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THE BEGINNING OF A NEW PATH
- 87.
- “The term ‘social doctrine’ goes back to Pope Pius XI and designates the doctrinal ‘corpus’ concerning issues relevant to society which, from the Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, developed in the Church through the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiffs and the Bishops in communion with them.”
- Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 179.
- Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 97-144.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 3: AAS 73 (1981), 583-584.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 513-514.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2421.
- “In her continuous attention to men and women living in society, the Church has accumulated a rich doctrinal heritage.”
- 88.
- “In the nineteenth century, events of an economic nature produced a dramatic social, political and cultural impact.”
FROM RERUM NOVARUM TO OUR OWN DAY
- 89.
- “In response to the first great social question, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum.”
- “Rerum Novarum became the document inspiring Christian activity in the social sphere and the point of reference for this activity.”
- 90.
- “Rerum Novarum dealt with the labor question using a methodology that would become ‘a lasting paradigm’ for successive developments in the Church’s social doctrine.”
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 5: AAS 83 (1991), 799.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 56: AAS 83 (1991), 862.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 60: AAS 83 (1991), 865.
- Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 143.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 56: AAS 83 (1991), 862.
- 91.
- “At the beginning of the 1930s, following the grave economic crisis of 1929, Pope Pius XI published the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, commemorating the fortieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum.”
- 92.
- “Pope Pius XI did not fail to raise his voice against the totalitarian regimes that were being imposed in Europe during his pontificate.”
- Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Non Abbiamo Bisogno: AAS 23 (1931), 285-312.
- Pius XI, Address to Belgian Radio Journalists (6 September 1938), in John Paul II, Address to international leaders of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (22 March 1984): L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, 26 March 1984, pp. 8, 11.
- Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Divini Redemptoris: AAS 29 (1937), 130.
- 93.
- “In the Christmas Radio Messages of Pope Pius XII, together with other important interventions in social matters, Magisterial reflection on a new social order guided by morality and law, and focusing on justice and peace, become deeper.”
- Pius XII, Christmas Radio Messages: on peace and the international order, 1939, AAS 32 (1940), 5-13; 1940, AAS 33 (1941), 5-14; 1941, AAS 34 (1942), 10-21; 1945, AAS 38 (1946), 15-25; 1946, AAS 39 (1947), 7-17; 1948, AAS 41 (1949), 8-16; 1950, AAS 43 (1951), 49-59; 1951, AAS 44 (1952), 5-15; 1954, AAS 47 (1955), 15-28; 1955, AAS 48 (1956), 26-41; on the order within nations, 1942, AAS 35 (1943), 9-24; on democracy, 1944, AAS 37 (1945), 10-23; on the function of Christian civilization, 1 September 1944, AAS 36 (1944), 249-258; on making a return to God in generosity and brotherhood, 1947, AAS 40 (1948), 8-16; on the year of the great return and of great forgiveness, 1949, AAS 42 (1950), 121-133; on the depersonalization of man, 1952, AAS 45 (1953), 33-46; on the role of progress in technology and peace among peoples, 1953, AAS 46 (1954), 5-16.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 22, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 25.
- “One of the characteristics of Pope Pius XII’s interventions is the importance he gave to the relationship between morality and law.”
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 22, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 25.
- 94.
- “The 1960s bring promising prospects: recovery after the devastation of the war, the beginning of decolonization, and the first timid signs of a thaw in the relations between the American and Soviet blocs.”
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 267-269, 278-279, 291, 295-296.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 401-464.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 23, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 26.
- John XXIII Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 415-418.
- 95.
- “With the Encyclical Pacem in Terris, Blessed Pope John XIII brings to the forefront the problem of peace in an era marked by nuclear proliferation.”
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 257-304.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, Title: AAS 55 (1963), 257.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 301.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 294.
- Cardinal Maurice Roy, Letter to Paul VI and Document on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Pacem in Terris, L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 19 April 1973, pp. 1-8.
- 96.
- “The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council is a significant response of the Church to the expectations of the contemporary world.”
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes: AAS 58 (1966), 1025-1120.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 24, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 28.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1: AAS 58 (1966), 1026.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40: AAS 58 (1966), 1058.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 24: AAS 58 (1966), 1045.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 25: AAS 58 (1966), 1045.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 24, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 29.
- 97.
- “Another very important document of the Second Vatican Council in the corpus of the Church’s social doctrine is the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, in which the right to religious freedom is clearly proclaimed.”
- 98.
- “‘Development is the new name for peace,’ Pope Paul VI solemnly proclaims in his Encyclical Populorum Progressio, which may be considered a development of the chapter on economic and social life in Gaudium et Spes, even while it introduces some significant new elements.”
- Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 76-80: AAS 59 (1967), 294-296.
- Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio: AAS 59 (1967), 257-299.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 25, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 29.
- Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 21: AAS 59 (1967), 267.
- Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: AAS 59 (1967), 278.
- 99.
- “In this regard, in 1967, Pope Paul VI establishes the Pontifical Commission ‘Iustitia et Pax,’ thus fulfilling the wishes of the Council Fathers who considered it ‘most opportune that an organism of the Universal Church be set up in order that both the justice and love of Christ toward the poor might be developed everywhere.”
- 100.
- “At the beginning of the 1970s, in a climate of turbulence and strong ideological controversy, Pope Paul VI returns to the social teaching of Pope Leo XIII and updates, it on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, with his Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens.”
- 101.
- “Ninety years after Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II devoted the Encyclical Laborem Exercens to work, the fundamental good of the human person, the primary element of economic activity and the key to the entire social question.”
- 102.
- “With the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Pope John Paul II commemorates the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio and deals once more with the theme of development along two fundamental lines.”
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis: AAS 80 (1988), 513-586.
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 26, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 32.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 39: AAS 80 (1988), 568.
- 103.
- “On the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II promulgates his third social encyclical, Centesimus Annus, whence emerges the doctrinal continuity of a hundred years of the Church’s social Magisterium.”
IN THE LIGHT AND UNDER THE IMPULSE OF THE GOSPEL
- 104.
- “The documents referred to here constitute the milestones of the path travelled by the Church’s social doctrine from the time of Pope Leo XII to our own day.”
- Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 27, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 33.
- “In the formulation and teaching of this social doctrine, the Church has been, and continues to be, prompted not by theoretical motivation but by pastoral concerns. She is spurred on by the repercussions that social upheavals have on people, on multitudes of men and women, on human dignity itself, in contexts where ‘man painstakingly searches for a better world, without working with equal zeal for the betterment of his own spirit.’”

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