Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

High School Chapter: Different Types of Justice
185
Pope Pius XI articulated
the concept of social
justice as the fourth form
of justice observed by
the Church.
Vocabulary
Social Justice (n.): The
responsibility of each
member of society to
respect the dignity of
every human being, and
the rights which flow from
that dignity and guarantee
it. Society must provide
the conditions that allow
people to obtain what is
their due according to
their nature and vocation.
Pope Pius XI by Alberto Felici (1930).
distinguishes commutative justice from legal justice which concerns
what the citizen owes in fairness to the community, and from distributive
justice which regulates what the community owes its citizens in
proportion to their contributions and needs” (CCC 2411). Historically,
the Church has taught these three as the primary forms of justice. More
recently, however, due to significant changes to the socioeconomic order
and events such as the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and
the growing poverty of the southern hemisphere, Pope Pius XI introduced
a fourth form of justice — social justice.
Social Justice
You will often hear people sum up the Church’s social teaching by referring
to it as “social justice.” This is not an accurate way to speak of Catholic
Social Teaching, however. Social justice is a term that needs clarification
because it is often misunderstood. Note that all justice involves multiple
persons — it is all based on relationships: our relationship with God and
our relationships with one another. Therefore, the term social justice is, in
a way, redundant. All justice is by definition social, because it necessarily
involves more than one person.
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