Hunger, poverty, and homelessness are
realities that God never intended to exist in
our world since, for the most part, they are
a result of human sin.
 Human sins, over time, such as unjust
distribution of goods, become societal
structures without people even knowing it.
 Christ calls us to alleviate the immediate
needs of people, as well as to correct the
sinful social structures that cause people
suffering and injustice.

Sin is any deliberate offense in word,
deed, or desire, against the will of God.
 Sin injures human nature and human
solidarity.
 Sin is also an offense against the natural
law, or the law that expresses the original
moral sense that God gave us which
enables us to discern by our intellect and
reason what is good and evil.

The natural law is rooted in a desire to
know God, becoming our participation
in His wisdom and goodness because we
are made in His image.
 When we deliberately choose to act
against God’s will, we commit a mortal
sin.
 A mortal sin is an action contrary to the
will of God that results in total separation
from God and His grace.


When judging an action as sinful or not,
three things must be evaluated:
› Object, or the action being chosen
› Intention, or purpose of the action
› Circumstances, or issues surrounding the
action

For an act to be morally good, the
object and intent must be good; if either
the object or intention are bad, the
action is morally wrong.
The circumstances usually play a
secondary role in deciding if an action is
right or wrong.
 When society begins to perform a
morally wrong action together, it
becomes a social sin.
 Price fixing, for example, is a social sin
since it eliminates competition for better
prices in a free market economy.

If all the movie theaters in an area
decide to get together and charged
$15.00 a ticket, which allows for high
profit margins for the theaters, it hurts
consumers since they are paying more
and it does not allow for competitive
pricing.
 Even if the reason is to support one’s
family, one cannot steal (object) to
support one’s family (intent).

Every sin has a personal and social
dimension to it.
 Sins have personal dimensions since the
person exercises free will to deliberate
act against God.
 Businesses and governments do not
commit sins; it is the people who work in
such institutions who work together in
sinful ways.

Every sin, big or small, has some sort of
spiritual wound to the person who commits
the sin, weakening our relationship with
God until the sin is confessed in Penance.
 Sin also has the social dimension, i.e. sin
affects our relationships with others.
 If a person commits adultery in a
relationship, they not only hurt themselves,
but the person they are in a relationship
with, their family, and the person they are
committing adultery with as well.

Price fixing is a social sin since it affects a
wide community of people who buy
goods at higher prices than normal if
competition between companies was
occurring.
 Other social sins that we may not
recognize as sins are companies paying
workers below minimum wage to
maximize profits, as well as enacting laws
that allow abortion and euthanasia.


We cooperate with other people’s sins
by doing the following:
› Directly or voluntarily participating in them
› Ordering, advising, praising, or approving
them
› Not disclosing or not hindering them when
we have an obligation to do so
› Protecting evil doers

Work for social
justice means
combatting the
social sins of society,
assuring the victims
that they will receive
justice, whoever they
may be, and bring
change to unjust
practices.
Structures of Sin are social structures that
block justice and fail to protect human life
and human rights, resulting from the
personal sin of individuals, leading to even
more personal sin.
 Social Sin is the impact that every personal
sin has on others, attacking their freedom,
dignity, and rights; it is also the collective
effect of many people’s sin over time,
which corrupts society by creating
structures of sin.

There are hundreds of relationships
between different people and groups
involved in providing everyday items,
such as sneakers.
 The farmers who grow the cotton and
rubber tree, the factories that turn the
cotton into fabric, the company that
makes the sneakers and its employees,
etc., are all examples of relationships
involves in creating simple sneakers.

These different relationships are called
Social Structures, or the complex pattern of
relationships that shape any society, which
determine how justice is lived out in a
society.
 Social structures shape a great deal of our
world, from who is rich and who is poor, to
who goes hungry at night and who has
more than enough.
 Social structures should promote just, life
giving relationships.

Social structures promote just, life giving
relationships by make sure workers get
paid properly for their work, governments
regulate safety in the workplace, and
consumers are getting safe, well made,
decently priced items, just to name a
few.
 However, social structures can become
barriers to the common good and not
always promote life giving relationships.

