There are 9 principles of catholic social thought. These principles were developed by the catholic church. They provide every Christian with the social considerations that they should make to live a Godly life. All the principles are based on one main principle, that is, dignity and respect for the human person. This paper is going to focus on five of these principles. Each of the five principles will be stated, defined and described. In addition, the paper will provide a personal commentary to help understand the concept of ‘self’. The commentary will borrow from the principles of catholic social thought.
The first principle for catholic social thought is life and dignity of the human person. The principle means that every human being should be respected. It is impossible to harm a person that you respect. Respecting others is the duty of all Christians. Every person should be respected by the virtue of being human. The human person is used to refer to any form of human life. Therefore, every person should be respected regardless of whether they are an embryo, a child or an adult. This principle is guided by the belief of the catholic church that life is sacred (Novak 2017). God created every human being in his own likeness. Due to this principle, the catholic church does not support any activity that causes harm to human beings or leads to induced death. Therefore, practices such as abortion, euthanasia and death penalties are not right for they are disrespectful to the human life (Sison, Ferrero and Guitián 2016.). This is because such practices do not put into consideration that human life is sacred. Due to this principle, the church calls on all people and nations to maintain peace and avoid war. This principle could make the world a peaceful and better place to be if it were applied in all facets of the communities and nations.
The principle of common good focuses on the importance of thinking about others in an endeavour to make the whole community flourish. This principle means that if every person shifted the focus from self to the community, then the whole community would develop. Focusing on self only makes a few individuals wealthy and powerful while the majority suffer. Ensuring common good is a responsibility of all people and nations (Matheny 2016). In addition, the institutions in a country should also work towards ensuring the common good of the nation. This principle applies to different aspects of human life such as health, education and spirituality. Let us take an example with a village that has no access to clean. Suppose a rich individual settle in the area and has the ability of drilling a borehole. If such an individual would consider the common good, they would allow the other members of the community to have water from the borehole. If they were to consider their interests only, then they would keep the water to themselves. Sharing the water with others would ensure that the whole village gets access to clean water. This may have additional benefits such as improved health status of the community members. It is important for every person, institution, organization and government to ensure that they consider the common good in their policies and decisions (Rubio 2016).
Subsidiarity
The principle of subsidiarity aims at maintaining personal liberty and freedom. The principle means that it is wrong for state and larger organizations to impose supreme authority to people since this denies human beings their individual liberty. This principle emphasizes on the importance of ensuring that activities are performed by the most local of small groupings possible (McKenna, 2019). The main role of this principle is to discourage the influence of the state and other large organizations on activities that can be carried out by local people. Just as it is right for people to think of the common good, it is important for large organizations to consider having little influence on what can be done at the local level. It is only those needs that cannot be sufficiently addressed at the local level that should be referred to the next higher level of organization. This principle was initially intended to protect individuals and groups. In the contemporary society however, it is used to address the needs of administrations and nations.
This principle directs focus to the poor and marginalized in communities. The catholic church urges all followers of Christ to think about the poor and make efforts to ensure that they are living well. Christians believe in the importance of loving one another. One component of love is ensuring that the wellbeing of others, especially the poor and the vulnerable is considered in every decision that we make (Thompson 2015). This option does not mean that we should regard to certain people as poor and therefore segregate them from the rest of the community. Rather, it means that members of a community should empower the less privileged for the wellbeing of the whole community. The bible teaches that a just society is one that takes care of its poor people. In most communities, windows and orphans are likely to be poor (Miller 2015). The bible teaches that the true religion involves visiting and helping the window and the poor. Therefore, the option for the poor and vulnerable is not a choice but a mandate for every Christian. Therefore, every Christian must endeavour to improve the state of the poor and the vulnerable.
The principle of stewardship of creation emphasizes on the importance of taking care of all creation. This means that we should take care of fellow human beings, animals, plants, seas, rivers and everything else that God created. God is the head of all creation. As human beings, God has given us the responsibility of being stewards over all creation. Therefore, every person should understand that they are not managers but stewards of creation. As human beings, we should act responsibly and take care of this creation. If we were to uphold this principle, we would not complain about negative impacts of bad stewardship such as global warming. Our stewardship of the earth allows us to participate in God’s act of creation. In addition, we become good stewards of the creation of God.
The concept of self relates to that which surrounds an individual. On the other hand, community refers to a collection of individuals. This section will focus on how the concepts of self and community relates to the five principles explained above. A person should have self-dignity so that they can have the ability to value others. For the common good of the community, every individual should make their contribution (Massaro 2015). It is first an individual role before it becomes a community role. It is the role of individuals to ensure that subsidiarity is observed. If every person plays their role, then the principle would surely be observed. It is the role of each person to ensure that they help the poor and the vulnerable lead better lives. As observed in the previous section, every Christian is mandated to do so. Every person has a role to take care of God’s creation. For instance, one would protect the environment by disposing off any waste well. At the community level, organizations and firms should ensure that they play their role in protecting the creation of God. Nations should also establish laws and policies geared towards ensuring that creation is protected. For instance, nations could prohibit cutting down of forest trees. Therefore, we should be stewards both at the self and community levels.
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.
Matheny, K., 2016. Catholic Social Thought, Social Security Disability, and Inclusion of the Disabled in the American Economy. 4th edition. Washington: Rutgers JL & Religion.
McKenna, K.E., 2019. A concise guide to Catholic social teaching. Toronto: Ave Maria Press.
Melé, D., 2017. Virtues, Values, and Principles in Catholic Social Teaching. New York: Routledge.
Miller, A., 2015. Ending Extreme Poverty: The Call from Catholic Social Thought. 2nd edition. Toronto: Ave Maria Press.
Novak, M., 2017. Catholic social thought and liberal institutions: freedom with justice. 3rd edition. Angeles: Routledge.
Rubio, J.H., 2016. The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights. 4th edition. Toronto: Ave Maria Press.
Sison, A.J.G., Ferrero, I. and Guitián, G., 2016. Human dignity and the dignity of work: Insights from Catholic social teaching. 2nd edition. Seattle: Rowman & Little Field.
Thompson, J.M., 2015. Introducing catholic social thought. New York: Orbis Books.
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