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Our Founder, Pope Saint John Paul II [Infographic]

He founded CAPP, promoted Catholic Social Teaching, fought Communism, canonized hundreds, visited 129 countries, and so much more!

This infographic visually shows the impressive accomplishments of Pope Saint John Paul II, CAPP's founder.'
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Catholic Social Teaching and Other Issues

It is our special task to order and throw light upon all the affairs of the world in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ: “let the laity also by their combined efforts remedy the customs and conditions of the world.”

Lumen Gentium, 36

Transgenderism

We are facing a crisis in human sexuality caused by a representation of human anthropology that cancels out differences between men and women.

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Abortion

One of the most divisive issues during the past 50 years! Why is the Church so one-sided (and must always be so)?

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Racism is contrary to Christ and the teachings of the Gospel

Racism in the United States

The belief humanity can be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities with some races innately superior to others. This leads to personal and societal prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity. What does Catholic social teaching have to say about such an insidious “ism”? CLICK to read more.

The Church has consistently spoken out against socialism in all its forms, most recently, democratic socialism

Democratic Socialism

Candidates for President of the United States and many in congress espouse this as an alternative model for our country. What, exactly, is it? What does the Catholic Church say?

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Climate Change is a real issue and must be met with dialog, faith, and science, ordered toward the common good.

Climate Change

One political party committed the US to the Paris Agreement and proposes a “Green New Deal”. Another party withdrew from the Paris Agreement and inimically opposes the other’s proposal. What does Catholic social teaching say?

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Climate Change is a real issue and must be met with dialog, faith, and science, ordered toward the common good.

Immigration

The Church recognizes the rights of nations to govern and protect themselves in the interests of the Common Good and “…the right of all men to migrate to other countries and to seek conditions worthy of human life for themselves and for their families.” (Gaudium et Spes)

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national health care

Universal Healthcare

US health care is, in many ways, the envy of the world. Would universal, or national, healthcare improve it? See how Catholic social teaching can inform the discussion!

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Euthanasia

Without a Christian perspective, the world often seeks to avoid suffering at all costs and strives to make death as painless as possible. It is then that “[w]e must accompany people towards death, but not provoke death or facilitate any form of suicide.” (Pope Francis)

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The Family is the answer to the poisons destroying our society.

The Family

The answer to the dangers to our society.

“The future of humanity passes by way of the family.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 86)​

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marriage

Marriage

The foundation of the family.

"[T]ranscends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple”. It is born “from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses". (Pope Francis, 66)

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Climate Change is a real issue and must be met with dialog, faith, and science, ordered toward the common good.

Dignity of Work

"We were created with a vocation to work."

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Gun Control

It is one of the most divisive and painful issues in the United States. Gun ownership is an issue where there is legitimate diversity of opinion. How does the Church reconcile self-defense with the sacredness of human life?

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Overpopulation

From the Church’s perspective, the problem was never people themselves. The real question is not how many people the Earth can hold, but how we understand the human person.

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Climate Change is a real issue and must be met with dialog, faith, and science, ordered toward the common good.

The Death Penalty

The Church's historical teaching, the changes Pope Francis made, and what the Church teaches now.

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Covid-19 is tearing families, communities, and nations apart. Catholic social teaching can guide us through it.

COVID-19

The Crisis and the Cure: How does Catholic social teaching evaluate governments’ response?

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The Family is the answer to the poisons destroying our society.

The Common Good

The Common Good is not a principle, but an aspirational result: “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily”. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1906)

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God has called us to be stewards of this world, our physical environment and common home.

Physical Environment

This is about more than ‘just’ protecting the environment. There are profound spiritual dimensions involved.

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Physical and human environments are linked and only integral ecology can care or them both.

Integral Ecology

The solution to all our environmental problems!

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How many talk about the serious destruction of our human environment where we grow, live, and work?

Human Environment

“[W]e must also mention the more serious destruction of the human environment, something which is by no means receiving the attention it deserves.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 38)

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The Church has identified four dangers to society, pathologies, eating away at our culture.

The Four Dangers to Society

The Church identifies the major ‘risks and problems’ eating away at our cultural, economic and political systems. What are they?

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Consumerism is a terrible affliction of the developed world and an affront to human dignity.

Consumerism

Having and wanting a lot of ‘stuff’ is at the heart of several of society’s ills. Which ones? Why does this limit our freedom?

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Our environments, both our physical and human (moral), are in peril, in more ways than you likely realize

Environmental Degradation

Yes! The environment is in danger. But, it is actually worse (and, more complicated) than you think.

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alienation

Alienation

Society and individuals are alienated! We are “marked by a ‘globalization of indifference’ that makes us…closed in on ourselves.” (Pope Francis, 1)  The consequences are devastating!

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Radical Secularism

[COMING SOON]

“The greatest challenge of our time”! (Pope Benedict XVI, 3)​ Why? Radical secularism holds that there is no such thing as an objective truth. But, “Without truth, without trust and love for what is true...social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 5)​ Sound familiar?

Explore the Three Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

Three circles containing symbols of the three principles of catholic social teaching: human dignity, subsidiarity, and solidarity.

Three Key Principles

Catholic social teaching is built on three foundational principles - Human Dignity, Solidarity and Subsidiarity. Human Dignity, embodied in a correct understanding of the human person, is the greatest. The others flow from it. Good governments and good economic systems find ways of fostering the three principles.

Human Dignity

This means a correct understanding of the human person and of each person’s unique value. All Catholic social teaching flows from this: the inherent dignity of every person that comes from being made in God’s image. 

Solidarity

Solidarity is not “a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others. It is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 38) Love of God and love of neighbor are, in fact, linked and form one, single commandment.

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity “is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry. So, too, it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and a disturbance of right order to transfer to the larger and higher collectivity functions which can be performed and provided for by the lesser and subordinate bodies”. (Pope Pius XI)

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CAPP-USA (Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, Inc.) is the United States affiliate of the Vatican-based pontifical foundation of Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, established by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993 to promote Catholic Social Teaching in fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. CAPP-USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

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