Examination of Conscience with Catholic Social Teaching

Begin close to the choices you can make

The USCCB presents seven themes as an introduction to the Church’s social teaching. Use the themes to ask about real conduct: how you treated an employee, spoke about a vulnerable neighbor, spent money, used influence, or responded to a need.

Avoid turning the examination into an indictment of everyone else’s politics. Begin with what was reasonably yours to know and do. Large social problems matter, but responsibility is not measured by pretending that one person could personally solve them all.

Human life, dignity, and community

Consider whether you have protected the dignity of people who are easy to overlook, including the unborn, the sick, the elderly, migrants, and those with whom you disagree.

• Have I treated a person as disposable because they were inconvenient, dependent, unpopular, or unable to repay me?
• Have I encouraged contempt toward a group, shared dehumanizing language, or dismissed a credible report of harm?
• Have I knowingly neglected family or civic responsibilities I could reasonably fulfill?
• Have I used belonging to a group as an excuse to ignore the truth about its conduct?

Rights, responsibilities, and people in poverty

Think of obligations that belong to your actual role and resources. Generosity should be truthful about both capacity and need.

• Have I demanded my rights while deliberately evading responsibilities that protect another person?
• Have I exploited someone’s vulnerability in housing, lending, trade, or a personal relationship?
• Have I ignored an urgent need I could reasonably help meet, simply because the person was socially distant from me?
• Have I spoken about poor people in a way that denied their agency, dignity, or individual circumstances?

Work and solidarity

Review decisions involving pay, workload, honesty, safety, and the treatment of people who depend on you.

• Have I withheld agreed or just wages, concealed a serious workplace danger, or pressured someone to act dishonestly?
• Have I cheated an employer or customer, misrepresented my work, or taken credit for another person’s labor?
• Have I dismissed suffering elsewhere because those affected do not share my nationality, language, or background?
• Have I supported peace through truthful speech and responsible action, or fueled hatred because it attracted attention?

Care for creation

Consider the resources you control and the people affected by how you use them.

• Have I knowingly caused avoidable damage, concealed a harmful practice, or wasted resources with serious consequences for others?
• Have I refused a reasonable opportunity to reduce harm because I did not want inconvenience?
• Have I used environmental concern to look virtuous while ignoring the people most affected by my own choices?

Make the examination concrete

Choose specific actions rather than general guilt about the world. An honest confession might name cheating a worker, repeating a racist slur, or knowingly failing to help a dependent person. Ask the priest about a difficult situation rather than assuming every disputed policy question has a simple checklist answer.

After confession, choose a repair that fits the harm: pay what is owed, correct a false statement, change an unfair practice, or begin a sustainable form of service. Let concern for justice remain connected to humility and personal conversion.