Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

In the exercise of their freedom, men and women perform morally good acts that are constructive for the person and for society when they are obedient to truth, that is, when they do not presume to be the creators and absolute masters of truth or of ethical norms^{261Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1749-1756.}. Freedom in fact does not have “its absolute and unconditional origin ... in itself, but in the life within which it is situated and which represents for it, at one and the same time, both a limitation and a possibility. Human freedom belongs to us as creatures; it is a freedom which is given as a gift, one to be received like a seed and to be cultivated responsibly”^{262John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 86: AAS 85 (1993), 1201.}. When the contrary is the case, freedom dies, destroying man and society^{263Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 44, 99: AAS 85 (1993), 1168-1169, 1210-1211.}.

The truth concerning good and evil is recognized in a practical and concrete manner by the judgment of conscience, which leads to the acceptance of responsibility for the good accomplished and the evil committed. “Consequently in the practical judgment of conscience, which imposes on the person the obligation to perform a given act, the link between freedom and truth is made manifest. Precisely for this reason conscience expresses itself in acts of ‘judgment' which reflect the truth about the good, and not in arbitrary ‘decisions'. The maturity and responsibility of these judgments — and, when all is said and done, of the individual who is their subject — are not measured by the liberation of the conscience from objective truth, in favour of an alleged autonomy in personal decisions, but, on the contrary, by an insistent search for truth and by allowing oneself to be guided by that truth in one's actions”^{264John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 61: AAS 85 (1993), 1181-1182.}.

The exercise of freedom implies a reference to a natural moral law, of a universal character, that precedes and unites all rights and duties^{265Cf. Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 50: AAS 85 (1993), 1173-1174.}. The natural law “is nothing other than the light of intellect infused within us by God. Thanks to this, we know what must be done and what must be avoided. This light or this law has been given by God to creation”^{266Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Duo Praecepta Caritatis et in Decem Legis Praecepta Expositio, c. 1: “Nunc autem de scientia operandorum intendimus: ad quam tractandan quadruplex lex invenitur. Prima dicitur lex naturae; et haec nihil aliud est nisi lumen intellectus insitum nobis a Deo, per quod cognoscimus quid agendum et quid vitandum. Hoc lumen et hanc legem dedit Deus homini in creatione”: Divi Thomae Aquinatis, Doctoris Angelici, Opuscola Theologica, vol. II: De re spirituali, cura et studio P. Fr. Raymundi Spiazzi, O.P., Marietti ed., Taurini - Romae 1954, p. 245.}. It consists in the participation in his eternal law, which is identified with God himself^{267Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 91, a. 2, c: Ed. Leon. 7, 154: “partecipatio legis aeternae in rationali creatura lex naturalis dicitur”.}. This law is called “natural” because the reason that promulgates it is proper to human nature. It is universal, it extends to all people insofar as it is established by reason. In its principal precepts, the divine and natural law is presented in the Decalogue and indicates the primary and essential norms regulating moral life^{268Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1955.}. Its central focus is the act of aspiring and submitting to God, the source and judge of everything that is good, and also the act of seeing others as equal to oneself. The natural law expresses the dignity of the person and lays the foundations of the person's fundamental duties^{269Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1956}.

In the diversity of cultures, the natural law unites peoples, enjoining common principles. Although its application may require adaptations to the many different conditions of life according to place, time and circumstances,^{270Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1957.} it remains immutable “under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress ... Even when it is rejected in its very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies”^{271Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1958.}. Its precepts, however, are not clearly and immediately perceived by everyone. Religious and moral truths can be known “by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and without the admixture of error”^{272First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dei Filius, c. 2: DS 3005, p. 588; cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Humani Generis: AAS 42 (1950), 562.} only with the help of Grace and Revelation. The natural law offers a foundation prepared by God for the revealed law and Grace, in full harmony with the work of the Spirit^{273Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1960.}.

The natural law, which is the law of God, cannot be annulled by human sinfulness^{274Cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, 2, 4, 9: PL 32, 678: “Furtum certe punit lex tua, Domine, et lex scripta in cordibus hominum, quam ne ipsa quidem delet iniquitas”.}. It lays the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community and for establishing the civil law that draws its consequences of a concrete and contingent nature from the principles of the natural law^{275Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1959.}. If the perception of the universality of the moral law is dimmed, people cannot build a true and lasting communion with others, because when a correspondence between truth and good is lacking, “whether culpably or not, our acts damage the communion of persons, to the detriment of each”^{276John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 51: AAS 85 (1993), 1175.}. Only freedom rooted in a common nature, in fact, can make all men responsible and enable them to justify public morality. Those who proclaim themselves to be the sole measure of realities and of truth cannot live peacefully in society with their fellow men and cooperate with them^{277Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 19-20: AAS 87 (1995), 421-424.}.

Freedom mysteriously tends to betray the openness to truth and human goodness, and too often it prefers evil and being selfishly closed off, raising itself to the status of a divinity that creates good and evil: “Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God ... Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things”^{278Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 13: AAS 58 (1966), 1034-1035.}. Human freedom needs therefore to be liberated. Christ, by the power of his Paschal Mystery, frees man from his disordered love of self^{279Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1741.}, which is the source of his contempt for his neighbour and of those relationships marked by domination of others. Christ shows us that freedom attains its fulfilment in the gift of self^{280Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 87: AAS 85 (1993), 1202-1203.}. By his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus places man once more in communion with God and his neighbour.