Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The object of the Church's social doctrine is essentially the same that constitutes the reason for its existence: the human person called to salvation, and as such entrusted by Christ to the Church's care and responsibility^{117Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 53: AAS 83 (1991), 859.}. By means of her social doctrine, the Church shows her concern for human life in society, aware that the quality of social life — that is, of the relationships of justice and love that form the fabric of society — depends in a decisive manner on the protection and promotion of the human person, for whom every community comes into existence. In fact, at play in society are the dignity and rights of the person, and peace in the relationships between persons and between communities of persons. These are goods that the social community must pursue and guarantee. In this perspective, the Church's social doctrine has the task of proclamation, but also of denunciation. In the first place it is the proclamation of what the Church possesses as proper to herself: “a view of man and of human affairs in their totality”^{118Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 13: AAS 59 (1967), 264.}. This is done not only on the level of principles but also in practice. The Church's social doctrine, in fact, offers not only meaning, value and criteria of judgment, but also the norms and directives of action that arise from these^{119Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 4: AAS 63 (1971), 403-404; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41: AAS 80 (1988), 570-572; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2423; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 72: AAS 79 (1987), 586.}. With her social doctrine the Church does not attempt to structure or organize society, but to appeal to, guide and form consciences. This social doctrine also entails a duty to denounce, when sin is present: the sin of injustice and violence that in different ways moves through society and is embodied in it^{120Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 25: AAS 58 (1966), 1045-1046.}. By denunciation, the Church's social doctrine becomes judge and defender of unrecognized and violated rights, especially those of the poor, the least and the weak^{121Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58 (1966), 1099-1100; Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum: AAS 33 (1941), 196-197.}. The more these rights are ignored or trampled, the greater becomes the extent of violence and injustice, involving entire categories of people and large geographical areas of the world, thus giving rise to social questions, that is, to abuses and imbalances that lead to social upheaval. A large part of the Church's social teaching is solicited and determined by important social questions, to which social justice is the proper answer.

The intent of the Church's social doctrine is of the religious and moral order^{122Cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 190; Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum: AAS 23 (1931), 196-197; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 42: AAS 58 (1966), 1079; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41: AAS 80 (1988), 570-572; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 53: AAS 83 (1991), 859; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 72: AAS 79 (1987), 585-586.}. Religious because the Church's evangelizing and salvific mission embraces man “in the full truth of his existence, of his personal being and also of his community and social being”^{123John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 14: AAS 71 (1979), 284; cf. John Paul II, Address to the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla, Mexico (28 January 1979), III/2: AAS 71 (1979), 199.}. Moral because the Church aims at a “complete form of humanism”^{124Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: AAS 59 (1967), 278.}, that is to say, at the “liberation from everything that oppresses man” ^{125Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 9: AAS 68 (1976), 10.} and “the development of the whole man and of all men”^{126Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: AAS 59 (1967), 278.}. The Church's social doctrine indicates the path to follow for a society reconciled and in harmony through justice and love, a society that anticipates in history, in a preparatory and prefigurative manner, the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13).