Natural Law

• Key part of Catholic moral teaching is a belief in natural law
• It’s the idea that above all human legal systems there is a moral law that every human understands + should live by
• It was put forward by Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Same idea in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - which suggests there’s some natural rights every human should have
• Catholics believe in natural law because as humans all share the same human nature
• Natural law suggests that there’s moral laws of right and wrong which are universal + no dependent on human laws