LibGuides: "Catholic Social Thought": THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF SOCIAL LIFE

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

“Besides the principles that must guide the building of a society worthy of man, the Church’s social doctrine also indicates fundamental values.”

“All social values are inherent in the dignity of the human person, whose authentic development they foster. Essentially, these values are: truth, freedom, justice, love.”

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS 58 (1966), 1046-1047.
John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 265-266.
Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 43, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 44.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 36: AAS 58 (1966), 1053-1054.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1: AAS 58 (1966), 1025-1026.
Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 13: AAS 59 (1967), 263-264.

“Men and women have the specific duty to move always towards the truth, so respect it and bear responsible witness to it.”

“Modern times call for an intensive educational effort and a corresponding commitment on the part of all so that the quest for truth cannot be ascribed to the sum of different opinions.”

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 61: AAS 58 (1966), 1081-1082.
Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 35, 40: AAS 59 (1967), 274-275, 277.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 44: AAS 80 (1988), 575-577. For social reform, “the primary task, which will affect the success of all the others, belongs to the order of education”.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 99: AAS 79 (1987), 599.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 16: AAS 58 (1966), 1037.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2464-2487.

“Freedom is the highest sign in man of his being made int he divine image and, consequently, is a sign of the sublime dignity of every human person.”

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 17: AAS 58 (1966), 1037-1038.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1705, 1730.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 28: AAS 79 (1987), 565.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1738.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 26: AAS 79 (1987), 564-565.

“The value of freedom, as an expression of the singularity of each human person, is respected when every member of society is permitted to fulfil his personal vocation.”

“On the other hand, freedom must also be expressed as the capacity to refuse what is morally negative, in whatever guise it may be presented.”

“Justice is a value that accompanies the exercise of the corresponding cardinal moral virtue.”

Saint Thomas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 6: Ed. Leon. 6, 55-63.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1807.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 58, a. 1: Ed. Leon. 9, 9-10: “iustitia est perpetua et constans voluntas ius suum unicuique tribuendi”.
John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 282-283.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2411.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1928-1942, 2425-2449, 2832.
Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Divini Redemptoris: AAS 29 (1937), 92.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 2: AAS 73 (1981), 580-583.

“Justice is particularly important in the present-day context, where the individual value of the person, his dignity and his rights –– despite proclaimed intentions –– are seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to make exclusive use of criteria of utility and ownership.”

“The full truth about man makes it possible to move beyond a contractualistic vision of justice, which is a reductionist vision, and to open up also for justice the new horizon of solidarity and love.”