Luke 2, 41-52 +
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.
The Church has the right to be for mankind a teacher of the truth of faith
CSDC 70.
The Church has the right to be a teacher for mankind, a teacher of the
truth of faith: the truth not only of dogmas but also of the morals whose
source lies in human nature itself and in the Gospel[95]. The word of the
Gospel, in fact, is not only to be heard but is also to be observed and put
into practice (cf. Mt 7:24; Lk 6:46-47; Jn 14:21,23-24; Jas
1:22). Consistency in behaviour shows what one truly believes and is not limited
only to things strictly church-related or spiritual but involves men and women
in the entirety of their life experience and in the context of all their
responsibilities. However worldly these responsibilities may be, their subject
remains man, that is, the human being whom God calls, by means of the Church,
to participate in his gift of salvation. Men and women must respond to the gift
of salvation not with a partial, abstract or merely verbal acceptance, but with
the whole of their lives — in every relationship that defines life — so as not
to neglect anything, leaving it in a profane and worldly realm where it is
irrelevant or foreign to salvation. For this reason the Church's social
doctrine is not a privilege for her, nor a digression, a convenience or
interference: it is her right to proclaim the Gospel in the context of
society, to make the liberating word of the Gospel resound in the complex
worlds of production, labour, business, finance, trade, politics, law, culture,
social communications, where men and women live.
Notes: [95] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 14: AAS 58 (1966), 940; John Paul
II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 27, 64, 110: AAS 85
(1993), 1154-1155, 1183-1184, 1219-1220.
(Luke 2, 41-52) Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?
[41] Each year his
parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, [42] and when he was
twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. [43] After they
had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind
in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. [44] Thinking that he was in the
caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and
acquaintances, [45] but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for
him. [46] After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst
of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, [47] and all who
heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. [48] When his
parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son,
why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with
great anxiety." [49] And he said to them, "Why were you looking for
me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" [50] But they
did not understand what he said to them. [51] He went down with them and came
to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in
her heart. [52] And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favor before God and
man.
CSDC 58b. In economically developed countries, legislation
contrary to life is very widespread, and it has already shaped moral attitudes
and praxis, contributing to the spread of an anti-birth mentality; frequent
attempts are made to export this mentality to other States as if it were a form
of cultural progress. Some non-governmental Organizations work actively to
spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor
countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover,
there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific
health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong
birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting
euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and
internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition.
[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)]
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