Discourse of Pope Benedict XVI to the 14th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy
of Social Sciences
(May 3, 2008) Human dignity is the intrinsic value of a person created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Christ, said Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, 3rd of May. He was addressing the members of the fourteenth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, at the Vatican. The conference is being held in Rome from 2 to 6 May on the theme: “Pursuing the common good: how solidarity and subsidiarity can work together”. The Holy Father thanked the academy for the valuable contribution during the last two decades, to the deepening and development of the Church’s social doctrine and its application in the areas of law, economics, politics and the various other social sciences. Regarding the theme of Solidarity and Subsidiarity, the Holy Father said that Solidarity refers to the virtue enabling the human family to share fully the treasure of material and spiritual goods, and subsidiarity is the coordination of society’s activities in a way that supports the internal life of the local communities. This creates, he said, a field upon which we can plot the various points of Catholic social teaching that give shape to the common good. The Pope then said that the responsibility of Christians to work for peace and justice, their irrevocable commitment to build up the common good, is inseparable from their mission to proclaim the gift of eternal life to which God has called every man and woman. Their discussion and study, he said will be of service to all people of good will, while simultaneously inspiring Christians to embrace more readily their obligation to enhance solidarity with and among their fellow citizens. As they articulate the ways in which men and women can best promote the common good, the Pope encouraged them to survey both the “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of solidarity and subsidiarity. In this way, the Holy Father invited them to be able to propose more effective ways of resolving the manifold problems besetting mankind at the threshold of the third millennium, while also bearing witness to the primacy of love, which transcends and fulfils justice as it draws mankind into the very life of God.
| All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©. |