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Interdependence |
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In Catholic social doctrine, we all simultaneously support and are supported by others. That mutual giving and receiving in society leaves us neither wholly independent nor wholly dependent, but interdependent. Historically, the Church embraced the idea (which was first proposed in the classical world by Aristotle and further developed in its Christian dimensions by Thomas Aquinas) that human beings are by nature social. This means that human beings cannot reach their full development – religious and moral, intellectual and emotional, political and economic – on their own; societies exist so that we may all benefit from one another’s gifts. Catholicism has, therefore, tended toward greater emphasis on community, compared with Protestantism’s emphasis on the individual. In modern times, interdependence has had to be defined sharply against the background of various social movements. Thus, Catholic communitarianism denies radical individualism. But the Church has long taught that individuals, families, and other private associations have responsibilities. They therefore have the right to private property and other means necessary to carry out those responsibilities. By contrast to socialism and even to some forms of the welfare state, Catholic social teaching seeks a balance between these relatively independent social elements and the inescapable need for human solidarity. In recent papal thinking – particularly in Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals The Hundredth Year, Centesimus Annus (1991) and The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis Splendor (1993) – greater emphasis has been placed on human freedom and economic initiative than in the past. But this recognition of the divine gift of freedom is still always linked with the necessity to use freedom to do what is right and to love, foster, and support others.
See: Property; Social Doctrine; Subsidiarity.
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