Catholic Social Teaching Rights

  • The right to life, liberty and security of the person.
  • The right to food, clothing, housing, sufficient health care, rest, and leisure.
  • The right to freedom of expression, education and culture.
  • The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
  • The right to manifest one’s religion either individually or in community, in public or in private.
  • The right to choose a state of life, to found a family and to enjoy all conditions necessary for family life.
  • The right to property and work, to adequate working conditions and a just wage; the right of assembly and association.
  • The right to freedom of movement, to internal and external migration.
  • The right to nationality and residence.
  • The right to political participation and the right to participate in the free choice of the political system of the people to which one belongs.

Some of these rights are more important than others. For example, the right to life is inviolable and essential to human dignity and security while the right to property is subject to the need of the common welfare and can be modified or revoked, if common needs are greater.