8. Justice in the World
Statement of the Synod of Bishops, November 30 1971
Introduction
1. Gathered from the whole world, in communion with all who believe
in Christ and with the entire human family, and opening our hearts to
the Spirit who is the whole of creation new, we have questioned
ourselves about the mission of the People of God to further justice
in the world.
2. Scrutinizing the "signs of the times" and seeking to detect the
meaning of emerging history, while at the same time sharing the
aspirations and questionings of all those who want to build a more
human world, we have listened to the Word of God that we might be
converted to the fulfilling of the divine plan for the salvation of the world.
3. Even though it is not for us to elaborate a very profound analysis
of the situation of the world, we have nevertheless been able to
perceive the serious injustices which are building around the human
world a network of domination, oppression and abuses which stifle
freedom and which keep the greater part of humanity from sharing
in the building up and enjoyment of a more just and more loving world.
4. At the same time we have noted the inmost stirring moving the
world in its depths. There are facts constituting a contribution to the
furthering of justice. In associations of people and among peoples
themselves there is arising a new awareness which shakes them
out of any fatalistic resignation and which spurs them on to liberate
themselves and to be responsible for their own destiny. Movements
among people are seen which express hope in a better world and a
will to change whatever has become intolerable.
5. Listening to the cry of those who suffer violence and are oppressed
by unjust systems and structures, and hearing the appeal of a world
that by its perversity contradicts the plan of its Creator, we have
shared our awareness of the Church's vocation to be present in the
heart of the world by proclaiming the Good News to the poor, freedom
to the oppressed, and joy to the afflicted. The hopes and forces which
are moving the world in its very foundations are not foreign to the
dynamism of the Gospel, which through the power of the Holy Spirit
frees people from personal sin and from its consequences in social life.
6. The uncertainty of history and the painful convergences in the
ascending path of the human community direct us to sacred history;
there God has revealed himself to us, and made known to us, as it is
brought progressively to realization, his plan of liberation and salvation
which is once and for all fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery of Christ.
Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of
the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching
of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the
redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive
situation.
Justice and World Society
7. The world in which the Church lives and acts is held captive by a
tremendous paradox. Never before have the forces working for bringing
about a unified world society appeared so powerful and dynamic; they
are rooted in the awareness of the full basic equality as well as of the
human dignity of all. Since people are members of the same human
family, they are indissolubly linked with one another in the one destiny
of the whole world, in the responsibility for which they all share.
8. The new technological possibilities are based upon the unity of
science, on the global and simultaneous character of communications
and on the birth of an absolutely interdependent economic world.
Moreover, people are beginning to grasp a new and more radical
dimension of unity; for they perceive that their resources, as well as
the precious treasures of air and water--without which there cannot be
life-- and the small delicate biosphere of the whole complex of all life
on earth, are not infinite, but on the contrary must be saved and
preserved as a unique patrimony belonging to all human beings.
9. The paradox lies in the fact that within this perspective of unity the
forces of division and antagonism seem today to be increasing in
strength. Ancient divisions between nations and empires, between
races and classes, today possess new technological instruments of
destruction. The arms race is a threat to our highest good, which is life;
it makes poor peoples and individuals yet more miserable, while making
richer those already powerful; it creates a continuous danger of
conflagration, and in the case of nuclear arms, it threatens to destroy
all life from the face of the earth. At the same time new divisions are
being born to separate people from their neighbors. Unless combated
and overcome by social and political action, the influence of the new
industrial and technological order favors the concentration of wealth,
power and decision-making in the hands of a small public or private
controlling group. Economic injustice and lack of social participation
keep people from attaining their basic human ant civil rights.
10. In the last twenty-five years a hope has spread through the human
race that economic growth would bring about such a quantity of goods
that it would be possible to feed the hungry at least with the crumbs
falling from the table, but this has proved a vain hope in underdeveloped
areas and in pockets of poverty in wealthier areas, because of the rapid
growth of population and of the labor force, because of rural stagnation
and the lack of agrarian reform, and because of the massive migratory
flow to the cities, where the industries, even though endowed with huge
sums of money, nevertheless provide so few jobs that not infrequently
one worker in four is left unemployed. These stifling oppressions
constantly give rise to great numbers of "marginal" persons, ill-fed,
inhumanly housed, illiterate and deprived of political power as well as
of the suitable means of acquiring responsibility and moral dignity.
