history," like the column of light that guided the children of Israel, "without being conditioned by history or running the risk of fading away." (Compendium, No. 85) 

While the Church's social doctrine, in its essentials, is unchanging, one must not harbor the impression that it is closed to new things and unadaptable.  The Church's social doctrine is not like the Islamic Shari'a, set once and for all and incapable of change.  Unlike Islam, it does not drag into the 21st century the 7th century carcass and burial shrouds of Bedouin morality--which easily accommodated itself to polygamy, slavery, low regard for women, divorce, child brides, animal sacrifice, and violence, and senseless ablution and prayer ritual. 

"Standing firm in its principles does not make [the Catholic social doctrine] a rigid teaching system, but a Magisterium capable of opening itself to new things, without having its nature altered by them.  It is a teaching that is 'subject to the necessary and opportune adaptations suggested by the changes in historical conditions and by the unceasing flow of the events which are the setting of the life of people and society. . . . Mother and Teacher, the Church does not close herself off nor retreat within herself.'"  (Compendium, Nos. 85-86 (quoting John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis, 3)

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In his book Ideas Have Consequences, Richard M. Weaver speaks of the need of a "metaphysical dream," an underlying foundation behind reason. The Church's social doctrine may be said to be a "meta-ethical dream," an underlying foundation behind morality, one, moreover, whose truth is guaranteed by Christ inasmuch as it is anchored in Christ, the Christ who is himself God.

Unlike any ideology or science, the Church's social doctrine directs itself to the human conscience, and so is found "at the crossroads where Christian life and conscience come into contact with the real world."  (Compendium, No. 73)  It speaks the words of faith, but it also speaks the words of reason, for both of these are the stuff that feeds the jawbones of conscience. For that reason, Papal encyclicals that deal with social doctrine are addressed to "men of good will" in addition to Christ's faithful.

The bedrock foundation of the Church's social doctrine is biblical Revelation and the Tradition of the Church: the data of faith.  Though the Church's social doctrine unapologetically relies on faith, it does not reject, much less contradict reason.  By no means. "Faith," especially that "faith leading to practical action," "effectively interacts with reason," "is structured by reason," and "makes use of every contribution that reason has to offer."  Therefore the Church's social doctrine "brings 'fides et ratio' together and is an eloquent expression of that rich relationship." (Compendium, Nos. 74, 75)

Since reason is a component of the Church's social doctrine, it follows that it may avail itself all kinds of branches of knowledge, and this gives it an "interdisciplinary dimension."  From philosophy to the several empirical sciences and social sciences, none of these are to be disregarded, but all truths to be had in those disciplines embraced. (Compendium, Nos. 77-78)

In terms of its more fundamental principles, philosophy is perhaps the most important corroborator to the Catholic social doctrine project, as it is in the language of philosophy that real-though-abstract concepts such as "person," "nature," "society," "freedom," "conscience," "ethics," "law," "justice," the "common good," "solidarity," "subsidiarity," the "State," and so forth are comprehended, are understood.  But this is not to deny that the more empirical "human sciences and the social sciences" have a significant contribution to make as well. Indeed, it is impossible to know the Church's social doctrine without knowledge of political science, economics, anthropology, biology, fetology, psychology, and so forth.

This necessary interplay between pure doctrine and the necessary contributions of philosophy and the human and social sciences, which is outside any special competency of the Magisterium, makes the Catholic social doctrine unique in terms of being a product of the entire corpus of the Church: "The whole of the Christian community--priests, religious, and laity--participates in the formulation of this social doctrine, each according to the different tasks, charisms, and ministries found within" that community.

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But ultimately, the Magisterium has the final word.  At its root, the Church's social doctrine "is the thought of the Church, insofar as it is the work of the Magisterium, which teaches with the authority that Christ conferred on the Apostles and their successors: the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him." (Compendium, No. 79)

However, because of its subject matter, the Church's social doctrine necessarily results in varying weight of bindingness: "The doctrinal weight of the different teachings and the assent required are determined by the nature of the particular teachings, by their level of independence from contingent and variable elements, and by the frequency with which they are invoked." (Compendium, No. 80)

We must not expect more precision than the subject matter admits, Aristotle famously tells us in his Nicomachean Ethics. (1094b11-17)  Analogously, we should not expect more doctrinal force in Catholic social doctrine than the subject matter of Catholic social doctrine admits.

The Church's social doctrine is at the service of "the human person called to salvation," and therefore "entrusted by Christ to the Church's care and responsibility." (Compendium, No. 81)  Since God intends all human persons "to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth," 1 Tim. 2:4, it follows that the Church's social doctrine applies to all human persons.

Inasmuch as the Church is responsible for the care of human persons, she has both the "task of proclamation," and also the right of "denunciation." (Compendium, No. 81)  The Church must needs be both rabi and navi, rabbi and prophet, teacher of morals and decrier of immorality.  She sometimes takes the hortatory role of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, and utters benedictuses, blessed are those who do good and share their brother's burdens. At other times she takes the role of Jesus with his whip who takes after the money changers in the temple and declaims auferte ista hincs, get these sins of here!

At times the Church is excoriated for daring to confront the principalities, and the rulers and powers of this world.  And yet she cannot shirk that duty.  "The social doctrine . . . entails a duty to denounce, when sin is present: the sin of injustice and violence that in different ways moves through society and is embodied in it.  By denunciation, the Church's social doctrine becomes judge and defender of unrecognized and violated rights, especially those of the poor, the least, and the weak." (Compendium, No. 81)

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The Church's social doctrine is, then, something completely different.  It is permanent, yet flexible.  It is built on faith, but embraces reason.  It is that binds the conscience of the laity, yet allows the laity freedom in implementing the principles in the exercise of prudence.  It both proclaims and declaims, both encouraging men and societies, and judging men and societies.  It speaks to those in power, but its advocacy is on behalf of the weak, the poor, the least of our brothers, sometimes even those who cannot even speak or are whose cries are muffled by the circumstances in which they live.

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He is married with three children.  He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law, called Lex Christianorum.  You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.

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