Catholic Social Teaching: Rights and Responsibilities

by Brandon Jubar

In our search for the "common good", we start with a foundation of truth and justice, brought to life by love for one another. We express this love by honoring the rights of other people, just as they should honor our rights in turn. However, we have to keep in mind that all "rights" go hand-in-hand with certain responsibilities.

Protecting Dignity is the Foundation

In order to achieve that elusive "common good", we have to start with a solid foundation for society; and that foundation is human dignity. If we can protect the basic dignity that all people deserve, we are well on our way to having a healthy community. But in order to do that, we must ensure that not only are all human rights upheld, but that all the corresponding responsibilities are met.

Coming from a Christian perspective, it's easy to see that every person has a fundamental right to life and to those things necessary for human decency (food, shelter and clothing, employment, medical care, and education). What may not be as easy to see is that there are duties and responsibilities that correspond with these rights -- to each other, to our families, and to society.

Don't Shirk Your Responsibilities

If we proclaim certain rights, but then either forget or neglect to carry out our responsibilities, it's as if we were building something with one hand and tearing it down with the other. For example, it's not enough to simply agree that everyone has the right to adequate food. We also have a responsibility to help ensure that there actually is enough food for them. In essence, it's the difference between thought and action -- word and deed. It's not enough to talk the talk. We need to walk the walk, too.

Along those same lines, it is our responsibility to ensure that the civil authorities -- the government -- does its best to honor and protect these rights. That's why it is so vitally important for us, as citizens, to know about the people running for office and then to get out and vote. We may not be the ones making the decisions directly, but we're the ones who can ultimately hold the decision-makers accountable.

It's a Human Thing

Perhaps a good way to summarize this is to note that every human being is a person with intelligence and free will. Thus we have certain privileges and obligations that come directly from our very nature. And because we are given these by virtue of what we are, we can't give them up.

These basic rights are a human thing, and they are very closely tied to the Church because the Church, too, is a human thing. As St. Paul tells us, we are all parts of the body of Christ, so when we deny rights to one part of the body, we deny those rights to all of it. Likewise, if we don't step up to our responsibilities, we are harming the Church -- the body of Christ. Because, as Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me." (Matthew 25:45)

Life Applications:

When was a time that you did not step up to your responsibilities? Why didn't you?
What other correlations can you think of between rights and responsibilities?
What comes to mind when you hear us referred to as "the Body of Christ"?

Copyright 2005 by Brandon Jubar
All rights reserved.