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Catholic Social TeachingCatholic Social Teaching encompasses the teaching of the Catholic Church on all matters dealing with the collective aspect of humanity. Its fundamental principles are: - Human life is sacred: this is the foundation for the other principles.
- Human rights: Every person has a fundamental right to life. The Catholic church condemns abortion and capital punishment because human beings do not have the right to end the life of another person. The church does not believe in absolute property rights, considering it theoretically moral and just for its members to destroy property used in an evil way by others, or for the state to resdistribute wealth from those who have unjustly hoarded it. The church does not believe in the absolute right of kings or other human systems of government.
- Solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor: A whole society can be judged by how well it treats its most vulnerable members - the poor and those on the margin. This also applies on an international level with regard to the Global South. For example, the Church has habitually insisted that loans be forgiven during many occasions (during jubilee years.)
- Economic justice: Workers have a right to work, to a living wage, and to form unions. Though Catholic teaching opposes collectivist approaches such as Communism as it was practiced in the Soviet Union (and elsewhere) and upholds a right to private property limited by the concept of the social mortgage, it also opposes laissez-faire. This belief ties closely with compassion for the poor.
- Disarmament and rejection of war: The Church now regards the circumstances under which military force is permissible as extremely limited (and rejects recent notable examples of military force such as the 2003 Invasion of Iraq). The circumstances under which military force is permissible are set out in the doctrine of just war, which forbids weapons of mass destruction, state or non-state terrorism, premptive war, and mistreatment of prisoners of war; this doctrine has changed in recent decades to become more restrictive.
- The state has a positive moral role to play: Under the principle of subsidiarity, state functions should be carried out at the lowest level that is practical.
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