Apostolic letter of his holiness Pope Paulus PP. VI on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the Encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (continued)

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Title: Apostolic letter of his holiness Pope Paulus PP. VI on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the Encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (continued)
Language: English
Year: 1971
Subject: Papal letters
Rights
Fulltext: Papal ^bocumenU APOSTOLIC LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAULUS PP. VI ON THE OCCASION OF THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ENCYCLICAL “RERUM NOVARUM” (continued) 21. While the horizon of man is thus being modified accor ding to the images that are chosen for him, another transfor mation is making itself felt, one which is the dramatic and unexpected consequence of human activity. Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it an * d becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation. Not only is the material environment becom ing a permanent menace—pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive .capacity—but the human framework is no longer under man’s control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable. This is wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family. The Christians must turn to these new perceptions in order to take on responsibility, together with the rest of men, for a destiny which from now on is shared by all. 22. While scientific and technological progress continues to overturn man’s surroundings, his patterns of knowledge, work, consumption and relationships, two aspirations persis tently make themselves felt in these new contexts, and they grow stronger to the extent that he becomes better informed and better educated: the aspiration to equality and the aspiration to participation, two forms of man’s dignity and freedom. 23. Through the statement of the rights of man and the seeking for international agreements for the application of these rights, progress has been made towards inscribing these two aspirations in deeds and structures.1" Nevertheless var ious forms of discrimination continually reappear — ethnic, cul>« Cf. Pacem in Terris: A AS 55 (1963). p. 261 ff. PAPAL DOCUMENTS 517 tural, religious, political and so on. In fact, human rights are still too often disregarded, if not scoffed at, or else they receive only formal recognition. In many cases legislation does not keep up with real situations. Legislation is necessary, but it is not sufficient for setting up true relationships of justice and equity. In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. If, beyond legal rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi for flagrant dis crimination, continued exploitation and actual contempt. With out a renewed education in solidarity, on overemphasis of equality can give rise to an individualism in which each one claims his own rights without wishing to be answerable for the common good. In this field, everyone sees the highly important contribu tion of the Christian spirit, which moreover answers man’s yearning to be loved. “Loved for man, the prime value of the earthly order” ensures the conditions for peace, both social peace and international peace, by affirming our universal brother hood.17 >■ Cf Messaf/c for the World Day of Peace, 1971: .1.1S 63 (1971), pp. 3-9. "Cf. (Jaiidiinn et X/ies, 74: .1.-1S .78 (1966). pp. 109.7-1096. 24. The two aspirations, to equality and to participation, seek to promote a democratic type of society. Various models are proposed, some are tried out, none of them gives complete satisfaction, and the search goes on between ideological and pragmatic tendencies. The Christian has the duty to take part in this search and in the organization and life of political so ciety. As a social being, man builds destiny within a series of particular groupings which demand, as their completion and as a necessary condition for their development, a vaster society, one of a universal character, the political society. All particular activity must be placed within that wider society, and thereby it takes on the dimension of the common good.1' This indicates the importance of education for life in society, in which there are called to mind, not only information on each one’s rights, but also their necessary correlative: the recogni tion of the duties of each one in regard to others. The sense and practice of duty are themselves conditioned by self-mastery * 518 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS and by the acceptance of responsibility and of the limits placed upon the freedom of the individual or of the group. 25. Political activity—need one remark that we are dealing primarily with an activity, not an ideology?—should be the projection of a plan of society which is consistent in its concrete means and in its inspiration, and which spings from a complete conception of man’s vocation and of its differing social expres sions. It is not for the State or even for political parties, which would be closed unto themselves, to try to impose an ideology by means that would lead to a dictatorship over minds, the worst kind of all- It is for cultural and religious groupings, in the freedom of acceptance which they presume, to develop in the social body, disinterestedly and in their own way, those ultimate convictions on the nature, origin and end of man and society. In this field, it is well to keep in mind the principle pro claimed at the Second Vatican Council: “The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, and it makes its en trance into the mind at once quietly and with power.”10 io Difjnitatis Humanae, 1: AAS 58 (1966), p. 930. 