Matthew 19, 4 + CSDC and CV

(CV 27a)  Life in many poor countries is still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages, and the situation could become worse: hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man's table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI [64]. Feed the hungry (cf. Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church, as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods. Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet. Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional.  

Notes: [64] Cf. Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 47: loc. cit., 280-281; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 42: loc. cit., 572-574.  

Serious social problems can be solved only by cooperation between all forces

CSDC 90b.With this courageous and farsighted text, Pope Leo XIII “gave the Church ‘citizenship status' as it were, amid the changing realities of public life” [147] and made an “incisive statement” [148] which became “a permanent element of the Church's social teaching”[149]. He affirmed that serious social problems “could be solved only by cooperation between all forces” [150] and added that, “in regard to the Church, her cooperation will never be found lacking”[151].

Notes: [147] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 5: AAS 83 (1991), 799. [148] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 56: AAS 83 (1991), 862. [149] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 60: AAS 83 (1991), 865. [150] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 60: AAS 83 (1991), 865. [151] Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 143; cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 56: AAS 83 (1991), 862. 

 (Mt 19, 4) The first natural society

 [4] He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female'

CSDC 210. It is in the family that one learns the love and faithfulness of the Lord, and the need to respond to these (cf. Ex 12:25-27, 13:8,14-15; Deut 6:20-25, 13:7-11; 1 Sam 3:13). It is in the family that children learn their first and most important lessons of practical wisdom, to which the virtues are connected (cf. Prov 1:8-9, 4:1-4, 6:20-21; Sir 3:1-16, 7:27-28). Because of all this, the Lord himself is the guarantor of the love and fidelity of married life (cf. Mal 2:14-15). Jesus was born and lived in a concrete family, accepting all its characteristic features [461] and he conferred the highest dignity on the institution of marriage, making it a sacrament of the new covenant (cf. Mt 19:3-9). It is in this new perspective that the couple finds the fullness of its dignity and the family its solid foundation.

Notes: [461] The Holy Family is an example of family life: “May Nazareth remind us what the family is, what the communion of love is, its stark and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it help us to see how sweet and irreplaceable education in the family is; may it teach us its natural function in the social order. May we finally learn the lesson of work”: Paul VI, Address at Nazareth (5 January 1964): AAS 56 (1964), 168.

[Initials and Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; -  SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]