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Documents of Vatican II: On The Church
in the Modern World
Gaudium et Spes
Pastoral Constitution on The Church in the Modern
World
GAUDIUM ET SPES
Promulgated by His Holiness, Pope Paul VI
On December 7, 1965
1. The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age,
especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and
hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing
genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a
community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in
their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of
salvation which is meant for every man. That is why this community realizes that
it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds.
2. Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more profoundly
into the mystery of the Church, now addresses itself without hesitation,
not only to the sons of the Church and to all who invoke the name of
Christ, but to the whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain
to everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church
in the world of today.
Therefore, the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the
whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of
which it lives; that world which is the theater of man's history, and
the heir of his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs; that world
which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker's love,
fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ,
Who was crucified and rose again to break the strangle hold of
personified evil, so that the world might be fashioned anew according to
God's design and reach its fulfillment.
3. Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and
its power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of
the world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the
meaning of its individual and collective strivings, and about the
ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity. Hence, giving witness and
voice to the faith of the whole people of God gathered together by
Christ, this council can provide no more eloquent proof of its
solidarity with, a, well as its respect and love for the entire human
family with which it is bound up, than by engaging with it in
conversation about these various problems. The council brings to mankind
light kindled from the Gospel, and puts at its disposal those saving
resources which the Church herself, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, receives from her Founder. For the human person deserves to be
preserved; human society deserves to be renewed. Hence the focal point
of our total presentation will be man himself, whole and entire, body
and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.
Therefore, this sacred synod, proclaiming the noble destiny of man
and championing the Godlike seed which has been sown in him, offers to
mankind the honest assistance of the Church in fostering that
brotherhood of all men which corresponds to this destiny of theirs.
Inspired by no earthly ambition, the Church seeks but a solitary goal:
to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending
Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth, to
rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to be served.(2)
4. To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of
scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the
light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation,
she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this
present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one
to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in
which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic
characteristics. Some of the main features of the modern world can be
sketched as follows.
Today, the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound
and rapid changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world.
Triggered by the intelligence and creative energies of man, these
changes recoil upon him, upon his decisions and desires, both individual
and collective, and upon his manner of thinking and acting with respect
to things and to people. Hence we can already speak of a true cultural
and social transformation, one which has repercussions on man's
religious life as well.
As happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought
serious difficulties in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in
every direction, he does not always succeed in subjecting it to his own
welfare. Striving to probe more profoundly into the deeper recesses of
his own mind, he frequently appears more unsure of himself. Gradually
and more precisely he lays bare the laws of society, only to be
paralyzed by uncertainty about the direction to give it.
Never has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth,
resources and economic power, and yet a huge proportion of the worlds
citizens are still tormented by hunger and poverty, while countless
numbers suffer from total illiteracy. Never before has man had so keen
an understanding of freedom, yet at the same time new forms of social
and psychological slavery make their appearance. Although the world of
today has a very vivid awareness of its unity and of how one man depends
on another in needful solidarity, it is most grievously turn into
opposing camps by conflicting forces. For political, social, economic,
racial and ideological disputes still continue bitterly, and with them
the peril of a war which would reduce everything to ashes. True, there
is a growing exchange of ideas, but the very words by which key concepts
are expressed take on quite different meanings in diverse ideological
systems. Finally, man painstakingly searches for a better world, without
a corresponding spiritual advancement.
Influenced by such a variety of complexities, many of our
contemporaries are kept from accurately identifying permanent values and
adjusting them properly to fresh discoveries. As a result, buffeted
between hope and anxiety and pressing one another with questions about
the present course of events, they are burdened down with uneasiness.
This same course of events leads men to look for answers; indeed, it
forces them to do so.
5. Today's spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life
are part of a broader and deeper revolution. As a result of the latter,
intellectual formation is ever increasingly based on the mathematical
and natural sciences and on those dealing with man himself, while in the
practical order the technology which stems from these sciences takes on
mounting importance.
This scientific spirit has a new kind of impact on the cultural
sphere and on modes of thought. Technology is now transforming the face
of the earth, and is already trying to master outer space. To a certain
extent, the human intellect is also broadening its dominion over time:
over the past by means of historical knowledge; over the future, by the
art of projecting and by planning.
Advances in biology, psychology, and the social sciences not only
bring men hope of improved self-knowledge; in conjunction with technical
methods, they are helping men exert direct influence on the life of
social groups.
At the same time, the human race is giving steadily-increasing
thought to forecasting and regulating its own population growth. History
itself speeds along on so rapid a course that an individual person can
scarcely keep abreast of it. The destiny of the human community has
become all of a piece, where once the various groups of men had a kind
of private history of their own.
Thus, the human race has passed from a rather static concept of
reality to a more dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has
arisen a new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling
for efforts of analysis and synthesis.
6. By this very circumstance, the traditional local communities such
as families, clans, tribes, villages, various groups and associations
stemming from social contacts, experience more thorough changes every
day.
The industrial type of society is gradually being spread, leading
some nations to economic affluence, and radically transforming ideas and
social conditions established for centuries.
Likewise, the cult and pursuit of city living has grown, either
because of a multiplication of cities and their inhabitants, or by a
transplantation of city life to rural settings.
New and more efficient media of social communication are contributing
to the knowledge of events; by setting off chain reactions they are
giving the swiftest and widest possible circulation to styles of thought
and feeling.
It is also noteworthy how many men are being induced to migrate on
various counts, and are thereby changing their manner of life. Thus a
man's ties with his fellows are constantly being multiplied, and at the
same time "socialization" brings further ties, without however always
promoting appropriate personal development and truly personal
relationships.
This kind of evolution can be seen more clearly in those nations
which already enjoy the conveniences of economic and technological
progress, though it is also astir among peoples still striving for such
progress and eager to secure for themselves the advantages of an
industrialized and urbanized society. These peoples, especially those
among them who are attached to older traditions, are simultaneously
undergoing a movement toward more mature and personal exercise of
liberty.
7. A change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls
accepted values into question, especially among young people, who have
grown impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become rebels in
their distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society,
they want a part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and
educators to experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging
their tasks. The institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as
handed down from previous generations do not always seem to be well
adapted to the contemporary state of affairs; hence arises an upheaval
in the manner and even the norms of behavior.
Finally, these new conditions have their impact on religion. On the
one hand a more critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical
view of the world and from the superstitions which still circulate
purifies it and exacts day by day a more personal and explicit adherence
to faith. As a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense of
God. On the other hand, growing numbers of people are abandoning
religion in practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of
religion, or the abandonment oœ them, are no longer unusual and
individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be
presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new
humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the
teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature,
the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil
laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken.
8. This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly
fashion, combined with keener awareness itself of the inequalities in
the world beget or intensify contradictions and imbalances.
Within the individual person there develops rather frequently an
imbalance between an intellect which is modern in practical matters and
a theoretical system of thought which can neither master the sum total
of its ideas, nor arrange them adequately into a synthesis. Likewise an
imbalance arises between a concern for practicality and efficiency, and
the demands of moral conscience; also very often between the conditions
of collective existence and the requisites of personal thought, and even
of contemplation. At length there develops an imbalance between
specialized human activity and a comprehensive view of reality.
As for the family, discord results from population, economic and
social pressures, or from difficulties which arise between succeeding
generations, or from new social relationships between men and women.
Differences crop up too between races and between various kinds of
social orders; between wealthy nations and those which are less
influential or are needy; finally, between international institutions
born of the popular desire for peace, and the ambition to propagate
one's own ideology, as well as collective greeds existing in nations or
other groups.
What results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships.
Of such is man at once the cause and the victim.
9. Meanwhile the conviction grows not only that humanity can and
should increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even
more, that it devolves on humanity to establish a political, social and
economic order which will growingly serve man and help individuals as
well as groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them.
As a result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those
benefits of which with vivid awareness they judge themselves to be
deprived either through injustice or unequal distribution. Nations on
the road to progress, like those recently made independent, desire to
participate in the goods of modern civilization, not only in the
political field but also economically, and to play their part freely on
the world scene. Still they continually fall behind while very often
their economic and other dependence on wealthier nations advances more
rapidly.
People hounded by hunger call upon those better off. Where they have
not yet won it, women claim for themselves an equity with men before the
law and in fact. Laborers and farmers seek not only to provide for the
necessities of life, but to develop the gifts of their personality by
their labors and indeed to take part in regulating economic, social,
political and cultural life. Now, for the first time in human history
all people are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and
actually can be extended to everyone.
Still, beneath all these demands lies a deeper and more widespread
longing: persons and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of
man; one in which they can subject to their own welfare all that the
modern world can offer them so abundantly. In addition, nations try
harder every day to bring about a kind of universal community.
Since all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once
powerful and weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before
it lies the path to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to
brotherhood or hatred. Moreover, man is becoming aware that it is his
responsibility to guide aright the forces which he has unleashed and
which can enslave him or minister to him. That is why he is putting
questions to himself.
10. The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern world
labors are linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the
heart of man. For in man himself many elements wrestle with one another.
Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a
multitude of ways; on the other he feels himself to be boundless in his
desires and summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions he
is constantly forced to choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as
a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to
do what he would.(1) Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from
these flow so many and such great discords in society. No doubt many
whose lives are infected with a practical materialism are blinded
against any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation; or else,
weighed down by unhappiness they are prevented from giving the matter
any thought. Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of
reality everywhere proposed these days, many look forward to a genuine
and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort; they
are convinced that the future rule of man over the earth will satisfy
every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men who despair of any
meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human
existence is devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a
total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone.
Nevertheless, in the face of the modern development of the world, the
number constantly swells of the people who raise the most basic
questions of recognize them with a new sharpness: what is man? What is
this sense of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist
despite so much progress? What purpose have these victories purchased at
so high a cost? What can man offer to society, what can he expect from
it? What follows this earthly life?
The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up
for all,(2) can through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength
to measure up to his supreme destiny. Nor has any other name under the
heaven been given to man by which it is fitting for him to be saved.(3)
She likewise holds that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found
the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human
history. The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are
many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate
foundation in Christ, Who is the same yesterday and today, yes and
forever.(4) Hence under the light of Christ, the image of the unseen
God, the firstborn of every creature,(5) the council wishes to speak to
all men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in
finding the solution to the outstanding problems of our time.
PART I: THE CHURCH AND MAN'S CALLING
11. The People of God believes that it is led by the Lord's Spirit,
Who fills the earth. Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher
authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs
and desires in which this People has a part along with other men of our
age. For faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God's design
over man's total vocation, and thus directs the mind to solutions which
are fully human.
This council, first of all, wishes to assess in this light those
values which are most highly prized today and to relate them to their
divine source. Insofar as they stem from endowments conferred by God on
man, these values are exceedingly good. Yet they are often wrenched from
their rightful function by the taint in man's heart, and hence stand in
need of purification.
What does the Church think of man? What needs to be recommended for
the upbuilding of contemporary society? What is the ultimate
significance of human activity throughout the world? People are waiting
for an answer to these questions. From the answers it will be
increasingly clear that the People of God and the human race in whose
midst it lives render service to each other. Thus the mission of the
Church will show its religious, and by that very fact, its supremely
human character.
Chapter I: The Dignity of the Human Person
12. According to the almost unanimous opinion of believers and
unbelievers alike, all things on earth should be related to man as their
center and crown.
But what is man? About himself he has expressed, and continues to
express, many divergent and even contradictory opinions. In these he
often exalts himself as the absolute measure of all things or debases
himself to the point of despair. The result is doubt and anxiety. The
Church certainly understands these problems. Endowed with light from
God, she can offer solutions to them, so that man's true situation can
be portrayed and his defects explained, while at the same time his
dignity and destiny are justly acknowledged.
For Sacred Scripture teaches that man was created "to the image of
God," is capable of knowing and loving his Creator, and was appointed by
Him as master of all earthly creatures(1) that he might subdue them and
use them to God's glory.(2) "What is man that you should care for him?
You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with
glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet" (Ps. 8:5-7).
But God did not create man as a solitary, for from the beginning
"male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). Their companionship
produces the primary form of interpersonal communion. For by his
innermost nature man is a social being, and unless he relates himself to
others he can neither live nor develop his potential.
Therefore, as we read elsewhere in Holy Scripture God saw "all that
he had made, and it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).
13. Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very
onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil
One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart
from God. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, but
their senseless minds were darkened and they served the creature rather
than the Creator.(3) What divine revelation makes known to us agrees
with experience. Examining his heart, man finds that he has inclinations
toward evil too, and is engulfed by manifold ills which cannot come from
his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning,
man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal
as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all
created things.
Therefore man is split within himself. As a result, all of human
life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic
struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man
finds that by himself he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil
successfully, so that everyone feels as though he is bound by chains.
But the Lord Himself came to free and strengthen man, renewing him
inwardly and casting out that "prince of this world" (John 12:31) who
held him in the bondage of sin.(4) For sin has diminished man, blocking
his path to fulfillment.
The call to grandeur and the depths of misery, both of which are a
part of human experience, find their ultimate and simultaneous
explanation in the light of this revelation.
14. Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily
composition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world;
thus they reach their crown through him, and through him raise their
voice in free praise of the Creator.(6) For this reason man is not
allowed to despise his bodily life, rather he is obliged to regard his
body as good and honorable since God has created it and will raise it up
on the last day. Nevertheless, wounded by sin, man experiences
rebellious stirrings in his body. But the very dignity of man postulates
that man glorify God in his body and forbid it to serve the evil
inclinations of his heart.
Now, man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily
concerns, and as more than a speck of nature or a nameless constituent
of the city of man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole
sum of mere things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he
enters into his own heart; God, Who probes the heart,(7) awaits him
there; there he discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God.
Thus, when he recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is
not being mocked by a fantasy born only of physical or social
influences, but is rather laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.
15. Man judges rightly that by his intellect he surpasses the
material universe, for he shares in the light of the divine mind. By
relentlessly employing his talents through the ages he has indeed made
progress in the practical sciences and in technology and the liberal
arts. In our times he has won superlative victories, especially in his
probing of the material world and in subjecting it to himself. Still he
has always searched for more penetrating truths, and finds them. For his
intelligence is not confined to observable data alone, but can with
genuine certitude attain to reality itself as knowable, though in
consequence of sin that certitude is partly obscured and weakened.
The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom
and needs to be, for wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest
and a love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom, man passes
through visible realities to those which are unseen.
Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries
made by man are to be further humanized. For the future of the world
stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be
pointed out that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich
in wisdom and can offer noteworthy advantages to others.
It is, finally, through the gift of the Holy Spirit that man comes by
faith to the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.(8)
16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does
not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always
summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when
necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his
heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man;
according to it he will be judged.(9) Conscience is the most secret core
and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes
in his depths.(10) In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law
which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor.(11) In fidelity to
conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for
truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise
in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more
right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from
blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality.
Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its
dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for
truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows
practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.
17. Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our
contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and
rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license
for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part,
authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man.
For God has willed that man remain "under the control of his own
decisions,"(12) so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come
freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence
man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice
that is personally motivated and prompted from within, not under blind
internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man achieves such
dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he
pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures
for himself through effective and skilful action, apt helps to that end.
Since man's freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God's
grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before
the judgement seat of God each man must render an account of his own
life, whether he has done good or evil.(13)
18. It is in the face of death that the riddle a human existence
grows most acute. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing
deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual
extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors
and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person.
He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed
which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of
technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for
prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for
higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.
Although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the
Church has been taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man
has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of
earthly misery. In addition, that bodily death from which man would have
been immune had he not sinned(14) will be vanquished, according to the
Christian faith, when man who was ruined by his own doing is restored to
wholeness by an almighty and merciful Saviour. For God has called man
and still calls him so that with his entire being he might be joined to
Him in an endless sharing of a divine life beyond all corruption. Christ
won this victory when He rose to life, for by His death He freed man
from death. Hence to every thoughtful man a solidly established faith
provides the answer to his anxiety about what the future holds for him.
At the same time faith gives him the power to be united in Christ with
his loved ones who have already been snatched away by death; faith
arouses the hope that they have found true life with God.
19. The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion
with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already
invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not
created by Gods love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live
fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and
devotes himself to His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have
never recognized this intimate and vital link with God, or have
explicitly rejected it. Thus atheism must be accounted among the most
serious problems of this age, and is deserving of closer examination.
The word atheism is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct
from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others
believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him. Still others
use such a method to scrutinize the question of God as to make it seem
devoid of meaning. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive
sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of
scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow
that there is any absolute truth. Some laud man so extravagantly that
their faith in God lapses into a kind of anemia, though they seem more
inclined to affirm man than to deny God. Again some form for themselves
such a fallacious idea of God that when they repudiate this figment they
are by no means rejecting the God of the Gospel. Some never get to the
point of raising questions about God, since they seem to experience no
religious stirrings nor do they see why they should trouble themselves
about religion. Moreover, atheism results not rarely from a violent
protest against the evil in this world, or from the absolute character
with which certain human values are unduly invested, and which thereby
already accords them the stature of God. Modern civilization itself
often complicates the approach to God not for any essential reason but
because it is so heavily engrossed in earthly affairs.
Undeniably, those who willfully shut out God from their hearts and
try to dodge religious questions are not following the dictates of their
consciences, and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves
frequently bear some responsibility for this situation. For, taken as a
whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety
of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and
in some places against the Christian religion in particular. Hence
believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism.
To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or
teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or
social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the
authentic face of God and religion.
20. Modern atheism often takes on a systematic expression which, in
addition to other causes, stretches the desires for human independence
to such a point that it poses difficulties against any kind of
dependence on God. Those who profess atheism of this sort maintain that
it gives man freedom to be an end unto himself, the sole artisan and
creator of his own history. They claim that this freedom cannot be
reconciled with the affirmation of a Lord Who is author and purpose of
all things, or at least that this freedom makes such an affirmation
altogether superfluous. Favoring this doctrine can be the sense of power
which modern technical progress generates in man.