11. Furthermore, such is the demand for resources and energy by the
richer nations, whether capitalist or socialist, and such are the effects
of dumping by them in the atmosphere and the sea that irreparable
damage would be done to the essential elements of life on earth, such
as air and water, if their high rates of consumption and pollution, which
are constantly on the increase, were extended to the whole of humanity.
12. The strong drive towards global unity, the unequal distribution which
places decisions concerning three quarters of income, investment and
trade in the hands of one third of the human race, namely the more
highly developed part, the insufficiency of a merely economic progress,
and the new recognition of the material limits of the biosphere--all this
makes us aware of the fact that in today's world new modes of
understanding human dignity are arising.
13. In the face of international systems of domination, the bringing about
of justice depends more and more on the determined will for development.
14. In the developing nations and in the so-called socialist world, that
determined will asserts itself especially in a struggle for forms of claiming
one's rights and self-expression, a struggle caused by the evolution of
the economic system itself.
15. This aspiring to justice asserts itself in advancing beyond the
threshold at which begins a consciousness of enhancement of personal
worth (cf. Populorum Progressio 15; A.A.S. 59, 1967, p. 265) with regard
both to the whole person and the whole of humanity. This is expressed
in an awareness of the right to development. The right to development
must be seen as a dynamic interpenetration of all those fundamental
human rights upon which the aspirations of individuals and nations
are based.
16. This desire however will not satisfy the expectations of our time
if it ignores the objective obstacles which social structures place in
the way of conversion of hearts, or even of the realization of the ideal
of charity. It demands on the contrary that the general condition of
being marginal in society be overcome, so that an end will be put to
the systematic barriers and vicious circles which oppose the collective
advance towards enjoyment of adequate remuneration of the factors
of production, and which strengthen the situation of discrimination with
regard to access to opportunities and collective services from which a
great part of the people are now excluded. If the developing nations and
regions do not attain liberation through development, there is a real
danger that the conditions of life created especially by colonial domination
may evolve into a new form of colonialism in which the developing
nations will be the victims of the interplay of international economic
forces. That right to development is above all a right to hope according
to the concrete measure of contemporary humanity. To respond to
such a hope, the concept of evolution must be purified of those myths
and false convictions which have up to now gone with a thought-pattern
subject to a kind of deterministic and automatic notion of progress.
17. By taking their future into their own hands through a determined will
for progress, the developing peoples--even if they do not achieve the
final goal--will authentically manifest their own personalization. And in
order that they may cope with the unequal relationships within the
present world complex, a certain responsible nationalism gives them
the impetus needed to acquire an identity of their own. From this basic
self-determination can come attempts at putting together new political
groupings allowing full development to these peoples; there can also
come measures necessary for overcoming the inertia which could
render fruitless such an effort--as in some cases population pressure;
there can also come new sacrifices which the growth of planning
demands of a generation which wants to build its own future.
18. On the other hand, it is impossible to conceive true progress
without recognizing the necessity--within the political system chosen--
of a development composed both of economic growth and participation;
and the necessity too of an increase in wealth implying as well social
progress by the entire community as it overcomes regional imbalance
and islands of prosperity. Participation constitutes a right which is to
be applied both in the economic and in the social and political field.
19. While we again affirm the right of people to keep their own identity,
we see ever more clearly that the fight against a modernization
destructive of the proper characteristics of nations remains quite
ineffective as long as it appeals only to sacred historical customs and
venerable ways of life. If modernization is accepted with the intention
that it serve the good of the nation, people will be able to create a
culture which will constitute a true heritage of their own in the manner
of a true social memory, one which is active and formative of authentic
creative personality in the assembly of nations.
20. We see in the world a set of injustices which constitute the nucleus
of today's problems and whose solution requires the undertaking of
tasks and functions in every sector of society, and even on the level
of the global society towards which we are speeding in this last quarter
of the twentieth century. Therefore we must be prepared to take on new
functions and new duties in every sector of human activity and especially
in the sector of world society, if justice is really to be put into practice.
