ON THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

RERUM NOVARUM

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

MEMORIAL. LIBRARY

COLLEGE LIBRARY

VERTICAL FILE



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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Universal appeal for more justice 1

Diversity of situations 2

Specific message of the Church 3

Extent of present-day changes 4

NEW SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Urbanization 5

Christians in the city 6

Youth 7

The role of women 8

Workers 8

Victims of changes 9

Discrimination 9

Right to emigrate 10

Creating employment 10

Media of social communication 11

The environment 12

FUNDAMENTAL ASPIRATIONS

AND CURRENTS OF IDEAS

Advantages and limitations of juridical recognition 13

The political society 13

Ideologies and human liberty 14

Historical movements 16

Attraction of socialist currents 16

Historical evolution of Marxism 17

The liberal ideology 18

Christian discernment 18

Rebirth of utopias 19

The questioning of the human sciences 20

Ambiguous nature of progress 22

iii



CHRISTIANS FACE TO FACE WITH THESE NEW PROBLEMS

Dynamism of the Church's social teaching 23

For greater justice 23

Change of attitudes and structures 24

Christian meaning of political activity 25

Sharing in responsibility 26

CALL TO ACTION

Need to become involved in action 28

Pluralism of options 29

COMMENTARY 32

iv



APOSTOLIC LETTER

OF HIS HOLINESS

POPE PAUL VI

TO CARDINAL MAURICE ROY

PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE LAITY

AND OF THE PONTIFICAL COMMISSION

JUSTICE AND PEACE

ON THE OCCASION

OF THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE ENCYCLICAL

RERUM NOVARUM

Venerable Brother,

T
he eightieth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical

Rerum Novarum

,

the message of which continues to inspire

action for social justice, prompts us to take up again and to ex-

tend the teaching of our predecessors, in response to the new

needs of a changing world. The Church, in fact, travels forward

with humanity and shares its lot in the setting of history. At the

same time that she announces to men the Good News of God's

love and of salvation in Christ, she clarifies their activity in the

light of the Gospel and in this way helps them to correspond to

God's plan of love and to realize the fullness of their aspirations.

Universal appeal for more justice

2 It is with confidence that we see the Spirit of the Lord

pursuing his work in the hearts of men and in every place gather-

ing together Christian communities conscious of their responsi-

bilities in society. On all the continents, among all races, nations

and cultures, and under all conditions the Lord continues to

raise up authentic apostles of the Gospel.

1



We have had the opportunity to meet these people, to ad-
mire them and to give them our encouragement in the course of

our recent journeys. We have gone into the crowds and have
heard their appeals, cries of distress and at the same time cries

of hope. Under these circumstances we have seen in a new per-

spective the grave problems of our time. These problems of

course are particular to each part of the world, but at the same

time they are common to all mankind, which is questioning itself

about its future and about the tendency and the meaning of the

changes taking place. Flagrant inequalities exist in the economic,

cultural and political development of the nations: while some

regions are heavily industrialized, others are still at the agricul-

tural stage; while some countries enjoy prosperity, others are

struggling against starvation; while some peoples have a high

standard of culture, others are still engaged in eliminating illiter-

acy. From all sides there rises a yearning for more justice and a

desire for a better guaranteed peace in mutual respect among in-

dividuals and peoples.

Diversity of situations

3 There is of course a wide diversity among the situations in

which Christians—willingly or unwillingly—find themselves ac-
cording to regions, socio-political systems and cultures. In some

places they are reduced to silence, regarded with suspicion and

as it were kept on the fringe of society, enclosed without freedom

in a totalitarian system. In other places they are a weak minority

whose voice makes itself heard with difficulty. In some other

nations, where the Church sees her place recognized, sometimes

officially so, she too finds herself subjected to the repercussions

of the crisis which is unsettling society; some of her members are

tempted by radical and violent solutions from which they believe

that they can expect a happier outcome. While some people,

unaware of present injustices, strive to prolong the existing situa-

tion, others allow themselves to be beguiled by revolutionary

ideologies which promise them, not without delusion, a defini-

tively better world.

4 In the face of such widely varying situations it is difficult for

us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution

which has universal validity. Such is not our ambition, nor is it

our mission. It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with

2



objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country,

to shed on it the light of the Gospel's unalterable words and to

draw principles of reflection, norms of judgment and directives

for action from the social teaching of the Church. This social

teaching has been worked out in the course of history and no-

tably, in this industrial era, since the historic date of the message

of Pope Leo XIII on "the condition of the workers," and it is an

honor and joy for us to celebrate today the anniversary of that

message. It is up to these Christian communities, with the help

of the Holy Spirit, in communion with the bishops who hold

responsibility and in dialogue with other Christian brethren and

all men of goodwill, to discern the options and commitments

which are called for in order to bring about the social, political

and economic changes seen in many cases to be urgently needed.

In this search for the changes which should be promoted, Chris-

tians must first of all renew their confidence in the forcefulness

and special character of the demands made by the Gospel. The

Gospel is not out-of-date because it was proclaimed, written and

lived in a different socio-cultural context. Its inspiration, enriched

by the living experience of Christian tradition over the centuries,

remains ever new for converting men and for advancing the life

of society. It is not however to be utilized for the profit of par-

ticular temporal options, to the neglect of its universal and eternal

message.
1

Specific message of the Church

5 Amid the disturbances and uncertainties of the present hour,

the Church has a specific message to proclaim and a support

to give to men in their efforts to take in hand and give direc-

tion to their future. Since the period in which the encyclical

Rerum Novarum denounced in a forceful and imperative manner

the scandal of the condition of the workers in the nascent indus-

trial society, historical evolution has led to an awareness of other

dimensions and other applications of social justice. The encycli-

cals Quadragesimo Anno 2 and Mater et Magistra 3 already noted

this fact. The recent Council for its part took care to point them

out, in particular in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes.

We ourself have already continued these lines of thought in our

encyclical Populorum Progressio. "Today," we said, "the prin-

cipal fact that we must all recognize is that the social question

3



has become worldwide." 4 "A renewed consciousness of the

demands of the Gospel makes it the Church's duty to put herself

at the service of all, to help them grasp their serious problem in

all its dimensions, and to convince them that solidarity in action

at this turning point in human history is a matter of urgency." 5

6 It will moreover be for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops

itself to study more closely and to examine in greater detail the

Church's mission in the face of grave issues raised today by the

question of justice in the world. But the anniversary of Rerum

Novarum, venerable brother, gives us the opportunity today to

confide our preoccupations and thoughts in the face of this prob-

lem to you as President of the Pontifical Commission Justice and

Peace and of the Council of Laity. In this way it is also our wish

to offer these bodies of the Holy See our encouragement in their

ecclesial activity in the service of men.

Extent of present-day changes

7 In so doing, our purpose—without however forgetting the
permanent problems already dealt with by our predecessors—is

to draw attention to a number of questions. These are questions

which because of their urgency, extent and complexity must in

the years to come take first place among the preoccupations of

Christians, so that with other men the latter may dedicate them-

selves to solving the new difficulties which put the very future of

man in jeopardy. It is necessary to situate the problems created

by the modern economy in the wider context of a new civiliza-

tion. These problems include human conditions of production,

fairness in the exchange of goods and in the division of wealth,

the significance of the increased needs of consumption and the

sharing of responsibility. In the present changes, which are so

profound and so rapid, each day man discovers himself anew,

and he questions himself about the meaning of his own being

and of his collective survival. Reluctant to gather the lessons of

a past that he considers over and done with and too different

from the present, man nevertheless needs to have light shed upon

his future—a future which he perceives to be as uncertain as it is
changing—by permanent eternal truths. These are truths which
are certainly greater than man but, if he so wills, he can himself

find their traces.
6

4



NEW SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Urbanization

8 A major phenomenon draws our attention, as much in the

industrialized countries as in those which are developing: urbani-

zation.

After long centuries, agrarian civilization is weakening. Is

sufficient attention being devoted to the arrangement and im-

provement of the life of the country people, whose inferior and

at times miserable economic situation provokes the flight to the

unhappy crowded conditions of the city outskirts, where neither

employment nor housing awaits them?

This unceasing flight from the land, industrial growth, con-

tinual demographic expansion and the attraction of urban centers

bring about concentrations of population, the extent of which is

difficult to imagine, for people are already speaking in terms of a

"megalopolis" grouping together tens of millions of persons. Of

course there exist medium-sized towns, the dimension of which

ensures a better balance in the population. While being able to

offer employment to those that progress in agriculture makes

available, they permit an adjustment of the human environment

which better avoids the proletarianism and crowding of the great

built-up areas.

