Rodríguez, Rubén Rosario, ed. T&T Clark Handbook of Political Theology. London: T&T Clark, 2020.

T&T Clark Handbooks. T&T Clark Handbooks. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 18 Oct. 2024. <http://
dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780567670427>.

Accessed from: www.bloomsburycollections.com

Accessed on: Fri Oct 18 2024 22:46:07 Australian Eastern Daylight Time

Copyright © María Dávila. All rights reserved. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without prior permission in
writing from the publishers.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Political Theology of

Catholic Social Teaching
MAR Í A TERESA D Á VILA

INTRODUCTION
Two recent moments in the Catholic social teaching tradition help frame this discussion.
They point to complexities with respect to the reception, adoption, and implementation
within Catholic circles and in society at large of the principles embodied within its documents
and teaching. In 1991, while the world was still catching its breath from the whirlwind of
the geopolitical transformations that marked the previous three years, Pope John Paul II
released the encyclical Centessimus Annus—On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum
Novarum.1 This official document of Roman Catholic teaching marked one hundred years
from the publication of Rerum Novarum—The Condition of Labor, in 1891.2 John Paul II
struggled with the meaning of the fall of Soviet communism and the transformation of
former Soviet states into emerging capitalist democracies for the global human family and
the future of economic and political relations across the world. This echoed the ways in
which a hundred years earlier Pope Leo XIII struggled with the evolving conditions of labor
during the industrial explosion of the second half of the nineteenth century. Rerum Novarum
described and pronounced judgment on the ways in which industrialization was affecting
family life, urban development, and the conditions of labor, all the while observing how the
shifting political and ideological grounds in Europe at the time impacted the viability of the
Church as a public institution with power and influence over its faithful beyond the confines
of the sanctuary. Both documents sought to apply elements and principles of the Christian
tradition to new circumstances facing the human family in society, politics, and economics,
the task at the heart of the body of documents known as Catholic social teaching.3
But John Paul II’s efforts were not necessarily received with broad support. The
encyclical appreciated how capitalist markets offered more opportunities for the
flourishing of human freedom than socialist economies as experienced,4 but also
recognized the materialist anthropology under which it operates.5 Commenters within
Catholic neoliberal circles, for example, appreciated the strong condemnation of socialist
economies and the welfare state in favor of capitalism, while ignoring the stern warnings
issued by the pope in the document against the dehumanizing tendencies of capitalist
markets.6 The biased interpretation of this landmark document secured unwavering
support for market capitalism from US business elites, with little or no concern for its
totalizing and dehumanizing practices, or the ways deep inequality worsens under
neoliberal policies, as John Paul II and subsequent popes have warned.7

317
318 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

Prior to this, in 1986, the United States Catholic bishops attempted to speak to the
economic challenges of the US market economy through the pastoral letter Economic
Justice for All.8 Though not possessing the same authoritative weight as a papal encyclical,
the letter represented three years of study and consultation by the US bishops on economic
matters. Their recommendations spanned from labor laws, wages, and practices, to the
right to form unions and their role in contributing to a just society, inequality, and poverty
in the US, and the changing landscape of the agricultural economy and how these elements
contributed to or impacted the common good and human dignity, especially the wellbeing
of the most vulnerable members of the US economy. In addition, the bishops raised
questions regarding labor justice within Church-related institutions such as hospitals,
schools, and parishes.9 But the document was met with resistance and harsh criticism.10
Central to this criticism was questioning the wisdom of the bishops in matters of economic
policy, highlighting ways in which much economic thinking at the time could not support
their recommendations for the labor and agricultural markets, and outright condemning
their words as dangerous for the prosperity of the US economy.11
These two episodes are witness to the complex contributions of Catholic social
teaching to the life of the Church and the larger discussion of religious contributions to
the development and protection of the common good through the social, economic, and
political life of the human family. This body of work from the Catholic Church, which it
presents as a contribution for “all people of goodwill,”12 is considered authoritative as to
the principles it uses and develops over time through which it interprets new situations
facing the human family. And yet its specific observations are perceived more as
recommendations for human flourishing rather than hard and fast rules for economic and
political life. It is a developing and evolving body of work, struggling to bring increasingly
complicated human interrelationships toward a vision of the good life that holds human
dignity and integral human and, more recently, ecological development as its highest
ideals. This essay entertains a political theology for Catholic social thought by looking at
what it intends to be (and some perspective on what it most definitely is not) in the life of
the Church and the larger public square, discussing its vision and guiding principles for
life in community, and examining emerging themes and objectives of the first five years of
Pope Francis’ leadership.
My discussion of the political theology of this body of work is read through the lens of
the preferential option for the poor, which I consider to be the key principle at the core of
this teaching. From this perspective Catholic social teaching can be said to include
inherent biases and contradictions that get addressed more adequately when read through
that particular lens, such as its partiality toward private industry (for example, corporations
and free markets), its lack of acknowledgment of how gender plays a role in local and
global economic and political conditions for human flourishing, and its apparent allergy
to confronting conflict in history as a direct challenge to the common good of the poor
and vulnerable.

CHALLENGES TO CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT

AS POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Catholic social thought seeks to bring the resources of the Christian tradition to bear on
life in community for the human family. As such, it draws most heavily from the Bible and
the tradition of theological reflection and doctrinal developments within the Church, less
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 319