26. Therefore the Christian who wishes to live his faith in a political activity whfch he thinks of as service cannot with out contradicting himself adhere to ideological systems which radically or substantially go against his faith and his concept of man. He cannot adhere to the Marxist ideology, to its atheistic materialism, to its dialectic of violence and to the way it absorbs individual freedom in the collectivity, at the same time denying all transcendence to man and his personal and collective history; nor can be adhere to the liberal ideology which believes it exalts individual freedom by withdrawing it from every limitation, by stimulating it through exclusive seeking of interest and power, and by considering social solidarities as more or less automatic consequences of individual initiatives, not as an aim and a major criterion of the value of the social organization. 27. Is there need to stress the possible ambiguity of every social ideology? Sometimes it leads political or social activity to be simply the application of an abstract, purely theoretical idea; at other times it is thought which becomes a mere instru ment at the service of activity as a simple means o fa strategy. In both cases is it not man that risks finding himself alienated? The Christian faith is above and is sometimes opposed to the ideologies, in that it recognizes God, who is transcendent and PAPAL DOCUMENTS 519 the Creator, and who, through all the levels of creation, calls on man as endowed with responsibility and freedom. 28. There would also be the danger of giving adherence to an ideology which does not rest on a true and organic doctrine, to take refuge in it as a final and sufficient explanation of everything, and thus to build a new idol, accepting, at times without being aware of doing so, its totalitarian and coercive character. And people imagine they find in it a justification for their activity, even violent activity, and an adequate res ponse to a generous desire to serve. The desire remains but it allows itself to be consumed by an ideology which, even if it suggests certain paths to man’s liberation, ends up by making him a slave. 29. It has been possible today to speak of a retreat of ideologies. In this respect the present time may be favourable for an openness to the concrete transcendence of Christianity. It may also be a more accentuated sliding towards a new posi tivism : universalized technology as the dominant from of ac tivity, as the overwhelming pattern of existence, even as a language, without the question of its meaning being really asked. 30. But outside of this positism which reduces man to a single dimension even if it be an important one today and by so doing mutilates him, the Christian encounters in his activity concrete historical movements sprung from ideologies and in part distinct from them. Our venerated predecessor Pope John XXIII in Pacern in Terris already showed that is possible to make a distinction: “Neither can false philosophical teachings regarding the nature, origin and destiny of the universe and of man be identified with historical movements that have eco nomic, social, cultural or political ends, not even when these movements have originated from those.teachings and have drawn and still draw inspiration therefrom. Because the teachings, once they are drawn up and defined, remain always the same, while the movements, being concerned with historical situations in constant evolution, cannot but be influenced by these latter and cannot avoid, therefore, being subject to changes, even of a profound nature. Besides, who can deny that those move ments, in so far as they conform to the dictates of right reason and are interpreters of the lawful aspirations of the human person, contain elements that are positive and deserving of ap proval?”.20 -".44S 55 (1963), p. 300. 520 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS 31. Some Christians are today attracted by socialist cur rents and their various developments. They try to recognize therein a certain number of aspirations which they carry within themselves in the name of their faith. They feel that they are part of that historical current and wish to play a part within it. Now this historical current takes on, under the same name, different forms according to different continents and cultures, even if it drew its inspiration, and still does in many cases, from ideologies incompatible with the faith. Careful judgment is called for. Too often Christians attracted by socialism tend to idealize it in terms which, apart from anything else, are very general: a will for justice, solidarity and equality. They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated. Distinctions must be made to guide concrete choices between the various levels of expression of socialism: a generous aspiration and a seeking for a more just society, historical movements with a political organization and aim, and an ideo logy which claims to give a complete and self-sufficient picture of man. Nevertheless, these distinctions must not lead one to consider such levels as..completely separate and independent. The concrete link which, according to circumstances exists bet ween them must be clearly marked out. This insight will enable Christians to see the degree of commitment possible along these lines, while safeguarding the values, especially those of liberty, responsibility and openness to the spiritual, which guarantee the integral development of man. 32- Other Christians even ask whether an historical deve lopment of Marxism might not authorize certain concrete rapprochments. They note in fact a certain splintering of Marx ism, which until now showed itself to be a unitary ideology which explained in atheistic terms the whole of man and the world since it did not go outside their development process. Apart from the ideological confrontation officially separating the various champions of Marxism-Leninism in their individual interpretations of the thought of its founders, and apart from the open opposition between the political systems which make use of its name today, some people lay down distinctions bet ween Marxism’s various levels of expression. 