Pacem in Terris - important guide to understanding of common good

May 03,2012: On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Pacem in Terris a press release from Vatican said: we have chosen to devote a session of our Academy to the study of the contribution of this major document to the social doctrine of the Church. Published between the first and second sessions of the Second Vatican Council, the encyclical of Blessed John XXIII falls within the framework of the renewal of the Church’s social thinking which that Council aimed at promoting, in particular in its constitution Gaudium et spes, on the Church and the world.
Fifty years after this great encyclical, the international panorama is no longer that of the Cold War, but of a globalised world and a financial and economic crisis affecting many countries. Peace is also in danger where nationalism and religious and racial hatred expose entire societies to violent conflict.
The participants at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the discussion concluded that the message of Pacem in Terris is particularly important to today’s global society, reported Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy. During a time of economic crisis, he said, it is crucial to recover a clear understanding of the common good, which is defined in the encyclical as “all those social conditions which favor the full development of human personality.”