9 The inordinate growth of these centers accompanies indus-

trial expansion, without being identified with it. Based on

technological research and the transformation of nature, indus-

trialization constantly goes forward, giving proof of incessant

creativity. While certain enterprises develop and are concen-

trated, others die or change their location. Thus new social prob-

lems are created: professional or regional unemployment, rede-

ployment and mobility of persons, permanent adaptation of

workers and disparity of conditions in the different branches of

industry. Unlimited competition utilizing the modern means of

publicity incessantly launches new products and tries to attract

the consumer, while earlier industrial installations which are still

capable of functioning become useless. While very large areas

of the population are unable to satisfy their primary needs, super-

fluous needs are ingeniously created. It can thus rightly be asked

if, in spite of all his conquests, man is not turning back against

5



himself the results of his activity. Having rationally endeavored

to control nature,
7

is he not now becoming the slave of the ob-

jects which he makes?

Christians in the city

10 Is not the rise of an urban civilization which accompanies

the advance of industrial civilization a true challenge to the wis-

dom of man, to his capacity for organization and to his farseeing

imagination? Within industrial society urbanization upsets both

the ways of life and the habitual structures of existence: the

family, the neighborhood, and the very framework of the Chris-

tian community. Man is experiencing a new loneliness; it is not

in the face of a hostile nature which it has taken him centuries

to subdue, but in an anonymous crowd which surrounds him and

in which he feels himself a stranger. Urbanization, undoubtedly

an irreversible stage in the development of human societies, con-

fronts man with difficult problems. How is he to master its

growth, regulate its organization, and successfully accomplish its

animation for the good of all?

In this disordered growth, new proletariats are born. They

install themselves in the heart of the cities sometimes abandoned

by the rich; they dwell on the outskirts—which become a belt of
misery besieging in a still silent protest the luxury which blatantly

cries out from centers of consumption and waste. Instead of

favoring fraternal encounter and mutual aid, the city fosters dis-

crimination and also indifference. It lends itself to new forms of

exploitation and of domination whereby some people in specu-

lating on the needs of others derive inadmissible profits. Behind

the facades, much misery is hidden, unsuspected even by the

closest neighbors; other forms of misery spread where human

dignity founders: delinquency, criminality, abuse of drugs and

eroticism.

11 It is in fact the weakest who are the victims of dehuman-

izing living conditions, degrading for conscience and harmful for

the family institution. The promiscuity of working people's hous-

ing makes a minimum of intimacy impossible; young couples

waiting in vain for a decent dwelling at a price they can afford are

demoralized and their union can thereby even be endangered;

youth escape from a home which is too confined and seek in the

6



streets compensations and companionships which cannot be

supervised. It is the grave duty of those responsible to strive to

control this process and to give it direction.

There is an urgent need to remake at the level of the street,

of the neighborhood or of the great agglomerative dwellings the

social fabric whereby man may be able to develop the needs of

his personality. Centers of special interest and of culture must

be created or developed at the community and parish levels with

different forms of associations, recreational centers, and spiritual

and community gatherings where the individual can escape from

isolation and form anew fraternal relationships.

12 To build up the city, the place where men and their ex-

panded communities exist, to create new modes of neighborli-

ness and relationships, to perceive an original application of social

justice and to undertake responsibility for this collective future,

which is foreseen as difficult, is a task in which Christians must

share. To those who are heaped up in an urban promiscuity

which becomes intolerable it is necessary to bring a message of

hope. This can be done by brotherhood which is lived and by

concrete justice. Let Christians, conscious of this new responsi-

bility, not lose heart in view of the vast and faceless society; let

them recall Jonah who traversed Niniveh, the great city, to pro-

claim therein the good news of God's mercy and was upheld in

his weakness by the sole strength of the word of Almighty God.

In the Bible, the city is in fact often the place of sin and pride

—

the pride of man who feels secure enough to be able to build

his life without God and even to affirm that he is powerful against

God. But there is also the example of Jerusalem, the Holy City,

the place where God is encountered, the promise of the city

which comes from on high. 8

Youth

13 Urban life and industrial change bring strongly to light

questions which until now were poorly grasped. What place, for

example, in this world being brought to birth, should be given to

youth? Everywhere dialogue is proving to be difficult between

youth, with its aspirations, renewal and also insecurity for the

future, and the adult generations. It is obvious to all that here we

have a source of serious conflicts, division and opting out, even

7



within the family, and a questioning of modes of authority, edu-

cation for freedom and the handing on of values and beliefs,

which strikes at the deep roots of society.

The role of women

Similarly, in many countries a charter for women which

would put an end to an actual discrimination and would establish

relationships of equality in rights and of respect for their dignity

is the object of study and at times of lively demands. We do not
have in mind that false equality which would deny the distinctions

laid down by the Creator himself and which would be in contra-

diction with woman's proper role, which is of such capital im-

portance, at the heart of the family as well as within society.

Developments in legislation should on the contrary be directed to

protecting her proper vocation and at the same time recognizing

her independence as a person, and her equal rights to participate

in cultural, economic, social and political life.

Workers

14 As the Church solemnly reaffirmed in the recent Council,

"the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions

is and must be the human person." 9 Every man has the right to

work, to a chance to develop his qualities and his personality in

the exercise of his profession, to equitable remuneration which

will enable him and his family "to lead a worthy life on the ma-

terial, social, cultural and spiritual level"
10

and to assistance in

case of need arising from sickness or age.

Although for the defense of these rights democratic societies

accept today the principle of labor union rights, they are not

always open to their exercise. The important role of union organi-

zations must be admitted: their object is the representation of

the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the

economic advance of society, and the development of the sense

of their responsibility for the realization of the common good.

Their activity, however, is not without its difficulties. Here and

there the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of

force to impose, particularly by strikes—the right to which as a
final means of defense remains certainly recognized—conditions
which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the

8



social body, or to desire to obtain in this way demands of a di-

rectly political nature. When it is a question of public services,

required for the life of an entire nation, it is necessary to be able

to assess the limit beyond which the harm caused to society be-

comes inadmissible.

Victims of changes

15 In short, progress has already been made in introducing,

in the area of human relationships, greater justice and greater

sharing of responsibilities. But in this immense field much re-

mains to be done. Further reflection, research and experimenta-

tion must be actively pursued, unless one is to be late in meeting

the legitimate aspirations of the workers—aspirations which are
being increasingly asserted according as their education, their

consciousness of their dignity and the strength of their organiza-

tions increase.

Egoism and domination are permanent temptations for men.

Likewise an ever finer discernment is needed, in order to strike

at the roots of newly arising situations of injustice and to establish

progressively a justice which will be less and less imperfect. In

industrial change, which demands speedy and constant adapta-

tion, those who will find themselves injured will be more numer-

ous and at a greater disadvantage from the point of view of

making their voices heard. The Church directs her attention to

these new "poor"—the handicapped and the maladjusted, the
old, different groups of those on the fringe of society, and so on

—

in order to recognize them, help them, defend their place and

dignity in a society hardened by competition and the attraction of

success.

Discrimination

16 Among the victims of situations of injustice—unfortunately
no new phenomenon—must be placed those who are discrimi-
nated against, in law or in fact, on account of their race, origin,

color, culture, sex or religion.

Racial discrimination possesses at the moment a character

of very great relevance by reason of the tension which it stirs up

both within certain countries and on the international level. Men

rightly consider unjustifiable and reject as inadmissible the ten-

9



dency to maintain or introduce legislation or behavior syste-

matically inspired by racialist prejudice. The members of mankind

share the same basic rights and duties, as well as the same super-

natural destiny. Within a country which belongs to each one, all

should be equal before the law, find equal admittance to eco-

nomic, cultural, civic and social life and benefit from a fair sharing

of the nation's riches.

Right to emigrate

17 We are thinking also of the precarious situation of a great
number of emigrant workers whose condition as foreigners

makes it all the more difficult for them to make any sort of social

vindication, in spite of their real participation in the economic

effort of the country that receives them. It is urgently necessary

for people to go beyond a narrowly nationalist attitude in their

regard and to give them a charter which will assure them a right

to emigrate, favor their integration, facilitate their professional

advancement and give them access to decent housing where, if

such is the case, their families can join them.
11

Linked to this category are the people who, to find work,

or to escape a disaster or a hostile climate, leave their regions

and find themselves without roots among other people.

It is everyone's duty, but especially that of Christians,
12

to

work with energy for the establishment of universal brotherhood,

the indispensable basis for authentic justice and the condition for

enduring peace: "We cannot in truthfulness call upon that God

who is the Father of all if we refuse to act in a brotherly way to-

ward certain men, created to God's image. A man's relationship

with God the Father and his relationship with his brother men are

so linked together that Scripture says: 'He who does not love does

not know God' (1 Jn 4:8)."
13

Creating employment

18 With demographic growth, which is particularly pronounced

in the young nations, the number of those failing to find

work and driven to misery or parasitism will grow in the com-

ing years unless the conscience of man rouses itself and gives

rise to a general movement of solidarity through an effective

policy of investment and of organization of production and trade,

10



as well as of education. We know the attention given to these

problems within international organizations, and it is our lively

wish that their members will not delay bringing their actions into

line with their declarations.