When social structures fail to protect human
rights and justice, they are called
“structures of sin.”
 Some identifiers of structures of sin are:

› Deep rooted personal sins that evolve and grow
over time
› The effect of interconnected sinful choices of
multiple people
› Modern society avoids calling out the sinful
actions of such structures
› Selfishness is the basis for structures of sin, a
selfishness for power and profit

Structures of sin can
be eliminated by
people and change
can come about if
people who make
sinful actions change
their ways from
selfishness to caring
for the life of all
people in society.
Christ calls us, as disciples, to be aware of
people’s sufferings and to respond to them,
which means taking action intentionally to
alleviate their suffering.
 People usually do not interact with the poor
in their communities, and if they do, they
usually do not know how to properly act in
addressing their needs.
 In 1971, Pope Paul VI taught how to
respond to the poor in his encyclical, A Call
to Action.

A Call to Action developed the concept
called the “circle of social action.”
 The Circle of Social Action is summed up by
saying: our faith calls us to be aware of
social needs and injustices, awareness
requires analysis, analysis results in action,
and action leads to deeper awareness,
restarting the cycle again.
 Simply put, the three stages of the Circle of
Social Action are awareness, analysis, and
action.

It is sometimes difficult to be aware of
social injustices around us since we do
not always see the poor people where
we live, go to school, and work.
 To truly understand the needs of the
poor and what changes need to be
made in society, we must volunteer our
time to programs that serve people in
need to get a first hand account of the
true nature of people’s problems.

If we do not personally become aware of
the injustice to the poor and needy, then
we ourselves participate in putting them in
that position since we are called to action,
yet do nothing to help.
 After become aware of social injustice, we
must avoid:

› Becoming paralyzed into inaction because we
are overwhelmed by the problem
› Rushing into action without considering the best
course of action
The way to avoid both those traps is to take
time and analyze the situation.
 We can ask questions about what cause
and support the social injustice we are
analyzing, as well as what actions can we
take, short and long term, to alleviate the
situation.
 Analysis allows for personal discernment, or
the practice of listening to God’s voice in
our lives to figure out good and bad
actions.

In problems of poverty and homelessness,
analysis of the problem can lead to many
responsive actions for a person to take,
more responses usually than one person
can make on their own.
 We must decide what course of action is
both helpful to the poor and vulnerable we
are trying to help, as well as what fits within
our own means to act upon, i.e. if we want
to give money to help the poor, yet do not
have a lot of money ourselves, there may
be other options of action to take instead.

Action completes the circle of social
action after we analyze the situation.
 It is not enough to just realize the source
of the problem; we must take action to
alleviate the problem and bring about
change.
 Actions speak louder than words; if we
do not follow our words with actions,
than our words are worth nothing.


Action can take on two different forms:
› Take direct action to alleviate a person’s
needs
 Building homes, volunteering at homeless
shelters, etc.
› Work to change structures of sin that
perpetuate social injustice and the suffering
they cause
 Lobbying for more affordable housing in your
community, boycotting companies that
exploit workers, etc.

Both forms of responsive action are
needed.
http://news.yahoo.com/atlantic
-city-redevelopment-keepspoor-144244122.html
Any actions we decide to take when
trying to help others should be morally
good choices and beneficial to the
person we are trying to help.
 Some actions we may come up with
might be short term, helping the person
directly then and there, and others might
be long term, helping that person and
others like him or her by eliminating the
root cause of the injustice to the person.

God created human beings to live in
solidarity, helping one another when in
need and suffering.
 Works of Charity are social actions that
bring immediate response to a person or
group who is suffering or lacking the
necessities of a dignified life.
 The primary purpose of works of charity is
not to change social structures, but to bring
immediate assistance to those suffering.

Traditionally, the Church called the
direct response form of social action that
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
 Corporal Works of Mercy are charitable
actions that respond to people’s
physical needs and show respect for
human dignity.
 Six of the seven corporal works of mercy
come from Jesus’ parable of the Last
Judgment.


The Corporal Works of Mercy are:
› Feed the hungry
› Give drink to the thirsty
› Shelter the homeless
› Clothe the naked
› Care for the sick
› Visit the imprisoned
› Bury the dead
Spiritual Works of Mercy are charitable
actions that respond to people’s spiritual
needs and show respect for human dignity.
 They are:

›
›
›
›
›
›
›
Instruct the ignorant
Counsel the doubtful
Comfort those who suffer
Bear wrongs patiently
Forgive those who hurt you
Admonish sinners
Pray for the living and the dead
Apart from natural disasters, people suffer
homelessness, poverty, and other injustices
due to human sin and structures of sin in
society.
 People continue to suffer when unjust
structures of sin go unchanged, hence why
people need to fight to bring change to
such institutions.
 Whether it is fighting a social structure that
does not pay its workers enough, or
ensuring all people have the ability to
access health care, these are examples of
fighting structures of sin.

