American Catholic Social Teaching, with CD-ROM of Bishops' Documents

by Thomas A. Shannon (Editor)

Whenever a homily about justice and charity is preached, whenever a union leader or politician inspired by papal pronouncements about just wages stands up to help poorly paid workers, whenever a diocesan newspaper publishes an article advocating creative ways to battle injustices of any sort—these are the ways Catholic social teachings are realized in the everyday world. "Catholic social teaching" is usually applied to approximately a dozen documents from Vatican sources—popes, councils, and synods of bishops. These "social" documents deal primarily with issues of life in modern society, including economic and political realities facing all people. A more expansive understanding of "Catholic social teaching" would extend the conventional definition of the phrase in three first, to consider how Church leaders and theologians addressed social realities in eras prior to the advent of modern social teaching; second, to include developments on the local level, including statements by individual bishops in their dioceses and regional groupings of bishops such as national episcopal conferences; third, to include various types of "applied Catholic social teaching." In American Catholic Social Teaching, a CD-ROM and book, Massaro and Shannon focus on the second definition listed above—efforts at the local level—and address the role of the laity and the concrete application of social teachings on the part of the laity. The documents and resources in American Catholic Social Teaching present the core of the social teaching of the American Catholic Church. Volume The Documents, is a CD-ROM containing twenty-three documents of social teaching from bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States written between 1829 and 1999. Volume Analysis of the Tradition, is a book containing twenty essays on the same social issues addressed by the bishops' statements in Volume I. Volume The Documents contains the following documents on "Pastoral John Carroll, 28 May 1792," "Pastoral First Provincial Council of Baltimore, 17 October 1829," "Pastoral Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, 21 October 1866," "Pastoral Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 7 December 1884," "Program of Social Reconstruction, National Catholic War Council, 12 February 1919," "Present Crisis, Bishops' Conference, 25 April 1933," "Statement on Church and Social Order, National Catholic Welfare Conference, 7 February 1940," "God's The Measure of Man's Conduct, National Catholic Welfare Conference, 18 November 1951," "Discrimination and Christian Conscience, National Catholic Welfare Conference, 14 November 1958," "Human Life in Our Day, National Conference of Catholic Bishops,15 November 1968," "This Land Is Home to Me, Catholic Bishops of Appalachia, 1975," "The Human Dimensions, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 20! November 1975," "Brothers and Sisters to Us, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 14 November 1979," "The Challenge of God's Promise and Our Response, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1983," "'What We Have Seen and Heard,' U.S. Black Catholic Bishops, 1984," "Economic Justice for All, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986," "One in Christ Toward a Pastoral Response to the Concerns of Women for Church and Society, National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee, 1992," "Putting Children and Families First, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1992," "Moral Principles and Policy Priorities on Welfare Reform, United States Catholic Conference, 19 March 1995," "A Decade After Economic Justice for Continuing Principles, Changing Context, New Challenges, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1996," "An Economy of Paradoxes, Labor Day Statement by Bishop William Skylsatad, 1996," "Sharing Catholic Social Challenges and Directions, USCC Task Force on Catholic Social Teaching and Catholic Education, 1998," "Faithful Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium, United States Catholic Conference Administrative Board, 1999." Volume Analysis of the Tradition contains the following "The Church—The Strong Safeguard of the Republic," by Archbishop William H. O'Connell; "Is Catholic Education a Waste of Time and Money?" by Bishop John G. Gunn; "Catholicism and Americanism," by Bishop John Ireland; "The Needy Family and Institutions," by Richard H. Tierney, S.J.; "The Eight-Hour Day," by Joseph Husslein, S.J.; "A Living Wage," by John A. Ryan; "What Is Social Justice?" by George Higgins; "Catholic Union Theory," by George Higgins; "This Matter of Religious Freedom," by John Courtney Murray, S.J.; "The Encyclicals and Social Is John A. Ryan Typical?" by Francis L. Broderick; "Episcopal Teaching Authority on Matters of War and Economics," by James Heft; "Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker," by The Catholic Worker; "Lay Movements in the United States Before Vatican II," by Gary MacEoin; "Feminism and Sharing the A Catholic Dilemma," by Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J.; "Under the Cross and the Reflect...

Paperback

Published January 1, 2002

About the author

Thomas A. Shannon is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Ethics in the Department of Humanities and Arts at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts.