On this page, the Catholic Moral Theology blog provides commentary posts on documents from the Catholic Church pertaining to moral theology and social ethics.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part III: Life in Christ
Section One: Man’s Vocation Life in the Spirit
- Chapter One: The Dignity of the Human Person
- Article One: The Image of God
- Article Two: Our Vocation to Beatitude
- Article Three: Man’s Freedom
- Article Four: The Morality of human acts (Commentary by John Berkman)
- Article Five: The Morality of the Passions (Commentary by Jason King)
- Article Six: Moral Conscience
- Article Seven: The Virtues (Commentary by William Mattison)
- Article Eight: Sin (Commentary by Emily Reimer-Barry)
- Chapter Two: The Human Communion
- Article One: The Person and Society
- Article Two: Participation in Social Life
- Article Three: Social Justice
- Chapter Three: God’s Salvation: Law and Grace
- Article One: The Moral Law
- Article Two: Grace and Justification
- Article Three: The Church, Mother and Teacher
Section Two: The Ten Commandments
- Chapter One: You Shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart, and with All Your Soul, and with All Your Mind
- Article One: The First Commandment
- Article Two: The Second Commandment
- Article Three: The Third Commandment
- Chapter Two: You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
- Artilce Four: The Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother (Commentary by Patrick Clark)
- Article Five: The Fifth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill (Commentary by Charles Camosy)
- Article Six: The Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (Commentary by Beth Haile)
- Article Seven: The Seventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Steal (Commentary by David Cloutier)
- Article Eight: The Eighth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness (Commentary by David Cloutier)
- Article Nine: The Ninth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Spouse (Commentary by Julie Hanlon Rubio)
- Article Ten: The Tenth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Goods (Commentary by Beth Haile)
Compendium on Catholic Doctrine of the Church
- Chapter One: God’s Plan for Humanity
- Chapter Two: The Church’s Mission and Social Doctrine
- Chapter Three: The Human Person and Human Rights
- Chapter Four: Principles of the Church’s Social Doctrine
- The common good (Commentary by David Cloutier)
- The universal destination of goods
- Subsidiarity
- Participation
- Solidarity (Commentary by Emily Reimer-Barry)
- Fundamental Values of Social Life
- The Way of Love
- Chapter Five: The Family, The Vital Cell of Society (Commentary by Julie Hanlon Rubio)
- Chapter Six: Human Work
- Chapter Seven: Economic Life (Commentary by Jason King)
- Chapter Eight: The Political Community (Commentary by Tom Bushlack)
- Chapter Nine: The International Community
- Chapter Ten: Safeguarding the Environment
- Chapter Eleven: The Promotion of Peace (Commentary by Christopher Vogt)
- Chapter Twelve: Social Doctrine and Ecclesial Action
A Queer Reading of Genesis 1-2 for Pride Month
This post is written in honor of Marge Mayer (1941-2022), with whom I worked at the Los Angeles Archdiocese Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Catholics in 2001. Her compassionate approach to ministry and support for parents of queer youth inspired me then and continues to...
read moreAmoris Alert: Cardinal Wuerl Finds Common Ground!
As is stated in our mission, this blog started among theological friends who were disappointed with polarization in the Church, and especially in discussions of difficult moral questions on the Web. At the time, in 2011, that bridging appeared to be a gradual...
read moreFamilies, Ideal and Experienced
This is a guest post by Jacob M. Kohlhaas, Assistant Professor of Theology at Loras College in Dubuque Iowa. “Let us cross the threshold of this tranquil home, with its family sitting around the festive table. At the centre we see the father and mother, a couple with...
read moreLearning the Gaze of Christ: Three Reflections on Amoris Laetitia
This is a guest post by Dr. Alessandro Rovati. Many commentaries about Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia focused on the hot-button issue of the pastoral care of the baptized who are divorced and remarried. A couple of months after the Exhortation’s...
read moreThe Complicity of Catholic Progressives in Amoris Laetitia Commentary
Following is a guest post from Craig A. Ford, Jr., a doctoral candidate and the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Fellow in Theological Ethics at Boston College: About one month has passed since Pope Francis released his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. As expected,...
read moreAmoris Laetitia: A Call to Slow Family and Slow Church
Among the many contested and even confounding questions in Amoris Laetitia is the question of what, exactly, it means to hold to church doctrine and yet to have a "principle of gradualness" as the pope lays out in chapter eight. Or, to take hold of what the pope...