It is disquieting in this regard to note a kind of fatalism which

is gaining a hold even on people in positions of responsibility.

This feeling sometimes leads to Malthusian solutions inculcated

by active propaganda for contraception and abortion. In this

critical situation, it must on the contrary be affirmed that the

family, without which no society can stand, has a right to the

assistance which will assure it of the conditions for a healthy

development. "It is certain," we said in our encyclical Populorum

Progressio, "that public authorities can intervene, within the limit

of their competence, by favoring the availability of appropriate

information and by adopting suitable measures, provided that

these be in conformity with the moral law and that they respect

the rightful freedom of married couples. Where the inalienable

right to marriage and procreation is lacking, human dignity has

ceased to exist."
14

19 In no other age has the appeal to the imagination of so-

ciety been so explicit. To this should be devoted enterprises of

invention and capital as important as those invested for arma-

ments or technological achievements. If man lets himself rush

ahead without foreseeing in good time the emergence of new

social problems, they will become too grave for a peaceful solu-

tion to be hoped for.

Media of social communication

20 Among the major changes of our times, we do not wish

to forget to emphasize the growing role being assumed by the

media of social communication and their influence on the trans-

formation of mentalities, of knowledge, of organizations and of

society itself. Certainly they have many positive aspects. Thanks

to them news from the entire world reaches us practically in an

instant, establishing contacts which supersede distances and

creating elements of unity among all men. A greater spread of

education and culture is becoming possible. Nevertheless, by their

very action the media of social communication are reaching the

point of representing as it were a new power. One cannot but

11



ask about those who really hold this power, the aims that they

pursue and the means they use, and finally, about the effect of

their activity on the exercise of individual liberty, both in the

political and ideological spheres and in social, economic and

cultural life. The men who hold this power have a grave moral

responsibility with respect to the truth of the information that

they spread, the needs and the reactions that they generate and

the values which they put forward. In the case of television,

moreover, what is coming into being is an original mode of knowl-

edge and a new civilization: that of the image.

Naturally, the public authorities cannot ignore the growing

power and influence of the media of social communication and

the advantages and risks which their use involves for the civic

community and for its development and real perfecting.

Consequently they are called upon to perform their own

positive function for the common good by encouraging every

constructive expression, by supporting individual citizens and

groups in defending the fundamental values of the person and of

human society, and also by taking suitable steps to prevent the

spread of what would harm the common heritage of values on

which orderly civil progress is based.
15

The environment

21 While the horizon of man is thus modified being accord-

ing to the images that are chosen for him, another transformation

is making itself felt, one which is the dramatic and unexpected

consequence of human activity. Man is suddenly becoming aware

that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying

it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation. Not

only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace

—pollution and refuse, new illnesses and absolute destructive
capacity—but the human framework is no longer under man's
control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may

well be intolerable. This is a wide-ranging social problem which

concerns the entire human family.

The Christian must turn to these new perceptions in order

to take on responsibility, together with the rest of men, for a

destiny which from now on is shared by all.

12



FUNDAMENTAL ASPIRATIONS

AND CURRENTS OF IDEAS

22 While scientific and technological progress continues to

overturn man's surroundings, his patterns of knowledge, work,

consumption and relationships, two aspirations persistently make

themselves felt in these new contexts, and they grow stronger to

the extent that he becomes better informed and better educated:

the aspiration to equality and the aspiration to participation, two

forms of man's dignity and freedom.

Advantages and limitations of juridical recognition

23 Through this statement of the rights of man and the seek-

ing for international agreements for the application of these

rights, progress has been made towards inscribing these two

aspirations in deeds and structures.
10

Nevertheless various forms

of discrimination continually reappear—ethnic, cultural, religious,
political and so on. In fact, human rights are still too often dis-

regarded, if not scoffed at, or else they receive only formal recog-

nition. In many cases legislation does not keep up with real

situations. Legislation is necessary, but it is not sufficient for set-

ting up true relationships of justice and equality. In teaching us

charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to

the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more

fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their

goods more generously at the service of others. If, beyond legal

rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service

to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi

for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual con-

tempt. Without a renewed education in solidarity, an overempha-

sis of equality can give rise to an individualism in which each one

claims his own rights without wishing to be answerable for the

common good.

In this field, everyone sees the highly important contribution

of the Christian spirit, which moreover answers man's yearning

to be loved. "Love for man, the prime value of the earthly order,"

ensures the conditions for peace, both social peace and interna-

tional peace, by affirming our universal brotherhood.
17

The political society

24 The two aspirations, to equality and to participation, seek

to promote a democratic type of society. Various models are

13



proposed, some are tried out, none of them gives complete satis-

faction, and the search goes on between ideological and prag-

matic tendencies. The Christian has the duty to take part in this

search and in the organization and life of political society. As a

social being, man builds his destiny within a series of particular

groupings which demand, as their completion and as a necessary

condition for their development, a vaster society, one of a uni-

versal character, the political society. All particular activity

must be placed within that wider society, and thereby it takes on

the dimension of the common good. 18

This indicates the importance of education for life in society,

in which there are called to mind, not only information on each

one's rights, but also their necessary correlative: the recognition

of the duties of each one in regard to others. The sense and prac-

tice of duty are themselves conditioned by self-mastery and by

the acceptance of responsibility and of the limits placed upon

the freedom of the individual or of the group.

25 Political activity—need one remark that we are dealing
primarily with an activity, not an ideology?—should be the pro-
jection of a plan of society which is consistent in its concrete

means and in its inspiration, and which springs from a complete

conception of man's vocation and of its differing social expres-

sions. It is not for the State or even for political parties, which

would be closed unto themselves, to try to impose an ideology

by means that would lead to a dictatorship over minds, the worst

kind of all. It is for cultural and religious groupings, in the free-

dom of acceptance which they presume, to develop in the social

body, disinterestedly and in their own ways, those ultimate con-

victions on the nature, origin and end of man and society.

In this field, it is well to keep in mind the principle pro-

claimed at the Second Vatican Council: "The truth cannot im-

pose itself except by virtue of its own truth, and it makes its

entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power."
10

Ideologies and human liberty

26 Therefore the Christian who wishes to live his faith in a

political activity which he thinks of as service cannot without

contradicting himself adhere to ideological systems which radi-

cally or substantially go against his faith and his concept of man.

14



He cannot adhere to the Marxist ideology, to its atheistic material-

ism, to its dialectic of violence and to the way it absorbs individual

freedom in the collectivity, at the same time denying all trans-

cendence to man and his personal and collective history; nor can

he adhere to the liberal ideology which believes it exalts indi-

vidual freedom by withdrawing it from every limitation, by stim-

ulating it through exclusive seeking of interest and power, and by

considering social solidarities as more or less automatic conse-

quences of individual initiatives, not as an aim and a major cri-

terion of the value of the social organization.

27 Is there need to stress the possible ambiguity of every social

ideology? Sometimes it leads political or social activity to be

simply the application of an abstract, purely theoretical idea;

at other times it is thought which becomes a mere instrument at

the service of activity as a simple means of a strategy. In both

cases is it not man that risks finding himself alienated? The Chris-

tian faith is above and is sometimes opposed to the ideologies,

in that it recognizes God, who is transcendent and the Creator,

and who, through all the levels of creation, calls on man as en-

dowed with responsibility and freedom.

28 There would also be the danger of giving adherence to

an ideology which does not rest on a true and organic doctrine,

to take refuge in it as a final and sufficient explanation of every-

thing, and thus to build a new idol, accepting, at times without

being aware of doing so, its totalitarian and coercive character.

And people imagine they find in it a justification for their activity,

even violent activity, and an adequate response to a generous

desire to serve. The desire remains but it allows itself to be con-

sumed by an ideology which, even if it suggests certain paths to

man's liberation, ends up by making him a slave.

29 It has been possible today to speak of a retreat of ideol-

ogies. In this respect the present time may be favorable for an

openness to the concrete transcendence of Christianity. It may

also be a more accentuated sliding towards a new positivism:

universalized technology as the dominant form of activity, as the

overwhelming pattern of existence, even as a language, without

the question of its meaning being really asked.

