OVERVIEW

The United States bishops have stated the Church’s social teaching is integral to its identity and mission and they seek a renewed commitment to integrate and to share the riches of the Church’s social teaching. Modern Catholic social teaching has been articulated through a tradition of papal, conciliar, and episcopal documents. A selection of statements by U.S. bishops on various social issues is offered here.

General Catholic Social Teaching

• Program of Social Reconstruction 1919
• Pastoral Letter of 1919
• Communities of Salt and Light, November 1993
• Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions, 1998
• Everyday Christianity: To Hunger and Thirst for Justice, November 1999
• In All Things Charity: A Pastoral Challenge for the New Millennium, November 1999
• Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions, June 1999

Care for Creation

• Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good, June 2001
• The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good (An International Pastoral Letter by the Catholic Bishops of the Watershed Region, 2001)
• Renewing the Earth, 1991

Citizenship

• Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, 2007, 2012
• Catholics in Political Life, June 2004

Criminal Justice

• Statement on Capital Punishment, November 1980
• Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice, November 2000
• A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, 2005
• A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty, April 1999

Domestic Violence

• When I call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women, September 1992

Diversify & Racism

• Brothers and Sisters to Us, 1979
• Asian and Pacific Presence: Harmony in Faith, 2001

Economic Justice & Local Poverty Issues

• Economic Justice for All, November 1986
• Socially Responsible Investing, 1991
• A Decade After Economic Justice for All, November 1995
• A Place at the Table: A Catholic Recommitment to Overcome Poverty and to Respect the Dignity of All God’s Children, December 2002
• “For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food” Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers, and Farmworkers, December 2003
• A Catholic Framework for Economic Life, November 1996

Elders

• Blessings of Age: A Pastoral Message on Growing Older Within the Faith Community, 1999

Human Trafficking

• On Human Trafficking, 2007

Immigrants/refugees

• Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, 2001
• Strangers No Longer, January 2003, Joint Statement from Bishops of the United States and Mexico
• Statement on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, 2012

Global Solidarity

• Called to Global Solidarity, November 1997
• A Call to Solidarity with Africa, November 2001

Labor/rights Of Workers

• Labor Day Statements
• Respecting the Just Rights of Workers, June 2009

Peace & Non-violence

• The Challenge of Peace, 1983
• The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace, 1993 (A Reflection of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Tenth Anniversary of The Challenge of Peace)
• Confronting a Culture of Violence, November 1994
• Sowing Weapons of War, June 1995
• When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women, 2002
• Statement on Israeli-Palestinian Violence, March 2002
• Resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, June 2001

Respect Life

• Living the Gospel of Life, November 1998
• A Matter of the Heart, November 2002 (USCCB Statement on the 30^th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade)

Other Documents

• A Pastoral Message: Living with Faith and Hope After September 11, November 2001
• A Commitment to All Generations: Social Security and the Common Good, May 1999
• A Jubilee Call for Debt Forgiveness, April 1999
• Declaration on Conscientious Objection and Selective Conscientious Objection, October 1971