Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 329 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 329 – Part I. How does social justice come about in a society?

(Youcat answer) Social justice comes about where the inalienable dignity of every person is respected and the resulting rights are safeguarded and championed without reservation. Among these is also the right to active participation in the political, economic, and cultural life of the society.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1828) The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us" (Cf. 1 Jn 4:19): If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,… we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands… we are in the position of children (St. Basil, Reg. fus. tract., prol. 3 PG 31, 896 B).

  Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The basis of all justice is respect for the inalienable dignity of the human person, “whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt” (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, published 1987). Human rights are an immediate consequence of human dignity, and no State can abolish or change them. States and authorities that trample these rights underfoot are unjust regimes and lose their authority. A society is not perfected by laws, however, but rather by love ofneighbor, which makes it possible for everyone to “look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as ‘another self’”  (GS 27, 1).

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1943) Society ensures social justice by providing the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain their due. (CCC 1944) Respect for the human person considers the other "another self." It presupposes respect for the fundamental rights that flow from the dignity intrinsic of the person.

(This question: How does social justice come about in a society? is continued)