Not to be overlooked among the forms of modern atheism is that which
anticipates the liberation of man especially through his economic and
social emancipation. This form argues that by its nature religion
thwarts this liberation by arousing man's hope for a deceptive future
life, thereby diverting him from the constructing of the earthly city.
Consequently when the proponents of this doctrine gain governmental
rower they vigorously fight against religion, and promote atheism by
using, especially in the education of youth, those means of pressure
which public power has at its disposal.
21. In her loyal devotion to God and men, the Church has already
repudiated (16) and cannot cease repudiating, sorrowfully but as firmly
as possible, those poisonous doctrines and actions which contradict
reason and the common experience of humanity, and dethrone man from his
native excellence.
Still, she strives to detect in the atheistic mind the hidden causes
for the denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the questions which
atheism raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes these
questions ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly.
The Church holds that the recognition of God is in no way hostile to
man's dignity, since this dignity is rooted and perfected in God. For
man was made an intelligent and free member of society by God Who
created him, but even more important, he is called as a son to commune
with God and share in His happiness. She further teaches that a hope
related to the end of time does not diminish the importance of
intervening duties but rather undergirds the acquittal of them with
fresh incentives. By contrast, when a divine instruction and the hope of
life eternal are wanting, man's dignity is most grievously lacerated, as
current events often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of
grief go unsolved with the frequent result that men succumb to despair.
Meanwhile every man remains to himself an unsolved puzzle, however
obscurely he may perceive it. For on certain occasions no one can
entirely escape the kind of self-questioning mentioned earlier,
especially when life's major events take place. To this questioning only
God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons man to
higher knowledge and humbler probing.
The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought
in a proper presentation of the Church's teaching as well as in the
integral life of the Church and her members. For it is the function of
the Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies her
ceaselessly,(17) to make God the Father and His Incarnate Son present
and in a sense visible. This result is achieved chiefly by the witness
of a living and mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties
clearly and to master them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to
this faith and continue to do so. This faith needs to prove its
fruitfulness by penetrating the believer's entire life, including its
worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love,
especially regarding the needy. What does the most reveal God's
presence, however, is the brotherly charity of the faithful who are
united in spirit as they work together for the faith of the Gospel(18)
and who prove themselves a sign of unity.
While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely
professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work
for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such
an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent
dialogue. Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some
state authorities make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice
to the fundamental rights of the human person. The Church calls for the
active liberty of believers to build up in this world God's temple too.
She courteously invites atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an
open mind.
Above all the Church known that her message is in harmony with the
most secret desires of the human heart when she champions the dignity of
the human vocation, restoring hope to those who have already despaired
of anything higher than their present lot. Far from diminishing man, her
message brings to his development light, life and freedom. Apart from
this message nothing will avail to fill up the heart of man: "Thou hast
made us for Thyself," O Lord, "and our hearts are restless till they
rest in Thee."(19)
22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does
the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure
of Him Who was to come,(20) namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final
Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully
reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is
not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find
their root and attain their crown.
He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15),(21) is
Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine
likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since
human nature as He assumed it was not annulled,(22) by that very fact it
has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His
incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every
man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by
human choice(23) and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary,
He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.(24)
As an innocent lamb He merited for us life by the free shedding of
His own blood. In Him God reconciled us(25) to Himself and among
ourselves; from bondage to the devil and sin He delivered us, so that
each one of us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God "loved me and
gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). By suffering for us He not only
provided us with an example for our imitation,(26) He blazed a trail,
and if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on a new
meaning.
The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the
firstborn of many brothers,(27) received "the first-fruits of the
Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new
law of love.(28) Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our
inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to
the achievement of "the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23): "If the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who
raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal
bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).(29)
Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to
battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer
death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying
Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which
comes from hope.(30)
All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good
will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way.(31) For, since Christ
died for all men,(32) and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact
one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner
known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being
associated with this paschal mystery.
Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by
believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in
Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His
Gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His
death; He has lavished life upon us(33) so that, as sons in the Son, we
can cry out in the Spirit; Abba, Father(34)
Chapter II: The Community of Mankind
23. One of the salient features of the modern world is the growing
interdependence of men one on the other, a development promoted chiefly
by modern technical advances. Nevertheless brotherly dialogue among men
does not reach its perfection on the level of technical progress, but on
the deeper level of interpersonal relationships. These demand a mutual
respect for the full spiritual dignity of the person. Christian
revelation contributes greatly to the promotion of this communion
between persons, and at the same time leads us to a deeper understanding
of the laws of social life which the Creator has written into man's
moral and spiritual nature.
Since rather recent documents of the Church's teaching authority have
dealt at considerable length with Christian doctrine about human
society,(1) this council is merely going to call to mind some of the
more basic truths, treating their foundations under the light of
revelation. Then it will dwell more at length on certain of their
implications having special significance for our day.
24. God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all
men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of
brotherhood. For having been created in the image of God, Who "from one
man has created the whole human race and made them live all over the
face of the earth" (Acts 17:26), all men are called to one and the same
goal, namely God Himself.
For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest
commandment. Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God
cannot be separated from love of neighbor: "If there is any other
commandment, it is summed up in this saying: Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.... Love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law"
(Rom. 13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing daily more dependent on
one another, and to a world becoming more unified every day, this truth
proves to be of paramount importance.
Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may
be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to
human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the
divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This
likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God
willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere
gift of himself.(2)
25. Man's social nature makes it evident that the progress of the
human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another. For
the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is
and must be the human person which for its part and by its very nature
stands completely in need of social life.(3) Since this social life is
not something added on to man, through his dealings with others, through
reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue he develops all his
gifts and is able to rise to his destiny.
Among those social ties which man needs for his development some,
like the family and political community, relate with greater immediacy
to his innermost nature; others originate rather from his free decision.
In our era, for various reasons, reciprocal ties and mutual dependencies
increase day by day and give rise to a variety of associations and
organizations, both public and private. This development, which is
called socialization, while certainly not without its dangers, brings
with it many advantages with respect to consolidating and increasing the
qualities of the human person, and safeguarding his rights.(4)
But if by this social life the human person is greatly aided in
responding to his destiny, even in its religious dimensions, it cannot
be denied that men are often diverted from doing good and spurred toward
and by the social circumstances in which they live and are immersed from
their birth. To be sure the disturbances which so frequently occur in
the social order result in part from the natural tensions of economic,
political and social forms. But at a deeper level they flow from man's
pride and selfishness, which contaminate even the social sphere. When
the structure of affairs is flawed by the consequences of sin, man,
already born with a bent toward evil, finds there new inducements to
sin, which cannot be overcome without strenuous efforts and the
assistance of grace.
26. Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and
spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good,
that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social
groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access
to their own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal
complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to
the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs
and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general
welfare of the entire human family.(5)
At the same time, however, there is a growing awareness of the
exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all
things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable.
Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary
for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the
right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right
to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to
appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of
one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom.
even in matters religious.
Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to
the benefit of the human person if the disposition of affairs is to be
subordinate to the personal realm and not contrariwise, as the Lord
indicated when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the Sabbath.(6)
This social order requires constant improvement It must be founded on
truth, built on justice and animated by love; in freedom it should grow
every day toward a more humane balance.(7) An improvement in attitudes
and abundant changes in society will have to take place if these
objectives are to be gained.
God's Spirit, Who with a marvelous providence directs the unfolding
of time and renews the face of the earth, is not absent from this
development. The ferment of the Gospel too has aroused and continues to
arouse in man's heart the irresistible requirements of his dignity.
27. Coming down to practical and particularly urgent consequences,
this council lays stress on reverence for man; everyone must consider
his every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into
account first of all His life and the means necessary to living it with
dignity,(8) so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the
poor man Lazarus.(9)
In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the
neighbor of every person without exception. and of actively helping him
when he comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by
all, a foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child
born of an unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not
commit, or a hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the
voice of the Lord, "As long as you did it for one of these the least of
my brethren, you did it for me" (Matt. 25:40).
Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of
murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction,
whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation,
torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself;
whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling
of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where
men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and
responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are
infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to
those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover,
they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.
28. Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or
act differently than we do in social, political and even religious
matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of
thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able
to enter into dialogue with them.
This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us
indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the
disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is
necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation,
and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person
even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions.(10) God
alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, for that reason He forbids us
to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.(11)
The teaching of Christ even requires that we forgive injuries,(12)
and extends the law of love to include every enemy, according to the
command of the New Law: "You have heard that it was said: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say to you: love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute
and calumniate you" (Matt. S:43-44).
29. Since all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's
likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed
by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic
equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition.
True, all men are not alike from the point of view of varying
physical power and the diversity of intellectual and moral resources.
Nevertheless, with respect to the fundamental rights of the person,
every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based
on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be
overcome and eradicated as contrary to God's intent. For in truth it
must still be regretted that fundamental personal rights are still not
being universally honored. Such is the case of a woman who is denied the
right to choose a husband freely, to embrace a state of life or to
acquire an education or cultural benefits equal to those recognized for
men.
