Living out the social message of the Catholic Christian faith is not only an academic question. But if someone asked you for one book that clearly elucidated that message, what could you give them?
Just as the
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) has become a standard reference for informed Catholics about the Church's general doctrine, popes since John Paul II have expressed a desire for a "social Catechism" that succinctly presents the implications of the faith for social and political life and its connection to the new evangelization. This work aims to fill that void.
Handbook of Catholic Social Teaching employs a question and answer format, to better accentuate the response of the Church's message to the questions Catholics have about their social role and what the Church intends to teach about it. It is the first short book on Catholic Social Teaching to ground itself thoroughly in the longer and authoritative
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004), following the compendium's structure but rendering its key points more succinctly and accessibly. It also brings in more recent papal encyclicals like
Caritas in Veritate and
Laudato Si and new special topics (such as gender ideology).
Written in consultation with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and already a best-seller in Italy, the Handbook should take its place alongside the
Catechism on the shelf of informed Catholics as works that can inform what we believe and do in the public sphere.