33. For some, Marxism remains essentially the active practice of class struggle. Experiencing the ever present and continually renewed force of the relationships of domination and exploitation among men, they reduce Marxism to no more PAPAL DOCUMENTS 521 than a struggle—at times with no other purpose—to be pur sued and even stirred up in permanent fashion. For others, it is first and foremost the collective exercise of political and economic power under the direction of a single party, which would be the sole expression and guarantee of the welfare of all, and would deprive individuals and other groups of any possibility of initiative and choice. At a third level, Marxism, whether in power or not, is viewed as a socialist ideology based on historical materialism and the denial of everything trans cendent. At other times, finally, it presents itself in a more attenuated form, one also more attractive to the modern mind: as a scientific activity, as a rigorous method of examining so cial and political reality, and as the rational link, tested by history, between theoretical knowledge and the practice of revolutionary transformation. Although this type of analysis gives a privileged position to certain aspects of reality to the detriment of the rest, and interprets them in the light of its ideology, it nevertheless furnishes some people not only with a working tool but also a certitude preliminary to action: the claim to decipher in a scientific manner the mainsprings of the evolution of society. 34. While, through the concrete existing form of Marxism, one can distinguish these various aspects and the questions they pose for the reflection and activity of Christian, it would be illusory and dangerous to reach a point of forgetting the inti mate link which radically binds them together, to accept the elements of Marxist analysis without recognizing their relation ships with ideology, and to enter into the practice of class struggle and its Marxist interpretations, while failing to note the kind of totalitarian and violent society to which this process leads. 35. On another side, we are witnessing a renewal of the liberal ideology. This current asserts itself both in the name of economic efficiency, and for the defence of the individual against the increasingly overwhelming hold of organizations, and as a reaction against the totalitarian tendencies of political powers. Certainly, personal initiative must be maintained and developed. But do not Christians who take this path tend to idealize liberalism in their turn, making it a proclamation in favour of freedom? They would like a new model, more adapted to present-day conditions, while easily forgetting that at the very root of philosophical liberalism is an erroneous affirmation of the autonomy of the individual in his activity, his motivation 522 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS and the exercise of his liberty- Hence, the liberal ideology likewise calls for careful discernment on their part. 36. In this renewed encounter of the various ideologies, the Christian will draw from the sources of his faith and the Church’s teaching the necessary principles and suitable criteria to avoid permitting himself to be first attracted by and then imprisoned within a system whose limitations and totalitarian ism may well become evident to him too late, if he does nor perceice them in their roots. Going beyond every system, with out however failing to commit himself concretely to serving his brothers, he will assert, in the very midst of his options, the specific character of the Christian contribution for a positive transformation of society.21 37. Today moreover the weaknesses of the ideologies are better perceived through the concrete systems in which they are trying to affirm themselves. Bueraucratic socialism, techno cratic capitalism and authoritarian democracy are showing how difficult it is to solve the great human problem of living toge ther in justice and equality. How in fact could they escape the materialism, egoism or constraint which inevitably go with them? This is the source of a protest which is springing up more or less everywhere, as a sign of a deep-seated sickness, while at the same time we are witnessing the rebirth of what it is agreed to call ‘■‘utopias”. These claim to resolve the poli tical problem of modern societies better than the ideologies. It would be dangerous to disregard this. The appeal to a uto pia is often a convenient excuse for those who wish to escape from concrete tasks in order to take refuge in an imaginary world. To live in a hypothetical future is a facile alibi for rejecting immediate responsibilities. But it must clearly be recognized that this kind of criticism of existing society often provokes the forward-looking imagination both to perceive in the present the disregarded possibility hidden within it, and to direct itself towards a fresh future; it thus sustains social dynamism by the confidence that it gives to the inventive powers of the human mind and heart; and, if it refuses no overture, it can also meet the Christian appeal. The Spirit of the Lord, who animates man renewed in Christ, continually breaks down the horizons within which his understanding likes to find security and the limits to which his activity would willingly restrict itself; there dwells within him a power which 21 Cf. Gaudium et Spes, 11: A AS 58 (1966), p. 1033. PAPAL DOCUMENTS 523 urges him to go beyond every system and every ideology. At the heart of the world there dwells the mystery of man dis covering himself to be God’s son in the course of a historical and psychological process in which constraint and freedom as well as the weight of sin and the breath of the Spirit alternate and struggle for the upper hand. The dynamism of Christian faith here triumps over the narrow calculations of egoism. Animated by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, and upheld by hope, the Christian involves himself in the building up of the human city, one that is to be peaceful, just and fraternal and acceptable as an offering to God.2- In fact, “the expec tation 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.” 