Catholic Social Teaching

Human Dignity

Every person possesses a nature and destiny that neither the market nor the State may disregard.

The Common Good

Political and economic institutions exist to help persons, families, and communities flourish together.

Justice and Charity

Justice establishes right order; Christian charity perfects it through sacrificial love.

The Reign of Christ

Christ’s authority extends over persons, families, nations, institutions, and public life.

Gerald C. Treacy, S.J.

A Handbook of Catholic Political Philosophy

A concise guide to Leo XIII on civil authority, civic obedience, true liberty, the Christian State, and the duties of Catholic citizens.

Thomas J. Harte, C.Ss.R.

Papal Social Principles

A document-centered guide to the major social pronouncements from Leo XIII through Pius XII, including encyclicals, addresses, and allocutions.

Edited by Étienne Gilson

The Church Speaks to the Modern World

The principal social encyclicals of Leo XIII, arranged according to the order indicated by the pope and illuminated by Gilson’s introductions and notes.

Fr. Joseph Husslein, S.J.

The Reign of Christ

A substantial exposition of Pius XI’s teaching on the Social Kingship of Christ, accompanied by Quas Primas and Miserentissimus Redemptor.

Peter A. Kwasniewski

His Reign Shall Have No End

An introduction tracing Catholic social teaching to the Incarnation and presenting Christ’s kingship as the key to the flourishing of persons and nations.

Augustine J. Osgniach, O.S.B.

The Christian State

A rigorous Catholic study of the state, civil authority, natural right, liberty, family, education, religion, and Church–State relations.

Thomas Storck

Foundations of a Catholic Political Order

A concrete consideration of how Catholic laws, institutions, and policies might protect Christian culture and serve the true common good.

Fr. Bernard Lucien

Religious Liberty: Continuity or Contradiction?

A precise examination of Dignitatis Humanæ, conscience, doctrinal development, public order, and continuity with prior magisterial teaching.

Louis Cardinal Billot, S.J.

Liberalism

Billot’s classic critique of liberalism’s principles and forms, newly revised with an introduction addressing its development in the United States.

Thomas Storck

Economics: An Alternative Introduction

A challenge to mechanistic economic models, insisting that economic activity possesses a moral purpose and must serve society rather than dominate it.

Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński

Love & Social Justice

A Polish Catholic response to modern social problems, treating human dignity, family, labor, property, nation, State, and Church under God.

Bede Jarrett, O.P.

Saint Antonino and Mediæval Economics

A Dominican life of Saint Antonino showing how trade, money, wages, poverty, taxation, and public authority stand beneath moral law.

Fr. Joseph Levine

The Stone Rejected by the Builders

A study arguing that social justice requires right religion, sound family life, interior order, human dignity, just work, and government directed to truth.

Thomas Storck

Seeing the World with Catholic Eyes

A wide-ranging conversation on the Church, Catholic social teaching, distributism, and the necessity of allowing the Faith to animate ordinary life.

Edited by Thomas Storck

The Glory of the Cosmos

A Thomistic approach to creation that rejects both the exploitation of nature as inert matter and its false elevation into divinity.

Franziskus Stratmann, O.P.

The Church & War

A Catholic examination of modern warfare, defensive war, international order, and the commandment of charity between persons and nations.

António de Oliveira Salazar

Salazar Says...

Two hundred concise reflections on government, political authority, national life, public duty, and the moral responsibilities of statesmanship.

De Corte · Gaxotte · Thibon

Salazar and His Work

Three essays examining Salazar’s character, political thought, Catholic statecraft, and understanding of authority and the common good.