Such actions are called Works of Justice,
or social actions that seek to convert
structures of sin and building structures of
greater justice.
 There is no guarantee that works of
justice will succeed, but they take time
and large numbers of people in solidarity
to bring about awareness and some
form of change.


Works of Charity
› Direct response
› Makes an
immediate
difference
› Symbolized by the
corporal and
spiritual works of
mercy

Works of Justice
› Transform social
structures
› Aims at creating
long term solutions
› Requires
coordinated, long
term commitment
to education, public
witness, and
advocacy




We need both works of charity and justice in
today’s world; both are of equal importance.
We can see a need for works of charity since
throughout Jesus’ ministry He fed and healed
people, as well as the fact that God has given
us enough resources for all people to share.
We can see a need for works of justice when
Jesus told the rich to share with the poor,
meaning that social structures must be in place
to evenly distribute goods and take care of the
needy.
God also does not call us to be successful, but
to be faithful to His plan, so do not measure
your actions by the outcome, but by what
drives you to help others in the long term.
A “good country” to live in is a country in
which the individual citizens and social
institutions are committed to the
common good.
 The common good is the responsibility of
both individuals and social structures.
 Three important institutions that touch
most human beings are the state,
business institutions, and
communications media.

A State is any organized political authority
in a specific area, such as city, county,
state, regional, and national governments.
 The state is a necessary and positive player
in God’s plan for human beings since
government organized human
communities.
 No state is perfect; yet civil, or things related
to the state and its citizens, authorities have
made great strides for the common good.

Saint Paul teaches that respect to civil
authorities is in turn respecting God, since
those authorities that are morally good
receive their power from God.
 In Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, Peace on
Earth, he teaches that the primary
existence of the state is to achieve the
common good.
 “Every civil authority must strive to promote
the common good…without favoring any
citizen.”

Pope John XXIII says the best way to
achieve the common good is for
authorities to recognize, respect, defend,
and promote citizens’ rights and their
freedom to pursue those rights.
 When administrative, legislative, and
judicial functions properly serve citizens,
an atmosphere is created that allows
citizens to gain the material, cultural,
moral, and spiritual goods they need.


Catholic social teaching recognizes the
need for three essential societal services
to promote the common good:
› Administrative
 Assures services like transportation, housing,
road building, etc.
› Legislative
 Provide laws and protect human rights
› Judicial
 Laws are enforced and citizens have a legal
way to correct injustices done to them
The Pope also teaches the state’s primary
goal of the common good must not be
limited to its own borders, but to the
common good of all human beings around
the world.
 There are no differences amongst states
from a human dignity standpoint since all
humans are equal.

› This means that no state should unjustly bully or
conquer another state; rather, powerful states
have a greater calling to protect lesser states.


Since the problems of
the world are so vast,
Pope John XXIII called
for an international
group to be formed
that would promote
just relationships
among the world’s
states.
The United Nations is
one example of an
international group, in
which the Vatican has
a permanent observer
status.
Just as the state has a responsibility to the
common good of all people, citizens have
their own responsibilities to the state and
one another.
 Saint Paul teaches that citizens have
nothing to fear from civil authorities if we
act rightly.
 Since human beings were created to live in
communities with one another, civil
authorities are put in place to make sure
citizens follow laws and punish those who
do not.

As citizens, we are called to fulfill civil
obligations, such as paying taxes, voting,
and even resisting civil authority if it is acting
immorally.
 Citizens have a duty to work with civil
authorities to build up society “in a spirit of
truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.”
 Since God has given us a share of Earth’s
goods, we are not simply entitled to these
goods, but have responsibilities to fulfill in
order to also earn these goods.

We, as citizens, must not feel we have no
voice in the face of injustice either; a
part of our responsibility as citizens is to
fight injustice, no matter what.
 Some citizen responsibilities are:

› Contributing materially and spiritually to
society in a meaningful way, such as working
› Taking part in political life, such as voting
› Paying taxes to support the common good,
such as by supporting police
God created humans to be dependent
on one another, meaning we must fulfill
our responsibilities to society to achieve
the common good of all people.
 In pursuing the common good, citizens
must sometimes stand up against unjust
laws.
 Not every law is morally right.

The basic Christian stance is that we are to
obey and respect civil authorities, but we
are not required to violate our conscience
in doing so.
 Conscientious Objection is when we are
morally obligated to resist a civil law or
authority that goes against human reason
and God’s law.
 Conscientious objection can take the form
of a protest, speaking out, working to
change the problem, etc.

If we choose to directly disobey a law as a
form of conscientious objection, that is
called Civil Disobedience.
 Civil disobedience can be seen throughout
history, from people protecting Jews during
Nazi reign, to soldiers refusing to fight in an
unjust war.
 Though we live in a democracy where
checks and balances exist that protect
people from violating their conscience for
the most part, the fact remains that no civil
authority is perfect.



Disobeying the
commands of an
immoral civil
authority elsewhere
can be costly, to the
point that people
lose their lives.
God calls us, no
matter what, to
recognize injustice,
refuse to participate
in it, and work to
change it.
The Church and State both play important
roles in God’s plan for salvation that are
complementary, yet distinct.
 Both Church and State seek to promote the
common good.
 The State’s primary focus however is on
Temporal Good, or the aspect of the
common good that focuses on material
and social needs that are part of earthly
life.




The Church's primary focus is on Spiritual
Goods, or the good that focuses on our need
for God’s grace so that we can be in full
communion with God in this life and for all
eternity.
Our temporal and spiritual good are
dependent on one another since our body
and soul are inseparably united.
The State must allow individuals freedom to
pursue spiritual goods, and the Church must
promote and defend temporal goods when it
comes to human rights and salvation of souls.
When the State and Church respectfully
act toward one another’s goals without
interfering with each other’s work, it is
then the common good of all people is
strengthened.
 Throughout history, the Church has found
it hard to maintain autonomy and
independence from the State, whether
because the State tried to control the
Church or vice versa.

In the Middle Ages, kings felt they should be
able to appoint bishops of the Church
within their domain, while some popes felt
they were able to dispose and appoint
kings as they felt.
 In China, for example, there are two
Catholic Churches: the Church that is lead
by Communist government appointed
bishops, and an underground Church, or
hidden from public Church, led by bishops
in union with the Pope in Rome.


To maintain independence from the State,
the Church insists on the following rights:
› Freedom to preach the Gospel and evangelize
› Freedom to provide public worship
› Freedom to determine the Church’s structure
and organization
› Freedom to select, educate, and appoint
ministers
› Freedom to contract Church buildings and get
material goods needed for Church ministry
› Freedom to develop associations for
educational, cultural, health care, and other
works of charity and justice
The Church does not align herself with any
political part; the Church only speaks out
on political issues when there is a clear
moral or religious principle at stake.
 Catholic social teaching teaches that all
religions should have the right to freedom of
religion, especially since if in one country
she receives political preference another
country, in turn, could restrict her.
 The Church can focus on spiritual goods of
people when it keeps these boundaries
with the State.




The economy of the United States is so vast
that it and other developed nations play a key
role in forming a just world society.
The United States’ Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) was over $14 trillion dollars in 2009,
meaning all goods and services produced in
2009 by the United States was worth that much
money.
Every American, if that worth was evenly
distributed, would receive $46,000. The entire
world’s population for that much would
receive $2,300 each. That may not sound like
much but 1 out of ever 5 countries entire
annual GDP is less than $2,300.
There are many different types of economic
institutions, ranging from family businesses to
large corporations.
 Whatever the size of the economic
institution, the same basic moral principles
that govern the rights and responsibilities of
individuals and social groups apply.
 The main role of all economic institutions
should be to work for the common good by
producing goods and services people
need to survive and thrive.

Economic institutions all do a great deal of
other goods for society, such as reinvesting
profit in safer, environmentally friend
equipment, and researching newer ways to
better their product.
 Catholic social teaching, for this reasons,
calls on economic institutions to be more
than just a means for creating goods and
services; they are to be human
communities that are attentive to the
temporal and spiritual needs of people.

Simply put, economic institutions don’t
just make goods; they help people grow
personally and spiritually.
 Since economic institutions play an
important role in society, they have
many responsibilities to the public.
 The first and foremost responsibility of
economic institutions is to provide goods
and services that contribute to the good
of society and do not harm it.

