This document discusses several key principles of Catholic Social Teaching, including: the dignity of the human person; that people grow in community and society should support families and participation in the common good; economic and social policies should protect human life and dignity; and that people have fundamental rights to life, dignity, and well-being as well as responsibilities to their communities. It references several Catholic documents that discuss human rights in the context of living in community and society.

1. Catholic Social
Teaching
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Father Kevin Queally, TOR
Saint Mary Our Lady of Grace
Saint Petersburg, Florida

2. Call to Family, Community
and Participation
The person is not only
sacred but also social. How
we organize our society -- in
economics and politics, in
law and policy -- directly
affects human dignity and
the capacity of individuals
to grow in community.

3. Call to Family, Community
and Participation
Marriage and the family
are the central social
institutions that must
be supported and
strengthened, not
undermined.

5. Call to Family, Community
and Pariticipation
We believe people have a
right and a duty to
participate in society,
seeking together the
common good and well-
being of all, especially the
poor and vulnerable.

6. Economic and social policies as
well as organization of the work
world should be continually
evaluated in light of their impact
on the strength and stability of
family life. The long-range future
of this nation is intimately linked
with the well-being of families,
for the family is the most basic
form of human community.
-Economic Justice for All, #93, 1986

8. Community
While our society exalts
individualism, the Catholic
tradition teaches that human
beings grow and achieve
fulfillment in community. The
role of the government and
other institutions is to protect
human life and human dignity
and promote the common
good.

10. Rights and Responsibilities
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.

11. Rights and Responsibilities
Therefore, every person
has a fundamental right
to life and a right to those
things required for human
decency.

13. “The inviolability of the
person which is a reflection
of the absolute inviolability
of God, finds its primary and
fundamental expression in
the inviolability of human
life.

14. Above all, the common outcry,
which is justly made on behalf of
human rights-for example, the right
to health, to home, to work, to
family, to culture- is false and
illusory if the right to life, the most
basic and fundamental right and the
condition for all other personal
rights, is not defended with
maximum determination.” -St. John
Paul II,On the Vocation and Mission
of the Lay Faithful, #38, 1988

15. Rights and Responsibilities
Corresponding to these
rights are duties and
responsibilities--to one
another, to our families,
and to the larger
society.

16. Gaudium et Spes
“But God did not create
[man] as a solitary, for from
the beginning ‘male and
female he created them.’
(Gen. 1:27)

18. Gaudium et Spes (cont.)
Their companionship produces
the primary form of
interpersonal communion. For
by his innermost nature [man]
is a social being, and unless he
relates himself to others he can
neither live nor develop his
potential.” paragraph 12

19. Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity respects
personal dignity by
recognizing in the person a
subject who is always
capable of giving
something to others. -Pope
Benedict, Charity in Truth,
#57

20. Pacem in Terris
“We must speak of [man's]
rights. Man has the right to
live. He has the right to bodily
integrity and to the means
necessary for the proper
development of life, particularly
food, clothing, shelter, medical
care, rest, and, finally, the
necessary social services.

21. Pacem in Terris
In consequence, [he] has the
right to be looked after in the
event of ill health; disability
stemming from his
work; widowhood; old age;
enforced unemployment; or
whenever through no fault of
his own he is deprived of the
means of livelihood.” paragraph
11