SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ETHICS ACCORDING TO THE POLISH PRIEST JÓZEF MAJKA

Abstract

The presented text is an attempt to answer the question: how was understood the social and political ethics by the Priest Professor Józef Majka (1918-1993) - one of the leading minds of Catholic social teaching in Poland? It is, of course, about capturing the specificity of this understanding, comparing it with the perspectives of other outstanding authors.

Views of Priest Majka on this subject were included mainly in His book: Social and Political Ethics (1993). In His opinion, this kind of ethics is not only a group of philosophical considerations, but a real attempt to show Catholic social and political ethics. He wrote: "We do not think that it would be possible at all to develop a sensible system of social ethics, especially political, without referring to Christian principles and focusing on the message of the ultimate goal of a man in the Gospel message" (Majka, 1993:12).

It seems that this unambiguous reference to the values and principles of the Gospel, recognizing them as necessary in the construction of a sensible system of social and political ethics allows us to consider His concept as original, thoroughly Christian, marked by a testimony of faith and penetrated by intellectual depth.

It can be stated  that the social ethics in the sense of Father Majka is not an ideology, but an integral part of Catholic social science, situating above all in the area of  philosophy and theology, where it finds the necessary premises for moral principles and norms.