Exploring Catholic Social Teaching
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High School Chapter: Different Types of Justice 189<br />
We do not need a State which regulates<br />
and controls everything, but a can live “by bread alone” ( Mt 4:4; cf.<br />
man: the mistaken notion that man<br />
State which, in accordance with the Dt 8:3) — a conviction that demeans<br />
principle of subsidiarity, generously man and ultimately disregards all<br />
acknowledges and supports initiatives<br />
arising from the different social<br />
that is specifi cally human. (28)<br />
We have to remember that we cannot<br />
forces and combines spontaneity<br />
achieve perfect justice in this life. God has<br />
with closeness to those in need. The<br />
reserved that for eternal life, in which He<br />
Church is one of those living forces:<br />
judges all things perfectly. Human beings<br />
she is alive with the love enkindled<br />
do not have the wisdom, power, or the<br />
by the Spirit of Christ. This love does<br />
not simply offer people material<br />
authority to right every wrong — to create<br />
help, but refreshment and care for<br />
a perfect society. Every attempt to do so<br />
their souls, something which often has created the worst social conditions of<br />
is even more necessary than material<br />
support. In the end, the claim totalitarian states. In the next chapter, we<br />
injustice known to human history under<br />
that just social structures would will look more closely at what the Church<br />
make works of charity superfl uous teaches about the necessity of justice<br />
masks a materialist conception of and charity to the social order.<br />
Christ of the Coin by Anthony van Dyck (ca. 1625).<br />
© Sophia Institute for Teachers<br />
22 Why is the Church capable of<br />
ensuring charity and justice<br />
in a way the State is not?<br />
Accept reasoned responses. The<br />
Church is capable of offering<br />
material help through the various<br />
services offered in charity;<br />
more importantly, the Church<br />
offers Christ and the care of<br />
souls. While material support is<br />
important, the Church also offers<br />
a deeper context for that material<br />
support and offers healing to a<br />
broken world. The Church also<br />
has been founded by God to care<br />
for the “least of these.”<br />
23 Why is the pursuit of a perfect<br />
earthly society a tempting but<br />
ultimately flawed project from<br />
the start? Perfect justice is not<br />
possible in this life and in this<br />
world through human effort. Only<br />
God has the power to properly<br />
order a society toward perfection.<br />
While governments and powerful<br />
leaders can forcibly attempt<br />
to shape society, this power is<br />
never absolute and necessarily<br />
falls. The Church, beset as<br />
she is by human weaknesses<br />
and corruption through history,<br />
endures because the Church is<br />
not a merely human institution or<br />
earthly government.<br />
© Sophia Institute for Teachers<br />
High School Chapter: Different Types of Justice<br />
159
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