Political charity — also called "social charity" — denotes the highest form of charity when it no longer contents itself with assisting one person, but strives to transform the structures, laws and institutions of the city so that the dignity of each person is honoured there. It is not a new virtue alongside theological charity: it is charity itself, "queen of the virtues", deployed into the social order. The word was coined by Pius XI who, receiving Catholic students in 1927, did not hesitate to present engagement for the city as "the field of the broadest charity, political charity"[1].
The whole paradox of the expression lies in this tension: politics seems to be the realm of power, interests and power relations; charity, the realm of gratuitousness and gift. Yet the Catholic Magisterium affirms that they can — and must — meet. "To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it," recalls Benedict XVI; yet there is a good that one can will for one's neighbour only by acting on shared structures: "This is the institutional path — we can also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and decisive than the charity which is directly concerned with one's neighbour"[2].
This article treats political charity as the summit and soul of social doctrine: what it is, where its name comes from, its biblical and theological foundations, its delicate relationship with justice, its great magisterial restatements (Pius XI, Benedict XVI, Francis) and its concrete exercise today. Related principles and subjects — the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the dignity of the human person, political authority, democracy and the universal destination of goods — are referred to their own articles: here, it is charity that crowns and animates the whole.
What is political charity?
Political charity adds nothing to the content of Christian charity: it widens its field of application. The commandment "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Mt 22:39) does not stop at the front door: it also concerns the way a society organises work, health care, schools, justice and the sharing of goods. To love a neighbour "who is hungry" is not only to give him bread today; it is also to will structures in which he can earn that bread tomorrow.
Charity with two reaches: "micro" and "macro"
Catholic tradition therefore distinguishes two reaches of the same charity. First there is direct charity, from person to person: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, consoling the afflicted. And there is an indirect charity, which acts on "macro-relations" — social, economic and political relationships. Pope Francis first establishes that this charity must remain united to truth:
"Charity needs the light of the truth that we constantly seek, and 'that light is, at one and the same time, the light of reason and of faith'." — Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 185[3]
Then he specifies, drawing on Saint Thomas Aquinas:
"There is a love called 'elicited', consisting in acts proceeding directly from the virtue of charity towards individuals and peoples. There is also a 'commanded' love: those acts of charity that prompt us to create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures." — Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 186[4]
This distinction is decisive: it rules out two symmetrical errors. The first would be to reduce charity to private gestures, as if loving one's neighbour had nothing to do with the justice of laws. The second would be to dissolve charity into politics, as if campaigning replaced loving. Political charity holds both ends: love "is expressed not only in intimate and close relationships, but also in 'macro-relationships: social, economic and political ones'"[5].
Social charity, political love, social friendship: one same reality
The Magisterium designates this reality under several names, which must be recognised as synonyms or near-synonyms:
| Expression | Main source | Distinctive emphasis |
|---|---|---|
| Social charity | Pius XI, Ubi Arcano (1922), Quadragesimo Anno (1931) | Charity as the "soul" of the social order, informing justice[6] |
| Political charity | Pius XI, audience to the FUCI (1927); Francis, Fratelli Tutti (2020) | Engagement for the city as an act of love[7] |
| Institutional / political path of charity | Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate 7 (2009) | Charity that passes through institutions, not against them[8] |
| Political love | Francis, Fratelli Tutti 180-182 (2020) | Love as the dynamism of "a better kind of politics"[9] |
| Civilization of love | Paul VI (1975), John Paul II | The entire city transfigured by charity[10] |
The Catechism also attests the expression "social charity", which it first identifies as another name for solidarity: "The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of 'friendship' or 'social charity', is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood"[11]. And the Compendium of social doctrine itself settles in favour of the equivalence of the two formulas: "This love can be called 'social charity' or 'political charity'" (no. 581)[12]. Political charity is therefore both the proper name of a summit (charity informing the city) and a thread running through all of social doctrine.
What it is not: philanthropy, activism, sentiment
Because it touches power and structures, political charity is exposed to counterfeits. It is not philanthropy, which can do much good without reference to God or to the supernatural dignity of one's neighbour. It is not activism, where social action becomes an end in itself, sometimes at the expense of the very people it claims to serve. Nor is it a generous but vague sentiment: like solidarity, it is "a firm and persevering determination" to will the good of all[13]. One can campaign intensely for just causes without growing an inch in charity, if one acts out of vanity, anger or a spirit of domination; on this interior drift, see How to grow in charity.
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." — Saint Paul, First Letter to the Corinthians 13:3[14]
The discriminating criterion is therefore interior: political charity remains charity — ordered to God and to the real good of persons — or it degrades into ideology. That is why the Magisterium insists: "charity is the master path of the Church's social doctrine", and not a mere spiritual supplement added afterwards[15].
The origin of the expression: Pius XI
If the idea that charity must extend to the city is as old as the Gospel, the expression "political charity" has a precise date of birth: 18 December 1927, in an audience granted by Pius XI to the leaders of the Italian Catholic University Federation (FUCI), one of whose ecclesiastical assistants had been the future Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Montini.
The address to the FUCI (18 December 1927)
Before these students, tempted — like many Catholics of the time — to keep away from politics as something dirty, Pius XI reverses the perspective. Politics, he says, "regards the interests of society as a whole"; as such, far from being unworthy of the Christian, it can become the setting for a charity of unequalled breadth:
"Such is the field of politics, which regards the interests of society as a whole, and which, in this respect, is the field of the broadest charity, political charity, than which it could be said nothing is higher, apart from religion." — Pius XI, audience to the leaders of the FUCI, 18 December 1927[16]
The formula has endured. It places political charity just below religion itself in the hierarchy of commitments: to serve the city out of love is to serve, through it, all those it shelters. Nearly a century later, Pope Francis would quote this passage almost word for word to open his own reflection on "a better kind of politics"[17].
From "social charity" to "social justice": Pius XI, lawgiver of the social vocabulary
Pius XI did not stop at a felicitous formula. From his first encyclical, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio (1922), he had diagnosed the evil of the century as a rupture of the "peace of Christ" and called for a "social charity" capable of reconciling opposing classes[18]. Nine years later, in Quadragesimo Anno (1931), published for the fortieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, he forged the conceptual pair that would structure all twentieth-century social doctrine: social justice and social charity.
"To this end, the institutions of peoples themselves and the whole of social life must be imbued with this [social] justice, and above all it must be truly effective, that is, it must constitute a juridical and social order which informs, so to speak, the whole of economic life. Social charity must be as the soul of this order." — Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, no. 88[19]
The relationship is fixed here once and for all: social justice establishes the structures (laws, institutions, rights); social charity is their "soul", that is, the living principle that animates them from within and prevents them from becoming cold mechanisms. Political charity will be, in this line, social charity exercised precisely in the field of political decision.
The foundations: why must charity become "political"?
This extension of charity to the city is not a modern invention: it is rooted in Scripture, in the Fathers and in great medieval theology. Three roots carry it.
Charity, "queen of the virtues" and form of all the others
For Saint Paul, charity is the greatest of the theological virtues and the measure of every action: without it, gift, knowledge and even martyrdom "are of no avail" (1 Cor 13:1-3). Saint Thomas Aquinas would take up this insight by making charity the "form" of all the virtues: it is not added to the others as one more virtue, it orders them all to their ultimate end, which is God[20]. A political justice, prudence or courage that were not "informed" by charity would remain truncated virtues.
"Charity is called the end of the other virtues, because it directs all the other virtues to its own end." — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 23, a. 8[21]
From this follows an immediate social consequence: if charity must inform all the virtues, it must also inform those exercised in the city — the justice of the legislator, the prudence of the ruler, the courage of the citizen. A political life "neutral" towards charity would be, for Catholic tradition, an impoverished political life.
The "two loves" build two cities (Saint Augustine)
Christian thought on the political dimension of love finds its deepest source in Saint Augustine. In The City of God, he shows that what radically distinguishes human societies is not their constitution or their power, but the object of their love. Two loves have built two cities:
"Two loves, then, have built two cities: love of self, even to contempt of God, the earthly city; love of God, even to contempt of self, the heavenly city." — Saint Augustine, The City of God, book XIV, ch. 28[22]
For Augustine, the quality of a people is known by examining what it loves. A people that loves truth, justice and God is a good people; a people that loves glory, money and domination carries its ruin within. Political charity is precisely the effort to make the city love what ought to be loved: not the social order as a structure of Mammon, but as service of neighbour. This insight founds all the tradition that follows (see also The common good).
Loving one's neighbour also means willing just structures
The third foundation is anthropological and evangelical. Man is not an isolated individual: he is a social being, who can live, grow and be saved only in communities. Truly to love one's neighbour is therefore to will the good of the community in which he lives, and not only to give him alms. Saint Paul exhorts the Corinthians that "all that you do be done in love" (1 Cor 16:14)[23]: all, including the organisation of the collection for the poor of Jerusalem (2 Cor 8-9), which is already an embryonic form of "structured" charity between Churches[24].
The Gospel itself inseparably binds love of God and love of neighbour (Mt 22:37-40)[25] and makes service of the least the criterion of the Last Judgement: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40)[26]. Yet, at the scale of a society, "these least ones" are not reached only by individual gestures: they depend on wages, laws, systems of care and education. Charity, to reach them truly, must therefore become political.
Charity and justice: neither confusion nor separation
This is undoubtedly the most delicate point of the whole question. If charity and justice are confused, one dissolves into the other; if they are separated, the result is either a cold, soulless justice, or a naive charity that dispenses with reforming unjust structures. Benedict XVI devoted the densest pages of Deus Caritas Est (2005) to this knot.
Justice, the proper duty of politics
Benedict XVI begins by fully recognising the autonomy of politics: creating a just order of society and of the State is the proper duty of politics, a matter of reason and of the responsibility of citizens, and not first of the Church as such. Charity never dispenses from justice: it would be illusory to believe that the poor can be helped by almsgiving while leaving in place the structures that impoverish them. The Church, he writes, "can never and must never take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible": this task belongs to the lay faithful.
"The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics. […] Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics." — Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 28[27]
"A State without justice, a great band of robbers"
To stress that justice is not an option but the inner measure of all power, Benedict XVI takes up a striking formula of Saint Augustine, which sums up centuries of Christian reflection on the legitimacy of power:
"Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers?" — Saint Augustine, The City of God, IV, 4, quoted by Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 28[28]
A power that renounces justice ceases to be a service of the common good and becomes a mere organisation of force: this is exactly what political charity refuses. To love the city is first to will it to be just.
Charity "presupposes and surpasses" justice
But justice is not enough. Benedict XVI says so without detour: "Love — caritas — will always prove necessary, even in the most just society", for "there is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love"[29]. In every society there are always needs that justice does not cover: loneliness, suffering, the need for concrete attention and closeness. Above all, charity surpasses justice by its logic of gratuitousness: justice renders to each his due; charity gives beyond what is due.
The relationship, already fixed by Pius XI (charity as the "soul" of justice), is thus confirmed: charity presupposes and transcends justice — one cannot give in charity what one owes in justice — and justice itself "must find its complement in charity"[30].
The proper role of the laity
Benedict XVI draws a major practical consequence from this distinction: direct engagement for a just social order belongs first to the lay faithful. It is they who, as citizens, must carry into public life the demand for justice and the light of charity, without waiting for the hierarchy to do it in their place.
"The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society […] is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity." — Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 29[31]
Political charity is therefore, for the immense majority of Christians, an ordinary duty of state: voting, staying informed, serving, sometimes engaging directly (see Political authority according to the Church and Democracy according to the Church).
Caritas in Veritate: the "institutional path" of charity
Four years after Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI devoted an entire social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (2009), to showing that charity is not a sentimental supplement but the very heart of social doctrine.
"Charity in truth"
The title itself is a programme. Charity, to be political without becoming ideology, must remain united to the truth about man: without truth, social love slides into sentimentalism or manipulation; without love, truth becomes cold and sterile. That is why Benedict XVI can affirm that charity is "the master path of the Church's social doctrine"[32], the force that drives the true development of each person and of all humanity.
"The institutional — political — path of charity"
The distinctive contribution of Caritas in Veritate to our subject is the theological justification of structural charity. Benedict XVI starts from a simple definition of love — "to love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it" — and draws from it that willing the common good, "and working for it, is a requirement of justice and charity". To work for the common good is to love the whole of the persons whom an institution touches:
"Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. […] To desire the common good and to strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity. […] This is the institutional path — we can also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and decisive than the charity which is directly concerned with one's neighbour, outside the institutional mediation of the city." — Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 7[33]
This sentence is the doctrinal heart of political charity: to love through institutions is not cut-price charity; it is a charity as lofty, sometimes more effective, than the direct gesture. The honest civil servant, the just legislator, the upright elected official exercise, in their very function, a true charity — "the broadest", as Pius XI said.
Fratelli Tutti: political charity as "a better kind of politics"
It is Pope Francis who, in Fratelli Tutti (2020), gave the expression "political charity" its widest contemporary currency, devoting to it an entire chapter, the fifth, entitled "A better kind of politics".
Charity in "macro-relations"
Francis explicitly takes up Pius XI and extends charity to social processes:
"An individual can help a person in need, but when he joins with others to generate social processes of fraternity and justice for all, he enters 'the field of the greatest charity, political charity'." — Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 180[34]
"A better kind of politics" — "placed at the service of the true common good"[35] — is therefore not the politics of interests, electoral marketing or contempt for the poor, but a politics with the courage to love. Francis opens his chapter by recalling that recognising every human being as a brother or sister and seeking a social friendship that includes everyone "is not a utopia": "it demands a decision and the ability to find effective ways to make it truly possible", and "every commitment in this direction becomes a supreme exercise of charity"[36].
"Elicited" and "commanded" love: the Thomistic distinction
The theological heart of the chapter is the distinction, borrowed from Saint Thomas Aquinas, between elicited and commanded love (already quoted above, FT 186). This technical distinction has an immense pastoral scope: it rehabilitates political engagement as an act of charity in its own right. Whoever reforms an unjust law, creates an institution of care, or defends workers' rights, truly loves his neighbour no less than whoever visits him in hospital — sometimes more, because he reaches a greater number.
"Love is expressed not only in intimate and close relationships, but also in 'macro-relationships: social, economic and political ones'." — Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 181[37]
The same no. 186 illustrates this "commanded" charity with two images that have become famous:
"If someone helps an elderly person cross a river, that is a fine act of charity; the political leader builds him a bridge, and that too is charity. If someone helps others by giving them food, the politician creates jobs for them and practises a lofty form of charity that ennobles his political activity." — Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 186[38]
The good politician: tenderness, service and courage
Francis finally paints the portrait of the good politician, who is neither the efficient technocrat nor the skilful demagogue, but one who practises a social charity made of tenderness and service. He sets the questions of judgement: not "How many people endorsed me? How many voted for me?", but "How much love did I put into my work? […] What real bonds did I build, […] what social peace did I sow?"[39]. Tenderness — "love that draws near and becomes concrete" — has its place, he says in a way surprising for political vocabulary, even in the exercise of power[40].
Political charity in the Magisterium: an unbroken chain
The expression is recent, but the thing itself is ancient: from Leo XIII to Francis, every great social text has confirmed that charity must inform the city. The following table traces this doctrinal continuity.
| Pope / text | Date | Contribution on social and political charity |
|---|---|---|
| Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum | 1891 | Charity, "queen and mistress of all the virtues", must preside over relations between classes; foundation of all modern social doctrine[41] |
| Pius XI, Ubi Arcano | 1922 | Coins the expression "social charity" to reconcile a divided society[42] |
| Pius XI, audience to the FUCI | 1927 | Coins the expression "political charity": politics, the "field of the broadest charity"[43] |
| Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno | 1931 | Social charity, the "soul" of the order that justice establishes[44] |
| Paul VI, Populorum Progressio / close of the Holy Year | 1967 / 1975 | "Development is the new name for peace"; launches the "civilization of love"[45] |
| Catechism of the Catholic Church | 1992 | Attests "social charity" as another name for solidarity (§ 1939)[46] |
| Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est | 2005 | Distinguishes justice (the duty of politics) from charity (never superfluous); proper role of the laity[47] |
| Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate | 2009 | "The institutional — political — path of charity"; charity the "master path" of social doctrine[48] |
| Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti | 2020 | An entire chapter on "political charity"; elicited / commanded love; "a better kind of politics"[49] |
This continuity is remarkable: despite very different contexts — the nineteenth-century labour question, the twentieth-century totalitarianisms, twenty-first-century globalisation — the Magisterium has never ceased repeating the same fundamental truth. Justice establishes order; charity is its soul; and engagement for the city, when animated by love, is one of the highest forms of charity.
Practising political charity today
Political charity is not reserved for rulers. It is an ordinary duty of the Christian in the city, and it unfolds at every level.
At the level of the city: voting, serving, engaging
For the immense majority, political charity begins with the simple gestures of civic life exercised "in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom": staying honestly informed, voting in conscience, paying taxes, respecting just laws, taking part in community and associational life. The Catechism recalls that participation in public life is a moral duty for all[50]. For some, political charity will call for direct engagement — elected office, trade unionism, voluntary work — lived as service and not as conquest (see Trade unions and social doctrine).
Political charity, solidarity and subsidiarity
Political charity does not float in a vacuum: it takes flesh through the other principles of social doctrine, which it crowns. It animates solidarity — "a firm and persevering determination to work for the common good" — which without charity would fall back into mere calculation; it animates subsidiarity, which asks us to love persons and intermediate bodies enough to let them act for themselves rather than crushing them; it directs the pursuit of the common good and respect for the dignity of each person. It is in this sense that Benedict XVI recalled that subsidiarity and solidarity must remain "closely linked": charity is the bond that holds them together[51].
The summit: the "civilization of love"
The ultimate horizon of political charity bears a name, launched by Paul VI at the close of the Holy Year 1975 and constantly taken up by John Paul II: the civilization of love. It is not a slogan, but the ideal of a society in which structures themselves — laws, institutions, the economy — would have become the visible expression of love of neighbour. This ideal will never be fully attained here below, for it presupposes a conversion of hearts that no structure can produce; but it sets the direction. As the Compendium recalls, "love is the only force […] that can lead to personal and social perfection and guide history towards the good"[52].
Political charity and the spirituality of the Divine Will
By Divine Will is meant here the gift by which God wills not only that man do His will by obeying Him, but that he live in His Will itself — one single will for two, as before the Fall.
This charity that wills the good "of all and of each one" finds a striking echo in the spirituality of the Divine Will transmitted to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947)[53]. The soul that lives in the Divine Will, Luisa writes, acts "in the name of all", embracing in a single act of love the whole of creation and all peoples, so as to render to God the glory that all humanity owes Him[54]. In this reading, proper to a spirituality received as private revelation, thus bearing the whole of humanity before God is an eminent expression of charity: no longer merely reforming this or that law or institution, but carrying before God, in prayer and offering, the whole of humanity as one single body to be loved and saved.
This perspective obviously does not dispense with concrete engagement — Luisa herself lived a life of hidden reparation, yet profoundly ordered to the good of all. On the contrary, it reveals its root: the most effective political charity is born of hearts united to the Will of God, because, as the Gospel says, "apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5)[55]. Reforming structures without converting hearts produces only new cities inhabited by the same selfishness; converting hearts without reforming structures leaves the poor crushed. Authentic political charity holds both: it loves God even in the city, and it loves the city because of God.
To go further
- The common good — the end that political charity pursues in the city.
- Solidarity — the determination to work for the good of all, which charity crowns and surpasses.
- Subsidiarity — loving persons and intermediate bodies enough to let them act.
- The dignity of the human person — the foundation: we love persons, never a mass.
- Political authority according to the Church — power understood as service and as a form of charity.
- Democracy according to the Church — civic engagement as an act of love of neighbour.
- Economic liberalism — the economy to be inhabited from within by the logic of gift.
- Trade unions and social doctrine — social charity applied to the world of work.
- How to grow in charity — the interior root: without conversion of heart, social action is not yet charity.
Notes and References
Pius XI, audience granted to the leaders of the Italian Catholic University Federation (FUCI), 18 December 1927. Italian text: "E tale è il campo della politica, che riguarda gli interessi di tutta la società, e che sotto questo riguardo è il campo della più vasta carità, della carità politica, a cui si potrebbe dire null'altro, all'infuori della religione, essere superiore." Published in L'Osservatore Romano, 23 December 1927, no. 296, pp. 1-4; reprinted in D. Bertetto (ed.), Discorsi di Pio XI, vol. I (1922-1928), Società Editrice Internazionale, p. 745. Quoted by Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 180.
1 7 16 43Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 29 June 2009, no. 7 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. […] This is the institutional path — we can also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and decisive than the charity which is directly concerned with one's neighbour, outside the institutional mediation of the city."
2 8 33 48Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 3 October 2020, no. 185 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "Charity needs the light of the truth that we constantly seek, and 'that light is, at one and the same time, the light of reason and of faith', without relativism."
3Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 3 October 2020, no. 186 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va), quoting Saint Thomas Aquinas: "There is a love called 'elicited', consisting in acts proceeding directly from the virtue of charity towards individuals and peoples. There is also a 'commanded' love: those acts of charity that prompt us to create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures." The same number illustrates the distinction with the image of the bridge built instead of the ford crossed with help, and of the job created instead of the food given.
4 38Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 181 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "That is why love is expressed not only in intimate and close relationships, but also in 'macro-relationships: social, economic and political ones'."
5 37Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, 15 May 1931, no. 88: social justice must inform the whole juridical and social order, and "social charity must be as the soul of this order". Forges the social justice / social charity pair taken up by all subsequent social doctrine.
6 19 44Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 180 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "An individual can help a person in need, but when he joins with others to generate social processes of fraternity and justice for all, he enters 'the field of the greatest charity, political charity'." The quoted formula takes up Pius XI (FUCI, 1927), who said "the broadest charity"; the same number adds: "It means working towards a social and political order whose soul is social charity."
9 17 34 49"Civilization of love": expression launched by Paul VI at the close of the Holy Year, 25 December 1975, then taken up very frequently by Saint John Paul II (notably Dives in Misericordia, 1980, and the letter Gratissimam Sane / to families, 1994). Denotes the ideal of a society transformed by charity.
10Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1939: "The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of 'friendship' or 'social charity', is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood." Official English edition, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994.
11 46Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): no. 204 (charity, the "supreme and universal criterion of the whole of social ethics"); nos. 206-207 ("Charity presupposes and transcends justice: the latter 'must find its complement in charity'"; only charity, "forma virtutum", can animate social action towards peace); no. 581 ("This love can be called 'social charity' or 'political charity'"); nos. 582-583 (love, the "constant and supreme norm of action"; "charity represents the greatest social commandment", requires the practice of justice and alone makes one capable of practising it).
12 30Saint John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 30 December 1987, no. 38: solidarity is not "a feeling of vague compassion" but "a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good". Applied here by analogy to political charity, which shares this firmness.
13First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 13:3 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF). The hymn to charity (1 Cor 13:1-13): without love, even the most total gift "is of no avail".
14Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 2: "Charity is the master path of the Church's social doctrine." Every responsibility and engagement defined by this doctrine is "drawn from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36-40)".
15 32Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, 23 December 1922 (first encyclical of the pontificate): diagnosis of a divided society and call to the "peace of Christ in the reign of Christ" through "social charity". First landmark magisterial use of the expression "social charity".
18 42Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 23, on charity as a virtue (aa. 1-4), as the "form" of the virtues (a. 8) and as the most excellent of the virtues (q. 23, a. 6; cf. q. 184, a. 1). Charity orders all the other virtues to their ultimate end, God.