so from the witness of history and human experience, and, more recently, the social
sciences.13 The tradition spans the entire history of Christianity, but as a body of work
defined by the writings of popes and others in the hierarchy of the Church, the 1891
publication of Rerum Novarum is considered the beginning of the systematic analysis of
“the sign of the times” through the lens of the Christian tradition. Key moments in history
and human experience since then—the Great Depression,14 the rise of fascism and
communism,15 decolonization,16 war,17 nuclear militarization,18 human rights,19 poverty
and global inequality,20 the sexual revolution and reproductive rights,21 immigration,22
environmental degradation and climate change23—have all been directly addressed.
This documentary tradition is shaped by the rubric “see–judge–act,” developed in the
1920s and 1930s in the Catholic youth movements in Europe,24 with the intention of
“seeing” a situation, particularly how certain conditions, events, or circumstances impact
the person and life in community, make a judgment using the resources of the tradition,
and promote particular avenues for action at different levels of power and influence to
transform the situation toward greater humanization.25 This process gives rise to a set of
principles (discussed below) that come to stand for compact expressions of key ethical
norms arising from the Christian tradition but understood as having universal validity.
The goals of Catholic social teaching are to promote human dignity and offer both
judgment and opportunity for conversion and action wherever human dignity is
challenged, but it is difficult to consider how this works out as political theology. Catholic
social thought is not a political or economic program. It offers no specific plan for
democratization, though it lauds accountability and political participation of all members
of society as important values for the promotion of human dignity. It does not have a set
level of immigration that conforms to biblical ideals, though it recognizes the rights of
people to migrate in search for a better life, and points out their privileged place in the
Bible as a category of persons close to God’s mercy. It does not have any set of labor laws
or minimum wage prescriptions, though it promotes the rights of workers to collectively
bargain for their salaries and benefits.
Articulating a political theology from Catholic social teaching is further complicated
by its role within the structures of official Church teaching. While many documents
within the tradition are recognized as magisterial teaching,26 there is a range of authority
and classification for different contributions to the body of documents. Added to the
absence of specific prescriptions, many have interpreted this dimension of Catholic
doctrine as recommendations or observations rather than hard and fast rules, or even
criteria against which to measure our best efforts for life in community. This is increasingly
the case the more specific the documents get with respect to prescriptive instructions,
when the authority of the authors’ observations and wisdom on a topic, whether popes or
bishops—even in consultation with experts—is questioned. In contemporary discussions
on climate change, for example, Pope Francis’ reading of the science of climate change,
and his recommendations with respect to alternative energy sources, and reparations to
the areas around the globe most impacted by resource extraction and rising sea levels, are
challenged on the grounds that he is not a trained expert in economic, environmental, or
climate sciences.27
Given these challenges, what resources ought one to draw from in articulating a
political theology of Catholic social teaching? First, the tradition of Catholic social
teaching offers alternative visions for addressing the needs of life in community from the
perspective of the suffering of so many in the human family. It also offers cohesive and
systematic observations of the human condition. In particular, it offers assessment of the
320 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

immediate and distant impacts of corporations and institutions in a changing global

economy, and the ways ideological extremes taint our best efforts at democratic reforms.
Second, it offers the development of a set of principles that, though not presenting
prescriptions to specific situations, provide significantly robust criteria for enriching the
social, economic, and political arenas. Third, and related to the second, it does this within
an evolutionary framework. While it claims to stand on universal principles present in
scripture and throughout the Christian tradition, their expression and affirmation arise at
particular times in human history, responsive to transformations from one era to the next,
suggesting an evolving tradition able to adapt to the most critical challenges of the time.
Finally, it does this within the framework of the struggle between the vagaries of human
existence and belief in a God that has a plan for creation, where providence affirms God’s
active and redemptive role in history.
Within Catholic social teaching this activity is affirmed as having directionality and an
eschatological endpoint. Although Catholic social thought does not venture to read this
endpoint with 100 percent certainty, it attempts to interpret this telos for each era, and,
perhaps more importantly, for our time. This it does in light of God’s most definitive act
in history through the cross and resurrection, where the suffering of the world is reconciled
to God’s self, inviting the faithful to live and transform communities as if the Kindom is
already here.28 In discussing the political theology of Augustine, Catholic theologian
Francis Fiorenza describes it thus: “Augustine presents a vision of transcendence and of a
transcendent city that alone can be the source and locus of that well-being that is not mere
temporal, but eternal. In short, utilitarian argument is presented in favor of political
theology and it is criticized by a metaphysical analysis and an appeal to a higher
transcendental goal.”29 This “transcendental goal” is the horizon of Catholic social
teaching. It attempts to balance “universal truths” with “social utility,”30 presenting a
faithful response to some of the most pressing challenges facing the human family.

TEN PRINCIPLES FOR LIFE IN COMMUNITY

Catholic social teaching has developed a set of principles that, though not specific
prescriptive statements, provide significantly robust criteria for life in community. Using
tradition and scripture, Catholic social teaching attends to “the signs of the times” in
order to develop these principles.31 While it ultimately does not yield authority to human
experience, these experiences have shaped the principles of Catholic social teaching in
concrete ways. Its attention to the “see” dimension of the pastoral cycle see–judge–act,
means that it implicitly takes into account human experience and context, especially
political, cultural, and economic experiences, in developing faithful responses to ongoing
threats to human dignity.32
Thomas Massaro, SJ, presents what I believe to be a thorough as well as complex
articulation of the principles of Catholic social teaching.33 This articulation combines the
theological/ethical vision of each principle with its concomitant political function.
Alternately, this somewhat belies a partiality toward liberal political democracy in his
formulation of the principles themselves that I would argue is embedded in the Catholic
social tradition itself. These principles represent the space where doctrine and human
experience interact, sometimes in flexible and evolving ways. As principles distilled from
the tradition engaging human experience, they in turn shape the further development of
Catholic social teaching, echoing the pastoral cycle of “see–judge–act” in dialectical
engagement. For these reasons even conclusively naming, numbering, or ordering these
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 321

principles becomes a jarring challenge, sometimes prone to ideological manipulation

intended to privilege certain principles, or elements within principles, over others. While
there are variations in the numbering and naming of these principles among various
analysts of the tradition, the essential doctrines and values these represent are not in
question.
1. Human dignity and human rights34—This first principle represents the centrality
of the human dignity of every person as bearer of the image of God (Gen. 1:26)
in tandem with human rights. This foundational principle in Catholic ethics
shapes all aspects of life in community, demanding that our economic, cultural,
political, and social systems affirm and protect the inviolable dignity of every
person. This norm aligns with human rights, among these the right to life, the
right to freedom, and the right to determine the political future of one’s
community and country. But further elucidation of the kinds of rights this
principle translates into has been the topic of much confusion. The right to
migrate, for example, is explicitly mentioned in key document of the tradition
such as Rerum Novarum (1891) and Pacem in Terris (1963).35 But how to balance
this with the rights of nation-states to regulate borders and the passage of
migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? Other rights mentioned, such as the right
to an education, the right to healthcare, and the right to potable water36 raise
difficult questions as to the limits of ever expanding lists of positive rights
required for human survival, development, and thriving, versus the ability of
states, regional bodies, and international agencies to properly provide for them.
The subsequent principles help discern the hierarchy of norms that further nuance
to this question, definitively clarifying how human rights ought to promote human
dignity in every case and for every person.37
2. The preferential option for the poor—Developed as a phrase in the work of the
Latin American bishops and theologians during the 1950s through the 1980s, it
encapsulates centuries of Christian thought about the particular place of the poor,
excluded, oppressed, and suffering in the eyes of a God who chooses to be active
in history. This same God also chooses to identify with the poor in history as
evidenced by the narratives of Exodus, the Psalms, the Prophets, and in Jesus’
ministry, parables, and his own arrest and execution. In Matthew 25:31–46
Christians get the definitive declaration of Christ’s identification with the poor,
sharing in their destiny, and in turn impacting the destiny of those who choose to
be indifferent or cruel to the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the migrant, and
the naked. As a principle of Catholic social thought, this preferential option
orients policy considerations to advocate for the most vulnerable, and judges their
effectiveness according to how they impact the prospects for survival and
flourishing of the most vulnerable as integral members of the community.
3. Solidarity, common good, and participation38—Where God has placed the utmost
importance (the dignity of every human being made in Divine image and likeness),
and where the Christian experience proclaims this experience in history (the
mystery of the incarnation and the God who becomes one with us), becomes the
principle that unifies both. Through solidarity we are able to share in the suffering
of another through the practice of mercy and compassion in imitation of Christ as
we acknowledge the moments, systems, experiences, ideologies, and everyday
practices that betray and harm human dignity. As a virtue it demands that our
322 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

