Why should women study Catholic social teaching?
It is perhaps too obvious to note, but the fact remains that without the creation of Eve, or ‘woman,’ humanity would lack a social life entirely!
Until Adam “met his match” (Gen.2:23), there was no one to be within an equal relationship.
And the created order would certainly lack the three necessary societies: the family, civil society, and the Church. The Church considers them “necessary” for human happiness and flourishing.
We also know that after the fall of man, relationships went from order to disorder, from harmony to division, and from freedom and mutual self-gift to shame, selfishness, and fear.
To contribute to the restoration of the social order in modern times, women are especially key players and ought to study the Church’s teaching when it comes to doctrines pertaining to the crucial question of how to proceed in life together.
What is Catholic Social Teaching?
Wherever Catholic moral principles are taught—especially regarding virtuous relationships with our neighbors (matters concerning the virtue of justice, in other words), social teaching was involved.
However, when we discuss Catholic Social Teaching (CST) today, it is a collection of magisterial documents concerning social, political, and economic thought as a guide in cultivating, living, and expressing authentic justice and charity.
In modern times, Pope Leo XIII marks CST in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, up until Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si.
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