Therefore, although rightful differences exist between men, the equal
dignity of persons demands that a more humane and just condition of life
be brought about. For excessive economic and social differences between
the members of the one human family or population groups cause scandal,
and militate against social justice, equity, the dignity of the human
person, as well as social and international peace.
Human institutions, both private and public, must labor to minister
to the dignity and purpose of man. At the same time let them put up a
stubborn fight against any kind of slavery, whether social or political,
and safeguard the basic rights of man under every political system.
Indeed human institutions themselves must be accommodated by degrees to
the highest of all realities, spiritual ones, even though meanwhile, a
long enough time will be required before they arrive at the desired
goal.
30. Profound and rapid changes make it more necessary that no one
ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness, content himself
with a merely individualistic morality. It grows increasingly true that
the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person,
contributing to the common good, according to his own abilities and the
needs of others, also promotes and assists the public and private
institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life. Yet
there are those who, while possessing grand and rather noble sentiments,
nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the
needs of society. Many in various places even make light of social laws
and precepts, and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and
deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to society. Others
think little of certain norms of social life, for example those designed
for the protection of health, or laws establishing speed limits; they do
not even avert to the fact that by such indifference they imperil their
own life and that of others.
Let everyone consider it his sacred obligation to esteem and observe
social necessities as belonging ta the primary duties of modern man. For
the more unified the world becomes, the more plainly do the offices of
men extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole
world. But this development cannot occur unless individual men and their
associations cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues, and
promote them in society; thus, with the needed help of divine grace men
who are truly new and artisans of a new humanity can be forthcoming
31. In order for individual men to discharge with greater exactness
the obligations of their conscience toward themselves and the various
group to which they belong, they must be carefully educated to a higher
degree of culture through the use of the immense resources available
today to the human race. Above all the education of youth from every
social background has to be undertaken, so that there can be produced
not only men and women of refined talents, but those great-souled
persons who are so desperately required by our times.
Now a man can scarcely arrive at the needed sense of responsibility,
unless his living conditions allow him to become conscious of his
dignity, and to rise to.(15) destiny by spending himself for God and for
others. But human freedom is often crippled when a man encounters
extreme poverty just as it withers when he indulges in too many of
life's comforts and imprisons himself in a kind of splendid isolation.
Freedom acquires new strength, by contrast, when a man consents to the
unavoidable requirements of social life, takes on the manifold demands
of human partnership, and commits himself to the service of the human
community.
Hence, the will to play one's role in common endeavors should be
everywhere encouraged. Praise is due to those national procedures which
allow the largest possible number of citizens to participate in public
affairs with genuine freedom. Account must be taken, to be sure, of the
actual conditions of each people and the decisiveness required by public
authority. If every citizen is to feel inclined to take part in the
activities of the various groups which make up the social body, these
must offer advantages which will attract members and dispose them to
serve others. We can justly consider that the future of humanity lies in
the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations
with reasons for living and hoping.
32. As God did not create man for life in isolation, but for the
formation of social unity, so also "it has pleased God to make men holy
and save them not merely as individuals, without bond or link between
them, but by making them into a single people, a people which
acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness."(13) So from the
beginning of salvation history He has chosen men not just as individuals
but as members of a certain community. Revealing His mind to them, God
called these chosen ones "His people" (Ex. 3:7-12), and even made a
covenant with them on Sinai.(14)
This communitarian character is developed and consummated in the work
of Jesus Christ. For the very Word made flesh willed to share in the
human fellowship. He was present at the wedding of Cana, visited the
house of Zacchaeus, ate with publicans and sinners. He revealed the love
of the Father and the sublime vocation of man in terms of the most
common of social realities and by making use of the speech and the
imagery of plain everyday life. Willingly obeying' the laws of his
country He sanctified those human ties, especially family ones, which
are the source of social structures. He chose to lead the life proper to
an artisan of His time and place.
In His preaching He clearly taught the sons of God to treat one
another as brothers. In His prayers He pleaded that all His disciples
might be "one." Indeed as the redeemer of all, He offered Himself for
all even to point of death. "Greater love than this no one has, that one
lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). He commanded His
Apostles to preach to all peoples the Gospel's message that the human
race was to become the Family of God, in which the fullness of the Law
would be love.
As the firstborn of many brethren and by the giving of His Spirit, He
founded after His death and resurrection a new brotherly community
composed of all those who receive Him in faith and in love. This He did
through His Body. which is the Church. There everyone, as members one of
the other. would render mutual service according to the different gifts
bestowed on each.
This solidarity must be constantly increased until that day on which
it will be brought to perfection. Then, saved by grace, men will offer
flawless glory to God as a family beloved of God and of Christ their
Brother.
Chapter III: Man's Activity throughout the World
33. Through his labors and his native endowments man has ceaselessly
striven to better his life. Today, however, especially with the help of
science and technology, he has extended his mastery over nearly the
whole of nature and continues to do so. Thanks to increased
opportunities for many kinds of social contact among nations, a human
family is gradually recognizing that it comprises a single world
community and is making itself so. Hence many benefits once looked for,
especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for
himself
In the face of these immense efforts which already preoccupy the
whole human race, men agitate numerous questions among themselves. What
is the meaning and value of this feverish activity? How should all these
things be used? To the achievement of what goal are the strivings of
individuals and societies heading? The Church guards the heritage of
God's word and draws from it moral and religious principles without
always having at hand the solution to particular problems. As such she
desires to add the light of revealed truth to mankind's store of
experience. so that the path which humanity has taken in recent times
will not be a dark one.
34. Throughout the course of the centuries, men have labored to
better the circumstances of their lives through a monumental amount of
individual and collective effort. To believers, this point is settled:
considered in itself, this human activity accords with God's will. For
man, created to God's image, received a mandate to subject to himself
the earth and all it contains, and to govern the world with justice and
holiness;(1) a mandate to relate himself and the totality of things to
Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by
the subjection of all things to man, the name of God would be wonderful
in all the earth.(2)
This mandate concerns the whole of everyday activity as well. For
while providing the substance of life for themselves and their families,
men and women are performing their activities in a way which
appropriately benefits society. They can justly consider that by their
labor they are unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages
of their brother men, and are contributing by their personal industry to
the realization history of the divine plan.(3)
Thus, far from thinking that works produced by man's own talent and
energy are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational creature
exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced that
the triumphs of the human race are a sign of God's grace and the
flowering of His own mysterious design. For the greater man's power
becomes, the farther his individual and community responsibility
extends. Hence it is clear that men are not deterred by the Christian
message from building up the world, or impelled to neglect the welfare
of their fellows, but that they are rather more stringently bound to do
these very things.(4)
35. Human activity, to be sure, takes its significance from its
relationship to man. Just as it proceeds from man, so it is ordered
toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society,
he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his
resources, he goes outside of himself and beyond himself. Rightly
understood this kind of growth is of greater value than any external
riches which can be garnered. A man is more precious for what he is than
for what he has.(5) Similarly, all that men do to obtain greater
justice, wider brotherhood, a more humane disposition of social
relationships has greater worth than technical advances. For these
advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves
alone they can never actually bring it about.
Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the
divine plan and will, it harmonize with the genuine good of the human
race, and that it allow men as individuals and as members of society to
pursue their total vocation and fulfill it.
36. Now many of our contemporaries seem to fear that a closer bond
between human activity and religion will work against the independence
of men, of societies, or of the sciences.
If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and
societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be
gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is
entirely right to demand that autonomy. Such is not merely required by
modern man, but harmonizes also with the will of the Creator. For by the
very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed
with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man
must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the
individual sciences or arts. Therefore if methodical investigation
within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific
manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with
faith, for earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the
same God. (6) Indeed whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality
with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is
nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in
existence, and gives them their identity. Consequently, we cannot but
deplore certain habits of mind, which are sometimes found too among
Christians, which do not sufficiently attend to the rightful
independence of science and which, from the arguments and controversies
they spark, lead many minds to conclude that faith and science are
mutually opposed.(7)
But if the expression, the independence of temporal affairs, is taken
to mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use
them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God
will see how false such a meaning is. For without the Creator the
creature would disappear. For their part, however, all believers of
whatever religion always hear His revealing voice in the discourse of
creatures. When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows
unintelligible.
37. Sacred Scripture teaches the human family what the experience of
the ages confirms: that while human progress is a great advantage to
man, it brings with it a strong temptation. For when the order of values
is jumbled and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay
heed solely to their own interests, and not to those of others. Thus it
happens that the world ceases to be a place of true brotherhood. In our
own day, the magnified power of humanity threatens to destroy the race
itself.
For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the
whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the
world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested.(8)
Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is
to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without
great efforts and the help of God's grace.
That is why Christ's Church, trusting in the design of the Creator,
acknowledges that human progress can serve man's true happiness, yet she
cannot help echoing the Apostle's warning: "Be not conformed to this
world" (Rom. 12:2). Here by the world is meant that spirit of vanity and
malice which transforms into an instrument of sin those human energies
intended for the service of God and man.
