Session 02

Sources of CST

Sources of CST:
Revelation/Scripture
Reason/Natural law
Tradition
Experience
Magisterium

I. Scripture

How does CST use scripture?

- Sometimes passages are cited directly in the text of encyclicals, to borrow an insight or to justify a
judgment. (revealed morality)
• E.g. in QA Pius XI quotes a verse in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to urge us to
develop bonds of solidarity, since, as Paul writes, if one part suffers, all parts suffer with it.
- Sometimes biblical materials are used more indirectly to evoke a sense of urgency or obligation.
(revealed reality)
• E.g. in SRS JP II wanted to inspire a greater sharing of resources between rich and poor
nations and alludes to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

- This use of scripture in CST reveals a confidence in the relevance today of God’s word in
scripture.
- Some cautions:
• The use of Scripture as proof text: an isolated text is used to prove an assertion for the
present time w/o considering the difference between the biblical and contemporary
contexts. There is also the danger of taking the text out of its original biblical context.(see
prooftexts samples)
• One cannot apply Scripture in a timeless manner to different historical. situations
• Scripture is not confronted with the same moral problems we have today.

II. Reason/Natural Law

§ Aside from revelation in scripture, Catholic theology holds that we can also access God’s will by
the use of reason.
§ Catholic theology, in contrast with Protestant theology, has an optimistic view of the operations of
human reason to seek the truth.
§ One specific way of using reason in ethics is to use natural law reasoning. The natural law
approach to ethics has the fundamental belief that God created the universe with a specific
purpose. God so created human beings with enough intelligence that they can use their reason to
observe the natural world and make reliable judgments about God’s purposes and how our
behavior may cooperate with God’s plans.
§ There is an objective moral order that is accessible to all who use their reason.
§ There are two strains of interpretation in the natural law tradition:

o The order of nature: focused on the physical and biological structures given in nature as
the source of morality. The order of nature interpretation of natural law suggests a
 blueprint or maker’s instructions theory of natural law which supports physicalism over
personalism. It is a natural fundamentalism which makes the law of God and the rule of
nature one. This interpretation has dominated Catholic moral tradition in sexual and
medical matters pertaining to reproduction.

o The order of reason: focused on the human capacity to discover in experience what befits
human well-being. In the order of reason, nature includes the total complexity of human
reality taken in all its relationships and with all its potentials. Nature is constantly
changing; it continues to make new demands on us. As a result, change, revision and
development would be constitutive of natural moral law. What pertains to nature is
accessible to all and provides the potential with which human creativity must deal in order
to achieve human wholeness. The order of reason approach is more visible in Catholic
social teaching.

§ It would be difficult to use natural law alone to argue for or against a specific activity. Natural law
helps direct our freedom in moral matters but it does not determine the specific course of action
we should choose. At best, we can draw general principles from natural law, the most basic is to
seek and promote the good and avoid, whenever possible, the evil. Other such principles are:
preserve life whenever possible, do no harm, protect the innocent. That is why natural law is
called a skeleton law. We use reason to find the best ways to implement these principles through
concrete actions.
§ Natural law theory is a good resource to fight against ethical relativism which does not believe that
there is objective right and wrong in the universe. Natural law guides us through general principles
for the proper course of action.

§ How is natural law used in CST?

Natural law has been used , particularly, in the early encyclicals, to criticize unjust arrangements
of property and wages. Leo XIII and Pius XI saw how the unjust distribution of property and unfair
wages have cause great poverty and starvation for millions. This situation of suffering was seen as a
violation of God’s purpose for the world and thus they called for a change in the capitalist order,
calling for just wages suitable not only for the survival but also the rise of families from poverty and
socially responsible use of property. Even if civil law did not require better treatment of workers, the
popes used a higher law, natural law, to demand the preservation of life and greater respect for the
aspirations of workers and their families to rise above poverty.

III. Tradition

§ When we talk about tradition as a source of CST, we refer to all the previous reflections on
social issues that have gone on within Christian theology.
§ An easy way to trace the source of previous reflections on social issues is simply to check on
the footnotes of the social document. Most of the encyclicals have references to not only to
previous documents but also to great figures in the history of the church who have written or
spoken on social issues, such as Augustine and Aquinas.
§ By looking at the history of theological thinking on specific social issues one can trace a
growth or development in social teachings. For example:
o Private property – Fathers of the Church have denounced greed and selfishness in their
time and advocated a radical sharing of property. St. Thomas forged a compromise
between the teaching of the Fathers on sharing of goods and the social situation that
required ownership of private property. He used natural law reasoning to make a
distinction between the ownership and the use of property. He applied the teachings of
 the Fathers on sharing to the use of property while keeping private ownership of goods
as a necessary social principle in a world marked by sin.
o The use of force – before Constantine, the early Christian communities were pacifist
and rejected shedding of blood. By the time of Augustine, when violent heretical
movements were threatening Christian society, he advocated the use of military force
when absolutely necessary to preserve order. He founded the tradition of just war
which was later developed by Aquinas and Francisco Suarez and a strict list of
conditions was formed which can justify a defensive war. This theory of just war
would be later refined and re-applied to various situations of war as modern warfare
continues to change.

