Each person bears the image of the Lord
In dignity no earthly power can strip.
From the begotten to the final breath,
Sacred life transcends the touch of death.
We stand on ground made holy by this worth,
That every soul has value from its birth.
The common good calls us beyond our own
To build a world where all may truly thrive.
No man can stand as island, all alone.
We flourish when community's alive.
What serves the many, serves the single soul,
For in the body's health, each part is whole.
Subsidiarity guards the local sphere.
What families can do, let families guide.
What neighborhoods decide, let them hold dear,
Not distant powers who the rules provide.
Yet when the small cannot bear burdens' weight,
The larger body serves, collaborates.
Solidarity binds us to the poor
To those whom fortune left outside the gate.
We are not called to give them succor's cure
But stand beside them, share their heavy freight.
The cry of those whom justice has passed by
Must be our cry, their struggle be our cry.
The worker's hands have dignity divine.
In labor we participate in God's
Own work of making, shaping the design
Of ordered beauty from creation's sod.
No man should be a mere means to an end.
On this all Catholic teaching must depend.
The earth is not a thing for us to use
And discard when we've stripped it of its worth.
We're stewards, not owners—we must not abuse
This garden home, this sacramental earth.
For future generations yet unborn
Deserve to wake to wonder's bright new morn.
The preferential option for the least
For widows, orphans, strangers at our door.
This is the measure of the Kingdom's feast,
How we treat those whom others most ignore.
In serving them, we serve the Lord unseen
Who told us what this judgment scene would mean.
Justice demands that every person share
In goods that God intended for us all.
Not charity that comes from surplus spare
But rights that flow from human dignity's call.
A living wage, a roof, sufficient food
Are the foundations of the common good.
The family is society's first cell
Where persons learn to love and sacrifice,
Where children hear what older stories tell
Of virtue's cost and generous love's price.
Support the home, and you support the whole.
The family forms the citizen's true soul.
Peace is not merely absence of all war
But justice's fruit, the order love creates
When we acknowledge what we're fighting for,
A world where flourishing participates.
True peace requires that wrongs be set aright,
That power serves the weak, that truth has might.
These teachings are not mere abstraction's dream
But lived reality that's meant to guide
Our choices, shape the social order's scheme,
Transform the structures where injustice hides.
May we who labor in this present age
Write justice on our time's unfolding page.