Hence if anyone wants to know how this unhappy situation can be
overcome, Christians will tell him that all human activity, constantly
imperiled by man's pride and deranged self-love, must be purified and
perfected by the power of Christ's cross and resurrection. For redeemed
by Christ and made a new creature in the Holy Spirit, man is able to
love the things themselves created by God, and ought to do so. He can
receive them from God and respect and reverence them as flowing
constantly from the hand of God. Grateful to his Benefactor for these
creatures, using and enjoying them in detachment and liberty of spirit,
man is led forward into a true possession of them, as having nothing,
yet possessing all things.(9) "All are yours, and you are Christ's, and
Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:22-23).
38. For God's Word, through Whom all things were made, was Himself
made flesh and dwelt on the earth of men.(10) Thus He entered the
world's history as a perfect man, taking that history up into Himself
and summarizing it.(11) He Himself revealed to us that "God is love" (1
John 4:8) and at the same time taught us that the new command of love
was the basic law of human perfection and hence of to worlds
transformation.
To those, therefore, who believe in divine love, He gives assurance
that the way of love lies open to men and that the effort to establish a
universal brotherhood is not a hopeless one. He cautions them at the
same time that this charity is not something to be reserved for
important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary
circumstances of life. Undergoing death itself for all of us
sinners,(12) He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that
cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after
peace and justice. Appointed Lord by His resurrection and given plenary
power in heaven and on earth,(13) Christ is now at work in the hearts of
men through the energy of His Holy Spirit, arousing not only a desire
for the age to come, but by that very fact animating, purifying and
strengthening those noble longings too by which the human family makes
its life more human and strives to render the whole earth submissive to
this goal.
Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse: while He calls some to give
clear witness to the desire for a heavenly home and to keep that desire
green among the human family, He summons others to dedicate themselves
to the earthly service of men and to make ready the material of the
celestial realm by this ministry of theirs. Yet He frees all of them so
that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly resources
into the service of human life they can devote themselves to that future
when humanity itself will become an offering accepted by God.(14)
The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life's
journey in that sacrament of faith where natural elements refined by man
are gloriously changed into His Body and Blood, providing a meal of
brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
39. We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of
humanity,(15) nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As
deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away;(16) but we are
taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where
justice will abide,(17) and whose blessedness will answer and surpass
all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart.(18) Then,
with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and
what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with
incorruptibility.(19) Enduring with charity and its fruits,(20) all that
creation(21) which God made on man's account will be unchained from the
bondage of vanity.
Therefore, while we are warned that it profits a man nothing if he
gain the whole world and lose himself,(22) the expectation of a new
earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating
this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which
even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age.
Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from
the growth of Christ's kingdom, to the extent that the former can
contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital
concern to the Kingdom of God.(23)
For after we have obeyed the Lord, and in His Spirit nurtured on
earth the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed
all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them
again, but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands
over to the Father: "a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth
and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace."(24) On
this earth that Kingdom is already present in mystery. When the Lord
returns it will be brought into full flower.
40. Everything we have said about the dignity of the human person,
and about the human community and the profound meaning of human
activity, lays the foundation for the relationship between the Church
and the world, and provides the basis for dialogue between them.(1) In
this chapter, presupposing everything which has already been said by
this council concerning the mystery of the Church, we must now consider
this same Church inasmuch as she exists in the world, living and acting
with it.
Coming forth from the eternal Father's love,(2) founded in time by
Christ the Redeemer and made one in the Holy Spirit,(3) the Church has a
saving and an eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in
the future world. But she is already present in this world, and is
composed of men, that is, of members of the earthly city who have a call
to form the family of God's children during the present history of the
human race, and to keep increasing it until the Lord returns. United on
behalf of heavenly values and enriched by them, this family has been
"constituted and structured as a society in this world"(4) by Christ,
and is equipped "by appropriate means for visible and social union."(5)
Thus the Church, at once "a visible association and a spiritual
community,"(6) goes forward together with humanity and experiences the
same earthly lot which the world does. She serves as a leaven and as a
kind of soul for human society(7) as it is to be renewed in Christ and
transformed into God's family.
That the earthly and the heavenly city penetrate each other is a fact
accessible to faith alone; it remains a mystery of human history, which
sin will keep in great disarray until the splendor of God's sons, is
fully revealed. Pursuing the saving purpose which is proper to her, the
Church does not only communicate divine life to men but in some way
casts the reflected light of that life over the entire earth, most of
all by its healing and elevating impact on the dignity of the person, by
the way in which it strengthens the seams of human society and imbues
the everyday activity of men with a deeper meaning and importance. Thus
through her individual matters and her whole community, the Church
believes she can contribute greatly toward making the family of man and
its history more human.
In addition, the Catholic Church gladly holds in high esteem the
things which other Christian Churches and ecclesial communities have
done or are doing cooperatively by way of achieving the same goal. At
the same time, she is convinced that she can be abundantly and variously
helped by the world in the matter of preparing the ground for the
Gospel. This help she gains from the talents and industry of individuals
and from human society as a whole. The council now sets forth certain
general principles for the proper fostering of this mutual exchange and
assistance in concerns which are in some way common to the world and the
Church.
41. Modern man is on the road to a more thorough development of his
own personality, and to a growing discovery and vindication of his own
rights. Since it has been entrusted to the Church to reveal the mystery
of God, Who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens up to man at the same
time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth
about himself. The Church truly knows that only God, Whom she serves,
meets the deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully
satisfied by what this world has to offer.
She also knows that man is constantly worked upon by God's spirit,
and hence can never be altogether indifferent to the problems of
religion. The experience of past ages proves this, as do numerous
indications in our own times. For man will always yearn to know, at
least in an obscure way, what is the meaning of his life, of his
activity, of his death. The very presence of the Church recalls these
problems to his mind. But only God, Who created man to His own image and
ransomed him from sin, provides the most adequate answer to the
questions, and this Ho does through what He has revealed in Christ His
Son, Who became man. Whoever follows after Christ, the perfect man,
becomes himself more of a man. For by His incarnation the Father's Word
assumed, and sanctified through His cross and resurrection, the whole of
man, body and soul, and through that totality the whole of nature
created by God for man's use.
Thanks to this belief, the Church can anchor the dignity of human
nature against all tides of opinion, for example those which undervalue
the human body or idolize it. By no human law can the personal dignity
and liberty of man be so aptly safeguarded as by the Gospel of Christ
which has been entrusted to the Church. For this Gospel announces and
proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, and repudiates all the bondage
which ultimately results from sin.(8) (cf. Rom. 8:14-17); it has a
sacred reverence for the dignity of conscience and its freedom of
choice, constantly advises that all human talents be employed in God's
service and men's, and, finally, commends all to the charity of all (cf.
Matt. 22:39).(9)
This agrees with the basic law of the Christian dispensation. For
though the same God is Savior and Creator, Lord of human history as well
as of salvation history, in the divine arrangement itself, the rightful
autonomy of the creature, and particularly of man is not withdrawn, but
is rather re-established in its own dignity and strengthened in it.
The Church, therefore, by virtue of the Gospel committed to her,
proclaims the rights of man; she acknowledges and greatly esteems the
dynamic movements of today by which these rights are everywhere
fostered. Yet these movements must be penetrated by the spirit of the
Gospel and protected against any kind of false autonomy. For we are
tempted to think that our personal rights are fully ensured only when we
are exempt from every requirement of divine law. But this way lies not
the maintenance of the dignity of the human person, but its
annihilation.
42. The union of the human family is greatly fortified and fulfilled
by the unity, founded on Christ,(10) of the family of God's sons.
Christ, to be sure, gave His Church no proper mission in the
political, economic or social order. The purpose which He set before her
is a religious one.(11) But out of this religious mission itself come a
function, a light and an energy which can serve to structure and
consolidate the human community according to the divine law. As a matter
of fact, when circumstances of time and place produce the need, she can
and indeed should initiate activities on behalf of all men, especially
those designed for the needy, such as the works of mercy and similar
undertakings.
The Church recognizes that worthy elements are found in today's
social movements, especially an evolution toward unity, a process of
wholesome socialization and of association in civic and economic realms.
The promotion of unity belongs to the innermost nature of the Church,
for she is, "thanks to her relationship with Christ, a sacramental sign
and an instrument of intimate union with God, and of the unity of the
whole human race."(12) Thus she shows the world that an authentic union,
social and external, results from a union of minds and hearts, namely
from that faith and charity by which her own unity is unbreakably rooted
in the Holy Spirit. For the force which the Church can inject into the
modern society of man consists in that faith and charity put into vital
practice, not in any external dominion exercised by merely human means.
Moreover, since in virtue of her mission and nature she is bound to
no particular form of human culture, nor to any political, economic or
social system, the Church by her very universality can be a very close
bond between diverse human communities and nations, provided these trust
her and truly acknowledge her right to true freedom in fulfilling her
mission. For this reason, the Church admonishes her own sons, but also
humanity as a whole, to overcome all strife between nations and race in
this family spirit of God's children, an in the same way, to give
internal strength to human associations which are just.
