Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Subsidiarity is among the most constant and characteristic directives of the Church's social doctrine and has been present since the first great social encyclical^{395Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 101-102, 123.}. It is impossible to promote the dignity of the person without showing concern for the family, groups, associations, local territorial realities; in short, for that aggregate of economic, social, cultural, sports-oriented, recreational, professional and political expressions to which people spontaneously give life and which make it possible for them to achieve effective social growth^{396Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1882.}. This is the realm of civil society, understood as the sum of the relationships between individuals and intermediate social groupings, which are the first relationships to arise and which come about thanks to “the creative subjectivity of the citizen”^{397John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 15: AAS 80 (1988), 529; cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 203; John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 439; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 65: AAS 58 (1966), 1086-1087; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 73, 85-86: AAS 79 (1987), 586, 592-593; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 48: AAS 83 (1991), 852-854; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1883-1885.}. This network of relationships strengthens the social fabric and constitutes the basis of a true community of persons, making possible the recognition of higher forms of social activity^{398Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 49: AAS 83 (1991), 854-856; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 15: AAS 80 (1988), 528-530.}.

The necessity of defending and promoting the original expressions of social life is emphasized by the Church in the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, in which the principle of subsidiarity is indicated as a most important principle of “social philosophy”. “Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them”^{399Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 203; cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 48: AAS 83 (1991), 852-854; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1883.}. On the basis of this principle, all societies of a superior order must adopt attitudes of help (“subsidium”) — therefore of support, promotion, development — with respect to lower-order societies. In this way, intermediate social entities can properly perform the functions that fall to them without being required to hand them over unjustly to other social entities of a higher level, by which they would end up being absorbed and substituted, in the end seeing themselves denied their dignity and essential place. Subsidiarity, understood in the positive sense as economic, institutional or juridical assistance offered to lesser social entities, entails a corresponding series of negative implications that require the State to refrain from anything that would de facto restrict the existential space of the smaller essential cells of society. Their initiative, freedom and responsibility must not be supplanted.