What is Catholic Social Teaching?

"Love your neighbour as yourself" (Mark 12:31) 

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is rooted in Scripture and formed by the wisdom of Church leaders. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world. Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice.

Writings by Popes and Catholic leaders show how the Catholic faith can guide our response to these issues. It holds that God has a special place in this story for each of us, whoever we are.

Our part in this plan isn’t just limited to things ‘spiritual’, or things we might do on Sundays, but it involves every aspect of our lives, from the things we pray about, to how we live as a responsible global citizen. Our part in this story is a vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as our brothers and sisters. Jesus’ instruction to "love your neighbour as yourself" (Mark 12:31) is at the heart of how Catholics believe they should participate in their community and the wider world.

“Catholic social teaching is fundamental to tackling world issues” (Pope Francis).

Catholic Social Teaching in 3 minutes | CAFOD (youtube.com)

There are nine CST principles, which are linked to characters to aid the children's understanding. These are:
CST Principles and Characters

Catholic Social Teaching underpins the work of our school and its principles are interwoven within our curriculum and wider school life.

As members of the Catholic Church, we are all called upon to preserve the dignity of all human beings, to care for creation, and to reach out to our sisters and brothers in need. These principles form part of Catholic Social Teaching, a body of work developed by Church leaders over the centuries. Pope Francis emphasises that it is our duty to work together to bring about a more just and peaceful world: to put love into action.

At St Ethelbert’s, we place great emphasis on the importance that our children can articulate the connection between Jesus’ teaching and doing good deeds. We teach our children about the importance of putting the needs of others before ourselves and show this in our actions, for example, by supporting Slough Foodbank and CAFOD.

Catholic social teaching is used across many subjects, it is not taught just in RE. Many of our assemblies and our child-led Collective Worship feature Catholic Social Teaching where we discuss world events and how our faith challenges us to respond in a particular way. Our Faith Ambassadors organise events to promote CST and its principles.

We teach our children that we must work together to build a better world for the future.

The following video is useful to watch to become familiar with the CST principles:

 Catholic Social Teaching in 3 minutes | CAFOD

Further information can be found here:

 Catholic Social Teaching pack for children (cafod.org.uk)

Each year group created a display focusing on a particular CST principle in order to raise awareness for the whole school community.