CST: An Exploration of Self and Community Principles (Module Name)

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the principles of Catholic Social Thought (CST), focusing on their implications for both the individual self and the broader community. It begins by outlining the core tenets of CST, including human dignity, the common good, promotion of peace, subsidiarity, preferential option for the poor, universal purpose of goods, stewardship, solidarity, and participation. The essay then explores how these principles contribute to the flourishing of both the individual and society, emphasizing the interconnectedness and interdependence of all members. It highlights the importance of collaboration, mutual respect, and love in achieving the ultimate good, drawing upon various scholarly sources to support its arguments. The essay concludes by underscoring the practical relevance of these principles in contemporary society, encouraging readers to apply them in their daily lives to serve God and achieve mutual benefit. The essay also includes the reference list of the sources used in the essay.

Running head: SELF AND COMMUNITY
CST, Self and Community
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CST, SELF AND COMMUNITY
Catholic Social Thoughts
CST or Catholic Social Thoughts consisted of nine principles that are explained below.
Human Dignity
Human dignity serves as the base for the Catholic Social Thoughts. This is deeply related
to the ethical experience and understanding of the humans. The dignity is given great
significance because of God’s imprinting of own image on the human (Hedley, 2016). The world
has seen great changes in the recent history and catholic social thoughts have modified it
accordingly. The human dignity has been suffering great challenges because of the extreme
consumption behavior. This self absorbed practice has led us to ignore the dignity and get
engaged in corruption (Kucuk, 2016). Catholic social thought demonstrate that as every human
soul bears the image of the God, the dignity must be protected from corruption. The life and
death should be left in God’s hands as catholic social thoughts explain that the god only possess
the authority to start or end it and every human rights must be protected.
Common good of the Community
The concept of individualism is contradictory of the catholic social thoughts’ principle of
community and common good. The individualism can be seen as the result of modern days
changes like the globalization or the coming of the internet era. The more the world got
connected and the self-centrism got increased. Catholic social thoughts teach us that we must
work together in order to achieve the common good (Etzioni, 2014). The good is common for the
individual and for the community. The doctrine places the common good between the
communism and individualism so that every member of the society gets the benefit of it. Every

CST, SELF AND COMMUNITY
individual is equally responsible for bringing the common good by contributing their part within
the community.
Promotion for Peace
Catholic teaching gives a lot of importance to the promotion of global peace. Only a
peaceful world can engage in good work and development of human is possible. The catholic
doctrine’s support of ‘just war’ is often criticized but the reason is often overlooked. The catholic
social thoughts highlights that war is necessary at times to reestablish the tranquility and peace of
the world. The violence is not aim for the war, it become absolutely necessary and only tool to
maintain the peace of the nations (Lonsdale, 2016). That is why it is being observed that many
nations are adapting the just war theory in the practice of restoring peace.
Subsidiarity
This principle of catholic social thoughts can be simply defined as helping each other in
the communal structure to manage the well being of the society. The church tells the government
to become the protector not the dictator (Curran, 2014). The smaller organization and individual
are given power by this principle. It is expected by the catholic teaching that the complex
organizations must leave the issues to the simpler ones that can be resolved by them (Barber &
Ekins, 2016). The individuals or smaller groups will resolve them collaboratively. The
government should not interfere with the inner issues of a community as this might hamper the
peaceful orders of the community.

CST, SELF AND COMMUNITY
Preferential Options should be given to the poor
God expressed his disappointment towards the opportunists who experienced him suffer
but did nothing. He does not want any poor soul to survive, so he ordered that the people who
will ignore the poor’s pain will be penalized severely. The community must work for the poor.
The government should implement such policies that are working favor of the deprived souls
(Clark, 2015). The fortunate individuals and communities must offer opportunities to the poor in
order to develop the community as a whole. The catholic social thoughts explain that the
depravity of the poor capable of harming of society’s purpose of development (Massaro, 2015).
Therefore everyone must treat the poor’s concern with priority.
Goods for Universal purpose
The good or the creations of God offers everyone the equal opportunity; however not
many abide by this principle. As a result most of the human souls suffer from lack of the access
to the God’s goods (Donaldson & Mayer, 2014). Catholic social thoughts tell us that the God’s
creations must be distribution among everyone as everyone has the right to it. Only through the
mutual sharing of positive properties, the human race can be developed together as a whole. If
some are utilizing most of the goods and some are getting nothing, the ultimate goal of human
development can never be achieved.
Stewardship
The principle of stewardship guides every human to protect or take care of all the God’s
creations. God has created such environment for us so that we can engage ourselves in protecting
his goods (Silecchia, 2015). The individuals are interrelated in the community and god has given

