Rights and Responsibilities: The dignity of each person can only be protected if human rights are protected. Every person has the right to life and to those things which are essential to human decency such as food, shelter, clothing, employment, healthcare and education. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities which encompasses each other, our families and the wider society. We should not take more than is needed to fulfill our rights at the expense of another's.In Catholic teaching, human rights include civil and political rights as well as economic rights. When people are unable to earn a living, or are hungry or homeless, they are being denied basic rights and society must ensure that these rights are protected. Scripture Leviticus 25:35; Proverbs 31:8-9; Isaiah1:16-17; Matthew 25: 31-46; Luke 16:19-31; Acts 4:32-35

Economic Justice: All human activity, including economic activity, must be ethically structured and governed. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy. All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family and serve the common good. Every perspective on economic life that is human, moral, and Christian must be shaped by three questions: What does the economy do for people? What does it do to people? How do people participate in it? The economy is a human reality; people working together to develop and care for the whole of God's creation. People shape the economy and in turn are shaped by it. Economic arrangements can be sources of fulfilment, of hope, of community—or of frustration, isolation, and even despair. Serious economic choices go beyond purely technical issues to fundamental questions of value and human purpose. When people face and address these serious questions using a Catholic perspective they can make an important contribution. The global economy has a moral dimension and human consequences. Decisions on investment, trade aid and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live in the world. Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life. The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate. In the words of Pope John Paul II, 'The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrial societies' (Economic Justice for All, #104).Authentic development is much more than economic progress and is based on the truth that human development cannot be reduced or divorced into constituent parts. It is the development of people as human beings. True progress allows every individual to grow into the person God intended them to be. Whenever one person's freedom or greed diminishes another person's flourishing, or whenever one nation's prosperity is detrimental to another's, authentic development is denied. Real advancement affirms the dignity of each individual and nourishes their growth as human beings made in the image of God. Scripture Amos 5:14-15; Leviticus 25:1-7; Mark 2: 17; Matthew 23:23; 1 Peter 4:7-11