Economic institutions that make their
money off of pornography, prostitution, and
weapons that kill civilians are examples that
bring harm to society.
 Institutions that make nuclear, biological,
and chemical weapons do not help society
by the services they provide; they bring
more potential harm.
 Businesses should not produce or distribute
goods that are sinful themselves, nor ask
employees to do anything immoral or
illegal.

Another economic institutional responsibility
is businesses must ensure the safety of their
workers and the environment during the
manufacturing process.
 Taking short cuts to save money or make
production faster at the cost of the safety
of workers and the environment is not
acceptable at the end of the day, hence
why governments have regulations on
production of certain goods.

Economic institutions have the responsibility
to charge fair prices for their goods and
pay just wages to workers.
 In times of need, businesses sometimes take
advantage of people by raising the price of
goods, i.e. after Hurricane Sandy, some gas
stations tried to raise the price of gas since it
was an item in high demand that people
needed; such actions are sinful and against
the common good of all people.

When economic institutions fail to keep
these responsibilities, they are breaking the
Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not
steal.”
 This includes stealing not only money, but
people’s health, safety, environment, and
basic needs.
 If this happens, businesses are called to
make reparation, or amends for what they
did wrong, with the people they harmed.

The State is sort of a “referee” in the
game of “economics.”
 Through its laws and regulations, the
state makes businesses act morally and
that they respect the free market system.
 The state has the responsibility to make
sure workers are safe, products are safe,
and small businesses can compete with
bigger businesses.



The government must
also not overstep its
boundaries (a referee
does not play in the
game) either by
overregulating or
creating its own
businesses.
Economic institutions
and the state are to
work together to
effectively promote
the common good of
all people.
We expect to hear the truth when we
watch the news or read online articles,
yet the sad reality is that the truth is not
always the goal of the media.
 Sometimes media organizations slant
stories to coincide with political opinions,
use only select parts of an interview that
do not give the full story, and even
downright lie to get a sensationalized
story.

Catholic social teaching calls the media to
tell the full truth since it is society’s right to
have full understanding of the truth.
 A just and free society is built upon truth
and objective information.
 The Nazis used propaganda during World
War II to win over the Germans,
brainwashing many of them to believe the
extermination of the Jewish people was for
the good of all people, especially the
German race.

The immoral use of media is a sin against
the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not
lie.”
 Lying is when we communicate something
that is not true with the intention to deceive
someone.
 When people in the media knowingly lie, it
is then that a personal sin is committed that
can lead to a structure of sin in which all
media outlets begin to lie, whether great or
small in nature.

The purpose of the media, like other
social institutions we discussed previously
is to be at the service of the common
good.
 When doing its job correctly, the media
allows us to analyze information properly
to make correct personal and moral
decisions, as well as providing a public
forum where solutions for complex
problems can be discussed.

The media is not just called to give
information however; it is called to also
motivate and encourage people to fulfill
their social responsibilities.
 In the United States, where there is freedom
of the press, the media can help to better
humanity by making us more aware of
those in need, i.e. telling about the situation
of people after Hurricane Sandy and how
much help was needed.

There are several impediments that can
cause the media to miss the mark on
providing accurate and unbiased
information.
 The greatest impediment to the media is
when media sources cannot act freely,
such as when the state controls the media
(like in China and North Korea), or when
businesses own media outlets and force
them to give biased information (Fox News).

Another impediment to media is
financial concerns.
 Media will broadcast stories that will
generate the most views, thus bringing in
advertisement revenue.
 This is why we sometimes say news is
usually always “bad news” and rarely
“good news,” because violence, pain,
and death attract attention.

Some media agencies like to sensationalize
stories through means of calumny and
detraction, adding another impediment to
reporting the truth.
 Calumny is ruining the reputation of
someone by lying or spreading rumors; it is
also called slander.
 Detraction is unnecessarily revealing
something about a person that is true but
harmful to their reputation.

Calumny and detraction, when performed
by the media, can cause a person’s
reputation to be damaged forever.
 One last impediment is the way we get our
information, today usually by way of
Internet.
 High speed Internet is an expensive
commodity to have and not all places,
such as rural areas, or wired to have the
Internet, creating areas where people are
information “rich” and information “poor.”

These impediments lead to structures of
sin within the media world, preventing
the public from having socially
responsible media outlets and accurate
information.
 We, as the public and audience of
media, must demand unbiased and
truthful news stories that not only make
us aware of people’s needs, but tell
stories that give hope in our world.