15



Historical movements

30 But outside of this positivism which reduces man to a

single dimension even if it be an important one today and by so

doing mutilates him, the Christian encounters in his activity con-

crete historical movements sprung from ideologies and in part

distinct from them. Our venerated predecessor Pope John XXIII

in Pacem in Terris already showed that it is possible to make a

distinction: "Neither can false philosophical teachings regarding

the nature, origin and destiny of the universe and of man be

identified with historical movements that have economic, social,

cultural or political ends, not even when these movements have

originated from those teachings and have drawn and still draw

inspiration therefrom. Because the teachings, once they are drawn

up and defined, remain always the same, while the movements,

being concerned with historical situations in constant evolution,

cannot but be influenced by these latter and cannot avoid, there-

fore, being subject to changes, even of a profound nature. Be-

sides, who can deny that those movements, insofar as they con-

form to the dictates of right reason and are interpreters of the

lawful aspirations of the human person, contain elements that are

positive and deserving of approval?"
20

Attraction of socialist currents

31 Some Christians are today attracted by socialist currents and

their various developments. They try to recognize therein a

certain number of aspirations which they carry within themselves

in the name of their faith. They feel that they are part of that

historical current and wish to play a part within it. Now this his-

torical current takes on, under the same name, different forms

according to different continents and cultures, even if it drew its

inspiration, and still does in many cases, from ideologies incom-

patible with faith. Careful judgment is called for. Too often

Christians attracted by socialism tend to idealize it in terms which,

apart from anything else, are very general: a will for justice, soli-

darity and equality. They refuse to recognize the limitations of

the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by

the ideologies from which they originated. Distinctions must be

made to guide concrete choices between the various levels of

expression of socialism: a generous aspiration and a seeking for

a more just society, historical movements with a political organi-

16



zation and aim, and an ideology which claims to give a complete

and self-sufficient picture of man. Nevertheless, these distinctions

must not lead one to consider such levels as completely separate

and independent. The concrete link which, according to circum-

stances, exists between them must be clearly marked out. This

insight will enable Christians to see the degree of commitment

possible along these lines, while safeguarding the values, espe-

cially those of liberty, responsibility and openness to the spiritual,

which guarantee the integral development of man.

Historical evolution of Marxism

32 Other Christians even ask whether an historical develop-

ment of Marxism might not authorize certain concrete rap-

prochements. They note in fact that a certain splintering of

Marxism, which until now showed itself to be a unitary ideology

which explained in atheistic terms the whole of man and the

world since it did not go outside their development process.

Apart from the ideological confrontation officially separating the

various champions of Marxism-Leninism in their individual inter-

pretations of the thought of its founders, and apart from the open

opposition between the political systems which make use of its

name today, some people lay down distinctions between Marx-

ism's various levels of expression.

33 For some, Marxism remains essentially the active practice

of class struggle. Experiencing the ever present and continually

renewed force of the relationships of domination and exploitation

among men, they reduce Marxism to no more than a struggle

—

at times with no other purpose—to be pursued and even stirred
up in permanent fashion. For others, it is first and foremost the

collective exercise of political and economic power under the

direction of a single party, which would be the sole expression

and guarantee of the welfare of all, and would deprive indi-

viduals and other groups of any possibility of initiative and choice.

At a third level, Marxism, whether in power or not, is viewed as

a socialist ideology based on historical materialism and the

denial of everything transcendent. At other times, finally, it pre-

sents itself in a more attenuated form, one also more attractive to

the modern mind: as a scientific activity, as a rigorous method of

examining social and political reality, and as the rational link,

tested by history, between theoretical knowledge and the practice

17



of revolutionary transformation. Although this type of analysis

gives a privileged position to certain aspects of reality to the

detriment of the rest, and interprets them in the light of its

ideology, it nevertheless furnishes some people not only with

a working tool but also a certitude preliminary to action: the

claim to decipher in a scientific manner the mainsprings of the

evolution of society.

34 While, through the concrete existing form of Marxism,

one can distinguish these various aspects and the questions they

pose for the reflection and activity of Christians, it would be

illusory and dangerous to reach a point of forgetting the intimate

link which radically binds them together, to accept the elements

of Marxist analysis without recognizing their relationships with

ideology, and to enter into the practice of class struggle and its

Marxist interpretations, while failing to note the kind of totali-

tarian and violent society to which this process leads.

The liberal ideology

35 On another side, we are witnessing a renewal of the liberal

ideology. This current asserts itself both in the name of eco-

nomic efficiency, and for the defense of the individual against

the increasingly overwhelming hold of organizations, and as a

reaction against the totalitarian tendencies of political powers.

Certainly, personal initiative must be maintained and developed.

But do not Christians who take this path tend to idealize liberalism

in their turn, making it a proclamation in favor of freedom? They

would like a new model, more adapted to present-day conditions,

while easily forgetting that at the very root of philosophical

liberalism is an erroneous affirmation of the autonomy of the

individual in his activity, his motivation and the exercise of his

liberty. Hence, the liberal ideology likewise calls for careful dis-

cernment on their part.

Christian discernment

36 In this renewed encounter of the various ideologies, the

Christian will draw from the sources of his faith and the Church's

teaching the necessary principles and suitable criteria to avoid

permitting himself to be first attracted by and then imprisoned

within a system whose limitations and totalitarianism may well

become evident to him too late, if he does not perceive them in

18



their roots. Going beyond every system, without however failing

to commit himself concretely to serving his brothers, he will

assert, in the very midst of his options, the specific character of

the Christian contribution for a positive transformation of so-

ciety.
21

Rebirth of utopias

37 Today, moreover, the weaknesses of the ideologies are bet-

ter perceived through the concrete systems in which they are

trying to affirm themselves. Bureaucratic socialism, technocratic

capitalism and authoritarian democracy are showing how difficult

it is to solve the great human problem of living together in justice

and equality. How in fact could they escape the materialism,

egoism or constraint which inevitably go with them? This is the

source of a protest which is springing up more or less everywhere,

as a sign of a deep-seated sickness, while at the same time we are

witnessing the rebirth of what it is agreed to call "utopias." These

claim to resolve the political problem of modern societies better

than the ideologies. It would be dangerous to disregard this. The

appeal to a utopia is often a convenient excuse for those who wish

to escape from concrete tasks in order to take refuge in an

imaginary world. To live in a hypothetical future is a facile alibi

for rejecting immediate responsibilities. But it must clearly be

recognized that this kind of criticism of existing society often

provokes the forward-looking imagination both to perceive in

the present the disregarded possibility hidden within it, and to

direct itself towards a fresh future; it thus sustains social dynamism

by the confidence that it gives to the inventive powers of the

human mind and heart; and, if it refuses no overture, it can also

meet the Christian appeal. The Spirit of the Lord, who animates

man renewed in Christ, continually breaks down the horizons

within which his understanding likes to find security and the

limits to which his activity would willingly restrict itself; there

dwells within him a power which urges him to go beyond every

system and every ideology. At the heart of the world there dwells

the mystery of man discovering himself to be God's son in the

course of a historical and psychological process in which con-

straint and freedom as well as the weight of sin and the breath

of the Spirit alternate and struggle for the upper hand.

19



The dynamism of Christian faith here triumphs over the nar-

row calculations of egoism. Animated by the power of the Spirit

of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, and upheld by hope, the

Christian involves himself in the building up of the human city,

one that is to be peaceful, just and fraternal and acceptable as an

offering to God.
22

In fact, "the expectation of a new earth must

not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this

one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body

which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of

the new age." 23

The questioning of the human sciences

38 In this world dominated by scientific and technological

change, which threatens to drag it towards a new positivism,

another more fundamental doubt is raised. Having subdued

nature by using his reason, man now finds that he himself is as

it were imprisoned within his own rationality; he in turn becomes

the object of science. The "human sciences" are today enjoying

a significant flowering. On the one hand they are subjecting to

critical and radical examination the hitherto accepted knowledge

about man, on the grounds that this knowledge seems either too

empirical or too theoretical. On the other hand, methodological

necessity and ideological presuppositions too often lead the hu-

man sciences to isolate, in the various situations, certain aspects

of man, and yet to give these an explanation which claims to be

complete or at least an interpretation which is meant to be all-

embracing from a purely quantitative or phenomenological point

of view. This scientific reduction betrays a dangerous presump-

tion. To give a privileged position in this way to such an aspect

of analysis is to mutilate man and, under the pretext of a scien-

tific procedure, to make it impossible to understand man in his

totality.

39 One must be no less attentive to the action which the hu-

man sciences can instigate, giving rise to the elaboration of

models of society to be subsequently imposed on men as scien-

tifically tested types of behavior. Man can then become the

object of manipulations directing his desires and needs and modi-

fying his behavior and even his system of values. There is no

doubt that there exists here a grave danger for the societies of

tomorrow and for man himself. For even if all agree to build a

20



new society at the service of men, it is still essential to know what

sort of man is in question.