attention go to those who most need our advocacy, support, and transformative
action. The common good and participation are ways in which we institutionalize
the call to safeguard human dignity, and practice solidarity with the most
vulnerable. They demand that political and economic systems be organized for the
benefit of all, and pay particular attention to the places where systems act against
the human dignity of particular groups for the benefit of a few. The common good
institutionalizes solidarity by insuring that all are able to participate in the goods,
rights, and benefits therein. Participation is the political and social practice by
which all members of society engage and impact the structures that determine
their destinies, guarding against systemic exclusions. This ensures that solidarity is
not interpreted as charity alone, but as robust walking with marginalized,
excluded, and oppressed groups for the transformation of the political, economic,
and social structures that impact their lives.

These first three principles hinge on biblical notions of who God is, how God relates
to the human family within history, and the most immediate demands of human beings
toward each other. The following six principles describe with more specificity the kinds
of relations we ought to have politically and economically with each other. Rather than
being ordered according to degree of importance or authority, these ought to be considered
as a web of interrelationships.

4. Family life39—Catholic social teaching considers protection of the family one of

the primary responsibilities of the state and civil and civic organizations while
acknowledging the rights of parents to exercise prudence in the raising of children
extends to many areas of life including education, and the right to migrate.
Policies regarding education, healthcare, housing and aid to the homeless and
housing insecure, the regulation of the number of births, food security,
environmental concerns, urban planning, economic development, and
immigration, just to name a few, impact the integrity and safety of the family, and
are therefore the concern of Catholic social thought.
5. Dignity of work, rights of workers and support of labor unions40—These principles
on human labor and work were articulated from the beginning of the modern
Catholic social teaching tradition. In Rerum Novarum (1891) Pope Leo XIII
affirmed the rights of workers to just wages, a safe environment, rest, and
collective bargaining following the biblical appeals for justice for workers whose
labor often contributes to the riches of a few, while unjust wages keep them in
economically desperate conditions that cry out to God.41 Through work persons
and communities build up the necessary elements of family and community life.
Work makes us co-creators with God, in the exercise of our physical, intellectual,
and artistic capacities.42 Therefore, working conditions and remuneration ought to
reflect the dignity of labor as a share in God’s creative work, as well as be
sufficient to sustain and promote the common good. Catholic social teaching is
attentive to the ways in which the dignity of workers is violated, including unjust
wages, unsafe conditions, benefits such as healthcare, and terms of employment.
At times, these circumstances warrant the intervention of subsidiary agencies such
as collective laborer organizations. In this way Catholic social teaching
acknowledges the power differential that can leave workers at a significant
disadvantage in protecting their rights and dignity. It also recognizes the tendency
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 323

in most systems for employers to take advantage of laborers for the benefit of the
unjust accumulation of profit. Government intervention and regulation in the
labor market become necessary tools to establish minimum standard for labor and
wage conditions, especially where vast inequalities, or political and economic
conditions of marginalized groups make workers particularly vulnerable. Local
and international agencies are tasked with the responsibility to prevent, pursue,
and prosecute slavery and human trafficking networks, which today impact the
lives of over 20 million persons.43
6. Subsidiarity and the proper role of government44—One of the longest-standing
questions facing the Church is the proper role of government. Primarily
responsible for protecting the common good, the government ought to be an
institution that protects these rights according to the dictates of communities
seeking to uphold the dignity of all its members in particular ways. At the center
of Catholic social teaching’s understanding of the role of government is the
construction of bodies that responsibly, reliably, and transparently guarantee that
the basic necessities for life in community are safeguarded. Alternately, different
communities ought to be able to build their own immediate structures for
addressing the needs closest to them, unimpeded by cumbersome government
processes or excessive regulations. Catholic social teaching strongly promotes a
notion of human agency that empowers local bodies to build community
grounded on bonds of proximity and solidarity, with care that tight identity
boundaries not leave particular sectors unaided or vulnerable. Communities are at
freedom to determine the best forms of participatory and representative
government that uphold the rights of all its members, including material rights,
which leads to broad and often problematic disagreement among those who
would narrowly interpret Catholic social teaching as supporting certain neoliberal
practices. For example, those who employ Catholic social teaching to argue that
governments ought to be as small as possible while leaving the guarantee of rights
and the protection of human dignity to subsidiary institutions. Others propose
that Catholic social teaching, with its primary emphasis on human dignity for all,
is partial to forms of government that more robustly intervene to insure that a
basic floor of material and political conditions are met for the population, rather
than leave it to the whim and limited resources of subsidiary institutions.
7. Private property, the universal destination of material goods, and rights and
responsibilities45—The right to private property has always been recognized in
Christian ethics, maintaining that no authority has the right to illegally or
forcefully take possession of the fruits of one’s labors. Systems that overlook or
reject this principle place the fruit of one’s labor at the whim of oppressive or
illegitimate taxation, the taking of lands, homes, or other capital, by government
authorities or economic elites. However, this right is balanced with the
acknowledgment that creation is a gift from God, and sufficient to sustain human
life. Therefore, the principle of human dignity stipulates all persons ought to have
access to the goods necessary for life without which this quality of life diminishes
and human dignity is threatened. These two seemingly opposing concepts find a
kind of balance through their expression in rights and responsibilities. While one
has the right to private property as the product of one’s labor, this has the
ultimate purpose of serving the larger community, especially when a deep need is
324 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