Our action is to be directed above all at those people and nations which
because of various forms of oppression and because of the present
character of our society are silent, indeed voiceless, victims of injustice.
21. Take, for example, the case of migrants. They are often forced to
leave their own country to find work, but frequently find the doors closed
in their faces because of discriminatory attitudes, or, if they can enter,
they are often obliged to lead an insecure life or are treated in an
inhuman manner. The same is true of groups that are less well off on
the social ladder such as workers and especially farm workers who play
a very great part in the process of development.
22. To be especially lamented is the condition of so many millions of
refugees, and of every group or people suffering persecution--sometimes
in institutionalized form--for racial or ethnic origin or on tribal grounds.
This persecution on tribal grounds can at times take on the characteristics
of genocide.
23. In many areas justice is seriously injured with regard to people
who are suffering persecution for their faith, or who are in many ways
being ceaselessly subjected by political parties and public authorities
to an action of oppressive atheization, or who are deprived of religious
liberty either by being kept from honoring God in public worship, or by
being prevented from publicly teaching and spreading their faith, or by
being prohibited from conducting their temporal affairs according to the
principles of their religion.
24. Justice is also being violated by forms of oppression, both old and
new, springing from restriction of the rights of individuals. This is
occurring both in the form of repression by the political power and of
violence on the part of private reaction, and can reach the extreme of
affecting the basic conditions of personal integrity. There are well known
cases of torture, especially of political prisoners, who besides are
frequently denied due process or who are subjected to arbitrary procedures
in their trial. Nor can we pass over the prisoners of war who even after
the Geneva Convention are being treated in an inhuman manner.
25. The fight against legalized abortion and against the imposition of
contraceptives and the pressures exerted against war are significant
forms of defending the right to life.
26. Furthermore, contemporary consciousness demands truth in the
communications systems, including the right to the image offered by
the media and the opportunity to correct its manipulation. It must be
stressed that the right, especially that of children and the young, to
education and to morally correct conditions of life and communications
media is once again being threatened in our days. The activity of
families in social life is rarely and insufficiently recognized by State
institutions. Nor should we forget the growing number of persons who
are often abandoned by their families and by the community: the old,
orphans, the sick and all kinds of people who are rejected.
27. To obtain true unity of purpose, as is demanded by the world
society of human beings, a mediatory role is essential to overcome
day by day the opposition, obstacles and ingrained privileges which
are to be met with in the advance towards a more human society.
28. But effective mediation involves the creation of a lasting
atmosphere of dialogue. A contribution to the progressive realization
of this can be made by people unhampered by geopolitical,
ideological or socioeconomic conditions or by the generation gap.
To restore the meaning of life by adherence to authentic values,
the participation and witness of the rising generation of youth is as
necessary as communication among peoples.
The Gospel Message and the Mission of the Church
29. In the face of the present-day situation of the world, marked as it is
by the grave sin of injustice, we recognize both our responsibility and
our inability to overcome it by our own strength. Such a situation urges
us to listen with a humble and open heart to the word of God, as he
shows us new paths towards action in the cause of justice in the world.
30. In the Old Testament God reveals himself to us as the liberator of
the oppressed and the defender of the poor, demanding from people
faith in him and justice towards one's neighbor. It is only in the observance
of the duties of justice that God is truly recognized as the liberator of
the oppressed.
31. By his action and teaching Christ united in an indivisible way the
relationship of people to God and the relationship of people to each other.
Christ lived his life in the world as a total giving of himself to God for the
salvation and liberation of people. In his preaching he proclaimed the
fatherhood of God towards all people and the intervention of God's justice
on behalf of the needy and the oppressed (Lk 6: 21-23). In this way he
identified himself with his "least ones," as he stated: "As you did it to one
of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me"
(Mt 25:40).
32. From the beginning the Church has lived and understood the Death
and Resurrection of Christ as a call by God to conversion in the faith of
Christ and in love of one another, perfected in mutual help even to the
point of a voluntary sharing of material goods.
