Final Exam Flashcards
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Dignity of the Human Person
Human life is a sacred, precious, gift from God and the dignity of the human person is the foundation for all social teachings.
We are all made in the image and likeness of God, and we are responsible for recognizing this in our brothers and sisters, no matter their circumstance.
Structures and institutions are measured by how they enhance or threaten the human life and dignity.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Common Good
The human person is social and experiences fullness through relations and community.
We are responsible for the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights.
Society must be organized in a way that everyone has access to basic human needs (since we are all entitled to them), and we are responsible as individuals and communities for ensuring that this is done fairly.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Universal Destination of Goods
An economic vision inspired by distributive justice means ensuring that the goods of creation (that are destined for everyone) are distributed fairly and in solidarity. Recognizes private property.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Participation
Every human has the right to participate in all things necessary for human fulfillment, and all of society shares the responsibility to ensure that everyone is participating in the expression of human dignity.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Principle of Subsidiarity
Every human has a fundamental right to life and its basic needs, and every person has the responsibility to help each other protect and fulfill these rights.
Recognizing the responsibilities we have to each other means taking an active role in helping others attain their full potential.
This means that we must see each person as our neighbour, equal in dignity, and having equal opportunities to freedom.
All humans have the right to participate in decisions that affect our own lives, and authorities must listen and recognize those voices.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Principle of Solidarity
Humans have an intrinsic social nature, and we are all equal and dignity and on one common path towards committed unity.
We are a human family, no matter our differences, and we must love each other locally, nationally and internationally.
We are really responsible for all, and we cannot turn away from the injustices that our brothers and sisters face.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Family at the Heart of Society
The family is the first natural society and is the centre (heart) of the social life.
Family is a divine institution that stands at the foundation of the human person as the prototype of social order.
It is the “cradle of life and life” (first place where we learn to become human” and it is the “first and vital cell of society” (our primary experience of community.”
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Dignity and Rights of Work and Workers
Wok represents a fundamental dimension of human existence as participation not only in the act of creation, but also in redemption.
Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.
The economy must serve people and not take precedence over the rights of workers (such as the rights to productive work, economic initiative, fair wages, union, private property).
Respecting these rights promotes an economy that protects human life, defends human rights and advances the well-being of all.
Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
Preferential Option for the Poor
From the Last Judgement, all people are instructed by God to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.
We are responsible for exposing the structures of oppression and mobilizing our resources and networks for the poor and vulnerable who are systematically denied opportunities to exercise rights, freedom and dignity.
The world is shaped by the division between the growing prosperity for some, and poverty for others.
Poverty is not inherent, it is socially constructed.
The “Ends of Marriage”: Development
Stoicism Gnosticism Manichaeism Pelagianism Augustine Aquinas Irish Penitentials Casti Connubii Gaudium et Spes Humanae Vitae Persona Humana
Stoicism
There is a logos in which we can participate through rationality.
Suspicious of sexuality; thought of orgasm as a kind of madness and medical condition, an overthrow of human rationality (emphasis on self-control and having a reason for sexualities).
The Stoics maintained that sexuality is only to be engaged in for its end/purpose (i.e. procreation) and is to be limited to marriage between monogamous couples, that contain one male and one female. Any sexual actions which occurred outside of these limitations were acts of irrationality and excess, and therefore immoral.
Stoics “conjugalized” and “procreationalized” sexual relations, and traditional.
Catholic morality adopts these views (sexuality is constrained to marriage and all sexual acts must be aimed at, or at least allow for, procreation). Stoicism did not merely receive their understandings from scripture, but tradition and culture too.
Gnosticism
Gnostics revised the classic Jewish approach to creation, and maintained that any sexual intercourse must be solely for the procreation of offspring, and any other forms of sexual intercourse are a violation of our human nature and therefore immoral (sinful).
Christian Fathers accepted this view, and held that anyone who engaged in sex for the purpose other than creation was committing a sin. The grace of God is best ensured through abstinence, according to these early Church Fathers.
Though marriage was good, virginity was preferred over marriage. This lead to ambiguity around sexuality and marriage, that precedes into today.
Manichaeism
Dualists; sexuality is listed among the evil, dark material realities.
Pelagianism
Adam’s original fall from grace left human nature unimpaired, and humans can do what they could before the Fall, without the help of God’s grace.
Pelagius read Augustine’s confessions and disagreed with them, because God tells us to be perfect. We have everything we need to be Holy and virtuous (e.g. free will), therefore we are our own masters and have no excuse not to do the good.
Augustine
Augustine responded contrary to Manichaean and Pelagian attitudes, stating that…
sexuality and marriage were created good by a good God and cannot lose their intrinsic goodness
The good of marriage is threefold: mutual fidelity of spouses, priority of offspring and sacrament.
Because of the fall and original sin, sexuality is sinful and disordered.
In a moment of sexual climax, a person cannot rationalize themselves out of it.
Sex is a relational and pro-creational activity. The sexual appetite itself is not sinful, rather it is good, but when it becomes disordered and unreasonable, sexual intercourse becomes sinful.
Augustine’s Goods of Marriage
Goods of Marriage
There are four goods of marriage, according to Augustine
(1) fidelity, in which spouses are meant to be mutually faithful
(2) offspring, in which procreation of children is prioritized since humans are meant to live in community
(3) sacrament, in which the uniting of two spouses in communion is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible relationship with God
(4) friendship, in which the natural companionship between the sexes is necessary
Aquinas
Augustine’s theology on sexual ethics controlled Christianity until Aquinas and scholastic theology took over in the thirteenth century…
Aquinas expands on Augustine’s goods of marriage and transforms them into the three ends of marriage.
(1) Procreation and education of offspring
(2) Faithfulness of the husband to his wife
(3) Marriage as a sacrament that represents Christ and Church
Early scholastics maintained that marriage was a sign of grace, however, they doubted that it could cause grace, and thus they hesitated to include it as a sacrament of the Church. However, later scholastics established marriage as a sacrament, believing it to be both a sign and cause of grace, insofar as it is “contracted in faith in Christ”
In his Summa Theologiae, Aquinas lists marriage as one of the seven sacraments.
Aquinas’ 3 Ends of Marriage
(1) Procreation (and the education of offspring) (man as an animal)
(2) Faithfulness of the husband to his wife (man as a human)
(3) Marriage as a sacrament that represents Christ and Church (man as a believer)
Irish Penitentials
Regulation of sexuality is a major moral concern.
Natural Law was the ground of the Manuals (Scripture took a second place and was often an add on).
The general rule is the ancient Stoic rule: sexual intercourse is permitted between a man and a woman who are married and, even then, only for procreation.
Casti Connubii (Pius XI)
Every marital act must be aimed at the two ends of sexual intercourse: procreation and mutual love between spouses.
He ranks procreation as the principal end of marriage, more important that mutual love: the primary end of marriage is the procreation and the education of children.
Procreation is the natural purpose of the sexual act, and any sexual act that is not aimed at procreation disobeys nature and is therefore sinful.
Those who use contraception during sexual intercourse frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.
Although Casti Connubii deals with contraception, it impacts the Church’s views of homosexuality, since it strictly prohibits any sexual act that is not aimed at procreation.
Vatican II: Gaudium et spes
Article no. 48: The unitive and procreative ends of marriage are inseparable, and inextricably bound to each other.
The Bible is not a moral manual about sexual activity.
