Catholic Social Teaching: What is Really meant by Justice?

By Andrew Greenwell, Esq.
12/29/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

There is some urgency in getting back to the classical notions of justice built upon an authentic Christian anthropology

There is some urgency in getting back to the classical notions of justice built upon an authentic Christian anthropology because of the modern mindset of reducing or restricting justice by basing it on other criteria such as utility, autonomy, ownership, or egalitarianism.So the "social justice" called for by the Church is not something based upon a worldly philosophy; rather, it is "the most classical form of justice," which in today's age may actually be more rigorously revolutionary than anything dreamed of in the philosophy of Guevara and Alinsky.

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CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Justice is the third fundamental value of the Church's social doctrine. As a virtue, justice is classically defined, by the likes of Cicero and Justinian, as the firm resolve to render each his due: suum cuique. It is considered one of the four cardinal virtues, the others being temperance, fortitude, and prudence. In calling justice one of the values of the Church's social doctrine, the Church draws from that cardinal virtue of justice.

In discussing the value of justice, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church does not forget that there is a justice due God as well as a justice due man. Pope Leo XIII's exasperation is evident in the words of his encyclical Tametsi: "The world has heard enough of the so-called 'rights of man.' Let it hear something of the rights of God."

We might paraphrase this good pope and say that the world has heard enough of the justice due man, let it hear something about the justice due God. Perhaps the new translation of the sursum corda in the Novus ordo mass will help inculcate this sentiment at least among American Catholics: "Lift up your hearts to the Lord" "It is right and just." Dignum et iustum est. The heart, one might recall, in biblical nomenclature, refers to the whole man.

On second thought, however, it would be more accurate to say that modern man has neither heard enough about the justice due God nor the justice due man, especially regarding the objective component of justice due God or man. Justice, the Compendium reminds us, has both a subjective and an objective component, both of which must be present for real justice to exist.

"From a subjective point of view, justice is translated into behavior that is based on the will to recognize the other as a person." This is an internal attitude.

On the other hand, "from an objective view," the Compendium continues, justice "constitutes the decisive criteria of morality in the intersubjective and social sphere." (Compendium, No. 201) What this means is that there are objective absolute or exceptionless norms as well as prudential norms that must govern interactions between two people, a person and society, and society as a whole.

Both this internal other-regarding attitude and the external conformity to objective morality must co-exist for real justice to exist. Whatever disregards either the internal component or the external, objective component is not justice, though it might parade about as justice.

Sincerity is not enough. Legalistic justice is not enough. There must be a joinder of internal attitude and external objectiveness. As Pope Innocent III (ca. 1160-1216) said in his On the Misery of the Human Condition[II.3]: "[S]ome seek justice with justice, others injustice with injustice; and some seek justice by unjust means, while others seek injustice by just means." We are to seek justice with justice. That is the only authentic justice.

There is also that sort of justice that is broadly called "social justice." The "social justice" that the Church calls for is not the adoption of some leftist agenda, as if the Church asks us to become rabble rousing followers of the Gracchi, Che Guevara, or Saul Alinsky and their ilk. Neither does the Church ask us to advocate some partisan plan, left or right or in between. We are, in each and every instance, to be followers of Jesus. Christians march to the beat of a different drummer.

So the "social justice" called for by the Church is not something based upon a worldly philosophy; rather, it is "the most classical form of justice," which in today's age may actually be more rigorously revolutionary than anything dreamed of in the philosophy of Guevara and Alinsky. This classical form of justice includes those kinds of justice classified as commutative (between two persons), distributive (between the community and the individual), and legal justice (between the community and the one who has care of the community), but it goes beyond them.

Social justice is a general term which comprehends commutative, distributive, and legal justice. The notion of "social justice"--the term, by the way, coined by the Jesuit mentor of Pope Leo XIII, Luigi Taparelli (1793-1862), and based upon the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas--is "the justice that regulates social relationships according to the criterion of observance of the law." (Compendium, No. 201) Lawless justice is not justice. Similarly, justiceless law is not law.

There is some urgency in getting back to the classical notions of justice built upon an authentic Christian anthropology because of the modern mindset of reducing or restricting justice by basing it on ...