33. Faith in Christ, the Son of God and the Redeemer, and love of
neighbor constitute a fundamental theme of the writers of the New
Testament. According to St. Paul, the whole of the Christian life is
summed up in faith effecting that love and service of neighbor which
involve the fulfilment of the demands of justice. The Christian lives
under the interior law of liberty, which is a permanent call to us to turn
away from self-sufficiency to confidence in God and from concern for
self to a sincere love of neighbor. Thus takes place his genuine liberation
and the gift of himself for the freedom of others.
34. According to the Christian message, therefore, out relationship to our
neighbor is bound up with our relationship to God; our response to the love
of God, saving us through Christ, is shown to be effective in his love and
service of people. Christian love of neighbor and justice cannot be separated.
For love implies an absolute demand for justice, namely a recognition of
the dignity and rights of one's neighbor. Justice attains its inner fullness
only in love. Because every person is truly a visible image of the invisible
God and a sibling of Christ, the Christian finds in every person God
himself and God's absolute demand for justice and love.
35. The present situation of the world, seen in the light of faith, calls us
back to the very essence of the Christian message, creating in us a deep
awareness of its true meaning and of its urgent demands. The mission of
preaching the Gospel dictates at the present time that we should dedicate
ourselves to the liberation of people even in their present existence in this
world. For unless the Christian message of love and justice shows its
effectiveness through action in the cause of justice in the world, it will
only with difficulty gain credibility with the people of our times.
36. The Church has received from Christ the mission of preaching the
Gospel message, which contains a call to people to turn away from sin
to the love of the Father, universal kinship and a consequent demand for
justice in the world. This is the reason why the Church has the right,
indeed the duty, to proclaim justice on the social, national and international
level, and to denounce instances of injustice, when the fundamental rights
of people and their very salvation demand it. The Church, indeed, is not
alone responsible for justice in the world; however, she has a proper and
specific responsibility which is identified with her mission of giving witness
before the world of the need for love and justice contained in the Gospel
message, a witness to be carried out in Church institutions themselves
and in the lives of Christians.
37. Of itself it does not belong to the Church, insofar as she is a religious
and hierarchical community, to offer concrete solutions in the social,
economic and political spheres for justice in the world. Her mission involves
defending and promoting the dignity and fundamental rights of the human person.
38. The members of the Church, as members of society, have the same
right and duty to promote the common good as do other citizens. Christians
ought to fulfil their temporal obligations with fidelity and competence. They
should act as a leaven in the world, in their family, professional, social,
cultural and political life. They must accept their responsibilities in this
entire area under the influence of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church.
In this way they testify to the power of the Holy Spirit through their action
in the service of people in those things which are decisive for the existence
and the future of humanity. While in such activities they generally act on
their own initiative without involving the responsibility of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy, in a sense they do involve the responsibility of the Church whose
members they are.
The Practice of Justice
39. Many Christians are drawn to give authentic witness on behalf of
justice by various modes of action for justice, action inspired by love in
accordance with the grace which they have received from God. For some
of them, this action finds its place in the sphere of social and political
conflicts in which Christians bear witness to the Gospel by pointing out
that in history there are sources of progress other than conflict, namely
love and right. This priority of love in history draws other Christians to
prefer the way of non-violent action and work in the area of public opinion.
40. While the Church is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes
that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be
just in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the modes
of acting and of the possessions and life style found within the Church herself.
41. Within the Church rights must be preserved. No one should be deprived
of his ordinary rights because he is associated with the Church in one way
or another. Those who serve the Church by their labor, including priests and
religious, should receive a sufficient livelihood and enjoy that social security
which is customary in their region. Lay people should be given fair wages and
a system for promotion. We reiterate the recommendations that lay people
should exercise more important functions with regard to Church property and
should share in its administration.
42. We also urge that women should have their own share of responsibility
and participation in the community life of society and likewise of the Church.
43. We propose that this matter be subjected to a serious study employing
adequate means: for instance, a mixed commission of men and women,
religious and lay people, of differing situations and competence.
44. The Church recognizes everyone's right to suitable freedom of expression
and thought. This includes the right of everyone to be heard in a spirit of
dialogue which preserves a legitimate diversity within the Church.
45. The form of judicial procedure should give the accused the right to know
his accusers and also the right to a proper defense. To be complete, justice
should include speed in its procedure. This is especially necessary in
marriage cases.
