Principles of Catholic Social Teaching (Marquette Studies in Theology , No 14)

We know, however, that a revolutionary uprising-save where there is manifest, longstanding tyranny which would do great damage to fundamental personal rights and dangerous harm to the common good of the country-produces new injustices, throws more elements out of balance and brings on new disasters. A real evil should not be fought against at the cost of greater misery. The goal of this study is to call attention to the contemporary significance of Catholic Social Teaching and, at the same time, to investigate what is meant by a number of central ideas that surface again and again in these essays. We should correct what seems to be a common historical inaccuracy. Catholic social teaching began long before the last century. Professor Michael J. Schuck has shown that the social teaching of the Papal Encyclicals began in 1740 under the pontificate of Benedict XIV (1740-58). What Professor Schuck calls the pre-Leonine period (1740-1877) will show that by a "textually inclusive and topically broad-gauged approach", a previously unacknowledged body of papal social teaching emerges. This study aims to call attention to the contemporary significance of Catholic Social Teaching and to investigate what is meant by a number of central ideas that regularly surface in these essays.