IV. Experience

§ Part of the task of CST is to read the signs of the times and to help people of faith to also read and
interpret the sign of the times
o 3 Step Process (See-Judge-Act):
§ Take a careful look at the situation
§ Make an accurate judgment of situation and how best to respond to it
§ Act courageously and vigorously upon what has been learned

o A more elaborate version of see-judge-act is a four step process usually called pastoral circle
§ Experience
§ Social analysis
§ Theological reflection
§ Pastoral planning

o Experience: Requires insertion into a local situation and gathering data about social problems
and their effects.

o Social analysis: Requires asking hard questions about the causes of injustices and the
connection of the issues, trying to see who or what is responsible behind-the-scenes for social
problems and what systems or patterns of activity perpetuate them. This step may require the
assistance of experts. However it is good to have a healthy sense of skepticism about how
much we are told. The best thing to do is to listen to all sides before making a judgment. It is
very important to make one’s own independent and critical judgments, because the whole
process can be defeated by giving in to a misleading interpretation.

o Theological Reflection: This step accompanies social analysis and gives us tools to make
proper judgments about social realities. This stage reminds us that the data we gather must be
viewed in the light of faith. It is here where Scripture and the documents of CST are most
useful, providing us with a Christian perspective to the social situation at hand.

o Pastoral Planning: This step formulates and applies programs of action that puts into action
the fruits of experience, social analysis and theological reflection.

o After the four steps of the pastoral circle are completed, a new cycle begins with the new
situation that has been created by the previous cycle. The cycle is not a one-time episode but is
an ongoing process .It is less of a circle but more of a spiral because each succeeding cycle
builds on the results of the previous cycles. At the end of each cycle we do not end up where
 we started but we are in a better location, better informed of our social context and better
prepared to take effective action in the next round of involvement

Experience and Development of Doctrine

• Theological reflection of human experience leads to development of Church teaching. (see handout on
development of doctrine)

How does experience help church teaching to develop?

• Raw experience is chaos, there are billions of experiences everyday. Only certain experiences have
significant weight to change church teaching.
• Whose experiences count in order in forming the moral judgment within the church? There are two
broad levels of experience which can be distinguished:
o The experience of people subject to or affected by the current teachings
o The experience of those formulate official church teaching
• The experience of the affected must be translated to the experience of the decision makers, if a moral
rule is to be formed.
• It is important for the affected to make their experience of difficulty with the rules be made known to
the decision makers. It is crucial for the decision makers to become aware and sympathetic toward
those who are affected by the current teachings.
• What is the criteria for decision makers in finding certain experiences significant? What is the
important value that I am trying to save, protect and promote? The principle of change in moral
doctrine is Christ.
• In the development of CST the church is a movement toward being more faithful to Christ.

V. Magisterium

The Magisterium (the Pope in communion with the Bishops) draws from human experience,
scripture, tradition and natural law to formulate official Catholic Social Teachings
• We need make distinction between official teachings of the magisterium and local applications and
interpretations. Local applications do not necessarily apply universally. We need to discern
differences between social situations around the world and apply general church teachings according
to the unique circumstances of each situation.
• We need to differentiate the authority and jurisdiction of different levels of church authorities (Pope,
Congregation, Commission, Episcopal Conferences, Bishops, Priests) in order to judge appropriately
the authority and jurisdiction of their official statements.
• A Catholic is required to give religious assent to the teaching of the magisterium (LG 25). Religious
assent means a submission of the will and the mind to the authentic teaching authority of the pope.
What does this mean?
1. A Catholic must make a serious effort to come to an intellectual agreement that a teaching taught
by the magisterium is the truth.
2. One should strive to personally appropriate the teaching and live by it.
3. The basis for this submission is a religious reason – Jesus has commissioned the Church to be a
moral guide for the faithful and that the Holy Spirit assists it in discerning moral truth.
4. One must avoid two extremes:
a. to automatically consider the magisterium as always right without any critical reflection.
b. to consider the teaching of the magisterium as only as good as its arguments or treating the
magisterium as just one theological opinion among others.
5. Middle ground: one maintains an initial presumption in favor of the magisterium while remaining
open to setting aside this presumption if serious evidence warrants it in an extraordinary situation.
a. This means that the magisterium is a primary factor in the discernment and decision
making of the conscience but it may not be the exclusive basis of one’s decision and there
may be cases when it may not be the ultimate decisive factor.
b. We must use prudence in determining whether the presumption in favor of the magisterium
prevails in a situation of conflict.
c. The primacy of conscience continues to be affirmed.