present, such as during a drought or other natural disaster, or during deep

economic downturns. Through the balance of rights and responsibilities Catholic
social teaching acknowledges that often material and economic goods that become
the private property of some are not gained directly from one’s work, but through
unjust labor relations. It also acknowledges that social and political conditions may
lead to deep inequalities, and the exclusion of entire groups from just
compensation for their labor, as well as unemployment and underemployment.
8. Colonialism and economic development46—With the post-Second World War
decolonization of most nations that had been integral to the military and
economic expansion efforts of European nations, the need for ongoing
development efforts became more apparent. However, this development ought
not to depend on new forms of colonialism—political, economic, or
ideological.47 This principle points to the right of nations to seek avenues
regionally and globally to develop their economies for the benefit of their
population without having to yield their sovereignty. This does not point to an
uncritical appreciation of international financial bodies whose function is to
provide nations with access to capital, such as the World Bank, since these
international bodies can also impose regulations and conditions on their
development aid that seriously impinge on a nation’s sovereignty and self-
determination that may result in new forms of colonialism.
9. Peace and disarmament48—The ultimate goal of Christian ethics with respect to
the use of force is peace. It is stated as a principle because in a fallen world this
cannot be taken as assumed by the community of nations and even within
nations, where taking up arms to resolve conflict has become the initial avenue
rather than the last resort. Even while Catholic social teaching upholds the
criteria from just war theory as a way to limit the evil of war, it continues to
promote an understanding of the human being made for peace, with each other,
with creation, and with God. Promotion of nonviolence as the political stance
that ought to guide our encounter with others, from our personal engagements
to the international community, has gained new ground in a body of work that
up until recently was partial to just war theory as a sufficient tool to contain,
reduce, or eliminate the need for the use of force.49 As Pope Francis declared in
his visit to the United States, disarmament, eliminating the sale of weapons to
other states, to groups or factions within a state, and to individuals must be a
priority of all governments, but especially the United States.50 Disarmament as a
principle of Catholic social teaching developed at a time when the nuclear arms
race and their potential use threatened the entirety of human existence. It
supported the work of international and regional bodies whose efforts attempted
to curve and reduce this nihilistic quest for nuclear superiority. After the end of
the Cold War it continues to see the reduction in weapons production, sales, and
acquisition as an important goal for the construction of peace.
10. Care of creation51—This most recent principle responds to a world clamoring for
its natural environment. While critiques of excessive consumerism, misuse of
natural resources, and a throwaway culture were already present in Catholic
social teaching, the overwhelming scientific evidence of the environmental crisis
caused by climate change brings to the surface elements from the Bible and the
early Christian tradition that speak to the beauty and blessedness of creation.
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 325

The biblical heritage keeps us in touch with the ways in which creation is one of
the most evident ways in which God shows us care. Creation, and all that is part
of it, is good in and of itself, and worthy to be protected. But today, the
projections of the various peoples who will be most directly impacted by climate
change—small island nations, and low-lying communities, women who are
responsible for gathering food and water for their household, children who will
not get the adequate nutrition for brain and bodily development, masses of
people led to migrate because of drought, fires, floods, and other forms of
impact from climate change52—led Pope Francis to unequivocally declare climate
justice and care of creation one of the primary responsibilities and challenges for
the human family, causing a ripple effect on all dimensions of life, from personal
consumption habits to governmental oversight, to international agreements that
seek to stem the tide of climate change.53

This brief overview of the key principles of Catholic social teaching also highlights
some of the difficulties of articulating a comprehensive political theology grounded in
Catholic social teaching. First, while the understanding on authoritative teaching is that
it does not change in the life of the Church, clearly there is development in Catholic
teaching. Its methodology demands attention to historical events, which often prompt the
articulation of new or more detailed principles. Colonialism and development of newly
independent and poorer countries was not on the radar of Pope Leo XIII when he wrote
Rerum Novarum (1891), nor was climate change a dominant feature of Pacem in Terris
(1963). The preferential option for the poor is the historically bound articulation of the
consistent teaching of God’s solidarity with the suffering and the excluded as it was first
expressed in the oppressive conditions of economic and political inequality in Latin
America of the 1960s.54 However, there are those who view the notion of a developing
tradition to discount the prescriptive statements of Catholic social teaching as mere
recommendations for prudential judgment, rather than direct authoritative teaching.
Critics also argue that these principles present seemingly inherent contradictions, such
as balancing human dignity and participation in the common good with the primacy of
the family as the essential social unit. Or supporting economic development for
impoverished countries while also caring for the environment. Interpreting and applying
these principles cannot be a process of arranging them in an intransigent hierarchy of
values. Rather, they require balance and overlay, applying multiple principles to a
particular social challenge. Used in concert, they help correct the over-application of any
one of them, which might lead to isolationist policies, on the one hand, or a strictly
materialistic understanding of the person and communities, on the other. Questions also
arise as to the feasibility of these guiding principles in a world where deepening inequality,
ongoing civil and political strife, exclusion, and persecution impact the life of millions on
a daily basis. How effective are principles grounded on the ideal human community in the
face of so much brokenness? Inherent to the formulation of these principles are the
various historical circumstances in which they developed. These moments are far from
ideal, and marked by social and structural conflict and sin. Ultimately, they attempt to
represent the love of God becoming incarnate in the most challenging of circumstances.
Catholic social teaching does not uphold these principles as unrealistic ideals, but as maps
toward establishing the Beloved Community.
Finally, the principles seem to be focused on the social dimensions of human experience.
Are they translatable to the personal life of the faithful? The documents from which these
326 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

principles are distilled all conclude with a call to personal conversion, highlighting the
notion that individuals make up social structures and are able to create change when
informed and motivated to do so. All Christians are called to be agents shaping the
destinies of their communities, and to play a role in establishing more just conditions
locally and globally, to promote human dignity for all, and to work in solidarity with the
suffering and the poor. But these principles for justice in political and economic
communities also ought to guide life in the family—the most basic social unit—by
promoting acts of solidarity, privileging care for the suffering, eliminating boundaries of
exclusion and marginalization, and encouraging subsidiary agency.

PRIMACY OF OPTION FOR THE POOR

By placing solidarity among the top three principles I stress what Christians ought to hold
most deeply in social matters: the immediate suffering of others. While the inviolable
human dignity of every person is the foundational principle of Catholic social teaching, I
suggest that tensions among the principles stated above can be arbitrated by privileging
the option for the poor as an organizing principle. Its development in the second half of
the twentieth century represents a history of deep conflict, one where the Church had to
come to terms with the ways it was capitulating the Bible’s emphasis on love and justice
for the poor as key to the story of salvation. When after Vatican II the bishops were asked
to return home and more deeply “see” the (local) context in which they were called to be
church, Latin American bishops and theologians saw that they lived in a continent that
was majority Christian, but also majority poor. This reality, combined with the specter of
political persecution and repression by military and economic elites, challenged the Latin
American Church to rethink its apparent impartiality that was effectively providing
support to political regimes and economic systems heavily dependent on an oppressed
and extremely poor peasant class. The preferential option for the poor, though not
directly articulated at the bishops’ meeting in Medellín (1968), develops as the theological
and ethical response to “a deafening cry [that] pours from the throats of millions of men
[sic], asking their pastors for a liberation that reaches them from nowhere else.”55
Though the work of Latin American and other liberation theologians received extensive
criticism and correction from the Magisterium,56 it was integrated into Magisterial
expressions of Catholic social teaching by 1991, in John Paul II’s Centessimus Annus,
ensconcing it definitively in the tradition.57 It represents a Christic value, that is, one
which at its heart is fully about becoming incarnate in the suffering of another for the task
of solidarity and transformation, akin to Christ’s solidary bridging of divine life with the
suffering of human death.
The common good, subsidiarity, human rights, the dignity of labor, care for the
family—all of these principles of Catholic social teaching must follow the compass of the
option for the poor, which asks that our best efforts at building political and economic
systems bear in mind the destiny of the poor and oppressed first and foremost. The very
logic embedded in Catholic social teaching of recognizing that most states, businesses,
economic systems, and communities do not operate under ideal conditions, but, rather,
often help establish and perpetuate violent inequalities that attack the dignity of whole
groups of people, provides the justification for the primacy of the option for the poor.
This principle becomes the orienting and organizing compass providing directionality and
immediate measures for applying all the other principles to a situation. However, this is
not necessarily a shared understanding of how to organize the principles of Catholic
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 327

social teaching. For many, privileging the option for the poor is not a recipe for building
and protecting the common good, but, rather, a recipe for fanning the fires of class
warfare, emphasizing inequalities that might very well be a natural state for various
healthy economic systems. In my estimation such assessments hide a partiality against
challenging privilege and unjust economic gain, just as neoliberal commentators read
Centessimus Annus as judging free-market capitalism as the economic system that most
favored a Christian understanding of human freedom. The pastoral cycle “see–judge–act”
cannot be applied indiscriminately, but must employ the option for the poor as a way to
orient the gaze toward the crucified peoples, those with whom Jesus most closely
identified: the migrant, the poor, the sick, and the marginalized other.

CRITIQUES AND FAILURES

It is important to briefly note not just complications arising from Catholic social teaching,
but outright failures that up until now plague the tradition. Historically this is a body
of work that represents a reactionary rather than a proactive stance, even in Pope
Francis’ time. In its effort to not appear partial toward any one system, or to seem to be
proposing the elusive “third way,” the documentary history reflects in large part a
church struggling to make sense of the current moment, even as any particular challenge
slips away in a rapidly changing sociopolitical global landscape. The strength of
Catholic social teaching is its keen ability to describe human suffering in personal and
systemic ways while preserving the principle of human dignity, but until recently this
commitment to human dignity was not able to overcome the teaching’s partiality toward
liberal democratic capitalist societies as the model of political and economic community
most amenable to encourage human freedom and flourishing. In my estimation,
appreciation for this system gets in the way of the radical and necessary critiques that
must be engaged against such systems for the way its practices impact the poor and
vulnerable globally.58
According to some, Catholic social teaching is difficult to implement. Many Catholic
faithful question whether its principles are mere theory or cause for direct action. Until
recently dissemination of these documents was limited to bullet-point information cards
shared with local churches after the release of a document. Only the more committed
adult study groups along with learned theologians and seminary students took the time to
read and analyze a document in its entirety, while pastors in many parts of the world,
most certainly in the US, were hesitant to preach from the content of these documents.
Advances in communications media and widespread accessibility to the Internet have
significantly transformed dissemination of these documents to the point that news of the
release of an encyclical is publicized well in advance of the actual release, prompting
analyses and discussions from multiple perspectives across a wide array of fora. Still, there
remains widespread confusion as to how these documents and principles are to be lived
in community. Their indicting words against the status quo make it difficult to approach
in middle-class or other privileged communities, while their insistence that they do not
represent a “third way” leave many without proper recourse for its practical application.
Ethicist Paul Lakeland notes the common critique that Catholic social teaching is
understood to be more a theory of praxis rather than a theory for praxis.59
Traditionally Catholic social teaching has avoided reading history from the perspective
of the conflicts that mark the everyday lives of so many. While it recognizes the suffering
of wars, and institutionalized forms of violence, it fails to label these as conflict; with the
328 T&T CLARK HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

consequence that Catholic social teaching doesn’t always adequately acknowledge the
challenges facing entire communities struggling for justice and peace for their people and
their nations. Again, Lakeland points out that Catholic social teaching maintains a
significant distance from the grassroots of history, “undermin[ing] those things of
undoubted value which it proclaims.”60
It is also important to note the failure of Catholic social teaching to properly address
the way in which social and political conditions particularly impact the dignity of women
beyond the privileged spaces of motherhood and family.61 Kristin Heyer argues, “a generic
construal of justice issues without attention to gendered elements is likewise dangerously
inadequate.”62 It has been a long road for Catholic social teaching to acknowledge, for
example, the particular effects and consequences of sexual violence, especially when used
as a weapon of war and conflict; the mounting challenges on women who migrate; the
vulnerabilities of women in low wage work; the unique challenges facing women in the
areas of labor justice; political, religious, and social representation; and health and
education outcomes. Finally, I note the perennial tension between Catholic social teaching
and other liberationist perspectives in Christian political thought. In the end, Catholic
social teaching places conversion of heart as the primary tool for transformation of social
and political structures. Its central conviction is that without love of God and love of
neighbor we will rarely effect the true change needed to establish just structures that
uphold the human dignity of all persons and the environment, even as it makes
recommendations at the level of policies and systemic change. Liberationists, however,
acknowledging both the role of conflict in history and the urgent need for transformation
and liberation will highlight the ways principles of justice, human dignity, and the option
for the poor come across as profound challenges to entrenched systems of privilege and
exclusion. Though they do not advocate further conflict as foundational to the path of
justice and peace, it realizes that power will hardly ever yield its privilege unless it is
wrested from the powerful, a process that may result in conflict and even violence, even
as the ultimate goal is still love of neighbor and the creation of a more just society.

