Catholic Social Tradition in Development: Between Teaching and Learning

Historically, Catholic social teaching did not spring forth solely from papal reflection but out of a much broader tradition in which various magisterial and nonmagisterial actors interacted to construct this teaching. Yet the social encyclicals themselves do not easily acknowledge any nonmagisterial influence. Some social encyclicals outright reject
roles for nonmagisterial actors in the process of constructing the social teaching. Others, especially after the Second Vatican Council, struggle to deal with this fact. This arti- cle searches for the motives behind this phenomenon. By reading key encyclicals, the author shows how this sidestepping of nonmagisterial contributions did not result from any condescending magisterial outlook toward the laity. Rather, it followed from specific neo-Thomist ideas about the nature of Church unity, doctrine and action, and a corresponding idea of the magisterium. These ideas have been shifting since Vatican II, but it took some time to yield fruit in the social tradition itself.