2.  The Second Vatican council marked a
new period in the life of the Church.
One fundamental aspect of this new
period was a change in the church’s
attitude toward the world. Such a
change has had a profound
consequences for the themes and
emphases of the Church’s social
teaching.


3.  An assault on political apathy. Many Church
leaders, theologians and loyal critics continue
to ask how it was possible for the Church to be
largely silent and passive in the face of the
atrocities of the Second World War.
 The answer at least in part is that Church and
Religion had become confined to the private
arena. Vatican II recognized that the Church
shares responsibility for secular as well as for
religious history. Pope Paul VI insisted in a Call
to Action that politics is a vocation aimed at
the transformation of society.

4.  A commitment to the “humanization of life”.
The council emphasized that the Church’s
responsibility for the world, a world which
God created and Jesus walked upon.
 Moreover,as the Council leaders affirmed
and as Pope John Paul II stated on Human
work, people can rightly consider that they
are continuing the Creator’s work through
their own labor and contributing to the
realization in history of the divine plan. From
these attitudes a respect develops for the
rightful autonomy of the secular world.

5.  A commitment to world justice. The
Bishops in their 1971 Synod statement,
Justice in the World. Urged that justice
be sought at all levels of society but
especially between the rich and
powerful nations and those that are poor
and weak. The bishops declared that
the doing of justice is a “constitutive
dimension of the preaching of the
gospel”.

6.  Preferential option for the poor. The Church
has always understood that Christ identifies
with the poor and underprivileged. But it
now looks at this truth with new urgency
and new pastoral consequences.
 Christians see God’s face above all in the
faces of suffering and wounded people.
Consequently fidelity to Christ requires an
identification with and an “option” for the
poor.


7.  Imaging the Church as People of God.
Vatican II in the Nature of the Church
(Lumen Gentium, 1964), emphasized the
Church as a People of God. This biblical
image holds important implications not
only for ecclesiology, but also for the
Church’s approach to the social order.

8.  The Church as a “People of God” lifts the
faithful from a passive role to an active role in
defining and shaping their history in the
contemporary world.
 But the Church does not claim any special,
unique competence in technical questions. It
does not possess all the answers, but searches
for them in cooperation with others. As Paul VI
indicated in A Call to Action, it is up to local
Christian communities to join others of goodwill
in seeking solutions to pressing social questions.

9.  Reading the “signs of the times” It is a
basic Christian belief that God continues
to speak in and through human history.
This truth was reaffirmed by Vatican II.
Consequently, the Church has “the duty
of scrutinizing the signs of the times and
of interpreting them in the light of the
Gospel.

10.  The Church looks to the world and
discovers there God’s presence. Signs
both reveal God’s presence in the world
and manifest God’s design for the world.
Implicit in this truth is that theology must
go beyond the purely deductive and
speculative. History ceases to be the
mere context for the application of
binding principles..it becomes the place
of on-going revelation.

11.  The primacy of love. Reason was the primary shaper
of the Church’s earlier formulation of social teaching.
In recent decades, however, the social teaching has
been increasingly shaped by the primacy of love.
The primacy of love has three meanings in this
context.
 First, love is at the heart of the virtue of justice and
brings the actions of justice to their fullest potential,
meaning and life. Second, love is the motivation to
act on behalf of justice. Third, the fundamental
option of love, which the heart makes for God as the
ground of our being, produces moral action. Reason
is not discarded in the social teaching, but put in its
proper place.

12.  An orientation to pastoral planning and
action. The evolving methodology of
the Church’s social teaching is also
praxis-oriented. Praxis, the action that
comes out of reflection and leads back
to reflection, can be viewed as the end
result of an option which one makes in
the struggle for justice.

13.  Link of religious and social dimensions of
life. The social- the human construction
of the world—is not secular in the sense
of being outside of God’s plan, but is
intimately involved with the dynamic of
the Reign of God. Therefore, faith and
justice are necessarily linked together.

14.  Dignity of the human person. Made in
the image of God, women and men
have a preeminent place in the social
order. Human dignity can be
recognized and protected only in the
community with others. The
fundamental question to ask about
social development is : What is
happening to people?

15.  Political and Economic rights. All human
persons enjoy inalienable rights, which
are political-legal (e.g. votingm free
speech, migration) and social economic
(e.g. food, shelter, work and education)
These are realized in community.
Essential for the promotion of justice and
solidarity, these rights are to be
respected and protected by all the
institutions of society.

16.  Option for the poor. A preferential love
should be shown to the poor, whose
needs and rights are given special
attention in God’s eyes. “Poor” is
understood to refer to the economically
disadvantaged who, as a consequence
of their status, suffer oppression and
powerlessness.

17.  Link of love and justice. Love of
neighbour is an absolute demand for
justice, because charity must manifest
itself in actions and structures which
respect human dignity, protect human
rights, and facilitate human
development. To promote justice is to
transform structures which block love.

18.  Promotion of the common Good. The
common good is the sum total of all
those conditions of social living-
economic, political, cultural which make
possible for women and men readily and
fully to achieve the perfection of their
humanity. Individual rights are always
experienced within the context of
promotion of the common good.

19.  Subsidiarity. Responsibilities and decisions
should be attended to as close as possible
to the level of individual initiative in local
communities and institutions. Mediating
structures of families, neigborhoods,
community groups, small business and local
governments should be fostered and
participated in. But larger government
structures do have a role when greater
social coordination and regulation are
necessary for the common good.

20.  Political Participation. Democratic
participation in decision making is the
best way to respect the dignity and
liberty of people. The government is the
instrument by which people cooperate
together in order to achieve the
common good. The international
common good requires participation in
international organizations.

21.  Economic justice. The economy is for
the people and the resources of the
earth are to be shared equitably by all.
Human word is the key to contemporary
social questions. Labor takes
precedence over both capital and
technology in the production process.
Just wages and the right of workers to
organize are to be respected.

22.  Global solidarity. We belong to one
human family and as such have mutual
obligations to promote the rights and
development of all people across the
world, irrespective of national
boundaries. In particular, the rich
nations have responsibilities toward poor
nations and the structures of
international order must reflect justice.

23.  Promotion of peace. Peace is the fruit of
justice and is dependent upon the right
order among humans and among
nations. The arms race must cease and
progressive disarmament take place if
the future is to be secure. In order to
promote peace and the conditions of
peace, an effective international
authority is necessary.