CONCLUSION: THE POPE FRANCIS MOMENT

The election of Pope Francis in 2013 welcomed the first Latin American pope, and with
this a greater opening to the liberationist thought that had marked many strands of
Catholicism in the continent. As the first pope to take full advantage of the Internet and
social media, Francis’ initial interviews, prayers, and addresses signaled significant
developments in the trajectory of Catholic social teaching.
In the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013) Francis clearly linked the
message of the gospel and encountering Christ to the lives of the poor. Specifically, he
urges the Church to move out of its sanctuary and beyond its doors, to encounter the
poor and recognize the ways we participate in the structures that oppress them, and do
grave damage to the environment. Perhaps most innovative is his acknowledgment that
greed and pursuit of money is the cause of much suffering and grief personally and
socially, a direct consequence of systems that revolve around the production of the most
profit possible.63 Unequivocally, Francis places the poor at the heart of the mission of the
Church, and therefore at the core of the work of evangelizing, a task that is demanded of
every faithful. The option for the poor becomes the privileged lens through which Francis
officially inaugurates his papacy, hopefully transforming how Catholic social teaching
ought to be read and implemented henceforth.
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 329

While Benedict XVI had placed climate change and care of creation as key concerns
of Catholic social teaching,64 Francis determinedly brings the principle of care of creation
to the fore in Laudato Si (2015). This encyclical, above any other before, innovatively
integrates two unique sources into the tradition: the witness of the natural sciences and
the social teaching coming from regional and local bishops’ conferences struggling with
the issue of climate change in their immediate context. Here the voice of the poor—who
are the first to experience the violence of climate change—receives a privileged space,
while business leaders and policymakers are encouraged to move out of their centers of
power and decision making in the great capital cities of the world in order to pay attention
to what the poor are saying about climate change. Francis also lifts up the role of popular
movements in shaping how we “see–judge–act” with respect to the climate crisis.65
In Gaudete et Exsultate (2018), Francis affirms the call for every faithful to be holy,
and to humbly and actively walk the path of holiness that is the call of every Christian
community.66 Again affirming the primacy of the option for the poor, Francis lifts up “The
Great Criterion” by which holiness is measured in the gospels, and by which others will
know of our love and conviction in Christ: the mandate to care for the poor in Matthew
25:31–46.67 More specifically, Francis warns against ideologies that are contrary to the
gospel that are suspicious of the social concern of the Church as if it were materialist
ideology or socialist or populist.68 Rather, Francis wants the faithful to realize the intimate
link between social concerns and the journey of holiness, our spiritual destinies tied up
with the real destinies of the poor and oppressed.
Most recently, on August 2, 2018, Francis released a restatement of Catholic teaching
on the death penalty as written in the Catholic Catechism.69 This restatement represents
decades of development and ongoing teaching from the Church on the topic of human
dignity and the various arenas in which this is threatened by political and economic
systems. The teaching, which originally permitted the death penalty as a last resort to
prevent the criminal from committing further crimes and therefore fall further into sin,
now states that the capital punishment is inadmissible in all cases. Much as with John
XXIII, John Paul II, and the release of Laudato Si, critics coming mainly from the US
privileged class have pointed out that Francis has no authority to shift centuries-old
Catholic teaching on capital punishment. The severity of the moment cannot be overstated.
At stake is clarification on the understanding of the teaching tradition of the Church as an
adaptive and developing tool for understanding universal principles at different stages of
human history. Alternately, we may begin to acknowledge that the Magisterium of the
Church ought always be receptive to learning new things, especially as it concerns the
needs of local church communities and other social and political bodies.
Clearly, the rich heritage of Catholic social teaching, with its flaws and failures, provides
a robust yet flexible and developing political theology for life in community, grounded on
human dignity as oriented by the option for the poor. Over its modern documentary
history it moves toward further and deeper solidarity with the poor and oppressed as
well as establishing clearer commitments to ways to alleviate suffering, even as it tiptoes
around the issue of promoting a “third way.” With respect to the flaws mentioned before,
there is hope in its adaptability and evolution. By Laudato Si we come to a document that
speaks clearly to how climate change impacts the life of the poor first,70 recognizing
that the natural sciences point to severe conflicts arising from competition for precious
resources such as water and arable land.71 In its jostling with reality Catholic social
teaching struggles with the question of God’s plan and providence as active in history. In
Christian doctrine these elements have always implied directionality and an eschatological
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endpoint that, although we cannot augur with 100 percent certainty, we can venture to
interpret it for our times. We do this in light of what the cross means for transforming the
suffering of the world, witnessing to a God who, in the deepest act of solidarity, takes
on the tragic finality of human death. For this very reason, if anything is said to
be “evolving” in Catholic teaching it is the tradition of its social thought. This it does
from the radically incarnational stance embedded in the praxis of the pastoral cycle of
see–judge–act, letting the option for the poor orient its gaze to where incarnational
transforming love is needed most.

NOTES
1. John Paul II, Centesimus Annus—On the Hundreth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum
(May 1, 1991), http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_
enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html.
2. Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum—On Capital and Labor (May 15, 1895), http://w2.vatican.va/
content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html.
3. The exact label used to name this body of work has been occasion for some confusion.
Currently the Catholic Church identifies this body of work as doctrine. Its recent summary
of the heritage of this tradition of teachings is titled Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church (2004), http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/
documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html. As such, it
constitutes teaching considered official for the faithful of the Roman Catholic tradition.
However, many other documents and works are considered part of the social teaching of
the church. This would include documents from national and regional bodies of bishops,
and non-Magisterial documents (key addresses and sermons) from the popes that also deal
with the essentials of political and economic life. I refrain here from using the most
expansive term, Catholic social thought, which moves beyond the material just listed in
order to include secondary literature that interprets Catholic social teaching or doctrine in
broader terms, and by authors without an authoritative mandate to do so.
4. John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 32, 34, 35, 43, 48.
5. Ibid., 33–37.
6. John Pawlikowski, “The Three Recent Papacies: Continuity or Discontinuity on Economic
Issues,” Unpublished presentation (Manila, Philippines, 2015).
7. See, for example, Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate—On Integral Human Development in
Charity and Truth (July 7, 2009), http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/
documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html; and Francis, Evangelii
Gaudium—Apostolic Exhortation On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World
(November 24, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/
documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html.
8. United States Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social
Teaching and the U.S. Economy (November 1986), http://www.usccb.org/upload/economic_
justice_for_all.pdf.
9. Ibid., Section 3: “The Church as Economic Actor.”
10. Ari L. Goldman, “American Bishops Criticized on the Poor,” The New York Times
(November 5, 1986), https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/05/us/catholic-bishops-criticized-
on-poor.html.
11. Ibid. See also John Langan, “The Pastoral on the Economy: From Drafts to Policy (Notes
on Moral Theology),” Theological Studies, 48 (March 1987), 144–147.
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 331

