From Xxx XXXX to Xxxx Xxxx XX. A century in continuity? 38 2. Xxx XXXX, 1878 – 1903 40 3. Xxxx XX, 1922 – 1939 43
From Xxx XXXX to Xxxx Xxxx XX. A century in continuity? The social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is doctrine, and as doctrine it has the main characteristic of historicity. Therefore, having an overview, even as concise as this one is, on its historical path might show how social doctrine is historically defined. A historical perspective can give us some confirmation about the evolving character of the social doctrine. And besides, an historical overview can furnish some relevant elements about the continuity in content of the social doctrine and how its motives have been articulated through different periods. In fact, the analysis of different popes in different political and social contexts may help us to define how various evolutions, modifications and adaptations occurred according each time to contemporary needs. Due to the fact that social doctrine is a modern concept, I choose here to give a historical outline of social teaching starting from what is recognized by the RCC as the official starting point, namely the social encyclical Rerum novarum, 1891, by xxxx Xxx XXXX. In the historical notes on social teaching I will follow the chronological order also used in the Compendium of the social doctrine of the Church. And I will add my personal schematization in sections according to social texts published by each xxxx, and to the texts included in Vatican II. An overview of the popes’ previous statements might show the historicity of social doctrine, demonstrating that each time social teaching dealt with its contemporary problems and developed new answers. We have just briefly seen how social teaching has not sprung from anybody’s personal initiative, but it has been defined in recent times as such when it was already in full existence. Therefore, some kind of social thought should be considered to have always been there, since some Jewish laws in the Old Testament touch on this. Its definition, which includes the Compendium as the monumental attempt at systematization is nevertheless an a posteriori conception.79 Another relevant twofold element that should emerge in this short historical analysis is: from one side, the continuous adherence to the Gospel that RCC claims and, from the other side, the ongoing process of development, adaptation and renewal that strongly characterizes social teaching in its doctrinal shape. Even if the RCC’s social teaching appears to be rooted in the Gospel, from which it takes its basic pillars, it is true that a formal social teaching is di...
