.- A new iPhone and iPad application from a Washington, D.C., think tank aims to spread Catholic social teaching through Church documents, news and commentary.

The Ethics and Public Policy Center said its free app is “a great resource for politicians, journalists, teachers, students and anyone who wishes to better understand the Church’s teaching on issues of economics, politics and culture.”

The Catholic Social Teaching App provides a selection of papal encyclicals ranging from Pope Francis’ 2013 “Lumen Fidei” back to Pope Leo XII’s 1891 “Rerum Novarum.” It includes documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on bioethics and Catholic political participation, as well as Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on evangelization, “Evangelii Gaudium.”

The app provides commentaries from Catholic and non-Catholic writers about Catholic teaching and current events. Authors include Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Neb.

Other writers on Catholic topics include former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Sean Winters, George Weigel, Father Robert Barron, Russell Shaw, James Kalb, Hadley Arkes, Patrick Deneen and Ryan Anderson.

The app also provides news from Catholic News Agency, EWTN News, Catholic News Service and other sources.

Search and cross-reference functions help users find content about topics that interest them.

The app’s promoter, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, was founded in 1976. According to its website, its goal is the application of “the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy.”

The Catholic Social Teaching App is available for download from Apple’s App Store. Its content is also available at the app’s website, http://catholicsocialteaching.eppc.org.