Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The Church's social teaching is the indispensable reference point that determines the nature, modality, articulation and development of pastoral activity in the social field. It is the expression of the ministry of social evangelization, aimed at enlightening, stimulating and supporting the integral promotion of the human person through the practice of Christian liberation in its earthly and transcendent dimension. The Church exists and is at work within history. She interacts with the society and culture of her time in order to fulfil her mission of announcing the newness of the Christian message to all people, in the concrete circumstances of their difficulties, struggles and challenges. She does so in such a way that faith enlightens them so that they can understand the truth that “true liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ”^{1114John Paul II; Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, 11: AAS 83 (1991), 259.}. The Church's social pastoral ministry is the living and concrete expression of the full awareness of her evangelizing mission in the social, economic, cultural and political realities of the world.

The social message of the Gospel must guide the Church in her twofold pastoral activity: that of helping men and women to discover the truth and to choose the path that they will follow, and that of encouraging Christians to bear witness with a spirit of service to the Gospel in the field of social activity. “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 and sisters, at the points in which their existence and their future are at stake”^{1115Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 51: AAS 63 (1971), 440.}. The need for a new evangelization helps the Church to understand that “today more than ever ... her social message will gain credibility more immediately from the witness of action than as a result of its internal logic and consistency”^{1116John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 57: AAS 83 (1991), 862.}.

The Church's social doctrine provides the fundamental criteria for pastoral action in the area of social activity: proclaiming the Gospel; placing the Gospel message in the context of social realities; planning actions aimed at the renewal of these realities; and conforming them to the demands of Christian morality. A new evangelization of society requires first of all the proclamation of the Gospel: God saves every person and the whole person in Jesus Christ. It is this proclamation that reveals man to himself and that must become the principle for interpreting social realities. In proclaiming the Gospel, the social dimension is an essential and unavoidable but not the only dimension. It is a dimension that must reveal the unlimited possibilities of Christian salvation, even if it is not possible in time to conform social realities perfectly and definitively to the Gospel. No results attained, not even the most spectacular, can escape the limits of human freedom and the eschatological tension of every created reality^{1117Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 48: AAS 80 (1988), 583-584.}.

Above all, the pastoral activity of the Church in the social sector must bear witness to the truth of the human person. Christian anthropology permits a discernment of social problems that will never find an adequate solution if the transcendent character of the human person, fully revealed in faith, is not safeguarded^{1118Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58 (1966), 1099-1100.}. The social action of Christians must be inspired by the fundamental principle of the centrality of the human person^{1119Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 453; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus 54: AAS 83 (1991), 859-860.}. The need to promote the integral identity of the human person prompts Christians to propose those eminent values that govern every well-ordered and productive human society: truth, justice, love and freedom^{1120Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 265-266.}. Pastoral activity in the social field must seek to ensure that the renewal of public life is linked to an effective respect for these values. In this way, the Church's multifaceted evangelical witness seeks to promote the awareness of the good of each person and of all people as an unlimited resource for the development of every aspect of life in society.