Catholic Social Teaching in Action: An Election Primer

A volunteer at Christ in the City's Denver Lunch in the Park speaks with a guest. The local ministry hosts weekly lunches for their "friends on the street" as a means to continue building relationships and serving the poor. (Photo by André Escaleira, Jr./Denver Catholic)

Far from mere words on a page or ideas in the ether, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is a living, breathing reality that brings Scripture and Tradition to bear on our world in tangible, practical ways.

In this piece, four local experts explore CST's application across four important areas often discussed in elections and political circles.

"The Church therefore defends the unborn while also caring for the poor, the sick, the dying, the persecuted and the immigrant," Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodríguez wrote. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

Migration

By Bishop Jorge Rodríguez

More than a political question, migration is a human one, and often one with life-or-death ramifications. What should parents do when remaining home places their children in danger?

Israel and his descendants fled famine (Genesis 41-47). The Holy Family fled danger and certain death (Matthew 2). In both experiences, salvation history involved migration, closely tied to the experiences of those forced to flee.

This connection between migration and life matters. The moral and life issues identified by the United States bishops are not isolated from one another; each flows from the inherent dignity of every human person, and the first priority of defending human life.

Human life is the source and foundation of all the other values. From the moment of conception, the human person needs their life to be nurtured, defended, cared for and provided with everything needed according to one’s inalienable dignity. The Church therefore defends the unborn while also caring for the poor, the sick, the dying, the persecuted and the immigrant.

People have a right to remain and flourish in their homelands, and countries have a right to regulate their borders. Yet, when life is threatened by death, violence, war, persecution, misery, poverty and hunger, people have the right to migrate and look for refuge to save their lives. As the poem “Home” by Warsan Shire says, “No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” Migration becomes a practical way to respect human life in these cases, because it makes possible — under precise conditions — a life lived according to God’s design.

As Pope Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate reminds us, every migrant "possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance" (62).

Catholic Social Teaching invites us to unite these values in a charitable solidarity, defending life even when we disagree with particular policies. We must never let political issues obscure the dignity of the person before us.

"When employees are working full-time and still struggle to meet their basic needs, we are forced to ask a deeper question: Who does the economy serve?" Paul Winkler asked. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

Economy

By Paul Winkler

President, Atollo

Director of Journey to Excellence and Leadership Development, Magis Center

Conversations about the economy tend to focus on measurable things: prices, wages, profits, productivity, growth and shareholder returns. These things matter. Families need sufficient income to thrive, and businesses must remain profitable to survive.

Yet when employees are working full-time and still struggle to meet their families’ basic needs, we are forced to ask a deeper question: Who does the economy serve?

CST says the human person. The Second Vatican Council taught us that “man is the source, the center and the purpose of all economic and social life” (Gaudium et Spes, 63). Products, profits and shareholder returns are necessary, but they are means rather than the ultimate end. The economy must serve people not only as consumers of goods and services, but also as workers who participate in creating them.

Pope St. John Paul II applied this principle directly to human labor. In Laborem Exercens 6, he wrote that “work is ‘for man’ and not man ‘for work.’” Work produces goods, services and economic value, but the worker is always a person whose dignity must be upheld through meaningful work, safe working conditions and just wages.

Catholic Social Teaching, therefore, does not ask us to become unquestioning defenders of an economic system. It provides a moral lens through which economic life must be judged. A business reverses the proper order when workers become merely instruments of production or expenses to be minimized.

A just wage is therefore more than an economic transaction. It recognizes the worker as a person with responsibilities, relationships and a vocation. Leaders must certainly consider market conditions and the needs of the enterprise, but also whether compensation enables workers and their families to live with dignity, so they can participate and contribute meaningfully in society.

While governmental programs and social services seek to alleviate a problem through resources, which is helpful to an extent, the Church goes further, looking to the human person. (Photo: Unsplash)

Poverty

By Phil Couture

Director of Formation

Christ in the City

How do we define poverty? If it is a lack of basic material needs, then it makes sense to focus on the most visible challenges: money, jobs, the market, social services, outreach programs, housing programs. Providing these goods should fix the problem. This relief-based approach can go a long way, provided the need is strictly material.

As basic as this approach is, the Church starts with an even more fundamental point of departure: the person. People don’t just have material needs because they aren’t just material beings. It seems wrong to watch another person struggle to survive, as an animal may be content to do. God illuminates this sense of dignity in revealing that people, unlike the rest of the created world, were made in his image and likeness. We can receive everything we need to survive, but that won’t be enough to live. To flourish, we need those things that most define us, those things that make us most like God: relationship and communion.

From this fundamental principle, the Church addresses the poor and homeless not as problems to be solved, but as persons to be loved. As Jesus loved us enough to enter into solidarity with our human condition and forge communion, so we are called to be in solidarity with all people. Everything I have, material and spiritual, is in service of solidarity with others, no matter how poor their condition. This love is lofty, but it cannot be given in the abstract. It becomes real when we, personally and as a community, attend to the names and faces around us, organizing ourselves according to the greatest material and relational needs.

Subsidiarity encourages us to take responsibility for those around us, building up our families and communities in accord with the Gospel. (Photo: Lightstock)

Family

By Annette Bergeron

CEO

ENDOW

Who should make the decisions that shape a child’s life? A parent? A teacher? A school board? The state? The federal government?

The answer to this question gets to the heart of one of the most important principles of Catholic Social Teaching: subsidiarity.

When it comes to a child’s formation, education, health and well-being, most decisions are best made by their parents, the people who know and love that child most. They know their child’s strengths and challenges, gifts and struggles. They know what lights up their child’s eyes and sets their heart on fire.

This is subsidiarity at its most basic. Subsidiarity teaches that decisions should be made at the lowest competent level of authority. A central authority should perform only those tasks that cannot be effectively performed at a more local level.

As Pope Leo XIV writes in Magnifica Humanitas, “The role of individuals, families, local communities and intermediary organizations should not be supplanted by higher-level authorities.” Higher institutions should instead “recognize, protect and promote the freedom and creativity of lower-level entities” (68).

We violate this principle when schools make deeply personal decisions concerning children without involving their parents, or when teachers lose the freedom to respond to individual students because decisions are centralized far from the classroom.

We see it in healthcare when policies imposed by insurers, hospital systems or government bureaucracies override the judgment of doctors and patients. We see it when government regulations unnecessarily usurp the authority of families, parishes and local organizations.

But subsidiarity isn’t something only governments violate. Parents can surrender too much responsibility to schools, coaches, childcare providers or screens. Businesses can centralize decisions better made by employees closest to their customers.

Pope St. John Paul II captured the wisdom of subsidiarity beautifully: “Needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to those in need” (Centesimus Annus, 48).

Our culture often assumes bigger is better. Subsidiarity reminds us otherwise.

At its heart, subsidiarity preserves human agency and calls us to take responsibility. Through advocacy and civic engagement, we protect the freedom of families and local institutions to fulfill the roles entrusted to them. Strong families and communities cannot be legislated from above. They must be cultivated from within.