Catholic Social Teaching Themes & Formation Of Conscience (Voting) Quiz Flashcards
Catholic Social Teachings
- Life and Dignity of Human Person (Central)
- Call to Family, Community, and Participation
- Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers
- Rights and Responsabilities
- Care for God’s Creation
- Solidarity
- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
Life and Dignity of the Human Person
- All human beings have God-given dignity (created in God’s image and likeness)
- Christians are called to respect and protect human dignity
- Help others live to the fullest and live at basic level
- Fundamental theme that all catholic social teaching is based off of
Call to Family, Community, and Participation
- We are social creatures created by God to live in fellowship and community
- Highest priority in society is to project and support a family
- Done by:
- making jobs pay well (support fam and children)
- Portraying fam life in positive way
- Making sure basic necessities are available
- Done by:
- Family has the right and responsibility to participate in society by benefitting it
- Political process
- Helping neighbor’s in need
Rights and Responsibilities
-Because of equal dignity and value, every human has the right to the things necessary to life a dignified life
-Right to life (food, clothing, shelter, etc)
-Kinds of human rights:
Ex: Right to life, Right to worship God, Economic rights, right to immigrate and emigrate
-Rights extend to all people!!!
-Governments and institutions have the responsibility not to prevent people from exercising rights
-Individuals must fulfill their responsibility to participate in society and contribute to the common good
-Limits on rights: ex: private property is not unlimited (Provide for those in need)
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
- Rooted in the moral principle “universal destination of goods”
- Earth and all its goods belong to God, and he intends these goods to provide the things all human beings need to live with dignity
- Poor and vulnerable= their needs are greater than ours
- Preferential option for the poor: Freely choose the become friends with poor and take on their problems, or take action against injustices against these people
- Spiritually poor: special concern for those who experience spiritual poverty (Lack positive relationship with God)
Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers
- The work is being done by a person= it is dignified
- Human work should contribute to the increase in goodness in the world, not detract from it
- Workers must be treated with dignity by other workers and their employers
- Rights of workers must be respected by business owners and protected by society
Solidarity
- Definition: Union of one’s heart and mind with all people
- Leads to the just distribution of material goods, creates bonds between opposing groups and nations, and leads to the spread of spiritual goods such as friendship and prayer
- All people are part of the same human family - Signs: influential people share their goods, stronger and richer nations help weaker nations
Care for Gods Creation
- God has granted us stewardship of his creation
- The responsibility to take care of someone or something that has been entrusted in our care
- We go against this with pollution, not recycling, using pesticides
Conscience
- A well formed conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil
- The three necessary elements of the well formed conscience:
- desire to embrace goodness and truth
- examine the facts and background information about various choices
- prayerful reflection, which is essential to discern the will of God
Prudence
- Prudence is the virtue that allows us “to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it
- Allows us to see the good in all circumstances
Intrinsically Evil
-actions which we must ever do because they are incompatible with love for God and neighbor
Ex. Human cloning, stem cell research, genocide, abortion, torture, terrorism
What should a voter do when all candidates hold to an intrinsic evil?
1) They can either refrain from voting, which is discouraged as voting is the job of a good citizen
2) vote for the candidate who is least likely to advance the intrinsically evil act
3) Catholic voters may vote for a candidate who supports an evil action, if they will promote more moral stances than the other candidate.