46. Finally, the members of the Church should have some share in the
drawing up of decisions, in accordance with the rules given by the Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council and the Holy See, for instance with regard to
the setting up of councils at all levels.
47. In regard to temporal possessions, whatever be their use, it must never
happen that the evangelical witness which the Church is required to give
becomes ambiguous. The preservation of certain positions of privilege
must constantly be submitted to the test of this principle. Although in
general it is difficult to draw a line between what is needed for right use
and what is demanded by prophetic witness, we must certainly keep
firmly to this principle: our faith demands of us a certain sparingness
in use, and the Church is obliged to live and administer its own goods
in such a way that the Gospel is proclaimed to the poor. If instead the
Church appears to be among the rich and the powerful of this world its
credibility is diminished.
48. Our examination of conscience now comes to the life style of all:
bishops, priests, religious and lay people. In the case of needy peoples
it must be asked whether belonging to the Church places people on a rich
island within an ambient of poverty. In societies enjoying a higher level of
consumer spending, it must be asked whether our life style exemplifies
that sparingness with regard to consumption which we preach to others
as necessary in order that so many millions of hungry people throughout
the world may be fed.
49. Christians' specific contribution to justice is the day-to-day life of
individual believers acting like the leaven of the Gospel in their family,
their school, their work and their social and civic life. Included with this
are the perspectives and meaning which the faithful can give to human
effort. Accordingly, educational method must be such as to teach people
to live their lives in its entire reality and in accord with the evangelical
principles of personal and social morality which are expressed in the vital
Christian witness of one's life.
50. The obstacles to the progress which we wish for ourselves and for
humankind are obvious. The method of education very frequently still in
use today encourages narrow individualism. Part of the human family lives
immersed in a mentality which exalts possessions. The school and the
communications media, which are often obstructed by the established order,
allow the formation only of people desired by that order, that is to say,
people in its image, not new people but a copy of people as they are.
51. But education demands a renewal of heart, a renewal based on the
recognition of sin in its individual and social manifestations. It will also
inculcate a truly and entirely human way of life in justice, love and simplicity.
It will likewise awaken a critical sense, which will lead us to reflect on
the society in which we live and on its values; it will make people ready
to renounce these values when they cease to promote justice for all people.
In the developing countries, the principal aim of this education for justice
consists in an attempt to awaken consciences to a knowledge of the
concrete situation and in a call to secure a total improvement; by these
means the transformation of the world has already begun.
52. Since this education makes people decidedly more human, it will help
them to be no longer the object of manipulation by communications media
or political forces. It will instead enable them to take in hand their own
destinies and bring about communities which are truly human.
53. Accordingly, this education is deservedly called a continuing education,
for it concerns every person and every age. It is also a practical education:
it comes through action, participation and vital contact with the reality of
injustice.
54. Education for justice is imparted first in the family. We are well aware
that not only Church institutions but also other schools, trade unions and
political parties are collaborating in this.
55. The content of this education necessarily involves respect for the
person and for his or her dignity. Since it is world justice which is in
question here, the unity of the human family within which, according
to God's plan, a human being is born must first of all be seriously
affirmed. Christians find a sign of this solidarity in the fact that all
human beings are destined to become in Christ sharers in the divine nature.
56. The basic principles whereby the influence of the Gospel has
made itself felt in contemporary social life are to be found in the
body of teaching set out in a gradual and timely way from the encyclical
Rerum Novarum to the letter Octogesima Adveniens. As never before,
the Church has, through the Second Vatican Council's constitution
Gaudium et Spes, better understood the situation in the modern world,
in which Christian works out their salvation by deeds of justice.
Pacem in Terris gave us an authentic charter of human rights.
In Mater et Magistra international justice begins to take first place;
it finds more elaborate expression in Populorum Progressio,
in the form of a true and suitable treatise on the right to development,
and in Octogesima Adveniens is found a summary of guidelines for
political action.
57. Like the apostle Paul, we insist, welcome or unwelcome, that the
Word of God should be present in the center of human situations.
