Exploring Catholic Social Teaching
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Answer Key<br />
Handout A: Law, Justice, and the Human Person<br />
Part I<br />
1. Loving God above all, and loving your neighbor as yourself. The Golden Rule is also a summary<br />
of justice. Giving God and neighbor their due.<br />
2. The family.<br />
3. Respect for the dignity of the human person.<br />
4. If rights were “given to us” by the government, then some people could have more rights than<br />
others, and no one could say there was anything wrong with that. Because our rights are Godgiven,<br />
we know human beings are equal and deserve to be treated justly.<br />
Part II<br />
1. Completed for the student.<br />
2. Giving God His due means not using His name in a disrespectful way.<br />
3. Keeping the Lord’s Day set aside for God and family is a way of giving each what is due to them.<br />
4. Our parents are natural authorities over us. They gave us life. We owe them respect and<br />
obedience.<br />
5. Each and every person has a right to life.<br />
6. Completed for the student.<br />
7. Completed for the student.<br />
8. Deceiving our neighbors, or speaking badly about others, are acts that fail to respect them, or<br />
to respect God.<br />
9. Wanting to come between a husband and wife is sinful and unjust for many reasons, including<br />
because each is due the other’s exclusive love.<br />
10. Your neighbor is due his belongings; they rightfully belong to him. Wanting to have them for<br />
yourself is to desire an injustice.<br />
Handout B: A Just Hierarchy of Values<br />
Part I<br />
The policies that must always be opposed are those which are always wrong no matter what the<br />
circumstances. These also always have direct, clear effects: for example, in an abortion, a baby<br />
always dies. Euthanasia always results in an elderly, sick, or disabled person being killed. Others<br />
policies require more discernment because their effects may not always match up with their<br />
intentions. For example, a policy intended to help the poor may not actually help the poor; a law<br />
intended to improve education may actually harm it, and so forth. Therefore, these policies can and<br />
should be debated by Christians in good conscience.<br />
Part II<br />
Accept reasoned answers.<br />
130<br />
© SOPHIA INSTITUTE FOR TEACHERS
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