Importance Of Catholic Social Teaching

Improved Essays
Catholic social teaching is important within the Catholic Church. To understand the social teaching, you must have knowledge of what morals are, and how to obtain them. “Catholic social teaching is a central and essential element of our faith. Its roots are in the Hebrew prophets who announced God's special love for the poor and called God's people to a covenant of love and justice. It is a teaching founded on the life and words of Jesus Christ”( usccb.org) Social teaching comes from the truth of what God has revealed to us about himself. “The Church's social teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society. ” ( usccb.org)

Life and dignity of the human person is a theme of Catholic social teaching. It says that each person
…show more content…
This principle is important.This principle states that we must take responsibility for human rights. States that human rights must be protected, and cared for. “The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.”(usccb.org) We as Catholics have to protect the rights and dignity of the people. This relates to Human life and dignity, because it states that we are responsible for protecting the rights of people. They correlate, they both state that life and dignity are sacred and need absolute protection. A contemporary attack against this principle is abortion. Rights and responsibility mean having a right to life. Abortion is not giving anything a right to have life. “The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. ”

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Daniel Groody’s, “Themes from Catholic Social Teachings”, he highlights some of the core themes that must be valued and represented among all individuals, such as the “dignity of the human person” or the “the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages,…

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Catholic social teachings, such as life and dignity of the human person and dignity of work and the rights of workers, further explain how these injustices are truly immoral. Foremost, the Catholic social teaching, life and dignity of the human person, teaches that everyone…

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The principle of human dignity is one of the core principles of the doctrines of ethics and Christianity. The concept of human dignity plays a central role in the standard. Every human has the basic rights in respect of both himself and by others. Human dignity is possessing strong morals and being in a worthy state of respect and honor. Dignity involves respect and compromise among the people in society.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Upon reaching bioethical issues such as Abortion and Euthanasia, specific ethical teachings within different denominations that apply directly to the issue may be the most appropriate source to seek for moral understanding. Specifically, the catholic church teaches that life is created and begins at the point of conception, and therefore any termination is wrong and sinful. By formal ethical instruction, abortion and euthanasia can be viewed as acts of ingratitude towards god who gives us both life and suffering for our good. Within the scriptures, teachings such as (Exodus 20:13) - “You shall not murder.” And (Genesis 9:6) - “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the 1900s women have found ways to have rights. On January 22, 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court said it was a woman’s right to have an abortion due to the Fourteenth amendment. This case, Roe v. Wade, is a case that went down in history and to this day, still has the public bickering over the results. On one hand, you have citizens that are pro-life and believe life is created at conception, and that every life is valuable and should not be destroyed. On the other hand, you have citizens that are pro-choice and believe life does not start until the child is born into the world, and up until that point it should be up to the woman if she wants to keep the fetus.…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Christians and Catholics follow one of the Ten Commandments: “thou shall not murder” and they believe that it includes to fetuses. However no physician or Pope has ever declared a fetus a person. If a fetus is not a person then abortion is not murder and it has no rights. However even without the religious component we as humans have generally valued life and abhor murder. We want humanity to continue and abortion would seem to impede population growth.…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Abortion in the United States has been, and remains one of the most controversial issues in our culture, religion, and politics. Abortion is an intentional termination of a human pregnancy; performed during the first twenty four weeks of the fetus. Abortion has two types of treatments: medical, and surgical. In the early 20th century, abortion was illegal, and it was punishable with jail time. Since 1973, the supreme court in Roe v. Wade established that abortion is a women’s right.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Catholic moral reasoning does not solely rely on the sources and norms of the Catholic Church in order to obtain friendship with God. While the sources and norms serve as the primary ways to achieve and know friendship with God there are different aids that are available to help one pursue one’s proper ends. The aids are broken into external and internal. There are also obstacles that stand in the way or interrupt one’s pursuit of the good; these are called vices. With the help of the external and internal aids, along with the pursuit of virtue one can overcome vice and reach one’s proper end.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It is crucial in upholding human moral values that humans apply the concept of dignity to all living creatures because all living creatures are born with sentience and an intrinsic desire for…

    • 2019 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Abortion Controversy Essay

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Abortion Controversy Abortion is a very controversial topic because some parents blame their child’s social behavior for having a baby and put morals and values in front of their child’s health, however some people support the right to an abortion without consent due to individual rights. Parents deserve the right to be included in the settlement of their child’s abortion. 70 percent to 75 percent of minors involve their parent in their decision for wanting an abortion. Parents should be consulted and involved in the decision of their own child. Minors, referring to children under the age of 17, must have parental consent to follow through with an abortion.…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In chapter 4 of James Rachels and Stuart Rachels book, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, the authors examine the philosophical question whether morality depends on religion. They noted that in popular thinking, morality and religion are inseparable and that people generally accept that morality can be understood only in the framework of religion. On the other hand, from the perspective of the atheist or non religious people, the world is full of evil and in total chaos. Furthermore, the concept behind an all loving God and the ultimate rule maker of the moral code depicts the theory of Divine Command. The Divine Command Theory postulates that the question of what is morally right is commanded by God, and morally wrong is forbidden by God and draws a conclusion that the objectivity problem in ethics seems to be solved.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Integrative Theory Paper It is important for social workers to hold, in high regard, all social work practice principles and values defined by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). When thinking about how I, as a social worker, will integrate my personal values with social work theoretical models and social work practice principles, the values or principles that I personally tend to put more emphasis on are: dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, and integrity. To me, these are imperative elements of social work practice that I would like to keep at the forefront of my mind while working in cohesion with clients. The value of dignity and worth of the person states that “social workers respect the…

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It’s not so much what we do but really who we are. The Catholic Moral Tradition is wonderful in that it focuses on us becoming better individuals and because of that we can make the correct choices in everything we come…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aquinas Vs Aristotle

    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Theories which attempt to explain morality based on the purpose of human life and the defining characteristics of what should be considered a “good” life date all the way back to Ancient Greece. Aristotle, was one of the most famous writers of ancient times to discuss morality and ethics. As a philosopher, Aristotle believed that if a purpose was fulfilled than it was ‘good’. This is the basis of natural law in ethical beliefs and also implies that everything has a purpose in life and actions are either right or wrong depending on whether or not they contribute to fulfilling said purpose. The church and these everyday moral and ethical views can sync nicely or contrast, depending on the views of each other.…

    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethics is a systematic and critical analysis of morality, of the moral factors that guide human conduct in a particular society or practice and it plays a significant role in today’s society (Office of Director General, 2005). Different types of ethics can be applied to various issues to decide whether it is morally right or wrong. The focus of this report will be the ethical issue of abortion. The issue of abortion is an ongoing debate asking whether it is morally right to terminate a pregnancy; some think abortion is always wrong; whereas, others think that there is a range of circumstance in which abortion is morally acceptable. The issue will be considered from the philosophical framework of Situation Ethics.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays