Catholic social teaching, sometimes referred to as the social
doctrine of the Church, is a body of official Church teachings
on the social order, composed of papal statements and conciliar
or synodal documents. These social teachings originated with
Pope Leo XIII and continue to the present. The Catholic social
tradition, however, is much older than this body of teachings,
and is rooted in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures as well as
in the patristic writings, which go back as far as the fifth
century. This tradition provides a framework and an intellectual
legacy from which the more recent (dating from the nineteenth
century) social teachings draw. This tradition is a point of
reference against which the social teachings are tested, even as
the latter develop beyond the tradition by applying it to new
issues and questions. Catholic social teaching is rooted in the
dignity of the human person as created in the image of God, and
the human rights and duties that protect and enhance this
dignity. Catholic soci