The link between this conception of love and with the notion of 'preference' helps us to see another important dimension of the Catholic understanding of love. Love is intimately interwoven with justice. With this in mind scholars have discussed and debated the precise nature of the love-justice relationship for many years. What is clear from all of these debates is that irrespective of whether love is prior to justice or justice is prior to love, or whether justice is a kind of love or love is a kind of justice, the two are inseparable. To truly speak of justice, one must talk of love and to truly speak of love, one must talk of justice. Justice without love is hard and calculating. Love without justice can become self-absorbed and unfocused. So when Catholic social teaching talks about a 'preferential option for the poor' it is talking about loving by doing justice and about doing justice with and for love. So too, in the context of interpersonal relationships, to love someone, to truly 'prefer' someone, is to make sure that all of your interactions are truly just. What is sought is the mutual good of both parties not simply one's own good. Mutual love also extends outwards to the wider community.

This commitment to human dignity and the common good in Catholic Social teaching translates into the call for solidarity. Solidarity can be understood as a virtue, that is an habitual disposition, to stand with and for those who are marginalized and disadvantaged by systems and structures that we have put into place to facilitate our social interactions. Pope Francis put it this way in his Apostolic Exhortation 'On the Joy of the Gospel'—Evangellii Gaudium: Solidarity is a spontaneous reaction by those who recognize that the social function of property and the universal destination of goods are realities which come before private property. The private ownership of goods is justified by the need to protect and increase them, so that they can better serve the common good; for this reason, solidarity must be lived as the decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them. These convictions and habits of solidarity, when they are put into practice, open the way to other structural transformations and make them possible. Changing structures without generating new convictions and attitudes will only ensure that those same structures will become, sooner or later, corrupt, oppressive and ineffectual.

Finally, taking seriously human dignity and the common good means having to take seriously the well-being of other creatures and natural world. The world is created by God. God sees this world as good. God gives human beings dominion over this good world. A Catholic perspective forbids abuse of the world and of other creatures for our own ends. A Catholic perspective obliges us to care for the environment in which we live. All things, created by God, have an intrinsic value which commands our respect. Things are good in themselves not simply good in relation to our needs. Human beings consequently have a duty to respect and protect the natural world as part of God's creation, as part of the goodness that God willed for human beings and their flourishing. Pope Benedict XVI states in his 2007 Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 'The world is not something indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit. Rather, it is part of God's good plan, in which all of us are called to be sons and daughters in the one Son of God, Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:4-12).' And most recently, in his 2015 encyclical On Care for our Common Home, 'Laudato Si', Pope Francis speaks of an integral ecology that takes us to the heart of what is means to be human in the splendour of God's creation being called to care for all that exists. He begins his encyclical by quoting the 13th century Saint Francis of Assisi and then says: In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. 'Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs'. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she 'groans in travail' (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

From a Catholic perspective human beings are free, meaning seeking and meaning making beings in relation to all that is. We are faced with a choice, then, about how we engage in those relationships in light of the kind of beings we want to be. What do we want our lives to mean? This meaning will be realized through the moral choices we make in and through our relationships with others, with the natural world, and with God. Whole-hearted living is possible. Human flourishing is possible. We cannot control everything. Working out the right thing to do in every situation can be tricky. But at its core of our moral decision-making is the question: What do you stand for? The Catholic perspective is one that stands for love, life and justice for all.