Lk 22, 54-62 + CSDC and CV

Luke 22, 54-62 + CSDC and CV

CV 60b In this way, it is actually possible to improve social services and welfare programmes, and at the same time to save resources — by eliminating waste and rejecting fraudulent claims — which could then be allocated to international solidarity. A more devolved and organic system of social solidarity, less bureaucratic but no less coordinated, would make it possible to harness much dormant energy, for the benefit of solidarity between peoples. One possible approach to development aid would be to apply effectively what is known as fiscal subsidiarity, allowing citizens to decide how to allocate a portion of the taxes they pay to the State. Provided it does not degenerate into the promotion of special interests, this can help to stimulate forms of welfare solidarity from below, with obvious benefits in the area of solidarity for development as well.

The rights of workers: based on the nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity

CDS 301 The rights of workers, like all other rights, are based on the nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity. The Church's social Magisterium has seen fit to list some of these rights, in the hope that they will be recognized in juridical systems: the right to a just wage; [651] the right to rest; [652] the right “to a working environment and to manufacturing processes which are not harmful to the workers' physical health or to their moral integrity”; [653] the right that one's personality in the workplace should be safeguarded “without suffering any affront to one's conscience or personal dignity”; [654] the right to appropriate subsidies that are necessary for the subsistence of unemployed workers and their families; [655] the right to a pension and to insurance for old age, sickness, and in case of work-related accidents; [656] the right to social security connected with maternity; [657] the right to assemble and form associations.[658] These rights are often infringed, as is confirmed by the sad fact of workers who are underpaid and without protection or adequate representation. It often happens that work conditions for men, women and children, especially in developing countries, are so inhumane that they are an offence to their dignity and compromise their health.

  

Notes: [651] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981), 625-629. [652] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981), 625-629. [653] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981), 629. [654] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 15: AAS 83 (1991), 812. [655] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 18: AAS 73 (1981), 622-625. [656] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981), 625-629. [657] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73 (1981), 625-629. [658] Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 135; Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 186; Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Sertum Laetitiae: AAS 31 (1939), 643; John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 262-263; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 68: AAS 58 (1966), 1089-1090; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 20: AAS 73 (1981), 629-632; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 7: AAS 83 (1991), 801-802.    

(Luke 22,54-62) Only love can animate and shape social interaction

[54] After arresting him they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest; Peter was following at a distance. [55] They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them. [56] When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, "This man too was with him." [57] But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him." [58] A short while later someone else saw him and said, "You too are one of them"; but Peter answered, "My friend, I am not." [59] About an hour later, still another insisted, "Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he also is a Galilean." [60] But Peter said, "My friend, I do not know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, [61] and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; 16 and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." [62] He went out and began to weep bitterly.

CDS 207 No legislation, no system of rules or negotiation will ever succeed in persuading men and peoples to live in unity, brotherhood and peace; no line of reasoning will ever be able to surpass the appeal of love. Only love, in its quality as “form of the virtues”[456], can animate and shape social interaction, moving it towards peace in the context of a world that is ever more complex. In order that all this may take place, however, it is necessary that care be taken to show love not only in its role of prompting individual deeds but also as a force capable of inspiring new ways of approaching the problems of today's world, of profoundly renewing structures, social organizations, legal systems from within. In this perspective love takes on the characteristic style of social and political charity: “Social charity makes us love the common good”[457], it makes us effectively seek the good of all people, considered not only as individuals or private persons but also in the social dimension that unites them. 

Notes: [456] Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 23, a. 8: Ed. Leon. 8, 72; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1827. [457] Paul VI, Address to the Food and Agriculture Association on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation (16 November 1970): Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. VIII, p. 1153.   

[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)]