CST, SELF AND COMMUNITY
every opportunity to practice a healthy life. Catholic principle focuses on keeping and sharing
God’s message for the improvement of the human condition.
Solidarity
The common good of the world can be achieved if we employ ourselves in the practice of
solidarity. Every individual has to overcome the resistance that the cultural or national barrier
creates (Canlas, Argenal & Bajaj, 2015). Once we leave the narrowness behind, the solidarity
becomes easily applicable. Solidarity is extremely significant to feel other’s pain in order to
come up with help and solutions.
Participation
Every individual is active participant in the process of establishing society’s well being.
God’s creation has created humans to work and contribute significantly in the development of
the human race, as that should be our ultimate goal (Carr, 2016). Everyone has his on duty to
fulfill, and by completing his task he contribute to the community to run actively. All humans are
siblings so we are destined to help each other. The active participation of the individuals and
communities can shape our future effectively.
Self and Community
Flourishing
The flourishing in the catholic social though is a practice where individual happiness is
connected to the happiness of the whole society. Flourishing is the cognitive and tactile positive

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experience that spreads from the individual to the community (Barajas, 2014). The ultimate goal
of the development of entire human world can be possible through flourishing.
Human, a social being
Within the community every individual entity is interdependent. Human is considered as
sacred in the Catholic Social practice and the common good should be shared by all of them
(Etzioni, 2014). We as a separate individual is almost powerless and insignificant but if we work
together, great positive changes are possible.
Catholic social thoughts and flourishing of the self and community
The self and community can learn effective life lessons from the above explained catholic
social principles. The principles are not only theoretical; along with the powerful changes in the
history it has changed its shape to maintain its relevance in the real world (Thompson, 2015).
The principles have been applied in the real life to achieve the common good, however more
people should apply these in their daily societal existence to serve the god and gain the mutual
benefit. The common good that the catholic social thoughts discuses, is capable of generating
benefit that can be shared by the individual self and the community. The interdependence,
collaboration, mutual respect, love and support can become the companions in our life’s journey
towards the ultimate good.

CST, SELF AND COMMUNITY
Reference
Barajas, M. S. (2014). Thinking and feeling: the influence of positive emotion on human
cognition. The Hilltop Review, 7(1), 3.
Barber, N. W., & Ekins, R. (2016). Situating Subsidiarity. The American Journal of
Jurisprudence, 61(1), 5-12.
Canlas, M., Argenal, A., & Bajaj, M. (2015). Teaching human rights from below: Towards
solidarity, resistance and social justice. Radical Teacher, (103), 38.
Carr, J. (2016). Preaching and Catholic Social Teaching. A Handbook for Catholic Preaching,
275.
Clark, C. M. (2015). Pope Francis and American Economics. Horizons, 42(1), 128-140.
Curran, C. E. (2014). Catholic Social Teaching and Pope Benedict XVI. Georgetown University
Press.
Donaldson, L. P., & Mayer, L. M. (2014). Justice as a core virtue for social work practice. Social
Work and Christianity, 41(2/3), 207.
Etzioni, A. (2014). Common Good. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hedley, D. (2016). The iconic imagination. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Kucuk, S. U. (2016). Consumerism in the digital age. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 50(3), 515-
538.

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Lonsdale, D. (2016). Beyond Just War: Military Strategy for the Common Good. Journal of
Military Ethics, 15(2), 100-121.
Massaro, T. (2015). Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman & Littlefield.
Silecchia, L. A. (2015). The Call to Stewardship: A Catholic Perspective on Environmental
Responsibility.
Thompson, J. M. (2015). Introducing catholic social thought. Orbis Books.