The world exists for everyone, because all of us were born with the same dignity. Differences of colour, religion, talent, place of birth or residence, and so many others, cannot be used to justify the privileges of some over the rights of all. As a community, we have an obligation to ensure that every person lives with dignity and has sufficient opportunities for his or her integral development.
In the first Christian centuries, a number of thinkers developed a universal vision in their reflections on the common destination of created goods. 91Cf. Saint Basil, Homilia XXI, Quod rebus mundanis adhaerendum non sit, 3.5: PG 31, 545-549; Regulae brevius tractatae, 92: PG 31, 1145-1148; Saint peter chrysologus , Sermo 123: PL 52, 536-540; Saint Ambrose, De Nabuthe, 27.52: PL 14, 738ff.; Saint Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium, 6, 25: PL 35, 1436ff. This led them to realize that if one person lacks what is necessary to live with dignity, it is because another person is detaining it. Saint John Chrysostom summarizes it in this way: “Not to share our wealth with the poor is to rob them and take away their livelihood. The riches we possess are not our own, but theirs as well”. 92De Lazaro Concio, II, 6: PG 48, 992D. In the words of Saint Gregory the Great, “When we provide the needy with their basic needs, we are giving them what belongs to them, not to us”. 93Regula Pastoralis, III, 21: PL 77, 87.
Once more, I would like to echo a statement of Saint John Paul II whose forcefulness has perhaps been insufficiently recognized: “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone”. 94Saint John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991), 31: AAS 83 (1991), 831. For my part, I would observe that “the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property”. 95Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (24 May 2015), 93: AAS 107 (2015), 884. The principle of the common use of created goods is the “first principle of the whole ethical and social order”; 96Saint John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981), 19: AAS 73 (1981), 626. it is a natural and inherent right that takes priority over others. 97Cf.Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 172. All other rights having to do with the goods necessary for the integral fulfilment of persons, including that of private property or any other type of property, should – in the words of Saint Paul VI – “in no way hinder [this right], but should actively facilitate its implementation”. 98Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967): AAS 59 (1967), 268. The right to private property can only be considered a secondary natural right, derived from the principle of the universal destination of created goods. This has concrete consequences that ought to be reflected in the workings of society. Yet it often happens that secondary rights displace primary and overriding rights, in practice making them irrelevant.