With great respect, therefore, this council regards all the true,
good and just elements inherent in the very wide variety of institutions
which the human race has established for itself and constantly continues
to establish. The council affirms, moreover, that the Church is willing
to assist and promote all these institutions to the extent that such a
service depends on her and can be associated with her mission. She has
no fiercer desire than that in pursuit of the welfare of all she may be
able to develop herself freely under any kind of government which grants
recognition to the basic rights of person and family, to the demands of
the common good and to the free exercise of her own mission.
43. This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to
strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response
he Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no
abiding city but seek one which is to come,(13) think that they may
therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting
that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up
to these duties, each according to his proper vocation.(14) Nor, on the
contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion
consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral
obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly
affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced
from the religious life. This split between the faith which many profess
and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious
errors of our age. Long since, the Prophets of the Old Testament fought
vehemently against this scandal(15) and even more so did Jesus Christ
Himself in the New Testament threaten it with grave punishments.(16)
Therefore, let there be no false opposition between professional and
social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other. The
Christian who neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward
his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation.
Christians should rather rejoice that, following the example of Christ
Who worked as an artisan, they are free to give proper exercise to all
their earthly activities and to their humane, domestic, professional,
social and technical enterprises by gathering them into one vital
synthesis with religious values, under whose supreme direction all
things are harmonized unto God's glory.
Secular duties and activities belong properly although not
exclusively to laymen. Therefore acting as citizens in the world,
whether individually or socially, they will keep the laws proper to each
discipline, and labor to equip themselves with a genuine expertise in
their various fields. They will gladly work with men seeking the same
goals. Acknowledging the demands of faith and endowed with its force,
they will unhesitatingly devise new enterprises, where they are
appropriate, and put them into action. Laymen should also know that it
is generally the function of their well-formed Christian conscience to
see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city;
from priests they may look for spiritual light and nourishment. Let the
layman not imagine that his pastors are always such experts, that to
every problem which arises, however complicated, they can readily give
him a concrete solution, or even that such is their mission. Rather,
enlightened by Christian wisdom and giving close attention to the
teaching authority of the Church,(17) let the layman take on his own
distinctive role.
Often enough the Christian view of things will itself suggest some
specific solution in certain circumstances. Yet it happens rather
frequently, and legitimately so, that with equal sincerity some of the
faithful will disagree with others on a given matter. Even against the
intentions of their proponents, however, solutions proposed on one side
or another may be easily confused by many people with the Gospel
message. Hence it is necessary for people to remember that no one is
allowed in the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church's
authority for his opinion. They should always try to enlighten one
another through honest discussion, preserving mutual charity and caring
above all for the common good.
Since they have an active role to play in the whole life of the
Church, laymen are not only bound to penetrate the world with a
Christian spirit, but are also called to be witnesses to Christ in all
things in the midst of human society.
Bishops, to whom is assigned the task of ruling the Church of God,
should, together with their priests, so preach the news of Christ that
all the earthly activities of the faithful will be bathed in the light
of the Gospel. All pastors should remember too that by their daily
conduct and concern(18) they are revealing the face of the Church to the
world, and men will judge the power and truth of the Christian message
thereby. By their lives and speech, in union with Religious and their
faithful, may they demonstrate that even now the Church by her presence
alone and by all the gifts which she contains, is an unspent fountain of
those virtues which the modern world needs the most.
By unremitting study they should fit themselves to do their part in
establishing dialogue with the world and with men of all shades of
opinion. Above all let them take to heart the words which this council
has spoken: "Since humanity today increasingly moves toward civil,
economic and social unity, it is more than ever necessary that priests,
with joint concern and energy, and under the guidance of the bishops and
the supreme pontiff, erase every cause of division, so that the whole
human race may be led to the unity of God's family."(19)
Although by the power of the Holy Spirit the Church will remain the
faithful spouse of her Lord and will never cease to be the sign of
salvation on earth, still she is very well aware that among her
members,(20) both clerical and lay, some have been unfaithful to the
Spirit of God during the course of many centuries; in the present age,
too, it does not escape the Church how great a distance lies between the
message she offers and the human failings of those to whom the Gospel is
entrusted. Whatever be the judgement of history on these defects, we
ought to be conscious of them, and struggle against them energetically,
lest they inflict harm on spread of the Gospel. The Church also realizes
that in working out her relationship with the world she always has great
need of the ripening which comes with the experience of the centuries.
Led by the Holy Spirit, Mother Church unceasingly exhorts her sons "to
purify and renew themselves so that the sign of Christ can shine more
brightly on the face
44. Just as it is in the world's interest to acknowledge the Church
as an historical reality, and to recognize her good influence, so the
Church herself knows how richly she has profited by the history and
development of humanity.
The experience of past ages, the progress of the sciences, and the
treasures hidden in the various forms of human culture, by all of which
the nature of man himself is more clearly revealed and new roads to
truth are opened, these profit the Church, too. For, from the beginning
of her history she has learned to express the message of Christ with the
help of the ideas and terminology of various philosophers, and has tried
to clarify it with their wisdom, too. Her purpose has been to adapt the
Gospel to the grasp of all as well as to the needs of the learned,
insofar as such was appropriate. Indeed this accommodated preaching of
the revealed word ought to remain the law of all evangelization. For
thus the ability to express Christ's message in its own way is developed
in each nation, and at the same time there is fostered a living exchange
between the Church and' the diverse cultures of people.(22) To promote
such exchange, especially in our days, the Church requires the special
help of those who live in the world, are versed in different
institutions and specialties, and grasp their innermost significance in
the eyes of both believers and unbelievers. With the help of the Holy
Spirit, it is the task of the entire People of God, especially pastors
and theologians, to hear, distinguish and interpret the many voices of
our age, and to judge them in the light of the divine word, so that
revealed truth can always be more deeply penetrated, better understood
and set forth to greater advantage.
Since the Church has a visible and social structure as a sign of her
unity in Christ, she can and ought to be enriched by the development of
human social life, not that there is any lack in the constitution given
her by Christ, but that she can understand it more penetratingly,
express it better, and adjust it more successfully to our times.
Moreover, she gratefully understands that in her community life no less
than in her individual sons, she receives a variety of helps from men of
every rank and condition, for whoever promotes the human community at
the family level, culturally, in its economic, social and political
dimensions, both nationally and internationally, such a one, according
to God's design, is contributing greatly to the Church as well, to the
extent that she depends on things outside herself. Indeed, the Church
admits that she has greatly profited and still profits from the
antagonism of those who oppose or who persecute her.(23)
45. While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the
Church has a single intention: that God's kingdom may come, and that the
salvation of the whole human race may come to pass. For every benefit
which the People of God during its earthly pilgrimage can offer to the
human family stems from the fact that the Church is "the universal
sacrament of salvation",(24) simultaneously manifesting and a rising the
mystery of God's love.
For God's Word, by whom all things were made, was Himself made flesh
so that as perfect man He might save all men and sum up all things in
Himself. The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the
longings of history and of civilization, the center of the human race,
the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings.(25) He it is
Whom the Father raised from the dead, lifted on high and stationed at
His right hand, making Him judge of the living and the dead. Enlivened
and united in His Spirit, we journey toward the consummation of human
history, one which fully accords with the counsel of God's love: "To
reestablish all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on
the earth" (Eph. 11:10).
The Lord Himself speaks: "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with
me, to render to each one according to his works. I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Act;.
22;12-13).
PART II: SOME PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL URGENCY
46. This council has set forth the dignity of the human person, and
the work which men have been destined to undertake throughout the world
both as individuals and as members of society. There are a number of
particularly urgent needs characterizing the present age, needs which go
to the roots of the human race. To a consideration of these in the light
of the Gospel and of human experience, the council would now direct the
attention of all.
Of the many subjects arousing universal concern today, it may be
helpful to concentrate on these: marriage and the family, human
progress, life in its economic, social and political dimensions, the
bonds between the family of nations, and peace. On each of these may
there shine the radiant ideals proclaimed by Christ. By these ideals may
Christians be led, and all mankind enlightened, as they search for
answers to questions of such complexity.
Chapter I: Fostering the Nobility of Marriage and the
Family
47. The well-being of the individual person and of human and
Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of
that community produced by marriage and family. Hence Christians and all
men who hold this community in high esteem sincerely rejoice in the
various ways by which men today find help in fostering this community of
love and perfecting its life, and by which parents are assisted in their
lofty calling. Those who rejoice in such aids look for additional
benefits from them and labor to bring them about.
Yet the excellence of this institution is not everywhere reflected
with equal brilliance, since polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called
free love and other disfigurements have an obscuring effect. In
addition, married love is too often profaned by excessive self-love, the
worship of pleasure and illicit practices against human generation.
Moreover, serious disturbances are caused in families by modern economic
conditions, by influences at once social and psychological, and by the
demands of civil society. Finally, in certain parts of the world
problems resulting from population growth are generating concern.
