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Why is human dignity the starting point of Catholic Social Teaching?

We find a description in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #149&153:

Made in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26), and made visible in the universe in order to live in society (cf. Gen 2:20,23) and exercise dominion over the earth (cf. Gen 1:26,28- 30), the human person is for this reason called from the very beginning to life in society: “God did not create man as a ‘solitary being' but wished him to be a 'social being'. Social life therefore is not exterior to man: he can only grow and realize his vocation in relation with others”… The ultimate source of human rights is not found in the mere will of human beings, in the reality of the State, in public powers, but in man himself and in God his Creator. These rights are “universal, inviolable, inalienable”.

What are the human rights that the Church endorses today?

Untitled 1In his speech before the United Nations in 1979, Pope Saint John Paul II provided an updated list of some of the most important human rights the Church endorses:

  • …the right to life, liberty and security of person;
  • the right to food, clothing, housing, sufficient health care, rest and leisure;
  • the right to freedom of expression, education and culture;
  • the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and the right to manifest one's religion either individually or in community, in public or in private;
  • the right to choose a state of life, to found a family and to enjoy all conditions necessary for family life;
  • the right to property and work, to adequate working conditions and a just wage;
  • the right of assembly and association;
  • the right to freedom of movement, to internal and external migration;
  • the right to nationality and residence; the right to political participation
  • and the right to participate in the free choice of the political system of the people to which one belongs.

How is the family seen by the Popes within Catholic Social Teaching?

Pope Saint John XXIII stated that: “The family… must be regarded as the natural, primary cell of human society. (Pacem in Terris, #16)” Pope Saint John Paul II added that: “The first and fundamental structure for "human ecology" is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person. (Centesimus Annus, #39)”

Previously, the Fathers of Vatican II has explained the important place of the family within society, saying that: “The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity… Children should be so educated that as adults they can follow their vocation… Thus the family… is the foundation of society… The right of parents to beget and educate their children in the bosom of the family must be safeguarded. Children too who unhappily lack the blessing of a family should be protected by prudent legislation and various undertakings and assisted by the help they need. (Gaudium et spes, #52)”

Taking one step further, Pope Paul VI spoke about the family’s vocation as a domestic church, thereby also being evangelizers:

One cannot fail to stress the evangelizing action of the family in the evangelizing apostolate of the laity.

At different moments in the Church's history and also in the Second Vatican Council, the family has well deserved the beautiful name of "domestic Church."[106] This means that there should be found in every Christian family the various aspects of the entire Church. Furthermore, the family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates.

In a family which is conscious of this mission, all the members evangelize and are evangelized. The parents not only communicate the Gospel to their children, but from their children they can themselves receive the same Gospel as deeply lived by them. And such a family becomes the evangelizer of many other families, and of the neighborhood of which it forms part. (Evangelium nunciandi, #71)”

Reflection Questions:
  • What human rights does your country respect well?
  • In Pope Saint John Paul II’s list of human rights (in “b” above), what do you feel is one of the most important rights and why?
  • Concerning what the Popes have said about families, what have you experienced in your own family upbringing that has helped you to believe and live a good Christian life?
  • Other comments…