Lk 13, 10-17 + CSDC and CV

Luke 13, 10-17 + CSDC and CV 

CV 43c. Otherwise, if the only basis of human rights is to be found in the deliberations of an assembly of citizens, those rights can be changed at any time, and so the duty to respect and pursue them fades from the common consciousness. Governments and international bodies can then lose sight of the objectivity and “inviolability” of rights. When this happens, the authentic development of peoples is endangered[108]. Such a way of thinking and acting compromises the authority of international bodies, especially in the eyes of those countries most in need of development. Indeed, the latter demand that the international community take up the duty of helping them to be “artisans of their own destiny”[109], that is, to take up duties of their own. The sharing of reciprocal duties is a more powerful incentive to action than the mere assertion of rights.

Notes: [108] Cf. Benedict XVI, Message for the 2007 World Day of Peace, 13: loc. cit., 781-782. [109] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 65: loc. cit., 289.    

The “methods” for practising responsible procreation

CSDC 233a. Concerning the “methods” for practising responsible procreation, the first to be rejected as morally illicit are sterilization and abortion[521]. The latter in particular is a horrendous crime and constitutes a particularly serious moral disorder[522]; far from being a right, it is a sad phenomenon that contributes seriously to spreading a mentality against life, representing a dangerous threat to a just and democratic social coexistence[523].

Notes: [521] Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae, 14: AAS 60 (1968), 490-491. [522] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 51: AAS 58 (1966), 1072-1073; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2271-2272; John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 21: AAS 86 (1994), 919-920; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 58, 59, 61-62: AAS 87 (1995), 466-468, 470-472. [523] Cf. John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane, 21: AAS 86 (1994), 919-920; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 72, 101: AAS 87 (1995), 484-485, 516-518; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2273.

(Lk 13, 10-17) The whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him

10 He was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. 11 And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity." 13 He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, "There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day." 15 The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? 16 This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?" 17 When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

CSDC 246. The social subjectivity of the family, both as a single unit and associated in a group, is expressed as well in the demonstrations of solidarity and sharing not only among families themselves but also in the various forms of participation in social and political life. This is what happens when the reality of the family is founded on love: being born in love and growing in love, solidarity belongs to the family as a constitutive and structural element. This is a solidarity that can take on the features of service and attention to those who live in poverty and need, to orphans, the handicapped, the sick, the elderly, to those who are in mourning, to those with doubts, to those who live in loneliness or who have been abandoned. It is a solidarity that opens itself to acceptance, to guardianship, to adoption; it is able to bring every situation of distress to the attention of institutions so that, according to their specific competence, they can intervene.

  

 [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)]