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Faith rooted in
God's unconditional love leads to justice
On Monday morning, 4 May
[2009], the Holy Father met with Members of the Pontifical Academy of
Social Sciences on its 15th Plenary Session. The following is his
Address for the occasion.
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you gather for the 15th Plenary Session of the
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, I am pleased to have this
occasion to meet with you and to express my encouragement for your
mission of expounding and furthering the Church's social doctrine in the
areas of law, economy, politics and the various other social sciences.
Thanking Professor Mary Ann Glendon for her cordial words of greeting, I
assure you of my prayers that the fruit of your deliberations will
continue to attest to the enduring pertinence of Catholic social
teaching in a rapidly changing world.
After studying work, democracy, globalisation,
solidarity and subsidiarity in relation to the social teaching of the
Church, your Academy has chosen to return to the central question of the
dignity of the human person and human rights, a point of encounter
between the doctrine of the Church and contemporary society.
The world's great religions and philosophies have
illuminated some aspects of these human rights, which are concisely
expressed in "the golden rule" found in the Gospel: "Do to others as you
would have them do to you" (Lk 6:31; cf. Mt 7:12). The Church has always
affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in
which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they
may have in various cultural contexts, are to be upheld and accorded
universal recognition because they are inherent in the very nature of
man, who is created in the image and likeness of God. If all human
beings are created in the image and likeness of God, then they share a
common nature that binds them together and calls for universal respect.
The Church, assimilating the teaching of Christ, considers the person as
"the worthiest of nature" (St Thomas Aquinas, De potentia,
9, 3) and has taught that the ethical and political order that governs
relationships between persons finds its origin in the very structure of
man's being. The discovery of America and the ensuing anthropological
debate in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe led to a heightened
awareness of human rights as such and of their universality (ius
gentium). The modern period helped shape the idea that the message
of Christ
— because it proclaims that God loves every man and woman and
that every human being is called to love God freely
—
demonstrates that everyone, independently of his or her social and
cultural condition, by nature deserves freedom. At the same time, we
must always remember that "freedom itself needs to be set free. It is
Christ who sets it free" (Veritatis Splendor, 86).
In the middle of the last century, after the vast
suffering caused by two terrible world wars and the unspeakable crimes
perpetrated by totalitarian ideologies, the international community
acquired a new system of international law based on human rights. In
this, it appears to have acted in conformity with the message that my
predecessor Benedict XV proclaimed when he called on the belligerents of
the First World War to "transform the material force of arms into the
moral force of law" ("Note to the Heads of the Belligerent Peoples", 1
August 1917).
Human rights became the reference point of a shared
universal ethos
—
at least at the level of aspiration
—
for most of humankind. These rights have been ratified by almost every
State in the world. The Second Vatican Council, in the Declaration
Dignitatis Humanae, as well as my predecessors Paul VI and John Paul
II forcefully referred to the right to life and the right to freedom of
conscience and religion as being at the centre of those rights that
spring from human nature itself.
Strictly speaking, these
human rights are not truths of faith, even though they are discoverable
—
and indeed come to full light
—
in the message of Christ who "reveals man to man himself" (Gaudium et
Spes, 22). They receive further
confirmation from faith. Yet it stands to reason that, living and acting
in the physical world as spiritual beings, men and women ascertain the
pervading presence of a logos which enables them to distinguish
not only between true and false, but also good and evil, better and
worse, and justice and injustice. This ability to discern
— this
radical agency
—
renders every person capable of grasping the "natural law", which is
nothing other than a participation in the eternal law: "unde... lex
naturalis nihil aliud est quam participatio legis aeternae in rationali
creatura" (St Thomas Aquinas,
ST I-II,
91, 2). The natural law is a universal
guide recognizable to everyone, on the basis of which all people can
reciprocally understand and love each other. Human rights, therefore,
are ultimately rooted in a participation of God, who has created each
human person with intelligence and freedom. If this solid ethical and
political basis is ignored, human rights remain fragile since they are
deprived of their sound foundation.
The Church's action in
promoting human rights is therefore supported by rational reflection, in
such a way that these rights can be presented to all people of good
will, independently of any religious affiliation they may have.
Nevertheless, as I have observed in my Encyclicals, on the one hand,
human reason must undergo constant purification by faith, insofar as it
is always in danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by disordered
passions and sin; and, on the other hand, insofar as human rights need
to be re-appropriated by every generation and by each individual, and
insofar as human freedom which proceeds by a succession of free choices
—
is always fragile, the human person needs the unconditional hope and
love that can only be found in God and that lead to participation in the
justice and generosity of God towards others (cf. Deus Caritas Est,
18, and Spe Salvi, 24).
This perspective draws
attention to some of the most critical social problems of recent
decades, such as the growing awareness
—
which has in part arisen with globalisation and the present economic
crisis
—
of a flagrant contrast between the equal attribution of rights
and the unequal access to the means of attaining those rights.
For Christians who regularly ask God to "give us this day our daily
bread", it is a shameful tragedy that one-fifth of humanity still goes
hungry. Assuring an adequate food supply, like the protection of vital
resources such as water and energy, requires all international leaders
to collaborate in showing a readiness to work in good faith, respecting
the natural law and promoting solidarity and subsidiarity with the
weakest regions and peoples of the planet as the most effective strategy
for eliminating social inequalities between countries and societies and
for increasing global security.
Dear friends, dear
Academicians, in exhorting you in your research and deliberations to be
credible and consistent witnesses to the defence and promotion of these
non-negotiable human rights which are founded in divine law, I most
willingly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing.
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