20 21Saint Augustine, The City of God, book XIV, ch. 28: "Fecerunt itaque civitates duas amores duo: terrenam scilicet amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei, caelestem vero amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui" — "Two loves have built two cities: love of self, even to contempt of God, the earthly city; love of God, even to contempt of self, the heavenly city."
22First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 16:14 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF): "Let all that you do be done in love." A final exhortation extending charity to all the life of the community, including its material and organisational affairs.
23Second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 8-9 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF): the great collection organised by Paul for the poor of the Church of Jerusalem, founded on the example of Christ "who became poor" (2 Cor 8:9) and on a principle of equality between Churches (2 Cor 8:13-15). The first form of "structured" mutual aid in the early Church.
24Gospel according to Saint Matthew 22:37-40 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF): the double commandment of love of God and of neighbour, on which "depend all the Law and the Prophets". Quoted by Benedict XVI (Caritas in Veritate 2) as the synthesis of the whole Law.
25Gospel according to Saint Matthew 25:31-46 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF); v. 40: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." Service of the least as the criterion of the Last Judgement.
26Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 25 December 2005, no. 28: "The just ordering of society and of the State is a central responsibility of politics. […] Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics." The Church "can never and must never take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible"; this task belongs to the laity.
27 47Saint Augustine, The City of God, book IV, ch. 4: "Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?" — "Justice being taken away, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers?" Quoted by Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 28.
28Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 28: "Love — caritas — will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love."
29Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 29: "The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society and of the State […] is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity."
31Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 154 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va), opening of the chapter "A better kind of politics": "A better kind of politics, one placed at the service of the common good, is needed if we are to create a global community capable of realising fraternity among peoples and nations."
35Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 180 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "To recognise every human being as a brother or sister and to seek a social friendship that includes everyone is not a mere utopia. It demands a decision and the ability to find effective ways to make it truly possible. Every commitment in this direction becomes a supreme exercise of charity."
36Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 197 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "the question will not be: 'How many people endorsed me? How many voted for me? […]'. The questions […] will instead be: 'How much love did I put into my work? In what way did I help the people to advance? […] What real bonds did I build, […] what social peace did I sow, what did I achieve in the office entrusted to me?'"
39Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 194 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "In politics, too, there is room for loving with tenderness. 'What is tenderness? It is love that draws near and becomes concrete.'" The smallest and poorest "have the right to take possession of our soul, of our heart".
40Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 15 May 1891, final exhortation (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "...let them strive to nourish in themselves and to awaken in others […] charity, queen and mistress of all the virtues. For it is above all from an abundant outpouring of charity that salvation must be expected." First great social encyclical, matrix of all modern social doctrine.
41Saint Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 26 March 1967, no. 87: "Development is the new name for peace"; and close of the Holy Year, 25 December 1975, launching the ideal of the "civilization of love".
45Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2239: "Participation in public life" is a duty; the good citizen willingly contributes to the good of society "in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom". Cf. § 2240 on the duty to vote.
50Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 58: "The principle of subsidiarity must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa." Charity is the living bond that keeps subsidiarity from falling into parochialism and solidarity into mere welfarism.
51Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 580 (English rendering of the official French text, vatican.va): "love is the only force […] that can lead to personal and social perfection and guide history towards the good"; cf. nos. 582-583 on charity as the supreme norm of social action.
52Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), laywoman of Corato (Apulia): cause for beatification opened on 20 November 1994 — she has since been Servant of God; Nulla Osta of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for the continuation of the cause (June 2024), confirmed by letter of 3 December 2024.
53Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 8, dictation of 9 February 1908 ("The way of being with Jesus"): "...come back into Me to give Me in the name of all the Glory they must give Me. Pray, excuse them, make reparation, love […] love Me for all" (Fr. ed. GE – La Volonté Divine – Lumen Luminis, text "for private use").
54Gospel according to Saint John 15:5 (English rendering; French liturgical translation: AELF): "He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Foundation of the primacy of grace and of the conversion of hearts in all effective social action.
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