12. With the papacy of John XXIII, 1958–1963, a shift occurred in the addressee of most
papal encyclicals. While previously the audience was often stated as the Catholic faithful,
the hierarchy of the Church, and sometimes extended to the faithful of other Christian
traditions in communion with the Roman Catholicism, John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris—On
Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity, and Liberty (April 11, 1963) began
the custom of including “all men [sic] of goodwill.” The importance of this for a discussion
on the political theology of Catholic social teaching lies in the assumption that after the
aggiornamento of Vatican II the Church made a conscious decision to address a broader,
more plural audience.
13. María Teresa Dávila, “The Role of the Social Sciences in Catholic Social Thought: the
Incarnational Nature of the Option for the Poor and Being Able to ‘See’ in the Rubric ‘See,
Judge, Act’,” Journal of Catholic Social Thought, vol.9, no. 2 (Summer 2012), 229–244.
14. Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno—On Reconstruction of the Social Order (May 15,
1931), http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_
enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html.
15. Ibid.
16. Pope Pius XII, Fidei Donum—On the Present Condition of the Catholic Missions, Especially in
Africa (April 21, 1957), http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_
enc_21041957_fidei-donum.html; and Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes—Pastoral
Constitution of the Church in the Modern World (December 7, 1967), http://www.vatican.va/
archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_
en.html. It is important to note that the Church’s treatment of the topic of decolonization—as
with other topics listed above—leaves much to be desired. As the essay will explain, in its
attentiveness not to appear as taking sides on political issues which they determined as fraught
with complex dynamics that could lead to conflict, and where, in their estimation, overall
political and economic conditions could worsen, the Church either remained silent, made
observations from a distance without committing to any one possible outcome, or made
pronouncements after the fact. In the case of decolonization, its support for the project of
expansion of Western civilization, a key element for the global spread of Christianity, prevented
it from proposing possibilities for the liberation and emancipation of former colonies as central
to the quest for human liberation and dignity. See Donald Dorr, “Pius XII: Anticommunism
and Decolonization,” in Option for the Poor and for the Earth: from Leo XIII to Pope Francis,
revised edition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016, Kindle edition).
17. John XXIII, Pacem in Terris—On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and
Liberty (April 11, 1963), http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/
hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem.html; Gauidum et Spes (1967); Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace, The International Arms Race: An Ethical Reflection (Libreria Editrice
Vaticana: Vatican City, 1994).
18. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and
Our Response (May 3, 1983), http://www.usccb.org/upload/challenge-peace-gods-promise-
our-response-1983.pdf; and the ten-year anniversary reflection, The Harvest of Justice is
Sown in Peace (November 17, 1993), http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-
believe/catholic-social-teaching/the-harvest-of-justice-is-sown-in-peace.cfm.
19. Pacem in Terris (1963); Pope John Paul II, Centessimus Annus (1991).
20. Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio—On the Development of Peoples (March 26, 1967),
http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_
populorum.html.
21. Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae—On the Regulation of Birth (July 25, 1968), http://
w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-
vitae.html.
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22. Pacem in Terris (1963); Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees: A
Challenge to Solidarity (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1992); United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity
(November 15, 2000), http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/cultural-diversity/pastoral-
care-of-migrants-refugees-and-travelers/resources/welcoming-the-stranger-among-us-unity-
in-diversity.cfm.
23. Pope Francis, Laudato Si—Care for our Common Home (May 24, 2015), http://w2.vatican.
va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-
laudato-si.html.
24. Mary Irene Zotti, “The Young Christian Workers,” U.S. Catholic Historian, vol. 9, no. 4
(Labor and Lay Movements, Part II) (Fall 1990), 387.
25. Pope John XIII, Matter et Magistra—On Christianity and Social Progress (May 15, 1965),
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_15051961_
mater.html, 236.
26. When pronounced as an encyclical or other papal document, or from a Synod of Bishops.
Even within this nomenclature there are different levels of authority.
27. R.R. Reno, “The Weakness of Laudato Si,” First Things (July 1, 2015), https://www.
firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/07/the-weakness-of-laudato-si.
28. Among liberationist, womanist, mujerista, and other feminist theologians the use of the
term “kindom” has replaced the use of the term “kingdom” to refer to the reality that is
and will be God’s reign. Briefly, two considerations come into play here. First, by replacing
the term “kin” for “king” the emphasis shifts from a top-down, monarchical rule to a more
horizontal vision of the Beloved Community in which Jesus Christ’s fraternizing function
(making us all sisters and brothers to each other) has been fulfilled. Second, it wrests
sovereignty from the masculine vision of the Divine, helping to dismantle patriarchal
theological imagery. Both are steps toward engaging a theological imaginary that more
aptly reflects the experience of salvation for all by an all loving, all merciful God.
29. Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, “Political Theology as Foundational Theology,” Proceedings of
the CTSA - Thirty-Second Annual Convention (1977), 153, https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/
index.php/ctsa/issue/view/269.
30. Fiorenza, 156: “The principles of natural religion are based on a universal truth, whereas
the principles of civil religion are based on social utility.”
31. Edward P. DeBerri and James Hug, et al., Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret,
Fourth Revised and Expanded Edition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), 16; Paul
Lakeland, “The Politics of Catholic Social Teaching,” Cross Currents, vol. 35, no. 4 (Winter
1985–1986), XX.
32. Dávila, “The Role of the Social Sciences in Catholic Social Thought.”
33. Thomas Massaro, SJ, Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action (Lanham, MD:
Sheed and Ward, 2000), 115–164. Subsequent Classroom Editions of this volume have
expanded the material to include the social teaching of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis.
This also impacts his numeration of key principles, adding care for creation as the most
recent articulation of these perennial Christian values.
34. Ibid., 115.
35. For a thorough review of the topic in official Catholic social teaching, see Michael A.
Blume, S.V.D., “Migration and the Social Doctrine of the Church,” People on the Move,
