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The social teachings of the Catholic Church are a rich treasure of concepts, ideals and actions extending back many centuries. They are central to our lives and faith as Catholics. They broadly demonstrate how Catholics are encouraged to act and react in relation to the larger society and with our world. They are articulated through a series of papal, concillar and episcopal documents. 

Taken as a whole, Catholic Social Teaching provides a framework by which Catholics and non-Catholics alike can explore, discern and judge any number of important economic and social issues.

The established social teachings of the Church consist of seven basic themes:

1. Respect for life and dignity of the human person. People do not lose their dignity due to disability, poverty, age, race or a lack of success. 
2. A call to family, community and participation. We realize our dignity and rights in relationship with others, in community. 
3. Fundamental rights and responsibilities of all human persons. Each of us have the right to food, shelter, healthcare, education and employment. 
4. Options for the poor and vulnerable. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. 
5. The dignity of work and the rights of workers. People have the right to decent and productive work and fair compensation. 
6. Solidarity. Our obligations to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological differences. We are called globally for justice. 
7. Care for God’s creation. We have the moral responsibility to protect our environment and its biodiversity as stewards. 

An important subset of Catholic Social Teaching is that concerning economic and social justice. It is this aspect of Catholic doctrine that is of greatest interest to the Romero Center because it is the aspect most often overlooked by many Catholics and others in favor of support for right to life issues and opposition to concern for our LGBT neighbors and friends. 

In 1986, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a pastoral letter entitled “Economic Justice for All” in which it laid out the principles of the Church’s teachings on economic and social justice. Included in the letter were the following:

1. The economy is people centered. It exists for the person, not the other way around. 
2. Economic life should be judged according to moral principles. 
3. An important principle is how the economy affects the poor and the vulnerable.
4. All people have the right to secure the basic necessities of life, including the right to food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare, a safe environment and economic security. 
5. All people have the right to productive work, fair compensation and decent working conditions.
6. Workers have the right to organize and join unions to better themselves.
7. Conversely, all able people have the responsibility to work, to provide for their families and to contribute to the larger society. 
8. In economic life, free markets and governments have both advantages and limitations. Voluntary associations play an important role, but are not substitutes for a proper working of the marketplace and just government policies.
9. Government action may be required to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs and to pursue economic justice. 
10. Workers, owners, managers, shareholders and consumers are moral agents (and through their choices and actions) in economic life. 
11. The global economy has both moral dimensions and human consequences. Through actions on trade, investment and development, we should protect human life and dignity throughout the world.