I cannot remember the first time I heard it said that “Catholic Social Teaching is the best kept secret of the Church.” But as someone with a vocation to live and share these teachings, I have heard it many times. And, while I cannot remember the first time, I do remember the last time. It is what prompted this column.

During a conversation with one of my colleagues, he mused to me how often he has heard people say, “Catholic Social Teaching is our best kept secret,” in the year or so he has worked with us, and he marveled at how content so many of the people in our Church seem to be to keep it so. Why are so many people content to keep it a secret? The question has troubled me. 

It recalled for me an earlier conversation we had where he described a dialogue with someone from a Catholic Evangelical Movement who told him, “Our job is to introduce people to Jesus, and then you tell them about the social teachings. Our work comes first.” It was not said with any kind of malice, but from a place of honest reflection. However, it was jarring for him - as it was to me. There is no linear progression in our faith journey. The person of Jesus is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching. You cannot meet Him, know Him, and try to live as one of His followers without Catholic Social Teaching. 

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I have been guilty of using the words “best kept secret,” myself in ways that I now vow not to. For example, I have said the words with joking lament. Using humour may help me deal with my frustration that more people do not know or care about Catholic Social Teaching, but it also serves to point me down the road of apathy and acceptance of what I know in my heart is an unacceptable reality. 

A large temptation is to seek people in the Church to blame for this. “I never hear our priest talk about Solidarity or the Common Good in our sermons,” is a common type of complaint I hear from staff and members of our organization. While I certainly agree that our clergy, at all levels, could do more to invite Catholics to encounter Catholic Social Teaching, I am not sure that the crux of the problem can be solved with more sermons on the topic. 

In fact, locating the heart of the problem and responsibility with the hierarchy of the Church reinforces some of the clericalism from which Pope Francis and now Pope Leo are trying hard to liberate the faithful. Furthermore, I know many priests who try to promote Catholic Social Teaching and have only a handful of parishioners show up to the events they organize.

The more I think about it, there are a few reasons why I think Catholics, clergy and lay, are content to “keep it a secret.” For one, Catholic Social Teaching asks a lot of us. If we are trying to attract people to the Gospel, it almost makes sense to hide it! Catholic Social Teaching asks us difficult questions about wealth, power, property, and even the meaning of freedom. 

For another, Catholic Social Teaching is often presented in a way that is divorced from our traditional spirituality, which captures the soul and imagination in ways that talking about things like economics does not.

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For the first challenge, I am not sure that anything can really be done except to have the same courage as Jesus who told the young rich man that he lacked but one thing.

For the second one, though, I think there is much we can do. We can work to further integrate traditional spirituality with Catholic Social Teaching. We can stop nourishing divisions in our Church by encouraging identities like “social justice Catholics” vs “pious Catholics,” and we can stop acting like traditional spirituality and social justice do not go hand in hand – because they do.

If you are a bishop, a priest, religious or layperson who knows about Catholic Social Teaching , my challenge is this: Do not be content having a secret. 

Have the courage to be challenging as Jesus was. And think about the ways you can share the beauty of things like the rosary, adoration, and above all the Eucharist, so that they point to the powerful ideas in Catholic Social Teaching that guide us in how to live with one another and all creation. How pleasing to God that would be.

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