Bible Quotes Establishing Catholic Social Teaching

by CAPP-USA

Bible Quotes about Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic social teaching is built on three principles, human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity. From these come all teaching on every contemporary issue our society struggles with.

Catholic social teaching is not a modern invention. It is rooted in Scripture, and these scripture quotes illustrate where the principles come from.

HUMAN DIGNITY

1. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
2. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
3. “You have made him little less than a god; with glory and honor you crowned him, gave him power over the works of your hand, put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:5)
4. One of the clearest teachings on the dignity of marriage comes from our Lord: “Jesus told them…’But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” (Mark 10:5-9)
5. And again, “I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:9)
6. A culture of proactive support for homosexuality, transgenderism, gay marriage, etc., has strong admonishment in the Bible: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor 6:9-10)
7. The Bible addresses the dignity of work and rights of workers, another major theme in Catholic social teaching; “Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (James 5:4)

SOLIDARITY

1. “A new commandment I give to you,​ ​that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
2. “[I]f one member suffers anything, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Cor 12:26)
3. “For what will it profit men to become expert in more wisely using their wealth, even to gaining the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their souls?” (Matthew 16:26)
4. “As long as you did it to one of My least brethren you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
5. “But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor” (Luke 11:41). As Pope Leo XIII reminds us “when what necessity demands has been supplied…it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over”. (Rerum Novarum, 22) 
6. “To whom much is given, much is expected”. (Luke 12:48)
7. The Church’s preferential option for the poor comes directly from Christ calling them “blessed” (Matthew 5:3) and the early Church; “neither was there any one needy among them.” (Acts 4:34)
8. “A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city.” (Proverbs 18:19)
9. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17)

SUBSIDIARITY

1. “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.” (1 Corinthians 14:33) This speaks to ordered, local governance of congregations.
2. “Each one should carry their own load” (Galatians 6:5) This suggests individual responsibility before moving to higher levels of support.
3. “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8) This establishes the primacy of family-level responsibility before seeking broader help.
4. From Acts 6:1-7, we see the early church organizing local deacons to handle community needs, rather than centralizing all authority with the apostles.
5. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)