Catholic Social Teachings

The Catholic Social Justice Teachings are a set list of teachings from the Catholic Church perspective on the matters of human dignity and common good in society. The ideas address oppression, the role of the state, subsidiarity, social organization, concern for social justice, and issues of wealth distribution. These teachings hold a great importance within social justice as they allow us to connect with these issues on a spiritual level as well as gain a different perspective on the issue from the theological side.

"The human family has recieved from the creator of a common gift: Nature" - Pope Francis, Lauadto Si

Care for Gods Creation

The teaching of caring for God's creations is a big aspect of the Catholic Church which is directly violated by the injustice of ocean pollution. Careless actions such as:

  • Neglecting to properly throw waste into the trash

  • Leaving trash on the street or by local beaches

  • Failing to recycle objects such as paper, plastic, and glass

Demonstrate an act of disrespect to the world God has created for us. We have a duty as God's creations to ensure that our world is a safe place to live in for the future and we should all work together as a society to upheld this duty.


Solidarity

Solidarity is the Catholic teaching that if we all work collectively, we can achieve success in advocating for a certain issue. Solidarity within ocean pollution tends to be violated within this aspect of teaching as we continue to lack the united front that is needed to see a postive progression on ocean pollution. We have to rember that we are all connected therefore our actions matter to everyone.

While making changes in the way we use plastic is very essential to this cause. We can not make strives to solve this injustice with only minor help. We all have to work together in order to fully advocate for ocean pollution.


Human Dignity

Human dignity defined by the Catholic Social Teachings is a mindset that centers on that all human beings are precious and should be treated with a equal foundation of respect. While this social injustice may seem to only effect marine life, humanity is also threatened from this issue in many aspects such as:

  • The contamination of oceans by oils and toxins which makes up the majority of our drinking water

  • The pieces of micro-plastics that end up in marine animals that eventually end up in our food

  • loss of marine life ultimately destabilizes our ecosystem.

The effects that this issue has on human life violates the teaching of human dignity which we should ensure the protection of. As well as this issues threat to the human body, everyone should have the right to clean drinking water which is another aspect of human life that ocean pollution poses a challenge to.