If you really want to understand Catholic social doctrine, you must read …

he Com­pendi­um of the Social Doc­trine of the Church. When I have writ­ten about Church social teach­ing on this blog, that’s the only text I have ever cit­ed. (Well, okay, I’ve also cit­ed Gaudi­um et Spes and papal encycli­cals that com­prise Church social teach­ing, such as Rerum Novarum or Quadra­ges­i­mo Anno or Car­i­tas in Ver­i­tate.) But my point is: When I write about Church teach­ing, I cite Church doc­u­ments. When I want to know what the Church teach­es, I read the Church.

Now, the rea­son I bring this is up is because, ear­li­er today, I read on Face­book, from a Catholic blog­ger with a large fol­low­ing, this: that, if you want to avoid “coun­ter­feit” pre­sen­ta­tions of social jus­tice, you need to read Tony Esolen’s book on the top­ic.

No.

Now, I’ve not read that par­tic­u­lar book, and for all I know, it might be very good. It’s not my point to say that Esolen’s book is full of dis­tor­tions or errors. Per­haps it is; per­haps it’s not. But you know for a fact you won’t get dis­tor­tions and errors if you find out what the Church teach­es by read­ing Church doc­u­ments.

When I was in grad­u­ate school, I learned to never—never—read a sec­ondary source on any­thing until I had first read the pri­ma­ry source. C.S. Lewis wrote a very good book on Mil­ton called A Pref­ace to Par­adise Lost. But I would nev­er tell any­one, “Hey, if you want to under­stand Mil­ton, go read Lewis.” No. To under­stand Mil­ton, read Mil­ton. When you know Par­adise Lost well, then pick up C.S. Lewis’s book.

If you want to know what Augus­tine thought, read Augus­tine. If you want to know some­thing about Faulkn­er, go to the library and get your­self a copy of The Sound and the Fury. If you want to know what the Church teach­es in its social doc­trine, you can read the Com­pendi­um of the Social Doc­trine of the Church. Satan can not cast out Satan; the Church can not coun­ter­feit the Church.

Just make sure, of course, that you read the whole thing; don’t scan around for stuff to cher­ry-pick that con­firms what­ev­er you already think. I mean, Evan­geli­um Vitae is about much more than abor­tion, after all.