Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The Church, sharing in mankind's joys and hopes, in its anxieties and sadness, stands with every man and woman of every place and time, to bring them the good news of the Kingdom of God, which in Jesus Christ has come and continues to be present among them^{73Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1: AAS 58 (1966), 1025-1026.}. In the midst of mankind and in the world she is the sacrament of God's love and, therefore, of the most splendid hope, which inspires and sustains every authentic undertaking for and commitment to human liberation and advancement. The Church is present among mankind as God's tent of meeting, “God's dwelling place among men” (cf. Rev 21:3), so that man is not alone, lost or frightened in his task of making the world more human; thus men and women find support in the redeeming love of Christ. As minister of salvation, the Church is not in the abstract nor in a merely spiritual dimension, but in the context of the history and of the world in which man lives^{74Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40: AAS 58 (1966), 1057-1059; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 53-54: AAS 83 (1991), 859-860; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 513-514.}. Here mankind is met by God's love and by the vocation to cooperate in the divine plan.

Unique and unrepeatable in his individuality, every person is a being who is open to relationships with others in society. Life together in society, in the network of relationships linking individuals, families and intermediate groups by encounter, communication and exchange, ensures a higher quality of living. The common good that people seek and attain in the formation of social communities is the guarantee of their personal, familial and associative good^{75Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 32: AAS 58 (1966), 1051.}. These are the reasons for which society originates and takes shape, with its array of structures, that is to say its political, economic, juridical and cultural constructs. To man, “as he is involved in a complex network of relationships within modern societies”^{76John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 54: AAS 83 (1991), 859.}, the Church addresses her social doctrine. As an expert in humanity^{77Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 13: AAS 59 (1967), 263.}, she is able to understand man in his vocation and aspirations, in his limits and misgivings, in his rights and duties, and to speak a word of life that reverberates in the historical and social circumstances of human existence.