Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Jn 12, 6 He said this because he was a thief

(Jn 12, 6) He said this because he was a thief
[6] He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.
(CCC 2420) The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it" (GS 76 § 5). In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships. (CCC 2421) The social doctrine of the Church developed in the nineteenth century when the Gospel encountered modern industrial society with its new structures for the production of consumer goods, its new concept of society, the state and authority, and its new forms of labor and ownership. The development of the doctrine of the Church on economic and social matters attests the permanent value of the Church's teaching at the same time as it attests the true meaning of her Tradition, always living and active (Cf. CA 3). (CCC 2422) The Church's social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in the light of the whole of what has been revealed by Jesus Christ (Cf. SRS 1; 41). This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of good will, the more the faithful let themselves be guided by it. (CCC 2423) The Church's social teaching proposes principles for reflection; it provides criteria for judgment; it gives guidelines for action: Any system in which social relationships are determined entirely by economic factors is contrary to the nature of the human person and his acts (Cf. CA 24).

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