INTRODUCTION

His Reverend Eminence Cardinal

Darío Castrillón Hoyos

Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy

THE CHURCH’S SOCIAL DOCTRINE

"Christ exhorts them to stand to their Christian liberty" (Gal 5, 1). St. Paul’s affirmation emphasises the fundamental need of the Church’s divine mission: to guide humankind along the path of real freedom, outlined by Christ Crucified and Risen. From Him the Church has received the full revelation of the truth about humankind, by Him she is called upon to announce and bear witness, always and forever, to the transcendent dignity of the human person "As such he has rights and duties, which together flow as a direct consequence from his nature. These rights and duties are universal and inviolable, and therefore altogether inalienable. (7)" as the Blessed John XXIII stated forty years ago in encyclical Pacem in terris (11.4.1963, AAS 55, 1963, 259).

The Church "pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tm 3, 15), establishes through her social doctrine founded on the Gospel, the moral principles for social economic and political order and pronounces moral judgements on all human events, "when this is required by a person’s fundamental rights or the redemption of souls", according to the well-known expression used in the pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (no. 23; see Code of Cannon Law 747).

This is the subject of the twenty-first international theological video-conference: "The Church’s social doctrine". As John Paul II reminds us, "it exists within the framework of theology and especially moral theology" (see Encyclical letter Sollicitudo rei socialis dated December 30^th: AAS 80, year 1988, 571): it is the "grammar" of the universal language of men of good will committed to the institutions, to social, political and economic activities, to the respect of humankind in its integrity: so that each human person may exist in the Truth and enact the Truth (see John 3,21), respecting the universal moral law engraved in his heart (see John Paul II, Speech to the participants at the "International Congress of moral theology", 10.4.1986, 1: Teachings , 1,year 1986, 970).

The centrality of the human person in economic and social life: this is the fundamental perspective of all the Church’s social encyclicals and in particular John Paul II’s Sollicitudo rei socialis and Centesimus annus.

Productive and commercial activities cannot only be intended to increase the number and the quality of goods, increasing profit or power: they are above all addressed to the service of the person in his integrity, for the good of the whole human community.

It is especially the value of work that must be related to man himself who is both the producer and the receiver: work "is judged above all by the measure of the dignity of the subject of work, that is to say the person, the individual who carries it out" – states Laborem exercens (no. 6)-, according to the principle that "Work is for man and not man for work" (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2428).

The inequality of resources and economic means between nations makes the social issue a problem of worldwide importance: the guiding criteria for redefining priorities and a value index in the distribution of goods is fairness with the help of brotherly charity: goods created by God for everyone must be offered to everyone (see encyclical Letter Centesimus annus, 28).

This is what, from various points of view, will be discussed during this international session by the Theologians who have been invited and to who I address my most heartfelt thanks.

Let us remember that all speeches are live from ten countries in the five continents. Speeches will be broadcast from Rome, from the Head Offices of the Congregation for the Clergy, by Professor Jean Galot, Professor Gaetano De Simona, Professor Thomas Williams, Professor Hernán Fitte and by Professor Sergio Bernal.

There will also be other thoughts from New York by Professor Michael Hull, from Manila by Professor José Vidamor Yu; from Taiwan by Professor Louis Aldrich, from Johannesburg by Professor Stuart Bate, from Bogotá by Professor Silvio Cajiao, from Regensburg by H.E. Professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller, from Sydney by Professor Gregory Dewery, from Madrid with Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco, and from Moscow with Professor Igor Kowalewsky.

I hope you all enjoy this conference.