The Compendium of the Catholic Church on Social Doctrine

The Compendium of the Catholic Church on Social Doctrine is a long document compiled at the request of Pope John Paul II.

The Compendium itself describes its work of making known the social doctrine of the Church “a genuine pastoral priority, so that men and women will be enlightened by it and will be thus enabled to interpret today’s reality and seek appropriate paths of action (#7).” (Read more here: Summary: Compendium Of The Social Doctrine of The Church)

The Compendium itself describes its work of making known the social doctrine of the Church “a genuine pastoral priority, so that men and women will be enlightened by it and will be thus enabled to interpret today’s reality and seek appropriate paths of action (#7).” (Read more here: Summary: Compendium Of The Social Doctrine of The Church)

The Compendium has a precise purpose: “It is proposed as an instrument for the moral and pastoral discernment of the complex events that characterize our time; as a guide to inspire, in the individual and collective sphere, the behaviors and options that allow looking to the future with confidence and hope.” An instrument elaborated, in addition, with the precise goal of promoting. The Compendium has a precise purpose: “It is proposed as an instrument for the moral and pastoral discernment of the complex events that characterize our time; as a guide to inspire, in the individual and collective sphere, the behaviors and options that allow looking to the future with confidence and hope.” An instrument elaborated, in addition, with the precise objective of promoting. Read more here: Compendium Of The Social Doctrine of The Church (Read more here: Summary: Compendium Of The Social Doctrine of The Church)

One of the groups It is written for are “The lay faithful, who seek the Kingdom of God “by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will”(Lumen Gentium, #31), will find in it enlightenment for their own specific mission…” (Read more here: Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church)

The Compendium highlights how social doctrine is at the heart of the church's mission. And it illustrates, above all in chapter II, the ecclesiological character of social doctrine, that is, its relationship with the mission of the Church, with evangelization and with the announcement of Christian salvation in the temporal realities. The mission of service to the Church's own world, which is to be the sign of unity of the whole human race and sacrament of salvation, counts, in effect, among its instruments, also the social doctrine.

“The social doctrine: wisdom and realism: ‘By reading the Compendium you can easily grasp how the social doctrine of the Church is essentially a global look at the reality of humanity, considered within God's plan of love over it. In this sense, the social doctrine is a look at the whole, by virtue of the projection of the light of the Gospel in the historical reality. For this reason, social doctrine does not cover everything.’”

Read more here: Summary: Compendium of The Social Doctrine of The Church

The Fellowship of Social Justice group has created 31 mini videos on Catholic Social Teaching. You can review them here: Catholic Social Teaching