Is the death of a preborn human in the womb really a private matter? Who is not horrified by the evil of genocide? How can a terrorist bombing of a marketplace ever be justified?

"We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill," says Living the Gospel of Life "or collude in the killing, of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed, disabled or desperate that life may seem."

From both divine revelation and natural law, we know that there is something special about human life. We are made in the image of God. Protection of human life and dignity is a natural instinct of all people and stands at the core of Catholic social teaching. The life and dignity of the human person is foundational to Catholic social teaching precisely because without it, no other rights have meaning.

“Every person has a fundamental right to life,” say the U.S. Bishops, “the right that makes all other rights possible. Each person also has a right to the conditions for living a decent life—faith and family life, food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing. We also have a duty to secure and respect these rights not only for ourselves, but for others, and to fulfill our responsibilities to our families, to each other, and to the larger society.”  (Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, 2003.)

Rights and responsibilities are inextricably tied:  “The obligation to earn one’s bread presumes the right to do so.”  (The Hundredth Year, Centesimus Annus, John Paul II, 1991)

We are our brothers and sisters keepers, whether they are next door or around the world. In today’s world of instantaneous communication, 24-hour news cycles and world economic dependency, this simple axiom is truer than ever.

Solidarity is often defined as “friendship” or “social charity.”  It is the notion that we must help each other, both in the material sense and in the spiritual sense.  It is not just feeling sympathy for the poor in our communities or the world explained Pope John Paul II  in his encyclical On Social Concern (Sollicitudo rei socialis), “it is the firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”

“The person is not only sacred,” say the US Bishops, “but also social.  How we organize our society – in economics and politics, in law and policy – directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community."

This organization of society moves from the basic unit, the family, to the larger community while ensuring that everyone participates.  The emphasis on the larger social group counterbalances unregulated individual rights, that left unconstrained, can turn toward anarchy.

In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict summarized the centrality of this concept to our faith:  “Only if I serve my neighbor can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me.”

Christians have a special place in their hearts for the poor and vulnerable because Jesus had a special place in his heart for them.  The Gospels are filled with stories of how he helped those in need. Some of the most famous - the Beatitudes, the Last Judgment  and the Good Samaritan - summarize the importance of Christian service to the marginalized of society.

Many scholars trace the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching to the 1891 publication of Rerum Novarum (Of New Things).  Reacting to the abuse of workers during the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical focused on the application of the Gospel message to an industrial society. 

In our post-industrial age, where workers are nothing more that “units of labor” to an economist, that exploration is as important as ever.  Pope John Paul II continued the discussion with Laborem Exercens (On Human Work).  His life experiences with Polish-style communism and the growth of the trade union Solidarity, contributed to his understanding of the commoditization of people in an economic system.

Even the Vatican is going green. With the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Vatican began selling power back to the Roman electric grid in November 2008.

Concern for the environment is one of the newer dimensions of Catholic social teaching, paralleling the growing awareness in society as a whole. Prior to the industrial revolution, human impact on the environment was limited and localized. With the growth of economies, the use of fossil fuels, and the demand for consumer goods, the amount of natural resources people pulled from the planet rose substantially.