Catholic Social Teaching Isn’t Catholic
Catholic social teaching isn’t Catholic . . . at least with a capital C. It’s catholic, that is, universal, with a small c. It applies to everyone. Atheists, agnostics, and the neighbor whom you’ve consigned to Hell thirteen times this week are subject to “Catholic” social teaching and (what some people don’t want to hear) protected by it as well. Consistent with the positive formulation of the first principle of reason — that which is true is as true and is true in the same way as everything else that is true (the principle or law of identity) — all human beings, even (or especially) those whom you dislike or hate with all the fervor at your command, are as human, and human in the same way, as you.
Catholic social teaching is based on the natural law “written in the hearts of all men,” and women and children, too. It is therefore discernible “by the force and light of human reason alone.” Thus, although Catholic social teaching is often even in official Catholic Church documents referred to as doctrine, it is based on reason guided and illuminated by faith, not faith alone.
The argument is a little complex. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle said that all things aim at the good. If something or someone aims at that which is not good, i.e., is evil, it is because he has a distorted or wrong idea of good or is trying to avoid a greater evil. And…
