The Superheroes’ Guide to Catholic Social Teaching – Part I

Catholic Social Teaching is the Church’s instruction manual on how to live a Christ-centered life. It guides us in being the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the leaven which helps our society grow toward bringing about the Kingdom of God. In this seven-part series, we’ll examine the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching through comic books – their stories, their heroes, and their ideals. We’ll look at how our favorite superheroes embody these principles of living a more Christian life.

Theme 1: Rights and Responsibilities, or The Wages of Great Power

There’s a neat little moment in the recent animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. (Actually there are a lot of great moments in that movie, and if you haven’t seen it yet you really should. But I digress.)

Miles Morales, the resident Spider-Man for Marvel’s Ultimate universe, is trying to convince a burned-out Peter Parker, a displaced Spider-Man from a different universe, to help him save the world and prevent a multi-universe catastrophe. When Peter refuses to get involved, Miles reminds him, “With great power comes great –”

Peter cuts him off: “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

“That sentence” is so iconic, so deeply ingrained in the Spider-Man mythology, the filmmakers obviously felt confident that their audience could finish it on their own.

Responsibility kind of comes with the superhero territory. People don’t dress up in spandex and fight crime just for the fun of it. Which is not to say that they don’t enjoy the work, but at some point the fun wears off. Without an underlying sense of responsibility, they wouldn’t keep at it long enough to sustain a regular comic-book series.

The story of how Peter Parker became Spider-Man, though, gives us a particularly poignant look at the nature of social responsibility. Because when he first gains his incredible strength, speed, and agility, he does what most of us would probably do: he uses his powers to make money.

That’s not to say that making money from our special abilities is necessarily a bad thing. We all need to make money to support ourselves and our families. And if you can get paid to do something you’re gifted enough to do better than most people, so much the better. So long as Peter isn’t going full super-villain, there is nothing inherently wrong in cashing in on his extraordinary powers.

But what young Parker forgets here is that our gifts, our talents, and our abilities are not given to us just for our own good. God created us as social beings, and what gifts we have are meant to be shared for the good of all. It’s a lesson Peter Parker has to learn the hard way.

He starts off in show biz as a TV wrestling superstar, creating the classic red-and-blue costume and mask for the sake of showmanship. One day, when the studio is robbed, Peter lets the thief run right past him. He’s not paid to catch criminals, he says. Later on, his beloved guardian Uncle Ben is shot by a burglar who (of course) turns out to be the very same thief Peter had declined to stop at the studio.

The lesson of responsibility comes to him through his family. It’s his Uncle Ben who first speaks to him those famous words: “With great power comes great responsibility.” But the words don’t hit home until Peter’s shirking of social obligation comes back to affect his family. And that, ultimately, is what spurs him to embrace his duty to society.

The family, according to Catholic Social Teaching, is the foundation of society. Often referred to as the “domestic church,” it is ideally where we learn to live and interact with other people – where we learn how to be productive members of society. This is one area where superheroes generally run into trouble.

It can be difficult to balance one’s responsibilities to family with responsibility to society. This is one of the major reasons the Church has kept its priesthood celibate – it allows the priest to focus on his responsibility to his vocation without the distraction of responsibilities to a wife and children.

Permanent Deacons, on the other hand, do not have the same call to celibacy and often do have families. In this case, his responsibility to his marriage and his family takes precedence over his ministry. Any social, community, or religious service can put a strain on the family relationship, so it is vital that the family takes top priority. And if your public service routinely involves saving the world from evil mutants, monsters, and mad scientists, that work/life balance becomes that much more difficult.

Mary Jane Watson had some idea what she was getting into when she accepted Peter Parker’s proposal. Not that she could have specifically anticipated dealing with a sudden influx of clones of her husband, or that her marriage would be erased from history by a deal with the Devil to save the life of Peter’s Aunt May, or any of the myriad complications of being married to a superhero. But she had figured out that her boyfriend was Spider-Man, so she at least had to know that their marriage would never be normal.

Still, she has the right to expect to have some priority in his life. Even when the life of his beloved Aunt May is at stake, his responsibility to his marriage and family should take precedence. (Besides which, if a deal with the Devil is involved, it’s best to assume it’s a bad idea.)

The most recent relaunch of the Amazing Spider-Man comic book series has them getting back together, and Mary Jane coming to accept Spider-Man as a vital part of the man she loves, so hopefully their relationship will be stronger going forward. After all, they still have to give birth to May Parker, who grows up to become the Spectacular Spider-Girl in one of my favorite mini-series. Passing the torch to the next generation is also a vital part of our social responsibility.