Catholic Social Teaching

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead…²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

James 2:14-17, 26

There are nine key principles of Catholic Social Teaching through which we can live out our faith:

Human Dignity, The Common Good, Participation, Stewardship, Solidarity, Subsidiarity, Preferential Option for the Poor, Distributive Justice, Promoting Peace.

Each week, we highlight a specific principle and this is incorporated into prayer and liturgy and classroom discussions.

St Joseph’s offers a considerable range of experiences and opportunities to our students which enable them to engage with these principles. Work experience and Enterprise, for example, promotes the students’ dignity, the dignity of work and taking part. Horticulture enables students to engage with nature and the principle of stewardship over God’s gifts and our common home. Our charitable giving such as Harvest donations to Cranleigh foodbank reflect the principle of preferential option for the poor. Our Student Council gives students a voice and so supports the principle of subsidiarity.

The school was awarded the Oscar Romero Participator Level Award in July 2024 and the Developer Level in March 2025. We are the first school in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton to achieve this level.