No. 88–89 (April–December 2002), http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/
migrants/pom2002_88_90/rc_pc_migrants_pom88-89_blume.htm, a publication of the
Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees.
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36. See John XXIII, Matter et Magistra, 3, 94–96; Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (April 2, 2004), http://www.vatican.va/
roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_
compendio-dott-soc_en.html, 166, 182, 245, 222, 293, 447, 478; and Francis, Laudato Si,
27–31, respectively on these three topics.
37. Every attempt at clarity as to this point will inevitably run into complex and legitimate
discussions regarding hard decisions made at multiple levels with regard to upholding
human dignity within the confines of limited resources. To these quite real limits we must
add conflicting sets of values that often coexist in pluralist societies with respect to shared
or conflicting visions of the good life. Space does not permit a proper acknowledgment of
this challenge, which surfaces as soon as one tries to negotiate these principles in the realm
of public policy, governance, finance, and the markets. An excellent primer on this
challenge is David Hollenbach, Claims in Conflict: Retrieving and Renewing the Catholic
Human Rights Tradition (New York: Paulist Press, 1979).
38. Massaro, Living Justice, 119.
39. Ibid., 124.
40. Ibid., 138.
41. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “The Dignity of Work and the Rights of
Workers,” http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-
teaching/the-dignity-of-work-and-the-rights-of-workers.cfm.
42. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens—on Human Work (September 14, 1981), http://
w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_
laborem-exercens.html.
43. International Labor Organization, “New ILO Global Estimate of forced Labor: 20.9
Million Victims” (June 1, 2012), http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/
WCMS_182109/lang--en/index.htm.
44. Massaro, Living Justice, 128.
45. Ibid., 132. The iteration of this set of principles in Massaro’s volume does not include “the
universal destination of material goods.”
46. Ibid., 142.
47. John XXIII, Populorum Progressio, 7, 52, 63.
48. Massaro, Living Justice, 150.
49. Joshua McElwee, “Landmark Vatican Conference Rejects Just War Theory, Asks for
Encyclical on Nonviolence,” National Catholic Reporter (April 14, 2016), https://www.
ncronline.org/news/vatican/landmark-vatican-conference-rejects-just-war-theory-asks-
encyclical-nonviolence.
50. Francis, “Transcript: Pope Francis’ Speech to Congress,” The Washington Post (September
25, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/transcript-pope-franciss-
speech-to-congress/2015/09/24/6d7d7ac8-62bf-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html?utm_
term=.0a2295e5ceab.
51. Francis, Laudato Si.
52. An excellent survey of current scientific evidence on climate change, political
challenges, impact to different groups of people, and discussion of various dimensions of
the encyclical Laudato Si is found in The Theological and Ecological Vision of Laudato
Si: Everything is Connected, edited by Vincent Miller (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark,
2016).
53. Francis, Laudato Si, Chapters 5 and 6.
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54. María Teresa Dávila, “A Liberation Ethic for the One-third World: the Preferential Option
for the Poor and Challenges to Middle-class Christianity in the United States,” PhD diss.
(Boston College, 2007), 246–250.
55. Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM), Medellín: Poverty of the Church
(September 6, 1968), http://www.povertystudies.org/TeachingPages/EDS_PDFs4WEB/
Medellin%20Document-%20Poverty%20of%20the%20Church.pdf, 1.2.
56. See the two instructions from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Instruction on Certain Aspects of Theologies of Liberation (June 1984), http://www.
povertystudies.org/TeachingPages/EDS_PDFs4WEB/Medellin%20Document-%20
Poverty%20of%20the%20Church.pdf; and Instruction on Christian Freedom and
Liberation (March 22, 1986), http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/
documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19860322_freedom-liberation_en.html.
57. John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 11, 57.
58. An example of this is the lack of a thorough critique of the ways racism seems to permeate
most liberal democracies, especially since many participated in one way or another in the
global slave trade. While much has been made within Catholic social teaching about
contemporary networks of slave labor, racism remains a hidden crisis, included in lists that
enumerate grave social sins, but rarely tackled directly by the tradition. On this topic see
Bryan Massingale, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
2010); and María Teresa Dávila, “Racialization and Racism in Theological Ethics,” in
Catholic Theological Ethics Past, Present, and Future, edited by James Keenan (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books, 2011), 307–321.
59. Paul Lakeland, “The Politics of Catholic Social Teaching,” Cross Currents, vol. 35, no. 4
(Winter 1985–1986), 395.
60. Ibid.
61. Kristin Heyer, “A Feminist Appraisal of Catholic Social Thought,” Lane Center for Catholic
Studies and Catholic Social Thought Fall Lecture Series, University of San Francisco
(November 9, 2007), 2.
62. Ibid.
63. Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 53–60, 197–208.
64. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 27, 48–67.
65. Space does not permit a deeper analysis of the importance of popular movements for
Francis’ papacy and understanding of how Catholic social teaching is put into action on the
ground. Helpful in understanding this influence in his thought are his addresses to the
World Gathering of Popular Movements in Bolivia on July 2015, http://w2.vatican.va/
content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/july/documents/papa-francesco_20150709_bolivia-
movimenti-popolari.html; Rome on November 2016, http://w2.vatican.va/content/
francesco/en/speeches/2016/november/documents/papa-francesco_20161105_movimenti-
popolari.html, and during the first regional meeting of popular movements in the US, in
California on February 2017, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-
messages/2017/documents/papa-francesco_20170210_movimenti-popolari-modesto.html.
66. Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate—Apostolic Exhortation on the Call to Holiness in Today’s
World (March 19, 2018), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/
documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html.
67. Ibid., 96–99.
68. Ibid., 101.
69. Elizabeth Povoledo and Laurie Goodstein, “Pope Francis Declares Death Penalty
Unacceptable in All Cases,” The New York Times (August 2, 2018), https://www.nytimes.
com/2018/08/02/world/europe/pope-death-penalty.html.
THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING 335

70. Francis, Laudato Si, 13, 16, 20. The poor and poverty receives preferential treatment in
this encyclical. See María Teresa Dávila, “The Option for the Poor in Laudato Si:
Connecting Care of Creation with Care for the Poor,” The Theological and Ecological
Vision of Laudato Si: Everything is Connected, edited by Vincent Miller (London:
Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), 145–159.
71. Ibid., 31, 48.

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