“God Quotes” from Catholic Social Teaching

by CAPP-USA

“God Quotes” at the Heart of Catholic Social Teaching

Every aspect of Catholic social teaching, from its guidance on cultural, political, and economic structures to its answers to pressing social issues (abortion, marriage, immigration, racism, the environment, healthcare, etc.) has as its beating heart, God Himself, who “has imprinted his own image and likeness on man (cf. Gen 1:26), conferring upon him an incomparable dignity”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 11) 

We are called to form our consciences according to the principles of Catholic social teaching (Pope Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia In America, 67) and to act in society for the common good.

To do this we must first build and deepen our relationship with God.

These handful of “God quotes” will help us meditate on the call to the laity to, “by their combined efforts remedy the customs and conditions of the world.” (Lumen Gentium, 36) 

1. “Separated from God a man is but a monster, in himself and toward others; for the right ordering of human society presupposes the right ordering of man’s conscience with God”. (Pope St. John XXIII, 215)
2. “[O]ne thing is certain: human activity, individual and collective…corresponds to the purpose of God.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 25)
3. Being made in God’s image is “the basis not only of the unity of the human family but also of our inviolable human dignity”. (Pope Benedict XVI) 
4. “True brotherhood among people presupposes and demands a transcendent Fatherhood.” (Pope Francis, 1)
5. “As one created in the image of God, each individual human being…is not just something but someone, free, self-giving and entering into communion with others.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 2)
6. “The root reason for human dignity lies in man’s call to communion with God.” (Gaudium et Spes, 19) “[M]an has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man”. (Gaudium et Spes, 16)
7. “God loves us deeply, totally and without making distinctions. He calls us to friendship with him, he makes us part of a reality beyond every imagination and every thought and word: his divine life itself. With feeling and gratitude, let us be aware of the value of every human person’s incomparable dignity and of our great responsibility.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
8. “The apex of development is the exercise of the right and duty to seek God, to know him and to live in accordance with that knowledge.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 29)
9. “The Incarnation reveals to us, with intense light and in a surprising way, that every human life has a very lofty and incomparable dignity.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
10. “[T]he love of God, once welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives and relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing.” (Pope Francis, 3)
11. “Love of neighbor…consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even persons whom I do not like or even know.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 18)
12. Through work man becomes a “cooperator with God in the work of creation”! (Pope St. John Paul II, 37)
13. “Only my readiness to encounter my neighbor and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 18)
14. The family is the image of God who “in his deepest mystery is not all by himself, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship and the essence of the family, which is love”. (Pope St. John Paul II)
15. “By bearing the pain of labor in union with Christ crucified for us, man in some way collaborates with the Son of God in the redemption of humanity.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 27)
16. “[T]he systematic violation of the moral law…produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 21)