This book initially provides a retrospective view of Catholic social thought for the past one hundred years and the manner in which it has been variously interpreted. As the editors of the book point out, currently Catholic social thought is no longer pre-eminent in debates involving international politics or sociology. The Catholic world has a serious challenge to break down the barriers of ignorance and regain an ethical impetus in such debates. The editors have assembled articles from a variety of leading Catholic scholars on issues such as Social Ethics, Political Philosophy, Globalisation, Justice, Human Rights, Economics and Poverty in order to show that far from being moribund, current Catholic Social Thought is lively, discursive and should be playing a central role in forging the intellectual life of our day.