Matthew 6, 32  + CSDC and CV

(CV 9b) The Church does not have technical solutions to offer[10] and does not claim “to interfere in any way in the politics of States.”[11] She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and sceptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it.

Notes: [10] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 36; Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens (14 May 1971), 4: AAS 63 (1971), 403-404; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus  (1 May 1991), 43: AAS 83 (1991), 847. [11] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 13: loc. cit., 263-264.

A city of man more human because it is in greater conformity with the Kingdom of God

CSDC 63b. As the Gospel reverberates by means of the Church in the today of men and women [81], this social doctrine is a word that brings freedom. This means that it has the effectiveness of truth and grace that comes from the Spirit of God, who penetrates hearts, predisposing them to thoughts and designs of love, justice, freedom and peace. Evangelizing the social sector, then, means infusing into the human heart the power of meaning and freedom found in the Gospel, in order to promote a society befitting mankind because it befits Christ: it means building a city of man that is more human because it is in greater conformity with the Kingdom of God.

Notes:[81] Cf. John Paul II, Homily at Pentecost for the First Centenary of Rerum Novarum (19 May 1991): AAS 84 (1992), 282.

(Mt 6, 32) Owners who idolize their goods become owned and enslaved by them 

[32] All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

CSDC 181. To the subjects, whether individuals or communities, that exercise ownership of various types of property accrue a series of objective advantages: better living conditions, security for the future, and a greater number of options from which to choose. On the other hand, property may also bring a series of deceptive promises that are a source of temptation. Those people and societies that go so far as to absolutize the role of property end up experiencing the bitterest type of slavery. In fact, there is no category of possession that can be considered indifferent with regard to the influence that it may have both on individuals and on institutions. Owners who heedlessly idolize their goods (cf. Mt 6:24, 19:21-26; Lk 16:13) become owned and enslaved by them[383]. Only by recognizing that these goods are dependent on God the Creator and then directing their use to the common good, is it possible to give material goods their proper function as useful tools for the growth of individuals and peoples.

    

 Notes: [383] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 27-34, 37: AAS 80 (1988), 547-560, 563-564; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 41: AAS 83 (1991), 843-845.

[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)]  

Matthew 6, 31 + CSDC and CV

(CV 9a) Love in truth — caritas in veritate — is a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized. The risk for our time is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development. Only in charity, illumined by the light of reason and faith, is it possible to pursue development goals that possess a more humane and humanizing value. The sharing of goods and resources, from which authentic development proceeds, is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility, but by the potential of love that overcomes evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), opening up the path towards reciprocity of consciences and liberties.  

Social doctrine: the Gospel of the Kingdom, freedom and redemption present in human history

CSDC 63a. By means of her social doctrine, the Church takes on the task of proclaiming what the Lord has entrusted to her. She makes the message of the freedom and redemption wrought by Christ, the Gospel of the Kingdom, present in human history. In proclaiming the Gospel, the Church “bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom”[80].

Notes: [80] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2419.

(Mt 6, 31) The social function of any form of private ownership

 [31] So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'

CSDC 178. The Church's social teaching moreover calls for recognition of the social function of any form of private ownership [376] that clearly refers to its necessary relation to the common good[377]. Man “should regard the external things that he legitimately possesses not only as his own but also as common in the sense that they should be able to benefit not only him but also others”[378]. The universal destination of goods entails obligations on how goods are to be used by their legitimate owners. Individual persons may not use their resources without considering the effects that this use will have, rather they must act in a way that benefits not only themselves and their family but also the common good. From this there arises the duty on the part of owners not to let the goods in their possession go idle and to channel them to productive activity, even entrusting them to others who are desirous and capable of putting them to use in production.

      

Notes: [376] Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 430-431; John Paul II, Address to the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla, Mexico (28 January 1979), III/4: AAS 71 (1979), 199-201. [377] Cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 191-192, 193-194, 196-197. [378] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 69: AAS 58 (1966), 1090.

[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)]  

Matthew 6, 24-30 + CSDC and CV

(CV 8c) This continual application to contemporary circumstances began with the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,  with which the Servant of God Pope John Paul II chose to mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Populorum Progressio. Until that time, only Rerum Novarum  had been commemorated in this way. Now that a further twenty years have passed, I express my conviction that Populorum Progressio deserves to be considered “the Rerum Novarum of the present age”, shedding light upon humanity's journey towards unity.

