​​Faith   in   Action:
                     Catholic   Social   Teaching   on   the   Ground

The recent encyclical, Laudato Si (2015), was consciously intended by Pope Francis to be an integral part of Catholic social thought. “It is my hope,” he wrote, “that this Encyclical Letter, which is now added to the body of the Church’s social teaching, can help us to acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face” (LS, 15). It is the latest statement in a long tradition of the Church’s social thought that reflects on and promotes these central themes: the dignity of the human person, stewardship of creation and common good, solidarity with and preferential option for the poor, political participation, subsidiarity and authentic human development, the promotion of peace and others.

These values belong to the core of the message of Jesus. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says: “To teach and to spread her social doctrine pertains to the Church’s evangelizing mission and is an essential part of the Christian message, since this doctrine points out the direct consequences of that message in the life of the society and situates daily work and struggles for justice in the context of bearing witness to Christ the Saviour” (CSDC, 67).

It is regrettable that this crucial prophetic tradition is often drowned in other peripheral ecclesiastical concerns. It has instead been unfortunately described as the Church’s “best-kept secret,” inaccessible to people and hidden in our ecclesial closets for a long time.

Faith in Action: Catholic Social Teaching on the Ground, a set of learning modules prepared by St. Vincent School of Theology, is a refreshing attempt to make this rich social tradition alive among nonspecialists, parish groups and grassroots communities. The methodology makes the otherwise technical language of the encyclicals learnerfriendly without diluting its message. Available in three languages so far (Cebuano, Tagalog and English), Faith in Action intends to reach more people in the tongue and idiom in which they are most at home.

As the general introduction presents the “see-judge-act” process as the spirituality of Catholic Social Teaching, the succeeding modules tackle the most relevant and urgent social concerns in our country in these times: political participation and corruption, promotion of peace in a culture of conflict and violence, the care of creation in the midst of environmental degradation, the value of workers and human labor in the age of globalization and contractualization, the place of women in the church and society, and solidarity with the socially excluded. The closing module on the re-appropriation of CST in the Philippine context as expressed in the pastoral directives of Catholic bishops through the decades culminating with PCP II is an original contribution to this long literature of Catholic social thought.

​We endorse this book to community formators, training facilitators, catechists, religious education teachers, diocesan social action centers, educational institutions, parish groups, Basic Ecclesial Communities, faith-based groups, and other grassroots organizations. In our study of the Church’s social teaching through these modules, may the words of Pope Francis when he visited the Philippines serve as our constant guide and inspiration:

The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the
duty to hear the voice of the poor. It bids us to break
the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise
to glaring, and indeed, scandalous social inequalities.
Reforming the social structures which perpetuate
poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a
conversion of mind and heart (16 January 2015).​

Most Rev. Broderick Pabillo, D.D.
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

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