Like the term “social justice,” the phrase “preferential option for the poor” is part of the Catholic lexicon. Some use the phrase to insist on interventionist economic policies. Catholic social teaching, however, leads to more nuanced conclusions — economically and theologically.
The term “option for the poor” gained traction in Catholic thought in the late 1960s and ’70s. The term had influenced various forms of liberation theology throughout that period, but such claims tend to downplay the fact that the Church has always maintained a special outreach to the poor.
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