Knowra Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching is the Catholic Church’s body of doctrine on social, economic, and political life, grounded in human dignity, solidarity, and the common good.
Human dignity : The inherent worth of every person, which grounds claims to respect and protection. It is the foundation for the Church’s claims about rights and social obligations.
Rerum novarum : Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on workers, private property, and the responsibilities of employers and the state. It is commonly treated as the foundational modern social encyclical.
Just wage : Compensation sufficient to support a worker and family in a manner consistent with human dignity. Catholic teaching uses it to assess whether employment respects workers and their families.
Socialism : A family of political and economic theories favoring social or public ownership and control of productive resources. Rerum novarum rejected socialist proposals that denied private property while criticizing exploitation.
Catholic social action : Organized Catholic efforts to address social needs and promote justice in public life. It translates social teaching into civic, educational, and charitable activity.
Common good : The social conditions that allow people and communities to flourish. It frames social arrangements by whether they serve everyone’s flourishing.
Quadragesimo anno : Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical on economic justice, social order, and subsidiarity. It developed the tradition forty years after Rerum novarum and named subsidiarity.
Workers' rights : Legal and moral protections concerning workers’ treatment, conditions, and collective action. The tradition addresses wages, safe conditions, rest, and workers’ freedom to organize.
Capitalism : An economic system based on private ownership, markets, and investment for profit. Catholic teaching neither simply endorses nor rejects markets, but judges them by human dignity and justice.
Catholic Worker Movement : A lay Catholic movement founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, combining hospitality houses with social activism. It offers a distinctive example of putting solidarity and voluntary poverty into practice.
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