Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The Christian message offers a universal vision of the life of men and peoples on earth ^{874Cf. Pius XII, Address to Catholic Jurists on the Communities of States and Peoples (6 December 1953), 2: AAS 45 (1953), 795.} that makes us realize the unity of the human family.^{875Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 42: AAS 58 (1966), 1060-1061.} This unity is not to be built on the force of arms, terror or abuse of power; rather, it is the result of that “supreme model of unity, which is a reflection of the intimate life of God, one God in three Persons, ... what we Christians mean by the word ‘communion'”; ^{876John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 40: AAS 80 (1988), 569.} it is an achievement of the moral and cultural force of freedom.^{877Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Fiftieth General Assembly of the United Nations (5 October 1995), 12: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11 October 1995, p. 9.} The Christian message has been decisive for making humanity understand that peoples tend to unite not only because of various forms of organization, politics, economic plans or in the name of an abstract ideological internationalism, but because they freely seek to cooperate, aware “that they are living members of the whole human family”.^{878John XXIII, Encylical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 296.} The world community must be presented, over and over again and with ever increasing clarity, as the concrete figure of the unity willed by the Creator. “The unity of the human family has always existed, because its members are human beings all equal by virtue of their natural dignity. Hence there will always exist the objective need to promote, in sufficient measure, the universal common good, which is the common good of the entire human family”.^{879John XXIII, Encylical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 292.} II. THE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY