Exploring Catholic Social Thought: Self, Community, and Key Principles

This essay provides an analysis of Catholic Social Thought (CST) principles, focusing on the interrelation between 'self' and 'community.' It begins by defining and describing key CST principles such as the life and dignity of the human person, call to family, community and participation, rights and responsibilities, and the dignity of work and the rights of workers. The essay then explores how these principles relate to both individual responsibility (self) and collective action (community). It argues that respecting human dignity starts with valuing one's own life and extends to caring for others within the community. The author emphasizes that the principles of CST apply to every individual and that a just society requires safeguarding the rights of all its members. Ultimately, the essay underscores the importance of bridging the gap between self and community to ensure that all individuals are afforded their rights and dignity.

Catholic Social Thought 1
Principles of Catholic Social Thought
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Principles of Catholic Social Thought
One of the principles of catholic social thought is life and dignity of the human person
(Brady 2017). This principle centres around the importance of respecting every human being.
The catholic church believes that human life is sacred and should be treated as such. This is
why it advocates for cessation of practices such as abortion, euthanasia and death penalty.
These practices disregard sacredness of human life. This principle also encourages all nations
to work towards avoiding war and promoting peace. War and conflicts may lead to deaths or
injury to people and this does not constitute dignity to human life. People are far much more
important compared to things. All the other principles of catholic social thought are founded
on this one. This shows the importance that the Catholic church attaches to human life.
Call to family, community and participation is another principle of catholic social
thought. This principle reiterates the importance of organizations that involve human beings.
In addition to being sacred, a human being is social by nature. How the society is organized
affects the life of individuals. The society should therefore be organized in such a way that
demonstrates human dignity and that ensures peaceful coexistence among human beings. The
institution of marriage should be strengthened and not undermined. It is through the family
that societies are formed. Every individual has a right to participate in the building of a
society (Thompson 2015). Such activities should be geared towards ensuring the wellbeing of
all people and especially the poor and the vulnerable.
The third principle of catholic social thought is rights and responsibilities. This
principle emphasizes the importance of respecting human rights. In addition it encourages
every person to assume their responsibilities. As observed above, the principles are founded
on the importance of ensuring human dignity. The catholic church believes that is impossible
to observe human dignity without protecting human rights. In addition, every person should

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behave responsibly so that they lead a dignified life. One of the rights that every person is
entitled to is the right to life. Governments and all people should ensure that this right is
respected and upheld. In addition, every person should act responsibly so that they protect
each other’s right to life. Corresponding to the rights that we are entitled to as human beings
is our duty to other people, our families and the larger society.
The last principle for catholic social thought that is going to be discussed is the
dignity for work and the rights of workers. The catholic church believes that people should be
served by the economy and not the other way around. Work is more than a way of making
some income. It is an avenue through which Christians should continue the good works as
provided for in the bible (Novak 2017). If the dignity of work is to be maintained, it is
paramount that every worker be respected and be granted their basic rights. These rights
include but are not limited to right to a decent salary and improved working conditions. In
addition, workers should be allowed to join unions and to own private property.
Self and Community
The term self refers to an individual and matters revolving around him/ her. Individual
human life should be respected by all persons and entities. Community on the other hand
refers to groups of individuals. If every human being is respected, then we would have
communities that respect and value human life. There is a sense in which the principles of
catholic social thought relate both to self and the community. The following discussion will
look in to this. The first principle to be discussed was life and dignity of the human person.
This principle emphasizes the importance of demonstrating outmost dignity to human life.
This means that an individual should start by valuing their own life. Therefore, it would be
wrong for an individual to engage in activities that threaten their own lives. Such activities
include drug abuse and committing suicide. Respecting the human person also implies

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respecting other people and valuing their life. This brings about the aspect of community
where every person should take care of the other.
The second principle is call to family, community and participation. There are several
ways in which the aspect of self, manifests in this principle. One is that every person who
subscribes to catholic faith, is expected to uphold the principle. Secondly, every individual
belongs to a family and may form another family someday. Therefore, the rule applies to
every individual at the personal level. There are also several ways in which the principle
applies to the community. One is that it is several families that form a community. The family
is the basic building block of communities and societies (McKenna 2019). Secondly,
participation cannot involve only one individual. It involves the collective efforts of the
people who form a community.
The third principle is rights and responsibilities. This principle charges every person
(self) to act in a responsible manner. In addition, it requires that the rights of every person be
respected and upheld. For instance, every individual on earth have a right to life. This right
should be safeguarded. The community aspect of this principle arises responsibility that is
expected from every person in the community towards ensuring that they protect each other
and live harmoniously (Massaro 2015). It is not the duty of certain individuals in a society to
be responsible but of all people. In addition, it is not the rights of only a segment of the
population that should be safeguarded but the rights of all people. This clearly shows the
community aspect.
The fourth principle is dignity of work and the rights of workers. The dignity of work
applies both to an individual worker (self) and the collective workers (community). When
this dignity focuses on each individual, then it will definitely focus on all individuals. The
tragedy of our society is to alienate self from the community. This way, we create privileges

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for certain people and deny others those privileges. Every worker should be entitled to his/her
rights (self). When this is done, then the rights of all workers are respected (community).

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References
Brady, B.V., 2017. Essential Catholic Social Thought. 2nd edition. Orbis Books.
Massaro, T., 2015. Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Seattle: Rowman &
Littlefield.
McKenna, K.E., 2019. A concise guide to Catholic social teaching. Toronto: Ave Maria
Press.
Novak, M., 2017. Catholic social thought and liberal institutions: freedom with justice. 3rd
edition. Angeles: Routledge.
Thompson, J.M., 2015. Introducing catholic social thought. New York: Orbis Books.