40 Suspicion of the human sciences affects the Christian more

than others, but it does not find him disarmed. For, as we our-

self wrote in Populorum Progressio, it is here that there is

found the specific contribution of the Church to civilizations:

"Sharing the noblest aspirations of men and suffering when she

sees them not satisfied, she wishes to help them attain their full

flowering, and that is why she offers men what she possesses as

her characteristic attribute: a global vision of man and of the

human race." 24 Should the Church in its turn contest the pro-

ceedings of the human sciences, and condemn their pretentions?

As in the case of the natural sciences, the Church has confidence

in this research also and urges Christians to play an active part

in it.
25

Prompted by the same scientific demands and the desire

to know man better, but at the same time enlightened by their

faith, Christians who devote themselves to the human sciences

will begin a dialogue between the Church and this new field of

discovery, a dialogue which promises to be fruitful. Of course,

each individual scientific discipline will be able, in its own par-

ticular sphere, to grasp only a partial—yet true—aspect of man;
the complete picture and the full meaning will escape it. But

within these limits the human sciences give promise of a positive

function that the Church willingly recognizes. They can even

widen the horizons of human liberty to a greater extent than the

conditioning circumstances perceived enable one to foresee.

They could thus assist Christian social morality, which no doubt

will see its field restricted when it comes to suggesting certain

models of society, while its function of making a critical judgment

and taking an overall view will be strengthened by its showing

the relative character of the behavior and values presented by

such and such a society as definitive and inherent in the very

nature of man. These sciences are a condition at once indis-

pensable and inadequate for a better discovery of what is human.

They are a language which becomes more and more complex,

yet one that deepens rather than solves the mystery of the heart

of man; nor does it provide the complete and definitive answer

to the desire which springs from his innermost being.

21



Ambiguous nature of progress

41 This better knowledge of man makes it possible to pass

a better critical judgment upon and to elucidate a fundamental

notion that remains at the basis of modern societies as their mo-

tive, their measure and their goal: namely, progress. Since the

nineteenth century, western societies and, as a result, many others

have put their hopes in ceaselessly renewed and indefinite prog-

ress. They saw this progress as man's effort to free himself in face

of the demands of nature and of social constraints; progress was

the condition for and the yardstick of human freedom. Progress,

spread by the modern media of information and by the demand

for wider knowledge and greater consumption, has become an

omnipresent ideology. Yet a doubt arises today regarding both

its value and its result. What is the meaning of this never-ending,

breathless pursuit of a progress that always eludes one just when

one believes one has conquered it sufficiently in order to enjoy

it in peace? If it is not attained, it leaves one dissatisfied. Without

doubt, there has been just condemnation of the limits and even

the misdeeds of a merely quantitative economic growth; there is

a desire to attain objectives of a qualitative order also. The quality

and the truth of human relations, the degree of participation and

of responsibility, are no less significant and important for the

future of society than the quantity and variety of the goods pro-

duced and consumed.

Overcoming the temptation to wish to measure everything

in terms of efficiency and of trade, and in terms of the interplay

of forces and interests, man today wishes to replace these quanti-

tative criteria with the intensity of communication, the spread

of knowledge and culture, mutual service and a combining of

efforts for a common task. Is not genuine progress to be found

in the development of moral consciousness, which will lead man

to exercise a wider solidarity and to open himself freely to others

and to God? For a Christian, progress necessarily comes up ; gainst

the eschatological mystery of death. The death of Christ and his

resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord help

man to place his freedom, in creativity and gratitude, within the

context of the truth of all progress and the only hope which does

not deceive.
26

22



CHRISTIANS FACE TO FACE

WITH THESE NEW PROBLEMS

Dynamism of the Church’s social teaching

42 In the face of so many new questions the Church makes

an effort to reflect in order to give an answer, in its own sphere,

to men's expectations. If today the problems seem original in

their breadth and their urgency, is man without the means of

solving them? It is with all its dynamism that the social teaching

of the Church accompanies men in their search. If it does not

intervene to authenticate a given structure or to propose a ready-

made model, it does not thereby limit itself to recalling general

principles. It develops through reflection applied to the chang-

ing situations of this world, under the driving force of the Gospel

as the source of renewal when its message is accepted in its

totality and with all its demands. It also develops with the sensi-

tivity proper to the Church which is characterized by a disinter-

ested will to serve and by attention to the poorest.

Finally, it draws upon its rich experience of many centuries

which enables it, while continuing its permanent preoccupations,

to undertake the daring and creative innovations which the pres-

ent state of the world requires.

For greater justice

43 There is a need to establish a greater justice in the shar-

ing of goods, both within national communities and on the inter-

national level. In international exchanges there is a need to go

beyond relationships based on force, in order to arrive at agree-

ments reached with the good of all in mind. Relationships based

on force have never in fact established justice in a true and lasting

manner, even if at certain times the alternation of positions can

often make it possible to find easier conditions for dialogue. The

use of force moreover leads to the setting in motion of opposing

forces, and from this springs a climate of struggle which opens

the way to situations of extreme violence and to abuses.
27

But, as we have often stated, the most important duty in the

realm of justice is to allow each country to promote its own de-

velopment, within the framework of a cooperation free from any

spirit of domination, whether economic or political. The com-

23



plexity of the problems raised is certainly great, in the present

intertwining of mutual dependences. Thus it is necessary to have

the courage to undertake a revision of the relationships between

nations, whether it is a question of the international division of

production, the structure of exchanges, the control of profits, the

monetary system,—without forgetting the actions of human soli-
darity—to question the models of growth of the rich nations and
change people's outlooks, so that they may realize the prior call

of international duty, and to renew international organizations

so that they may increase in effectiveness.

44 Under the driving force of new systems of production, na-

tional frontiers are breaking down, and we can see new eco-

nomic powers emerging, the multinational enterprises, which by

the concentration and flexibility of their means can conduct

autonomous strategies which are largely independent of the na-

tional political powers and therefore not subject to control from

the point of view of the common good. By extending their ac-

tivities, these private organizations can lead to a new and abusive

form of economic domination on the social, cultural and even

political level. The excessive concentration of means and powers

that Pope Pius XI already condemned on the fortieth anniversary

of Rerum Novarum is taking on a new and very real image.

Change of attitudes and structures

45 Today men yearn to free themselves from need and de-

pendence. But this liberation starts with the interior freedom

that men must find again with regard to their goods and their

powers; they will never reach it except through a transcendent

love for man, and, in consequence, through a genuine readiness

to serve. Otherwise, as one can see only too clearly, the most

revolutionary ideologies lead only to a change of masters; once

installed in power in their turn, these new masters surround them-

selves with privileges, limit freedoms and allow other forms of

injustice to become established.

Thus many people are reaching the point of questioning the

very model of society. The ambition of many nations, in the

competition that sets them in opposition and which carries them

along, is to attain technological, economic and military power.

This ambition then stands in the way of setting up structures in

which the rhythm of progress would be regulated with a view to

24



greater justice, instead of accentuating inequalities and living in

a climate of distrust and struggle which would unceasingly com-

promise peace.

Christian meaning of political activity

46 Is it not here that there appears a radical limitation to eco-

nomics? Economic activity is necessary and, if it is at the serv-

ice of man, it can be "a source of brotherhood and a sign of

Providence."
28

It is the occasion of concrete exchanges between

man, of rights recognized, of services rendered and of dignity

affirmed in work. Though it is often a field of confrontation and

domination, it can give rise to dialogue and foster cooperation.

Yet it runs the risk of taking up too much strength and freedom. 29

This is why the need is felt to pass from economics to politics.

It is true that in the term "politics" many confusions are possible

and must be clarified, but each man feels that in the social and

economic field, both national and international, the ultimate

decision rests with political power.

Political power, which is the natural and necessary link for

ensuring the cohesion of the social body, must have as its aim

the achievement of the common good. While respecting the

legitimate liberties of individuals, families and subsidiary groups,

it acts in such a way as to create, effectively and for the well-being

of all, the conditions required for attaining man's true and com-

plete good, including his spiritual end. It acts within the limits of

its competence, which can vary from people to people and from

country to country. It always intervenes with care for justice and

with devotion to the common good, for which it holds final re-

sponsibility. It does not, for all that, deprive individuals and inter-

mediary bodies of the field of activity and responsibility which

are proper to them and which lead them to collaborate in the

attainment of this common good. In fact, "the true aim of all

social activity should be to help individual members of the social

body, but never to destroy or absorb them."
30

According to the

vocation proper to it, the political power must know how to stand

aside from particular interests in order to view its responsibility

with regard to the good of all men, even going beyond national

limits. To take politics seriously at its different levels—local,
regional, national and worldwide—is to affirm the duty of man,
of every man, to recognize the concrete reality and the value of

25



the freedom of choice that is offered to him to seek to bring about

both the good of the city and of the nation and of mankind.

