Catholic Social Teaching is sometimes referred to as the Church's 'best kept secret'. In order to make it better known, we have chosen quotations would be suitable for copying into parish bulletins to give people a 'taster'.
“Nevertheless, he [the Good Shepherd] goes looking for that one, because every one is very important to him and that one is in the most need, is the most abandoned, most discarded; and he goes to look for it.”
Pope Francis, General Audience, 4 May 2016
“He sees beyond our rank in society. He sees beyond this, to our dignity as sons and daughters, a dignity at times sullied by sin, but one which endures in the depth of our soul. He came precisely to seek out all those who feel unworthy of God, unworthy of others.”
Pope Francis, Homily at Plaza de la Revolución, Holguín, 21 September 2015
“Since time immemorial seafarers have fulfilled the obligation to rescue people in distress at sea under any conditions.”
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People, Sea Sunday Message, 2015
“Not all of us can prevent a war; but most of us can help ease sufferings — of the body and the soul.”
Dr Ruth Pfau, Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Dr Ruth Pfau was a German-born nun who served as a medical missionary in Pakistan for over 50 years. She became known as Pakistan’s Mother Teresa, and is credited with eradicating leprosy in the country. Following her death in August 2017 she was the first Christian in Pakistani history to be honoured with a State Funeral.
(Nearest Sunday to Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June)) At the centre of all Catholic social teaching are the transcendence of God and the dignity of the human person. The human person is the clearest reflection of God’s presence in the world; all of the Church’s work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person. For each person not only reflects God, but is the expression of God’s creative work and the meaning of Christ’s redemptive ministry.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Challenge of Peace, para 15
If the “dream” of a peaceful world is shared by all, if the refugees’ and migrants’ contribution is properly evaluated, then humanity can become more and more of a universal family and our earth a true “common home.”
Pope Saint John Paul II, Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2004
The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.
Lumen Gentium, para 31
These fundamental duties can be summarized this way: basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons. The ultimate injustice is for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race. To treat people this way is effectively to say they simply do not count as human beings.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, para 77
All must consider it their sacred duty to count social obligations among their chief duties today and observe them as such. For the more closely the world comes together, the more widely do people’s obligations transcend particular groups and extend to the whole world. …under the necessary help of divine grace, there will arise a generation of new women and men, the moulders of a new humanity.
Gaudium et Spes, para 30