It is too clear that social justice means different things to different people. One essential point that distinguishes the Catholic Church's notion of social justice from its secular counterpart has to do with the concept of personal virtue ... The secular world compartmentalizes the personal and the social, holding that what one does in his personal life -- whether as a private citizen or as the president of a nation -- has little or no relevance to what he does on a social level. The Church understands social justice as a continuity of the personal and the social, the secular world does not ... The Church maintains that, in order to have social justice, we must first have virtuous people. The secular world maintains that social justice does not require virtuous people, only good programs. For the Church, social justice is a personal virtue; for the secular world, it is a political accomplishment. The Church believes that good people make good social programs; the secular world believes that good social programs make good people. Concerning social justice, the Church and the secular world have very little in common.
