Lk 21, 1-4 + CSDC and CV

Luke 21, 1-4 + CSDC and CV 

CV 55d Discernment is needed regarding the contribution of cultures and religions, especially on the part of those who wield political power, if the social community is to be built up in a spirit of respect for the common good. Such discernment has to be based on the criterion of charity and truth. Since the development of persons and peoples is at stake, this discernment will have to take account of the need for emancipation and inclusivity, in the context of a truly universal human community. “The whole man and all men” is also the criterion for evaluating cultures and religions. Christianity, the religion of the “God who has a human face”[134], contains this very criterion within itself.

Notes: [134] Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, 31: loc. cit., 1010; Address to the Participants in the Fourth National Congress of the Church in Italy, Verona, 19 October 2006.

Child labour constitutes a terrible kind of violence    

CDS 296 Child labour, in its intolerable forms, constitutes a kind of violence that is less obvious than others but it is not for this reason any less terrible.[639] This is a violence that, beyond all political, economic and legal implications, remains essentially a moral problem. Pope Leo XIII issued the warning: “in regard to children, great care should be taken not to place them in workshops and factories until their bodies and minds are sufficiently developed. For, just as very rough weather destroys the buds of spring, so does too early an experience of life's hard toil blight the young promise of a child's faculties, and render any true education impossible”.[640] After more than a hundred years, the blight of child labour has not yet been overcome. Even with the knowledge that, at least for now, in certain countries the contribution made by child labour to family income and the national economy is indispensable, and that in any event certain forms of part-time work can prove beneficial for children themselves, the Church's social doctrine condemns the increase in “the exploitation of children in the workplace in conditions of veritable slavery”.[641] This exploitation represents a serious violation of human dignity, with which every person, “no matter how small or how seemingly unimportant in utilitarian terms”,[642] is endowed. 

     

 Notes: [639] Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 1996 World Day of Peace, 5: AAS 88 (1996), 106-107. [640] Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 129. [641] John Paul II, Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace, 6: AAS 90 (1998), 153.[642] John Paul II, Message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the occasion of the World Summit for Children (22 September 1990): AAS 83 (1991), 360.

(Luke 21,1-4) She, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood

[1] When he looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury [2] and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. [3] He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; [4] for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."

CDS 333  If economic activity is to have a moral character, it must be directed to all men and to all peoples. Everyone has the right to participate in economic life and the duty to contribute, each according to his own capacity, to the progress of his own country and to that of the entire human family.[696] If, to some degree, everyone is responsible for everyone else, then each person also has the duty to commit himself to the economic development of all.[697] This is a duty in solidarity and in justice, but it is also the best way to bring economic progress to all of humanity. When practised morally, economic activity is therefore service mutually rendered by the production of goods and services that are useful for the growth of each person, and it becomes an opportunity for every individual to embody solidarity and live the vocation of “communion with others for which God created him”.[698] The effort to create and carry out social and economic projects that are capable of encouraging a more equitable society and a more human world represents a difficult challenge, but also a stimulating duty for all who work in the economic sector and are involved with the economic sciences.[699] 

Notes:  [696] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 65: AAS 58 (1966), 1086-1087. [697] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 32: AAS 80 (1988), 556-557. [698] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 41: AAS 83 (1991), 844. [699] Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 2000 World Day of Peace, 15-16: AAS 92 (2000), 366-367.

[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)]