I don't really know what I'm supposed to say about this reading. This isn't a story nor play that I have to translate. It is very point blank that there are principles of Catholic Social Teaching. I think that if everyone followed those principles the world would be a much better place. I have taken two theology courses at Seton Hill and I had learned about these principles over and over again. Jacko was actually my professor who taught me the course "Jesus." It was a good course and I would recommend it to whoever is thinking about taking that course.

"...Its broad humanistic strains can resonate with people of all faith traditions."

People of all faiths can understand the necessity of a structured, selfless set of principles such as the ones set forth in CST. Most religions, and even modern first-world societies stress the importance of selflessness towards your neighbor, and the word nobility is used in conjunction with heroism. CST and similar systems based on such a noble set of principles are absolutely necessary for achieving peace. If more people around the world were striving to exhibit the truth, candor, and humanity CST demands, it would no doubt be a better place.

Here's where I found possible conflicts in other faiths following the principles of CST.

More interesting than some of the other principles are those of human life and subsidiarity. These specifically address modern political issues, instead of purely reasons for selflessness and community betterment. They are where the Catholic opinion is included, but built within principles of respect and equality. With regard to the principle of subsidiarity, Catholics tend to be conservative, and so naturally against government involvement. Also, the principle of human life undoubtedly shows their stance on abortion, seeing as “human life at every stage of development, from conception to natural death, is precious and thus worthy of protection…” It is in these two principles that people of other faiths might find a conflict of belief.

"The principle of solidarity: We are one human family and so our practice of love of neighbor must extend to the global community."

I have 15 years of catholic schooling in my history. My whole senior year religion class consisted of the Catholic Social Teaching. I have learned every step in depth and know just about every application to each step. This is my favorite, especially now, with the hurricane and it's aftermath. As humans, being created in the image and likeness of God, we are all a family. If a member of our immediate was in trouble or in pain, we'd be there in a second. We have an obligation to do the same for our extended family, regardless of where they are on this planet.

"Catholic Social Teaching refers to the body of official teahcings of Catholic Church concered with human life in society in all of its dimension- cultural, social, economic, political and enviromental."

Sister Jacko have made a fine explanation about CST. She explained the history and the meaning of it quite well. I'm not a Catholic, but I find a lot of these things relating to what I believe in. Just the basic discriptions of human life and stewardship, is basically a moral stand point that all people should follow. Espiecially in light of recent events (ex. Hurricane Katrina, War in Iraq to name a few), we should use these principles as a bind to pull all the people of this world together.

Gina and others -- yes, this isn't a literary work, but I'm happy to see that several of you are alrady finding key passages and reflecting on their signifance. I'm glad to see that this is familiar material to some of you. Gina, and everyone else who already knows CST, I invite you to show me how you can apply it to the literay works we study. For now, I welcome your initial reactions. We'll talk about it in class tomorrow.

I'm not sure what to say about this.

"2 Respect for human life
Human life at every stage of development, from conception to natural death, is precious and thus worthy of protection and respect."

Pro-life?

Yeah, that's all I've got.

The Catholic church is not against the government being involved. I think that you misunderstood subsidiarity. The Catholic church doesn't say the government should never get involved or that they're against it, they believe that the government should step in when neccessary, but if the smaller organizations and communities can handle it, they'd rather it stay that way. And as far as abortions go, I studied world religions last year, and a part of that was to interview 5 people of different faith. Not one of those faiths agreed with abortion. They may not have been so vocal about it, but they certainly did not support it.

I am going to be very interested to hear all the opinions on this document from the Catholic students; I am Presbyterian, so it is a little different - but we all basically believe the same thing.