All these situations have produced anxiety of consciences. Yet, the
power and strength of the institution of marriage and family can also be
seen in the fact that time and again, despite the difficulties produced,
the profound changes in modern society reveal the true character of this
institution in one way or another.
Therefore, by presenting certain key points of Church doctrine in a
clearer light, this sacred synod wishes to offer guidance and support to
those Christians and other men who are trying to preserve the holiness
and to foster the natural dignity of the married state and its
superlative value.
48. The intimate partnership of married life and love has been
established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in
the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. Hence by that
human act whereby spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a
relationship arises which by divine will and in the eyes of society too
is a lasting one. For the good of the spouses and their off-springs as
well as of society, the existence of the sacred bond no longer depends
on human decisions alone. For, God Himself is the author of matrimony,
endowed as it is with various benefits and purposes.(1) All of these
have a very decisive bearing on the continuation of the human race, on
the personal development and eternal destiny of the individual members
of a family, and on the dignity, stability, peace and prosperity of the
family itself and of human society as a whole. By their very nature, the
institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the
procreation and education of children, and find in them their ultimate
crown. Thus a man and a woman, who by their compact of conjugal love
"are no longer two, but one flesh" (Matt. 19:ff), render mutual help and
service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of
their actions. Through this union they experience the meaning of their
oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a mutual
gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good of the children
impose total fidelity on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable
oneness between them.(2)
Christ the Lord abundantly blessed this many-faceted love, welling up
as it does from the fountain of divine love and structured as it is on
the model of His union with His Church. For as God of old made Himself
present(3) to His people through a covenant of love and fidelity, so now
the Savior of men and the Spouse(4) of the Church comes into the lives
of married Christians through the sacrament of matrimony. He abides with
them thereafter so that just as He loved the Church and handed Himself
over on her behalf,(6) the spouses may love each other with perpetual
fidelity through mutual self-bestowal.
Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed
and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the
Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful
effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a
father or a mother.(6) For this reason Christian spouses have a special
sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration
in the duties and dignity of their state.(7) By virtue of this
sacrament, as spouses fulfil their conjugal and family obligation, they
are penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole
lives with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the
perfection of their own personalities, as well as their mutual
sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God.
As a result, with their parents leading the way by example and family
Prayer, children and indeed everyone gathered around the family hearth
will find a readier path to human maturity, salvation and holiness.
Graced with the dignity and office of fatherhood and motherhood, parents
will energetically acquit themselves of a duty which devolves primarily
on them, namely education and especially religious education.
As living members of the family, children contribute in their own way
to making their parents holy. For they will respond to the kindness of
their parents with sentiments of gratitude, with love and trust. They
will stand by them as children should when hardships overtake their
parents and old age brings its loneliness. Widowhood, accepted bravely
as a continuation of the marriage vocation, should be esteemed by
all.(8) Families too will share their spiritual riches generously with
other families. Thus the Christian family, which springs from marriage
as a reflection of the loving covenant uniting Christ with the
Church,(9) and as a participation in that covenant, will manifest to all
men Christ's living presence in the world, and the genuine nature of the
Church. This the family will do by the mutual love of the spouses, by
their generous fruitfulness, their solidarity and faithfulness, and by
the loving way in which all members of the family assist one another.
49. The biblical Word of God several times urges the betrothed and
the married to nourish and develop their wedlock by pure conjugal love
and undivided affection.(10) Many men of our own age also highly regard
true love between husband and wife as it manifests itself in a variety
of ways depending on the worthy customs of various peoples and times.
This love is an eminently human one since it is directed from one
person to another through an affection of the will; it involves the good
of the whole person, and therefore can enrich the expressions of body
and mind with a unique dignity, ennobling these expressions as special
ingredients and signs of the friendship distinctive of marriage. This
love God has judged worthy of special gifts, healing, perfecting and
exalting gifts of grace and of charity. Such love, merging the human
with the divine, leads the spouses to a free and mutual gift of
themselves, a gift providing itself by gentle affection and by deed,
such love pervades the whole of their lives:(11) indeed by its busy
generosity it grows better and grows greater. Therefore it far excels
mere erotic inclination, which, selfishly pursued, soon enough fades
wretchedly away.
This love is uniquely expressed and perfected through the appropriate
enterprise of matrimony. The actions within marriage by which the couple
are united intimately and chastely are noble and worthy ones. Expressed
in a manner which is truly human, these actions promote that mutual
self-giving by which spouses enrich each other with a joyful and a ready
will. Sealed by mutual faithfulness and be allowed above all by Christ’s
sacrament, this love remains steadfastly true in body and in mind, in
bright days or dark. It will never be profaned by adultery or divorce.
Firmly established by the Lord, the unity of marriage will radiate from
the equal personal dignity of wife and husband, a dignity acknowledged
by mutual and total love. The constant fulfillment of the duties of this
Christian vocation demands notable virtue. For this reason, strengthened
by grace for holiness of life, the couple will painstakingly cultivate
and pray for steadiness of love, large heartedness and the spirit of
sacrifice.
Authentic conjugal love will be more highly prized, and wholesome
public opinion created about it if Christian couples give outstanding
witness to faithfulness and harmony in their love, and to their concern
for educating their children also, if they do their part in bringing
about the needed cultural, psychological and social renewal on behalf of
marriage and the family. Especially in the heart of their own families,
young people should be aptly and seasonably instructed in the dignity,
duty and work of married love. Trained thus in the cultivation of
chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to enter a marriage of
their own after an honorable courtship.
50. Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward
the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme
gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of
their parents. The God Himself Who said, "it is not good for man to be
alone" (Gen. 2:18) and "Who made man from the beginning male and female"
(Matt. 19:4), wishing to share with man a certain special participation
in His own creative work, blessed male and female, saying: "Increase and
multiply" (Gen. 1:28). Hence, while not making the other purposes of
matrimony of less account, the true practice of conjugal love, and the
whole meaning of the family life which results from it, have this aim:
that the couple be ready with stout hearts to cooperate with the love of
the Creator and the Savior. Who through them will enlarge and enrich His
own family day by day.
Parents should regard as their proper mission the task of
transmitting human life and educating those to whom it has been
transmitted. They should realize that they are thereby cooperators with
the love of God the Creator, and are, so to speak, the interpreters of
that love. Thus they will fulfil their task with human and Christian
responsibility, and, with docile reverence toward God, will make
decisions by common counsel and effort. Let them thoughtfully take into
account both their own welfare and that of their children, those already
born and those which the future may bring. For this accounting they need
to reckon with both the material and the spiritual conditions of the
times as well as of their state in life. Finally, they should consult
the interests of the family group, of temporal society, and of the
Church herself. The parents themselves and no one else should ultimately
make this judgment in the sight of God. But in their manner of acting,
spouses should be aware that they cannot proceed arbitrarily, but must
always be governed according to a conscience dutifully conformed to the
divine law itself, and should be submissive toward the Church's teaching
office, which authentically interprets that law in the light of the
Gospel. That divine law reveals and protects the integral meaning of
conjugal love, and impels it toward a truly human fulfillment. Thus,
trusting in divine Providence and refining the spirit of sacrifice,(12)
married Christians glorify the Creator and strive toward fulfillment in
Christ when with a generous human and Christian sense of responsibility
they acquit themselves of the duty to procreate. Among the couples who
fulfil their God-given task in this way, those merit special mention who
with a gallant heart and with wise and common deliberation, undertake to
bring up suitably even a relatively large family.(13)
Marriage to be sure is not instituted solely for procreation; rather,
its very nature as an unbreakable compact between persons, and the
welfare of the children, both demand that the mutual love of the spouses
be embodied in a rightly ordered manner, that it grow and ripen.
Therefore, marriage persists as a whole manner and communion of life,
and maintains its value and indissolubility, even when despite the often
intense desire of the couple, offspring are lacking.
51. This council realizes that certain modern conditions often keep
couples from arranging their married lives harmoniously, and that they
find themselves in circumstances where at least temporarily the size of
their families should not be increased. As a result, the faithful
exercise of love and the full intimacy of their lives are hard to
maintain. But where the intimacy of married life is broken off, its
faithfulness can sometimes be imperiled and its quality of fruitfulness
ruined, for then the upbringing of the children and the courage to
accept new ones are both endangered.
To these problems there are those who presume to offer dishonorable
solutions indeed; they do not recoil even from the taking of life. But
the Church issues the reminder that a true contradiction cannot exist
between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those
pertaining to authentic conjugal love.
For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing
ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man.
Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with
the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.
The sexual characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction
wonderfully exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life. Hence the
acts themselves which are proper to conjugal love and which are
exercised in accord with genuine human dignity must be honored with
great reverence. Hence when there is question of harmonizing conjugal
love with the responsible transmission of life, the moral aspects of any
procedure does not depend solely on sincere intentions or on an
evaluation of motives, but must be determined by objective standards.
These, based on the nature of the human person and his acts, preserve
the full sense of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the
context of true love. Such a goal cannot be achieved unless the virtue
of conjugal chastity is sincerely practiced. Relying on these
principles, sons of the Church may not undertake methods of birth
control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the
Church in its unfolding of the divine law.(14)
All should be persuaded that human life and the task of transmitting
it are not realities bound up with this world alone. Hence they cannot
be measured or perceived only in terms of it, but always have a bearing
on the eternal destiny of men.
