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WHY DO WE HAVE THE CHURCH'S SOCIAL TEACHING

If I were to ask the average Catholic Zambian today what she or he knows about the church’s social teaching (CST), I am fairly sure I would get a blank stare and a quiet moment!  Or at least some hesitant and confused answer.  The “church’s social teaching” – what’s that?  On the other hand, we all know about the “church’s SEXUAL teaching” – that’s for sure!

Well, through this regular column in THE CHALLENGE, I hope to communicate more about the riches of the church’s social teaching – to let you know what is called – but really shouldn’t be – “our best kept secret.”

In my column in the previous issue of THE CHALLENGE, I described the church’s social teaching as a body of social wisdom about the human person in community, guiding us with the values, structures and practices that can contribute to a full human life.  We can find this social wisdom in the scripture, in the writings of theologians, in the statements coming from our church leaders and in the witness of the lives of good Christians.

But why do we have this social teaching coming from our church?  What is its purpose?

Guide Personal Consciences

First and foremost, the social teaching is a guide for our individual conscience to make the right decisions for leading a good Christian life.  We know from our catechism lessons that our “conscience” is the inner voice that tells us what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to avoid.  “Show respect and obedience to your parents” my conscience urges me when I’m wondering whose advice to follow.  “Stay away from that disco club” prods my conscience when I’m thinking about some entertainment for the night!

So the social teaching helps me to know what I should do personally if I am to live as a good Christian in community.  For example, it is clearly the CST message that I should show equal respect to every woman and man in society.  Genesis 1: 27 tells me that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God.  So respect for human dignity must be the basis of all my actions.  No discrimination against any person because of the colour of their skin, their tribe, their sex.

Another example: if I am an employer, the CST will guide me about the just wages I should pay my workers.  If I am an employee, I will learn from the CST about my obligations for honest, responsible and hard work in order to properly earn my salary.

Form Church’s Public Role

The second purpose of the social teaching of the church is to form the public role that the church should take in fulfilment of its mission of evangelisation.  What does this mean?  It means that the church – the People of God – has an obligation to contribute to the well-being of society in all its aspects: political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, etc.  And so the CST helps the church perform the various roles of teacher, challenger, witness, promoter, participant, etc.

The CST enables the church to announce the truth (e.g., human equaity), denounce injustice (e.g., exploitation of women), and promote positive changes (e.g., by providing good examples).

Here in Zambia, for instance, through the pastoral letters of the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), and through the statements from the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), the Catholic Church has played an important role in teaching about the requirements for social justice in the economic reform policies and in promoting civic education programmes for democratic elections.  But the CST also emphasises that if the church is going to tell others about doing justice, it first must be practicing justice itself! 

Influence Society’s Structures

The third purpose of the social teaching of the church is to influence the structures of society in economics, politics and culture.  These are the economic structures, for instance, of privatisation of public companies and treatment of retrenched workers; the political structures of multi-party electoral systems and reform of the Constitution; and the cultural structures of inclusion of women and the rejection of tribalism.

This purpose of the CST is fulfilled in a variety of ways.  The church provides norms or basic principles by which to evaluate government policies, e.g., the special priority to be given to the needs of the poor (“preferential option of the poor).   The church can also offer recommendations for public policies such as caution about extremes of the free market (which does not benefit most of the people in the country).   And the church can endorse movements or campaigns for influencing policy, as it has done with the Jubilee campaign to cancel debt around the world and right here in Zambia.

These three purposes, personal, ecclesial and societal, surely give us plenty of reasons to know better the church’s social teaching and to put it into practice.  In future columns, we will explain some of the key elements of the CST that are relevant to us in Zambia today. (And if you have any questions about CST, drop a note to the editor and he will pass it on to me!)

04-02-03

Peter Henriot, S.J., is Director of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), Lusaka