Social Doctrine Session 2
(CSDC 60-104)
The Mission and History of Social Doctrine
The second Chapter of the Compendium deals with the “Church's Mission and Social Doctrine” This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section deals with evangelization while the second with the nature of the Churches social doctrine and finally the third with the history of the Church’s social doctrine. Church, who is one with man (esp. through the incarnation), seeks to proclaim Gospel within network of social relations this clearly implies that the “Social Gospel” is integral to evangelization. The Church has the right and duty to proclaim social doctrines for the purpose of man’s salvation. The Church’s social doctrine is theological in nature and founded on faith (Bible and Tradition) and reason in dialogue with all branches of knowledge. Social Doctrine is an expression of the Church’s teaching ministry in the religious and moral order first to the faithful (i.e. it especially implies obligations of a secular nature which belong distinctively to the laity by reason of the secular condition of their state of life and the secular nature of their vocation). The Church’s social doctrine also has a universal destination to all men of good will.
Describing the history of the term “social doctrine” the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP) notes that the term dates to Pope Pius XI’s reference to doctrinal corpus relevant to society especially since Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum in 1891(= RN). It was Pope Leo XIII’s response to the labor question that prompted first social encyclical. Forty years later Pius XI (1931, Quadragesimo Anno) highlighted the principle of subsidiarity in speaking against totalitarian regimes. Later Pius XII observed the connection between morality and law. John XXIII in Mater et Magistra pointed out the universal nature of community and socialization and in his Pacem et Terris furthered the understanding of human rights and world peace. The Vatican II constitution Gaudium et Spes observed that the Church is “the soul of human society.” Gaudium et Spes described culture and human life in light of a Christian anthropological outlook. The Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae further promoted the notion of religious freedom. Paul VI in his Populorum Progressio advocated a new understanding of peace through development. In 1981 (Laborum Exercens), John Paul II observed that “work” is the fundamental good of the human person and the paradigm of natural and supernatural vocation. In 1988 in his Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (20th anniv. of Popularum Progessio) John Paul II explores differences between progress and development and he notes the moral nature of real development. In his Centesimus Annus (100th anniversary of RN) John Paul II highlights the doctrinal continuity of the principle of solidarity/friendship/social charity/civilization of love through various encyclicals.
© Office of Human Rights, and Bishop Helmsing Institute, Diocese of Kansas City~St. Joseph, 2009