52. The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity. But if it is
to achieve the full flowering of its life and mission, it needs the
kindly communion of minds and the joint deliberation of spouses, as well
as the painstaking cooperation of parents in the education of their
children. The active presence of the father is highly beneficial to
their formation. The children, especially the younger among them, need
the care of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be
safely preserved, though the legitimate social progress of women should
not be underrated on that account.
Children should be so educated that as adults they can follow their
vocation, including a religious one, with a mature sense of
responsibility and can choose their state of life; if they marry, they
can thereby establish their family in favorable moral, social and
economic conditions. Parents or guardians should by prudent advice
provide guidance to their young with respect to founding a family, and
the young ought to listen gladly. At the same time no pressure, direct
or indirect, should be put on the young to make them enter marriage or
choose a specific partner.
Thus the family, in which the various generations come together and
help one another grow wiser and harmonize personal rights with the other
requirements of social life, is the foundation of society. All those,
therefore, who exercise influence over communities and social groups
should work efficiently for the welfare of marriage and the family.
Public authority should regard it as a sacred duty to recognize, protect
and promote their authentic nature, to shield public morality and to
favor the prosperity of home life. The right of parents to beget and
educate their children in the bosom of the family must be safeguarded.
Children too who unhappily lack the blessing of a family should be
protected by prudent legislation and various undertakings and assisted
by the help they need.
Christians, redeeming the present time(13) and distinguishing eternal
realities from their changing expressions, should actively promote the
values of marriage and the family, both by the examples of their own
lives and by cooperation with other men of good will. Thus when
difficulties arise, Christians will provide, on behalf of family life,
those necessities and helps which are suitably modern. To this end, the
Christian instincts of the faithful, the upright moral consciences of
men, and the wisdom and experience of persons versed in the sacred
sciences will have much to contribute.
Those too who are skilled in other sciences, notably the medical,
biological, social and psychological, can considerably advance the
welfare of marriage and the family along with peace of conscience if by
pooling their efforts they labor to explain more thoroughly the various
conditions favoring a proper regulation of births.
It devolves on priests duly trained about family matters to nurture
the vocation of spouses by a variety of pastoral means, by preaching
God's word, by liturgical worship, and by other spiritual aids to
conjugal and family life; to sustain them sympathetically and patiently
in difficulties, and to make them courageous through love, so that
families which are truly illustrious can be formed.
Various organizations, especially family associations, should try by
their programs of instruction and action to strengthen young people and
spouses themselves, particularly those recently wed, and to train them
for family, social and apostolic life.
Finally, let the spouses themselves, made to the image of the living
God and enjoying the authentic dignity of persons, be joined to one
another(16) in equal affection, harmony of mind and the work of mutual
sanctification. Thus, following Christ who is the principle of life,(17)
by the sacrifices and joys of their vocation and through their faithful
love, married people can become witnesses of the mystery of love which
the Lord revealed to the world by His dying and His rising up to life
again.(18)
Chapter II: The Proper Development of Culture
53. Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture, that
is through the cultivation of the goods and values of nature. Wherever
human life is involved, therefore, nature and culture are quite
intimately connected one with the other.
The word "culture" in its general sense indicates everything whereby
man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities; he
strives by his knowledge and his labor, to bring the world itself under
his control. He renders social life more human both in the family and
the civic community, through improvement of customs and institutions.
Throughout the course of time he expresses, communicates and conserves
in his works, great spiritual experiences and desires, that they might
be of advantage to the progress of many, even of the whole human family.
Thence it follows that human culture has necessarily a historical and
social aspect and the word "culture" also often assumes a sociological
and ethnological sense. According to this sense we speak of a plurality
of cultures. Different styles of life and multiple scales of values
arise from the diverse manner of using things, of laboring, of
expressing oneself, of practicing religion, of forming customs, of
establishing laws and juridic institutions of cultivating the sciences,
the arts and beauty. Thus the customs handed down to it form the
patrimony proper to each human community. It is also in this way that
there is formed the definite, historical milieu which enfolds the man oœ
every nation and age and from which he draws the values which permit him
to promote civilization.
Section 1: The Circumstances of Culture in the World Today
54. The circumstances of the life of modern man have been so
profoundly changed in their social and cultural aspects, that we can
speak of a new age of human history.(1) New ways are open, therefore,
for the perfection and the further extension of culture. These ways have
been prepared by the enormous growth of natural, human and social
sciences, by technical progress, and advances in developing and
organizing means whereby men can communicate with one another. Hence the
culture of today possesses particular characteristics: sciences which
are called exact greatly develop critical judgment; the more recent
psychological studies more profoundly explain human activity; historical
studies make it much easier to see things in their mutable and
evolutionary aspects, customs and usages are becoming more and more
uniform; industrialization, urbanization, and other causes which promote
community living create a mass-culture from which are born new ways of
thinking, acting and making use of leisure. The increase of commerce
between the various nations and human groups opens more widely to all
the treasures of different civilizations and thus little by little,
there develops a more universal form of human culture, which better
promotes and expresses the unity of the human race to the degree that it
preserves the particular aspects of the different civilizations.
55. From day to day, in every group or nation, there is an increase
in the number of men and women who are conscious that they themselves
are the authors and the artisans of the culture of their community.
Throughout the whole world there is a mounting increase in the sense of
autonomy as well as of responsibility. This is of paramount importance
for the spiritual and moral maturity of the human race. This becomes
more clear if we consider the unification of the world and the duty
which is imposed upon us, that we build a better world based upon truth
and justice. Thus we are witnesses of the birth of a new humanism, one
in which man is defined first of all by this responsibility to his
brothers and to history.
56. In these conditions, it is no cause of wonder that man, who
senses his responsibility for the progress of culture, nourishes a high
hope but also looks with anxiety upon many contradictory things which he
must resolve:
What is to be done to prevent the increased exchanges between
cultures, which should lead to a true and fruitful dialogue between
groups and nations, from disturbing the life of communities, from
destroying the wisdom received from ancestors, or from placing in danger
the character proper to each people?
How is the dynamism and expansion of a new culture to be fostered
without losing a living fidelity to the heritage of tradition? This
question is of particular urgency when a culture which arises from the
enormous progress of science and technology must be harmonized with a
culture nourished by classical studies according to various traditions.
How can we quickly and progressively harmonize the proliferation of
particular branches of study with the necessity of forming a synthesis
of them, and of preserving among men the faculties of contemplation and
observation which lead to wisdom?
What can be done to make all men partakers of cultural values in the
world, when the human culture of those who are more competent is
constantly becoming more refined and more complex?
Finally how is the autonomy which culture claims for itself to be
recognized as legitimate without generating a notion of humanism which
is merely terrestrial, and even contrary to religion itself.
In the midst of these conflicting requirements, human culture must
evolve today in such a way that it can both develop the whole human
person and aid man in those duties to whose fulfillment all are called,
especially Christians fraternally united in one human family.
Section 2: Some Principles for the Proper Development of Culture
57. Christians, on pilgrimage toward the heavenly city, should seek
and think of these things which are above(2) This duty in no way
decreases, rather it increases, the importance of their obligation to
work with all men in the building of a more human world. Indeed, the
mystery of the Christian faith furnishes them with an excellent
stimulant and aid to fulfill this duty more courageously and especially
to uncover the full meaning of this activity, one which gives to human
culture its eminent place in the integral vocation of man.
When man develops the earth by the work of his hands or with the aid
of technology, in order that it might bear fruit and become a dwelling
worthy of the whole human family and when he consciously takes part in
the life of social groups, he carries out the design of God manifested
at the beginning of time, that he should subdue the earth, perfect
creation and develop himself. At the same time he obeys the commandment
of Christ that he place himself at the service of his brethren.
Furthermore, when man gives himself to the various disciplines of
philosophy, history and of mathematical and natural science, and when he
cultivates the arts, he can do very much to elevate the human family to
a more sublime understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty, and to the
formation of considered opinions which have universal value. Thus
mankind may be more clearly enlightened by that marvelous Wisdom which
was with God from all eternity, composing all things with him, rejoicing
in the earth, delighting in the sons of men.(4)
In this way, the human spirit, being less subjected to material
things, can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the
Creator. Moreover, by the impulse of grace, he is disposed to
acknowledge the Word of God, Who before He became flesh in order to save
all and to sum up all in Himself was already "in the world" as "the true
light which enlightens every man" (John 1:9-10).(5)
Indeed today's progress in science and technology can foster a
certain exclusive emphasis on observable data, and an agnosticism about
everything else. For the methods of investigation which these sciences
use can be wrongly considered as the supreme rule of seeking the whole
truth. By virtue of their methods these sciences cannot penetrate to the
intimate notion of things. Indeed the danger is present that man,
confiding too much in the discoveries of today, may think that he is
sufficient unto himself and no longer seek the higher things.
Those unfortunate results, however, do not necessarily follow from
the culture of today, nor should they lead us into the temptati |
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