The Church’s Social Teaching began with Abraham and Sarah. It is 4,000 years old. What depth!
It developed in the most profound manner from the late 19th century onwards, because of rapid changes in society known as the Industrial Revolution.
Pope Leo XIII responded magnificently with Rerum Novarum (1891).
The Berlin Wall came crumbling down in 1989 and Pope St. John Paul II wrote Centesimus Annus (1991). It honoured the memory of Leo XIII and called for a society of free work, enterprise and participation.
He said that Leo had bequeathed to us a lasting paradigm for our social doctrine.
Pope Leo XIV has responded to rapid changes in the digital world with his social teaching called Magnificent Humanity.
In it he helpfully outlines the fundamentals of our social teaching in chapters two and three.
There are, in fact, four pillars of the teaching:
The dignity, beauty and magnificence of the human person
The promotion and maintenance of the common good
The principle of subsidiarity
The principle of solidarity.
Note that Pope Leo XIV says:
Social doctrine is not merely a message addressed to society. It is an examination of conscience for the Church (MH 86).
AMEN.