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1 - 8 of 8 Comments

rosie
1 year ago
this is great! Very helpful for us religion teachers.
Vance
1 year ago
Great article. This article well articulates the difference between Catholic Social Justice and the co-opted term used by the Communist Party to deceive the masses. Social Justice according to the Communists is that all are 'Equally' poor, miserable, and surfs of the Communist Ruling Class. Communist China, Communist Vietnam, Communist Cuba, Communist Venezuela,Communist North Korea anyone??? Each and everyone of these Communist tyrannies persecute the Catholic Church. Anyone who opposes the Communist Ruling Class is either imprisoned or executed. Kim Jong Il's Social Justice is to starve his people in favor of building a military power. This is same for the other tyrannies. The Marxist Democrat Party's Social Justice is to confiscate money from the productive to give crumbs to the unproductive while feeding a massive oppressive government. Social Justice as articulated in this article needs to be preached to the faithful via pulpit.
Judy
1 year ago
Interesting viewpoints. I thought this article Excellent. The modern Catholic will pick up the basics he/she needs to know...hopefully it will be read by many. I am in agreement w/the article, as well as, the necessity for Pope Benedict to clarify the term: "social justice", to his Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and Laity. It is a word that can be misused and misinterpreted. Jesus certainly did not have it in His day. Blessings...
Andrew
1 year ago
@R. Paolucci. I agree the term "social justice," which has a impeccable Catholic and Thomistic genealogy, has been co-opted, misunderstood, perhaps in ignorance, perhaps intentionally, perhaps for partisan reasons. Like any broad concept--freedom, liberty, justice, truth--it can be abused and misunderstood. Like the word Madonna--co-opted by the popular singer--we ought not abandon the word, but take it back.
There is also a tremendous confusion between first principles (which bind always) and prudential decisions or application of first principles to contingent circumstances (which may or may not bind, depending on the circumstances).
That is one benefit of the Compendium, it presents a thoughtful, sober, and non-tendentious view of the Catholic social doctrine.
Theologians have classified truths based upon grades of certainty: fides divina, fides ecclesiastica, sententia fide proxima, setentia theologice certa, sententia communis, and so on. I have often thought that such a classification would be valuable in the Church's social doctrine so that the faithful would know which doctrines must be fastly held, and which have a lesser degree of bindingness. It is particularly important since the Church herself recognizes the largely prudential character of social doctrine.
Andrew
1 year ago
I certainly don't think the Church is asking us to be sycophants to the bourgeoisie, but I would take umbrage at the statement that Jesus was not a friend of the rich but only of the exploited. Jesus did not seem to have an animus against the rich, though he did demand more of them, and he also warned of the dangers associated with too much reliance on wealth and a failure to be poor in spirit. He certainly took the side of the just or exploited not against the rich, but against the unjust. And those who became rich through unjust means, such as Zacheus, he readily accepted their repentance.
I think there is a danger that those who own the means of production could exploit the laborer, but this is not necessarily or institutionally so. But there is also the danger that the laborer, especially if unified, could exploit the person who owns the means of production. The point is that we ought not to pit capital against labor, but that both, in charity, justice, and solidarity, ought to work toward the common good, and not to their own private good exclusive of the common good.
R. Paolucci, D.Ed.
1 year ago
Unfortunately, the traditional and fundamental meaning and use of "social justice" has been co-opted by many in the Catholic church leadership. These individuals (cardinals, bishops and priests, as well as "elite" laity) are mostly socialists, communists, and Marxists, who used to embrace and champion "liberation theology", until they got in trouble with Blessed John Paul II. I strongly urge the Church and Pope Benedict XVI to clarify and reclaim the true meaning of "social justice", as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will see many true and faithful Catholics leave the church.

http://www.christianfaithculture.org
abey
1 year ago
In the truth, the word Justice is aligned with Righteousness, the eternal Righteousness of GOD (For everything of GOD is eternal in eternity), but when Justice, instead of being blind is blinded, then the essence of Righteousness is lost in it, in which case all that is associated with it is stated to be corrupted. This is called Manipulations or human accommodations, typically fleshy & carnal in nature.
Lawrence
1 year ago
In capitalism the bourgeoisie becomes the ruling class—which means it also owns the bulk of the means of production (land, factories, offices, capital, resources) and controls the means of coercion (armed forces, police, court and prison systems). Ownership of the means of production enables the bourgeoisie to exploit the work of a large mass of wage workers (the working class), who have no other means of livelihood than to sell their labor to property owners; while control over the means of coercion allows intervention and protection of the status quo during challenges or revolution from the people below.

I certainly hope neither you nor the Church are asking us to be sycophants to the bourgeoisie, as we all know that our Lord Jesus was not a friend of the rich but of the exploited.

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