Our interventions are intended to be an expression of that faith which
is today binding on our lives and on the lives of the faithful. We all
desire that these interventions should always be in conformity with
circumstances of place and time. Our mission demands that we
should courageously denounce injustice, with charity, prudence and
firmness, in sincere dialogue with all parties concerned. We know
that our denunciations can secure assent to the extent that they are
an expression of our lives and are manifested in continuous action.
58. The liturgy, which we preside over and which is the heart of the
Church's life, can greatly serve education for justice. For it is a
thanksgiving to the Father in Christ, which through its communitarian
form places before our eyes the bonds of our brotherhood and again
and again reminds us of the Church's mission. The liturgy of the word,
catechesis and the celebration of the sacraments have the power to
help us to discover the teaching of the prophets, the Lord and the
Apostles on the subject of justice. The preparation for baptism is the
beginning of the formation of the Christian conscience. The practice
of penance should emphasize the social dimension of sin and of the
sacrament. Finally, the Eucharist forms the community and places it
at the service of people.
59. That the Church may really be the sign of that solidarity which the
family of nations desires, it should show in its own life greater cooperation
between the Churches of rich and poor regions through spiritual
communion and division of human and material resources. The present
generous arrangements for assistance between Churches could be
made more effective by real coordination (Sacred Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"),
through their overall view in regard to the common administration of the
gifts of God, and through social solidarity, which would always encourage
autonomy and responsibility on the part of the beneficiaries in the
determination of criteria and the choice of concrete programs and their realization.
60. This planning must in no way be restricted to economic programs;
it should instead stimulate activities capable of developing that human
and spiritual formation which will serve as the leaven needed for the
integral development of the human being.
61. Well aware of what has already been done in this field, together
with the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council we very highly commend
cooperation with our separated Christian brethren for the promotion of
justice in the world, for bringing about development of peoples and for
establishing peace. This cooperation concerns first and foremost
activities for securing human dignity and people's fundamental rights,
especially the right to religious liberty. This is the source of our common
efforts against discrimination on the grounds of differences of religion,
race and color, culture and the like. Collaboration extends also to the
study of the teaching of the Gospel insofar as it is the source of
inspiration for all Christian activity. Let the Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity and the Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace
devote themselves in common counsel to developing effectively this
ecumenical collaboration.
62. In the same spirit we likewise commend collaboration with all
believers in God in the fostering of social justice, peace and freedom;
indeed we commend collaboration also with those who, even though
they do not recognize the Author of the world, nevertheless, in their
esteem for human values, seek justice sincerely and by honorable means.
63. Since the Synod is of a universal character, it is dealing with those
questions of justice which directly concern the entire human family.
Hence, recognizing the importance of international cooperation for
social and economic development, we praise above all else the
inestimable work which has been done among the poorer peoples by
the local Churches, the missionaries and the organizations supporting
them; and we intend to foster those initiatives and institutions which
are working for peace, international justice and the development of people.
We therefore urge Catholics to consider well the following propositions:
64. (1) Let recognition be given to the fact that international order is rooted in
the inalienable rights and dignity of the human being. Let the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights be ratified by all Governments who have not yet
adhered to it, and let it be fully observed by all.
65. (2) Let the United Nations -- which because of its unique purpose
should promote participation by all nations -- and international organizations
be supported insofar as they are the beginning of a system capable of
restraining the armaments race, discouraging trade in weapons, securing
disarmament and settling conflicts by peaceful methods of legal action,
arbitration and international police action. It is absolutely necessary that
international conflicts should not be settled by war, but that other methods
better befitting human nature should be found. Let a strategy of non-violence
be fostered also, and let conscientious objection be recognized and
regulated by law in each nation.
66. (3) Let the aims of the Second Development Decade be fostered.
These include the transfer of a precise percentage of the annual income
of the richer countries to the developing nations, fairer prices for raw materials,
the opening of the markets of the richer nations and, in some fields,
preferential treatment for exports of manufactured goods from the developing
nations. These aims represent first guidelines for a graduated taxation of
income as well as for an economic and social plan for the entire world.
We grieve whenever richer nations turn their backs on this ideal goal of
worldwide sharing and responsibility. We hope that no such weakening of
international solidarity will take away their force from the trade discussions
being prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD).