Politics are a demanding manner—but not the only one—of living
the Christian commitment to the service of others. Without of

course solving every problem, it endeavors to apply solutions to

the relationships men have with one another. The domain of

politics is wide and comprehensive, but it is not exclusive. An

attitude of encroachment which would tend to set up politics as

an absolute value would bring serious danger. While recognizing

the autonomy of the reality of politics, Christians who are invited

to take up political activity should try to make their choices con-

sistent with the Gospel and, in the framework of a legitimate

plurality, to give both personal and collective witness to the

seriousness of their faith by effective and disinterested service of

men.

Sharing in responsibility

47 The passing to the political dimension also expresses a

demand made by the man of today: a greater sharing in responsi-

bility and in decision-making. This legitimate aspiration becomes

more evident as the cultural level rises, as the sense of freedom

develops and as man becomes more aware of how, in a world

facing an uncertain future, the choices of today already condition

the life of tomorrow. In Mater et Magistra
31

Pope John XXIII

stressed how much the admittance to responsibility is a basic

demand of man's nature, a concrete exercise of his freedom and

a path to his development, and he showed how, in economic life

and particularly in enterprise, this sharing in responsibilities should

be ensured.
32

Today the field is wider, and extends to the social

and political sphere in which a reasonable sharing in responsi-

bility and in decisions must be established and strengthened.

Admittedly, it is true that the choices proposed for a decision are

more and more complex; the considerations that must be borne

in mind are numerous and the foreseeing of the consequences

involves risk, even if new sciences strive to enlighten freedom at

these important moments. However, although limits are some-

times called for, these obstacles must not slow down the giving

of wider participation in working out decisions, making choices

and putting them into practice. In order to counterbalance in-

creasing technocracy, modern forms of democracy must be de-

26



vised, not only making it possible for each man to become

informed and to express himself, but also by involving him in a

shared responsibility.

Thus human groups will gradually begin to share and to live

as communities. Thus freedom, which too often asserts itself as

a claim for autonomy by opposing the freedom of others, will

develop in its deepest human reality: to involve itself and to

spend itself in building up active and lived solidarity. But, for the

Christian, it is by losing himself in God who sets him free that

man finds true freedom, renewed in the death and resurrection

of the Lord.

27



CALL TO ACTION

Need to become involved in action

48 In the social sphere, the Church has always wished to as-

sume a double function: first to enlighten minds in order to

assist them to discover the truth and to find the right path to

follow amid the different teachings that call for their attention;

and secondly to take part in action and to spread, with a real

care for service and effectiveness, the energies of the Gospel. Is

it not in order to be faithful to this desire that the Church has

sent on an apostolic mission among the workers priests who, by

sharing fully the condition of the worker, are at that level the

witnesses to the Church's solicitude and seeking?

It is to all Christians that we address a fresh and insistent call

to action. In our encyclical on the Development of Peoples we

urged that all should set themselves to the task: "Laymen should

take up as their own proper task the renewal of the temporal

order. If the role of the hierarchy is to teach and to interpret

authentically the norms of morality to be followed in this matter,

it belongs to the laity, without waiting passively for orders and

directives, to take the initiative freely and to infuse a Christian

spirit into the mentality, customs, laws and structures of the com-

munity in which they live."
33

Let each one examine himself, to

see what he has done up to now, and what he ought to do. It is

not enough to recall principles, state intentions, point to crying

injustices and utter prophetic denunciations; these words will

lack real weight unless they are accompanied for each individual

by a livelier awareness of personal responsibility and by effective

action. It is too easy to throw back on others responsibility for

injustices, if at the same time one does not realize how each one

shares in it personally, and how personal conversion is needed

first. This basic humility will rid action of all inflexibility and

sectarianism; it will also avoid discouragement in the face of a

task which seems limitless in size. The Christian's hope comes

primarily from the fact that he knows that the Lord is working

with us in the world, continuing in his Body which is the Church

—and, through the Church, in the whole of mankind—the Re-
demption which was accomplished on the Cross and which burst

forth in victory on the morning of the Resurrection.
34

This hope

springs also from the fact that the Christian knows that other men

28



are at work, to undertake actions of justice and peace working

for the same ends. For beneath an outward appearance of indif-

ference, in the heart of every man there is a will to live in brother-

hood and a thirst for justice and peace, which is to be expanded.

49 Thus, amid the diversity of situations, functions and or-

ganizations, each one must determine, in his conscience, the

actions which he is called to share in. Surrounded by various

currents into which, beside legitimate aspirations, there insinuate

themselves more ambiguous tendencies, the Christian must make

a wise and vigilant choice and avoid involving himself in collab-

oration without conditions and contrary to the principles of a

true humanism, even in the name of a genuinely felt solidarity.

If in fact he wishes to play a specific part as a Christian in accord-

ance with his faith—a part that unbelievers themselves expect of
him—he must take care in the midst of his active commitment to
clarify his motives and to rise above the objectives aimed at, by

taking a more all-embracing view which will avoid the danger of

selfish particularism and oppressive totalitarianism.

Pluralism of options

50 In concrete situations, and taking account of solidarity in

each person's life, one must recognize a legitimate variety of

possible options. The same Christian faith can lead to different

commitments.
35

The Church invites all Christians to take up a

double task of inspiring and of innovating, in order to make struc-

tures evolve, so as to adapt them to the real needs of today. From

Christians who at first sight seem to be in opposition, as a result

of starting from differing options, she asks an effort at mutual

understanding of the other's positions and motives; a loyal ex-

amination of one's behavior and its correctness will suggest to

each one an attitude of more profound charity which, while

recognizing the differences, believes nonetheless in the possibility

of convergence and unity. "The bonds which unite the faithful

are mightier than anything which divides them."
30

It is true that many people, in the midst of modern structures

and conditioning circumstances, are determined by their habits

of thought and their functions, even apart from the safeguarding

of material interests. Others feel so deeply the solidarity of

classes and cultures that they reach the point of sharing without

reserve all the judgments and options of their surroundings.
37

29



Each one will take great care to examine himself and to bring

about that true freedom according to Christ which makes one

receptive to the universal in the very midst of the most particular

conditions.

51 It is in this regard too that Christian organizations, under

their different forms, have a responsibility for collective action.

Without putting themselves in the place of the institutions of

civil society, they have to express, in their own way and rising

above their particular nature, the concrete demands of the Chris-

tian faith for a just, and consequently necessary, transformation of

society.
38

Today more than ever the Word of God will be unable to

be proclaimed and heard unless it is accompanied by the witness

of the power of the Holy Spirit, working within the action of

Christians in the service of their brothers, at the points in which

their existence and their future are at stake.

52 In expressing these reflections to you, venerable brother,

we are of course aware that we have not dealt with all the social

problems that today face the man of faith and men of goodwill.

Our recent declarations—to which has been added your message
of a short time ago on the occasion of the launching of the Second

Development Decade—particularly concerning the duties of the
community of nations in the serious question of the integral and

concerted development of man, are still fresh in people's minds.

We address these present reflections to you with the aim of offer-

ing to the Council of the Laity and the Pontifical Commission

Justice and Peace some fresh contributions, as well as an encour-

agement, for the pursuit of their task of "awakening the People

of God to a full understanding of its role at the present time" and

of "promoting the apostolate on the international level."
39

It is with these sentiments, venerable brother, that we impart

to you our Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, May 14, 1971.

Paulus P. P. VI

30



FOOTNOTES

1 Gaudium et Spes, 10: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1033.

2 AAS 23 (1931), p. 209 ff.

3 AAS 53 (1961), p. 429.

4
3: AAS 59 (1967), p. 258.

5 Ibidem

,

1
:
p. 257.

6 Cf. 2 Cor 4:17.

7 Populorum Progressio, 25: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 269-270.

8 Cf. Rev 3:12; 21:2.

9 Gaudium et Spes

,

25: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1045.

Ibidem

,

67: p. 1089.

11 Populorum Progressio

,

69: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 290-291.

42 Cf. Mt 25:35.

43 Nostra Aetate

,

5: AAS 58 (1966), p. 743.

44 37: AAS 59 (1967), p. 276.

15 Inter Mirifica, 12: AAS 56 (1964), p. 149.

i« Cf. Pacem in Terris : AAS 55 (1963), p. 261 ff.

17
Cf. Message for the World Day of Peace

,

1971: AAS 63 (1971), pp. 5-9.

18 Cf. Gaudium et Spes

,

74: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 1095-1096.

19 Dignitatis Humanae, 1 : AAS 58 (1966), p. 930.

20 AAS 55 (1963), p. 300.

21 Cf. Gaudium et Spes, 11 : AAS 58 (1966), p. 1033.

22 Cf. Rom 15:16.

23 Gaudium et Spes

,

39: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1057.

24
13: Populorum Progressio

,

AAS 59 (1967), p. 264.