read moreBeing Pastoral: It’s Complicated
Austin Ivereigh has a fantastic, extremely helpful “preview” of what to expect in Pope Francis’s document on marriage and the family, due to arrive tomorrow. The piece is helpful because it already gets beyond the “did he change anything or didn’t he?” binary spin...
read moreAgnes M. Brazal Responds to Simeiqi He’s “Reconceptualizing Human Reproduction Beyond John Paul II”
This guest post, by Agnes M. Brazal, is part of our series engaging the book chapters of the newly published Reproduction and the Common Good: Global Perspectives from the Catholic Tradition. Brazal responds to Simeiqi He's "Reconceptualizing Human Reproduction Beyond...
read moreUrgent Still: On this 4th Anniversary of Laudato si’
Four years ago today, Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ was published. Its message is as urgent as ever. In it Pope Francis wrote of the “urgent challenge to protect our common home” (#13), and he added, “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are...
read moreUrgent Care for Creation
I try and hope to avoid hearing the word "urgent" in my daily life. After all, I immediately associate it with "urgent care" and health problems that I (or one of my family members) need to have addressed. The word denotes a situation or state of affairs that is dire,...
read moreLent and the Environment
Lent is here again! Most of us are a full week into our self-selected Lenten resolution(s) and are finding out just how easy or difficult they are for us to manage. And, like every year, people have chimed in with their recommendations as to suitable Lenten...
read moreHow can we pray over meals truthfully?
Concerned about a future of “rubble, deserts, and refuse”? Then do your work to make change in political and economic and cultural structures in the world, and when you eat, say grace in a way that is tender, sober, full of the wonder of God’s goodness, and truthful about where the food we are eating comes from.
read more3 Thoughts About the “Laudato Si’ and Northern Appalachia” Conference
On Friday, October 21, 2016, the Theology Department at Saint Vincent College hosted the conference “Laudato Si’ and Northern Appalachia.” While every experience of a conference is a bit individualistic, there were three themes that emerged for me over the...
read moreWhere is Structural Sin in Laudato Si’?
In an early commentary on Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, my friend Kevin Ahern noted with some dismay the absence of the concept of “structural sin” (sometimes called “social sin”) in the encyclical. What is structural sin? The theologian Kenneth Himes...
read moreEverything is a Caress of God
The following is a guset post from Dr. Alessandro Rovati, Adjunct Professor at Belmont Abbey College. There have been so many comments on the encyclical Laudato Si, but not many have focused on an overarching element that is decisive to appreciate what Francis is...
read moreThe Everday Ascetic: Considering Food Waste in the US
A couple weeks I wrote a post about Laudato Si' and its call on Catholics to lead more ascetic lives. Some people have asked, "What does this mean for me and my daily life?" I think in the US the call to asceticism means attempting to renounce consumer culture and the...
read moreOn Naming God: Gendered God-Talk in Laudato Si’
One cannot escape the dilemma of gendered language when trying to interpret the pope’s new encyclical. While it is certainly refreshing to see inclusive language used for human beings (except when the document quotes earlier publications, of course), I had hoped that...
read moreTwo Things to Know about Laudato Si’ and Technology
The following is a guest post by Jim Caccamo of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA. For the past 10 years, I've been teaching an upper level course in technology ethics. Students learn fundamentals of...
read moreGetting Real with Pope Francis (and his critics)
Whether in the classroom or in casual conversation, one of the most persistent challenges I encounter as a Catholic moral theologian comes from those who argue, sometimes smugly and sometimes with sadness, that while virtuous action and social solidarity built on...
read moreLaudato Si’ on Non-Human Animals: Three Hopeful Signs, Three Missed Opportunities
When a Pope names himself after the most famous animal-lover of all time, and then chooses to write his first encyclical on ecology, expectations can become...um...rather high. Laudato Si' did say several wonderful things about non-human animals. And especially given...
read moreEnvironmental Racism, Gun Violence Homicides and the Construction of Memorial Acclamations
Guest Post By: Shawnee M. Daniels-Sykes, Ph.D., Mount Mary University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Essentially, for Pope Francis “a sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be realized if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion, and concern for our...
read moreOf Carbon Credits and Air Conditioners
In the early responses to the encyclical Laudato Si', a couple particular points have drawn attention. As soon as I read the leaked draft, I knew that Francis’s use of the example of air conditioning as a “harmful habit of consumption” would raise some hackles...
read moreLaudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home (5 Themes to Note)
It’s here! A new social encyclical! As a Catholic moral theologian, I feel a bit like a child on Christmas morning. While I know that most of you were not setting your alarms for the 5am Vatican press conference, we have all been anxiously awaiting Pope Francis’s...
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