67. (4) The concentration of power which consists in almost total
domination of economics, research, investment, freight charges, sea
transport and securities should be progressively balanced by institutional
arrangements for strengthening power and opportunities with regard to
responsible decision by the developing nations and by full and equal
participation in international organizations concerned with development.
Their recent de facto exclusion from discussions on world trade and also
the monetary arrangements which vitally affect their destiny are an
example of lack of power which is inadmissible in a just and responsible
world order.
68. (5) Although we recognize that international agencies can be perfected
and strengthened, as can any human instrument, we stress also the
importance of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, in particular
those directly concerned with the immediate and more acute questions
of world poverty in the field of agrarian reform and agricultural development,
health, education, employment, housing, and rapidly increasing urbanization.
We feel we must point out in a special way the need for some fund to
provide sufficient food and protein for the real mental and physical
development of children. In the face of the population explosion we repeat
the words by which Pope Paul VI defined the functions of public authority
in his encyclical Populorum Progressio: "There is no doubt that public
authorities can intervene, within the limit of their competence, by favoring
the availability of appropriate information and by adopting suitable measures,
provided that these be in conformity with the moral law and that they
absolutely respect the rightful freedom of married couples"
(37; A.A.S. 59, 1967, p. 276).
69. (6) Let governments continue with their individual contributions to a
development fund, but let them also look for a way whereby most of their
endeavors may follow multilateral channels, fully preserving the responsibility
of the developing nations, which must be associated in decision-making
concerning priorities and investments.
70. (7) We consider that we must also stress the new worldwide preoccupation
which will be dealt with for the first time in the conference on the human
environment to be held in Stockholm in June 1972. It is impossible to see
what right the richer nations have to keep up their claim to increase their
own material demands, if the consequence is either that others remain in
misery or that the danger of destroying the very physical foundations of
life on earth is precipitated. Those who are already rich are bound to
accept a less material way of life, with less waste, in order to avoid the
destruction of the heritage which they are obliged by absolute justice to
share with all other members of the human race.
71. (8) In order that the right to development may be fulfilled by action:
(a) people should not be hindered from attaining development in
accordance with their own culture;
(b) through mutual cooperation, all peoples should be able to become
the principal architects of their own economic and social development;
(c) every people, as active and responsible members of human society,
should be able to cooperate for the attainment of the common good on
an equal footing with other peoples.
72. The examination of conscience which we have made together,
regarding the Church's involvement in action for justice, will remain
ineffective if it is not given flesh in the life of our local Churches at
all their levels. We also ask the episcopal conferences to continue to
pursue the perspectives which we have had in view during the days
of this meeting and to put our recommendations into practice, for instance
by setting up centers of social and theological research.
73. We also ask that there be recommended to the Pontifical Commission
Justice and Peace, the Council of the Secretariat of the Synod and to
competent authorities, the description, consideration and deeper study
of the wishes and desires of our assembly, and that these bodies should
bring to a successful conclusion what we have begun.
A Word of Hope
74. The power of the Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, is
continuously at work in the world. Through the generous sons and
daughters of the Church likewise, the People of God is present in the
midst of the poor and of those who suffer oppression and persecution;
it lives in its own flesh and its own heart the Passion of Christ and bears
witness to his resurrection.
75. The entire creation has been groaning till now in an act of giving birth,
as it waits for the glory of the children of God to be revealed (cf. Rom 8:22).
Let Christians therefore be convinced that they will yet find the fruits of
their own nature and effort cleansed of all impurities in the new earth which
God is now preparing for them, and in which there will be the kingdom of
justice and love, a kingdom which will be fully perfected when the Lord will
come himself.
76. Hope in the coming kingdom is already beginning to take root in the
hearts of people. The radical transformation of the world in the Paschal
Mystery of the Lord gives full meaning to the efforts of people, and in
particular of the young, to lessen injustice, violence and hatred and to
advance all together in justice, freedom, kinship and love.
77. At the same time as it proclaims the Gospel of the Lord, its Redeemer
and Savior, the Church calls on all, especially the poor, the oppressed and
the afflicted, to cooperate with God to bring about liberation from every sin
and to build a world which will reach the fullness of creation only when it
becomes the work of people for people.