25 Cf. Gaudium et Spes

,

36: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1054.

23
Cf. Rom 5:5.

27 Populorum Progressio

,

56 ff.: AAS 59 (1967), pp. 285 ff.

28 Ibidem

,

86: p. 299.

29 Gaudium et Spes

,

63: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1085.

30 Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), p. 203; cf. Mater et Magistral AAS

53 (1961), pp. 414, 428; Gaudium et Spes, 74-76: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 1095-1100.

31 AAS 53 (1961), pp. 420-422.

32 Gaudium et Spes

,

68, 75: AAS 58 (1966), pp. 1089-1090; 1097.

33 81 : AAS 59 (1967), pp. 296-297.

34 Cf. Mt 28:30; Phil 2:8-11.

35 Gaudium et Spes

,

43: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1061.

36 Ibidem, 93: p. 1113.

37 Cf. 7 Thess 5:21.

38 Lumen Gentium, 31: AAS 57 (1965), pp. 37-38; Apostolicam Actuositatem,

5: AAS 58 (1966), p. 842.

39 Catholicam Christi Ecclesiam, AAS 59 (1967), pp. 27 and 26.

31



COMMENTARY

By Msgr. George G. Higgins

Director, Division for Urban Life, USCC

Pope Paul Vi's 12,000-word Apostolic Letter of May 14 com-

memorating the eightieth anniversary of Pope Leo Xlll's pioneer

social encyclical, Rerum Novarum, is divided into five sections:

(1) a brief introduction explaining the purpose and the origins of

the document; (2) a discussion of certain new social problems; (3)

a discussion of fundamental aspirations and currents of ideas in

the contemporary world; (4) a section dealing with the role of

Christians as they confront these new social problems and new

currents of ideas; (5) a call to action.

Before commenting, in a necessarily selective fashion, on

some of the substantive matters which are dealt with under these

five headings, it seems appropriate to say an introductory word

about the style or the tone and the basic thrust of the document

as a whole.

Professor E. E. Y. Hales, a British historian who has written

extensively on the role of the papacy in the modern world, was

one of the first to point out several years ago that Pope John

XXIII radically changed the style of official papal documents on

socio-economic and political matters. "John," he wrote in his

excellent biographical study of the late beloved Pontiff, "was as

anxious as any previous pope to reaffirm some continuity in

papal (social) teaching; but in fact, in his brief reign, he changed

both its spirit and its content. Still more surprising, he introduced

a quite new note of hesitancy. ... It was something new, indeed,

when a pope, in an encyclical letter, was prepared to say that

this or that was only his personal opinion, using such phrases as

'We consider' or 'We maintain' or 'certain factors which seem

to have contributed'. . . . Yet doubt where doubt is due, as it is

in all questions of politics and economics, is both intellectually

proper and persuasively effective, and part of the charm of Pope

John was his refusal to pontificate on public affairs. . .

Professor Hales' discerning analysis of Pope John's distinctive

and highly effective style of teaching in the area of socio-economic

and political problems can be applied with equal validity to Pope

Paul's Apostolic Letter to Cardinal Maurice Roy, President of the

Council of the Laity and of the Pontifical Commission on Justice

32



and Peace. That is to say, the style of the Apostolic Letter closely

parallels the "persuasively effective" style of Pope John's major

social encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris. The

Apostolic Letter is written in the form of a familiar dialogue not

only with Catholics or with Christians in general but with all men

of good will and carefully avoids the more pontifical style of

teaching which so often characterized similar documents in the

not too distant past.

On some matters, of course, the Holy Father states his own

convictions very firmly, but never in such a way as to force his

opinion on the reader or to short circuit or foreclose the dialogue.

On all matters which are purely contingent and are open to

varying points of view and lend themselves to a variety of solu-

tions he carefully refrains from trying to say—or even leaving the
impression that he is trying to say—the last and final word. In
deed he goes out of his way to emphasize that it is neither his

ambition nor his mission "to utter a unified message and to put

forward a solution which has universal validity." His purpose is

the more modest one of "confiding" his own thoughts and pre-

occupations about some, but by no means all, of today's more

pressing social problems and of encouraging individual Cath-

olics and groups of Catholics, in dialogue with other Christian

brethren and all men of good will, "to analyze with objectivity

the situation which is proper to their own country . . ." and, in

addition, "to discern the options and commitments which are

called for in order to bring about the social, political and eco-

nomic changes seen in many cases to be needed."

Again one is reminded of Pope John's distinctively pastoral

style of teaching by Pope Paul's repeated emphasis, in several

different contexts, on the legitimate variety or plurality of possible

options which are open to men of good will, his related emphasis

on the obligation of individual Catholics to form their own con-

science on these matters in the light of the Gospel message but

without waiting for directives from their ecclesiastical leaders,

and, last but not least, his urgent plea for the kind of basic hu-

mility which "will rid action of all inflexibility and sectarianism"

and for "an effort at mutual understanding of the other's position

and motives."

Two additional observations may be in order with reference

to the style or the tone of the Apostolic Letter. First, in addition

33



to being more dialogical, so to speak, than pontifical, the docu-

ment is also collegial in tone. Far from trying to foreclose further

discussion of the specific problems treated in the Apostolic Let-

ter, the Holy Father explicitly invites the forthcoming Synod of

Bishops "to study more closely and to examine in greater detail

the Church's message in the face of grave issues raised today by

the question of justice in the world." His own Apostolic Letter,

then, is meant to be only a kind of interim report commemorating

the anniversary of Rerum Novarum or, putting it negatively, is

not meant to be the last word on any of the complicated matters

under discussion. Perhaps it was for this reason that it was issued

in the form of an Apostolic Letter and not in the more solemn

and more authoritative form of an encyclical.

Secondly, the Apostolic Letter, like Pope John's two major

encyclicals on social and political problems, is, on the whole,

extremely optimistic in tone. "The note of alarm and admoni-

tion," Professor Hales has observed with reference to John's

encyclicals, "is scarcely audible. Instead, Roncalli turns to those

movements which are deserving of praise and commends them;

he picks out those bodies which need encouragement . . . and

encourages them. ... He is, by his own admission, an optimist;

he is glad to point to what is good; he thinks in many ways the

world is a better place than it was; he thinks there have been

enough admonitions, and that they have not been very effective.

He is shocked only by the prophets of doom."

In general, the same thing can be said, and again with equal

validity, with reference to Pope Paul's Apostolic Letter. Although

he would appear, on the surface at least, to be of a less sanguine

and less optimistic temperament than John, it must be said that

his Apostolic Letter is, on balance, a profoundly optimistic docu-

ment. In brief, it will give no comfort to the prophets of doom,

but, hopefully, will be a source of great encouragement to those

of his contemporaries who may be tempted to throw up their

hands in despair in the face of the many new social and political

problems confronting the modern world.

Let us now turn from the question of style to the actual con-

tents of the Apostolic Letter. Not all of the problems discussed

in the document are "new." Some (for example, the role of the

government in economic and social life, the liberal or laissez

34



faire ideology, the right of labor to organize and the right to

strike, the evolving nature of socialism) have been dealt with, to

one degree or another, in previous papal documents going back

as far as Leo Xlll's encyclical Rerum Novarum published in 1891.

In general, however, what distinguishes Pope Paul's Apostolic

Letter from earlier social encyclicals is the relative newness of

many of the problems it takes up for discussion. In the Introduc-

tion to the Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father points out that with-

out forgetting the "permanent problems" dealt with by his prede-

cessors in their respective social encyclicals, he proposes in this

Apostolic Letter to concentrate on a number of new questions

"which because of their urgency, extent and complexity must in

the years to come take first place among the preoccupations of

Christians, so that with other men the latter may dedicate them-

selves to solving the new difficulties which put the very future of

man in jeopardy."

To some extent at least, Pope Paul, who is known to be of

an academic bent, probably came to his very acute awareness of

these problems by means of the printed word. It is worth noting,

however, that by his own admission it was his recent journeys to

the four corners of the world that helped him to see "in a new

perspective the grave problems of our times" and, more spe-

cifically, helped him to understand, as no amount of study might

have done, that while these problems are, of course, particular

to each part of the world, at the same time "they are common to

all mankind which is questioning itself about its future and about

the tendency and the meaning of the changes taking place."

The "new" social problems which Pope Paul has singled out

for special attention fall under ten separate headings: urbaniza-

tion, Christians in the city, youth and role of women, workers,

victims of changes, discrimination, right to emigrate, creating

employment, media of social communication, the environment.

The Holy Father does not pretend that his treatment of any

of these problem areas is exhaustive. His only purpose was to

bring them to the attention of his readers and, hopefully, to start

them thinking about alternate ways and means of solving them

in the light of the Gospel message and of human values. Unless

the reader keeps this point carefully in mind, he is likely to be

unduly disappointed in the document because of its apparent

35



failure to do what it never set out to do in the first place, namely,

to come up with pat "solutions" of its own.

