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Office for Social Justice
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Notable quotations from Catholic social teaching
on the theme of Participation

Citizens, on the other hand, should remember that it is their right and duty, which is also to be recognized by the civil authority, to contribute to the true progress of their own community according to their ability. Especially in underdeveloped areas, where all resources must urgently be employed, those who hold back their unproductive resources or who deprive their community of the material or spiritual aid that it needs --saving the personal right of migration -- gravely endanger the common good.

The Church in the Modern World, #65
These fundamental duties can be summarized this way: basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons. The ultimate injustice is for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race. To treat people this way is effectively to say they simply do not count as human beings.

Economic Justice for All, #77
Participation constitutes a right which is to be applied both in the economic and in the social and political field.

Justice in the World, #18
Justice is to be observed not merely in the distribution of wealth, but also in regard to the conditions under which men engage in productive activity. There is, in fact, an innate need of human nature requiring that men engaged in productive activity have an opportunity to assume responsibility and to perfect themselves by their efforts.

Mother and Teacher, #82
The nation's founders took daring steps to create structures of participation, mutual accountability, and widely distributed power to ensure the political rights and freedoms of all. We believe that similar steps are needed today to expand economic participation, broaden the sharing of economic power, and make economic decisions more accountable to the common good.

Economic Justice for All, #297

Economic development must remain under the people's control; it is not to be left to the judgment of a few individuals or groups possessing too much economic power, nor to the political community alone, nor to a few powerful nations. It is proper, on the contrary, that at every level the largest number of people have an active share in directing that development.

The Church in the Modern World, #65
In order that the right to development may be fulfilled by action: (a) people should not be hindered from attaining development in accordance with their own culture; (b) through mutual cooperation, all peoples should be able to become the principal architects of their own economic and social development;

Justice in the World, #71
John XXIII gave a reminder of the urgency of giving everyone who works his proper dignity by making him a true sharer in the work he does with others: " every effort should be made that the enterprise become a community of persons in the dealings, activities and standing of all its members".[30]

On the Development of Peoples, #28
Individual citizens and intermediate groups are obliged to make their specific contributions to the common welfare. One of the chief consequences of this is that they must bring their own interests into harmony with the needs of the community, and must contribute their goods and their services as civil authorities have prescribed, in accord with the norms of justice and within the limits of their competence.

Peace on Earth, #53
It is in keeping with their dignity as persons that human beings should take an active part in government.

Peace on Earth, #73
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