Men and women are the primary and fundamental way for the Church

CSDC 62b. Society — and with it, politics, the economy, labour, law, culture — is not simply a secular and worldly reality, and therefore outside or foreign to the message and economy of salvation. Society in fact, with all that is accomplished within it, concerns man. Society is made up of men and women, who are “the primary and fundamental way for the Church”[79].

Notes:  [79] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 14: AAS 71 (1979), 284.

(Mt 6, 24-30) The universal destination of goods

[24] "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. [25] "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? [27] Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? [28] Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. [29] But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. [30] If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

CSDC 177. Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: “On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone”[372]. The principle of the universal destination of goods is an affirmation both of God's full and perennial lordship over every reality and of the requirement that the goods of creation remain ever destined to the development of the whole person and of all humanity[373]. This principle is not opposed to the right to private property[374] but indicates the need to regulate it. Private property, in fact, regardless of the concrete forms of the regulations and juridical norms relative to it, is in its essence only an instrument for respecting the principle of the universal destination of goods; in the final analysis, therefore, it is not an end but a means[375].

    

Notes: [372] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 14: AAS 73 (1981), 613. [373] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 69: AAS 58 (1966), 1090-1092; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2402-2406. [374] Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 102. [375] Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 22-23: AAS 59 (1967), 268-269.

 

[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)]  

Matthew 6, 19-23 + CSDC and CV

(CV 8b) It is the primordial truth of God's love, grace bestowed upon us, that opens our lives to gift and makes it possible to hope for a “development of the whole man and of all men”[8], to hope for progress “from less human conditions to those which are more human”[9], obtained by overcoming the difficulties that are inevitably encountered along the way. At a distance of over forty years from the Encyclical's publication, I intend to pay tribute and to honour the memory of the great Pope Paul VI, revisiting his teachings on integral human development and taking my place within the path that they marked out, so as to apply them to the present moment.

Notes: [8] Ibid.,  42: loc. cit., 278. [9]  Ibid., 20: loc. cit., 267.   

Enriching and permeating society itself with the Gospel

CSDC 62a. With her social teaching the Church seeks to proclaim the Gospel and make it present in the complex network of social relations. It is not simply a matter of reaching out to man in society — man as the recipient of the proclamation of the Gospel — but of enriching and permeating society itself with the Gospel [78]. For the Church, therefore, tending to the needs of man means that she also involves society in her missionary and salvific work. The way people live together in society often determines the quality of life and therefore the conditions in which every man and woman understand themselves and make decisions concerning themselves and their vocation. For this reason, the Church is not indifferent to what is decided, brought about or experienced in society; she is attentive to the moral quality — that is, the authentically human and humanizing aspects — of social life.

Notes: [78] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40: AAS 58 (1966), 1057-1059.

(Mt 6, 19-23) Ownership of goods be equally accessible to all

[19] "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. [20] But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. [22] "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; [23] but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

CSDC 176. By means of work and making use of the gift of intelligence, people are able to exercise dominion over the earth and make it a fitting home: “In this way, he makes part of the earth his own, precisely the part which he has acquired through work; this is the origin of individual property”[368]. Private property and other forms of private ownership of goods “assure a person a highly necessary sphere for the exercise of his personal and family autonomy and ought to be considered as an extension of human freedom ... stimulating exercise of responsibility, it constitutes one of the conditions for civil liberty”[369]. Private property is an essential element of an authentically social and democratic economic policy, and it is the guarantee of a correct social order. The Church's social doctrine requires that ownership of goods be equally accessible to all [370], so that all may become, at least in some measure, owners, and it excludes recourse to forms of “common and promiscuous dominion”[371].

   
Notes: [368] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 31: AAS 83 (1991), 832. [369] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 71: AAS 58 (1966), 1092-1093; cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 103-104; Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum: AAS 33 (1941), 199; Pius XII, Radio Message of 24 December 1942: AAS 35 (1943), 17; Pius XII, Radio Message of 1 September 1944: AAS 36 (1944), 253; John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 428-429. [370] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 6: AAS 83 (1991), 800-801. [371] Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 102.

[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)]