Analysis of Key Catholic Social Teaching Principles and Impact

This essay delves into the core principles of Catholic Social Teaching, emphasizing their importance in guiding Christians and fostering a just society. It elaborates on five key principles: the principle of association, highlighting the significance of family and community; the principle of human dignity, stressing the inherent worth of every individual; the principle of protecting the less fortunate, advocating for the support of the vulnerable; the principle of respecting God's creation, urging responsible stewardship of the environment; and the principle of participation, promoting inclusive involvement in communal activities. The essay further explains how each principle aids in understanding oneself and contributing positively to the community, underscoring the interconnectedness of individuals and their responsibility towards the common good. This student-contributed assignment is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and resources for students.

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Key Catholic Teachings
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The key pillars of Catholic Social Teaching
A true servant of God needs to be guided by rules and principles. When an individual is
principled, he or she knows what need to be done at a particular moment responding to a
given action. In order to embrace a principled Christian, the Catholic Bishop shared out
some rules that should guide a Christian while serving the Lord (Beyer,2014: p.10). The
purpose of the principles is to guide one on how to carry out himself or herself while
treating other creatures of God. This assignment is going to focus on five important
principles of the Catholic social teachings. Apart from that, it is going to elaborate on
how the principles help in understanding oneself and the whole community. Among the
five principles include:
1. The principle of Association.
The principal views the human being as social apart from being a sacred creature of the
Lord (Campbell, 2018: p.20). Different communities have divergent ways of how they
arrange the society. The arrangement focuses on social, economic and social matters.
However, it is evident that the key organization in the community is the family. Using the
principle of participation, it teaches that the family as an organization should be respected
at all cost. In a situation whereby, the leadership of the community is making law, they
should be keen not to interfere with the family group. This principle helps to understand
oneself in that, it tells an individual that they should always respect their families. It is
good for the family to participate willingly in the development of the society without any
difficulty (Tablan, 2015: p.295). On the other hand, the principle assists in understanding
the community in that, it emphasizes on the association of various families to ensure that
the growth in the society is realized. No family can achieve everything on their own.

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2. Human dignity principle
The principle of the dignity of human being elaborates on how human being unique and
everyone should be respected. The principle means that every human being is resembling
God and no one should be tortured. When Jesus Christ came to the world He redeemed
the image of the human being through the Father Lord and therefore respect to everyone
is inevitable (Casanova, 2018: p.130). In understanding one’s society, it is evident that
every community is made up of people from different backgrounds, age, race, religion
among other many differences. Consequently, the principle of human dignity stresses that
any of the above differences should not be used to disrespect an individual. No matter
your contribution to the society, one should not be judged by such factors to kick them
out of a community. In the level of an individual, the principle teaches that everyone is
unique and God have given everyone a varying capability that can assist in the growth of
the community (Carlson, 2014). Therefore, even the individual himself should not look
down upon himself or herself. He should realize that there is a unique capability that has
been rewarded to him by God. It is only a matter of identifying the capability and moving
on in the society.
3. The principle of protection of the less fortunate and vulnerable in the community.
In daily lives, there is a constant widening gap between the rich and the poor in the
society. The wide gap makes the two groups of people see themselves at a different level
in the community (Novak, 2017). In most instances, the rich see themselves as capable
and do not need the support of the poor to prosper in the society. However, the Catholic
Social teachings say that this is not right according to the above principle. The rich need
to assist the poor to raise their standards of living. However, there is always a worse

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slogan whereby the poor have no power and are not allowed to speak their minds in the
community. The teaching here is that as creatures of God everyone needs each other to
prosper in life. In understanding oneself, this principle shows that the capability that the
rich have should be used to protect the poor and ensure they get their rights just like other
human beings. The scripture elaborates that there is a day of judgment coming to
everyone and therefore as a society, it is good to put the needs of the less fortunate first.
4. The principle of respecting and taking care of God’s creation.
The above principle means that every creature on earth is from God and each one
demands respect as the other. Human beings have been given a lot of dignity and value
by God (Lewis,2014: p.175). The reason why it is this way is that they are required to
protect other creation. In understanding one’s community, it is evident that it is composed
of various creatures. However, human beings make use of these creatures without
considering what they need to have as God’s creatures. The mindset of superiority that
other creatures should be out of human nature. The principle of taking care of God’s
creation assist in understanding oneself in that, it teaches an individual that he or she that
he is not the superior creature, but everybody is superior. Therefore, an individual should
not misuse other creatures whatsoever (Guitián, 2015: p.65).
5. The participation principle
The principle of participation elaborates on the daily activities that happen in the society.
Using this principle, it teaches that for a society to realize the common benefit, everyone
should be given an opportunity to take part in the communal activities (Massaro, 2015).
The activities range from political, social and economic activities. Even though people
participate in various activities, this principle checks on how the employer treats them

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while doing the work. The workers should be treated with a lot of dignity and respect.
Apart from that, the daily wages or salaries that the workers are paid should be fair. There
is also an institution in the society that provides services to the members of the society,
everyone should be allowed to visit the institutions for the realization of their purpose in
the community. Generally, this principle teaches that the developments that are required
in the society can only be realized through everyone’s participation. However, while
working, the job condition should be fair and the salary matches the job.

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References
Beyer, G.J., 2014. The meaning of solidarity in Catholic social teaching. Political
Theology, 15(1), pp.7-25.
Campbell, S., 2018. Catholic Social Justice and NETWORK’s Political Ministry. Praxis:
An Interdisciplinary Journal of Faith and Justice, 1(1), pp.17-28.
Carlson, M., 2014. Aquinas on Inclusion: Using the Good Doctor and Catholic Social
Teaching to Build a Moral Case for Inclusion in Catholic Schools for Children with
Special Needs. Journal of Catholic Education, 18(1), p.n1.
Casanova, J., 2018. Globalizing Catholicism and the return to a “universal” church.
In Transnational religion and fading states (pp. 121-143). Routledge.
Guitián, G., 2015. Service as a bridge between ethical principles and business practice: A
Catholic social teaching perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), pp.59-72.
Lewis, V.B., 2014. Democracy and Catholic Social Teaching: Continuity, Development,
and Challenge. Studia Gilsoniana, 3, pp.167-190.
Massaro, T., 2015. Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman &
Littlefield.
Novak, M., 2017. Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions: Freedom with
Justice. Routledge.
Tablan, F., 2015. Catholic social teachings: Toward a meaningful work. Journal of
Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.291-303.