This would be true, for example, in the case of the brief sec-

tions of the document dealing with the role of women, the rights

of workers, and racial discrimination. The Holy Father's treatment

of these three enormously complicated problems is tantalizingly

brief and obviously incomplete. Nevertheless what the document

says about each of them, in admittedly very general terms, should

be enough to persuade the reader that the Holy Father appre-

ciates their urgency and is hoping with all his heart that Chris-

tians, in open and honest dialogue with their contemporaries,

will find a way to solve them in the light of their own informed

social conscience. Parenthetically it might be well to point out,

in this connection, that the one page of the Apostolic Letter de-

voted to racial and other forms of discrimination ought to be

read in conjunction with the Holy Father's warning, in another

context, that while legislation is necessary, it is not sufficient for

setting up true relationships of justice and equality and for elimi-

nating the terrible evil of discrimination. What he means by that

is that "equality before the law," unless it is accompanied by a

profound change of heart on the part of the more affluent and

more favored segment of the population and by a more equitable

distribution of the wealth of society, "can serve as an alibi for

flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual con-

tempt."

While the Holy Father himself does not apply this section of

the document to any particular country, it would seem to apply

quite specifically to our own situation in the United States.

Equality before the law, to the extent that it is guaranteed by the

civil rights legislation of recent years, has by no means eliminated

the problem of discrimination but, to the contrary, may be serving

as an alibi for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and

actual contempt—and this for the obvious reason that we have
yet to flesh out the concept of legal equality with anything like

a truly equitable distribution of our national wealth.

Surely it is this sort of problem that the Holy Father is re-

ferring to when, in the final section of his Apostolic Letter, he

reminds Christians that: "It is not enough to recall principles,

state intentions, point to crying injustices and utter prophetic

36



denunciations; these words will lack real weight unless they are

accompanied by a livelier awareness of personal responsibility

and by effective action."

Of the other new problem areas brought up for discussion in

the Apostolic Letter, suffice it, for the limited purposes of this

brief commentary, to mention only one, namely urbanization.

Pope Paul's treatment of this subject strikes one as being highly

sophisticated in its understanding of what urbanization, "un-

doubtedly an irreversible stage in the development of human

societies," holds out for mankind, both for better and for worse.

The several pages devoted to this complex problem in the Apos-

tolic Letter are too compact to be summarized adequately in this

brief paper. On balance, however, what comes through to the

reader is the fact that the Holy Father, while facing up very realis-

tically to the enormous problems which urbanization has brought

in its wake (a new sense or alienation for millions of hapless

refugees from the land, a new and terrifying form of proletarian-

ism, a massive shortage of decent housing, etc.) nevertheless ends

up with a message of serene confidence and Christian hope. "In

the Bible," he reminds his readers for their encouragement, "the

city is in fact often the place of sin and pride—the pride of man
who feels secure enough to be able to build his life without God

and even to affirm that he is powerful against God. But there is

also the example of Jerusalem, the Holy City, the place where God

is encountered, the promise of the city which comes from on

high."

The Holy Father is persuaded—and would desperately like
to be able to convince his readers—that, with God's help, they
can, if they have the generosity and the will to do so, direct the

irreversible process of urbanization towards the latter destina-

tion—the new Jerusalem in which men and women, committed
to social justice, can live in brotherhood and peace.

The third section of the Apostolic Letter touches upon a

number of new currents of thought in the modern world, some

of which are of greater relevance than others to the present

socio-economic and political situation in the United States. The

Holy Father's carefully nuanced analysis of the historical evolu-

tion of Marxism and of socialism in general will presumably be

of greater interest to Catholics in Latin America, for example,

37



than to their co-religionists in the United States, if only because of

the fact that, for practical purposes, neither Marxism nor other

types of socialism, in the strict sense of the word, hold out any

serious attraction for more than a tiny minority of our citizens.

At the same time, however, U.S. readers of the Apostolic Letter

will not want to belittle the importance of this particular section

of the document. Indeed, by comparison with what has been

said about Marxism and socialism in general in earlier papal

documents, Pope Paul's Apostolic Letter definitely breaks new

ground and will undoubtedly be discussed very widely and may

even lead to a serious controversy within the Christian community

in those countries in which the Marxist-Christian issue is cur-

rently a lively topic of debate.

Several other topics discussed in the third and fourth sec-

tions of the Apostolic Letter are more directly pertinent to our

own situation in the United States at the present time: The liberal

ideology, the need to subordinate economics to politics, and the

need for new approaches and new structures aimed at securing

a greater measure of social justice in the field of international

economic life.

The section of the document dealing with "the liberal

ideology" and with the subordination of economics to politics

will presumably give small comfort to some of the more con-

servative segments of American society. "Liberalism," in this

context, has more of a European than American ring to it. Never-

theless the same ideology (unbridled economic individualism) is

not without its adherents in the United States. They will be dis-

appointed to learn that the Holy Father takes a dim view of this

form of economic individualism and goes out of his way to warn

Christians that, like the ideology of Marxism, "the liberal ideology

likewise calls for careful discernment on their part."

Following up on this point in the section of the Apostolic

Letter dealing with the Christian meaning of political activity,

Pope Paul points out that economic activity, while necessary and,

when properly regulated, also beneficial to society, must be sub-

jected to legitimate political power in the interest of the common

good, and this at the international as well as the national level.

Earlier papal documents had made this point to one degree or

another, but never quite so pointedly or emphatically. It is safe

38



to predict, incidentally, that the section of the Apostolic Letter

dealing with this matter will be more widely controverted in the

United States than any other section of the document, so deeply

are we as a people committed in theory, if not in practice, to the

philosophy or the ideology of free enterprise in the old fashioned

sense of the word.

Given the enormous wealth of the United States and its

crucial influence in world affairs, the section of the Apostolic

Letter dealing with international economic justice and the struc-

tural changes needed to achieve it are again directly pertinent

to our situation here at home. To the extent that the document

is directed at the United States, we are called upon to review our

trade relationships, our investment policies, etc., so as to bring

them into line with that most basic of all the principles of inter-

national social justice, namely, "to allow each country to promote

its own development, within the framework of a cooperation free

from any spirit of domination, whether economic or political."

More specifically, the Apostolic Letter points out—with obvious
reference to countries like our own—that multinational enter-
prises—private organizations that "can lead to a new and abusive
form of economic domination on the social, cultural and even

political level"—must be subjected to adequate controls from
the point of view of the common good.

Space does not permit us to summarize the Holy Father's

constructive and again highly nuanced and remarkably optimistic

treatment of the behaviorial sciences, the new interest in Utopia,

the contemporary youth culture, and a number of other prob-

lems. Nor is space available to do more than simply raise the

question as to why certain other crucial problems—the so-called
population problem comes to mind immediately—are left un-
mentioned in the document. The only section of the Apostolic

Letter which even indirectly touches on the population problem

is a single paragraph in which the Holy Father, taking note of "a

kind of fatalism which is gaining a hold even on people in posi-

tions of responsibility" warns against "Malthusian solutions in-

culcated by active propaganda for contraception and abortion,"

and, in general, simply restates the right of the family to the kind

of assistance which will assure it of the conditions necessary for

its healthy development.

39



Some readers of the Apostolic Letter will undoubtedly be

surprised that the Holy Father has so little to say in the document

about the population problem. Others will probably point to

alleged omissions in other areas of special interest to themselves.

More specifically, the Fourth Estate, in this country at least, will

almost certainly object to, or at least raise a number of serious

questions about, the Holy Father's none too carefully qualified

statement to the effect that public authorities are called upon to

take "suitable steps to prevent the spread of what would harm

the common heritage of values on which orderly progress is

based." Not only the members of the Fourth Estate, but civil

libertarians of all faiths and from many walks of life will pre-

dictably read into this statement a call for a ‘kind of arbitrary

censorship which, philosophically as well as experientially, they

hold in abhorrence.

Whatever of that, American readers of all faiths—and Catholics
in particular, of course—will be grateful, I think, for the Holy
Father's Apostolic Letter and will agree that, on balance, it is a

pastoral letter of the highest caliber and a "persuasively effective"

call to action in support of "a just, and consequently necessary,

transformation of society."

40





~\J



The United States Catholic Conference (USCC) is a

civil entity of the American Catholic Bishops assisting them

in their service to the Church in this country by uniting the

people of God where voluntary, collective action on a

broad diocesan level is needed. The USCC provides an

organizational structure and the resources needed to insure

coordination, cooperation, and assistance in the public,

educational, and social concerns of the Church at the

national, regional, state, interdiocesan and, as appropriate,

diocesan levels.