Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 329 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 329 – Part II. How does social justice come about in a society?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Social justice comes about where the inalienable dignity of every person is respected and the resulting rights are safeguarded and championed without reservation. Among these is also the right to active participation in the political, economic, and cultural life of the society.    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1833) Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. (CCC 1830) The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.       

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The basis of all justice is respect for the inalienable dignity of the human person, “whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt” (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, published 1987). Human rights are an immediate consequence of human dignity, and no State can abolish or change them. States and authorities that trample these rights underfoot are unjust regimes and lose their authority. A society is not perfected by laws, however, but rather by love ofneighbor, which makes it possible for everyone to “look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as ‘another self’”  (GS 27, 1).

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1829) The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest (St. Augustine, In ep. Jo. 10, 4: PL 35, 2057).      

(This question: How does social justice come about in a society? is continued)