2:1 --CC. Hom 15:16. ^Gaudium et Spes, 39: 44S 58 (1966), p. 1057. 38. In this world dominated by scientific and technologi cal change, which threatens to drag it towaids a new posivitism, another more fundamental doubt is raised- Having sub dued nature by using his reason, man now finds that he him self is as it were imprisoned within his own rationality; he in turn becomes the object of science. The “human sciences” are today enjoying a significant flowering. On the one hand they are subjecting to critical and radical examination the hitherto accepted knowledge about man, on the grounds that this knowledge seems either too empirical or too theoretical. On the other hand, methodological necessity and ideological presuppositions too often lead the human sciences to isolate, in the various situations, certain aspects of man, and yet to give these an explanation which claims to be complete or at least an interpretation which is meant to be all-embracing from a purely quantitative or phenomenological point of view. This scientific reduction betrays a dangerous presupposition. To give a priviliged position in this way to such an aspect of analysis is to mutilate man and, under the pretext of a scientific pro cedure, to make it impossible to understand man in his totality. 39. Once must be no less attentive to the action which the human sciences can instigate, giving rise to the elaboration of models of society to be subsequently imposed on men as scientifically tested types of behaviour. Man can then become * * 524 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS the object of manipulations directing his desires and needs and modifying his behaviour and even his system of values. There is no doubt that there exists here a grave danger for the societies of tomorrow and for man himself. For even if all agree to build a new society at the service of men, it is still essential to know what sort of man is in question. 40. Suspicion of the human sciences affects the Christian more than others, but it does not find him disarmed. For as we ourself wrote in Populorum Progress’ "), it is here that there is found the specific contribution of the Church to civilizations: “Sharing the noblest aspirations of men and suffering when she sees them not satisfied, she wishes to help them attain their full flowering, and that is why she offers men what she pos sesses as her characteristic attribute: a global vision of man and of the human race.”24 Should the Church in its turn contest the proceedings of the human sciences, and condemn their pre tentions? As in the case of the natural sciences, the Church has confidence in his research also and urges Christians to play an active part in it.25 Prompted by the same scientific demands and the desire to know man better, but at the same time en lightened by their faith,' * Christians who devote themselves to the human sciences will begin a dialogue between the Church and this new field of .discovery, a dialogue which promises to be fruitful- Of course, each individual scientific discipline will be able, in its own particular sphere, to grasp only a partial— yet true—aspect of man; the complete picture and the full meaning will escape it. But within these limits the human sciences give promise of a positive function that the Church willingly recognizes. They can even widen the horizons of human sciences give promise of a positive function that the Church willingly recognizes. They can even widen the horizons of human liberty to a greater extent than the conditioning cir cumstances preceived enable one to foresee. They could thus assist Christian social morality, which no doubt will see its field restricted when it comes to suggesting certain models of society, while its function of making a critical judgment and taking an overall view will be strengthened by its showing the relative character of the behaviour and values presented by such and such a society as definitive and inherent in the very nature of man. These sciences are a condition at once indis pensable and inadequate for a better discovery of what is human. Populorum Prof/resaio, 13: /IAS 59 (1967), p. 264 25 Cf. Gaudium et Spe», 36: .4.4S 58 (1966), p. 1054. PAPAL DOCUMENTS 525 They are a language which becomes more and more complex, yet one that deepens rather than solves the mystery of the heart of man; nor does it provide the complete and definitive answer to the desire which spings from his innermost being. 41- This better knowledge of man makes it possible to pass a better critical judgment upon and to elucidate a fundamental notion that remains at the basis of modern societies as their motive, their measure and their goal: namely, progress. Since the nineteenth century, western societies and, as a result, many others have put their hopes in ceaselessly renewed and inde finite progress. They saw this progress as man’s effort to free himself in face of the demands of nature and of social cons traints; progress was the condition for and the yardstick of human freedom. Progress, spread by the modern media of information and by the demand for wider knowledge and greater consumption, has become an omnipresent ideology. Yet a doubt arises today regaring both is value and its result. What is the meaning of this never-ending, breathless pursuit of a progress that always eludes one just when one believes one has con quered it sufficiently in order to enjoy it in peace? If it is not attained, it leaves one dissatisfied. Without doubt, there has been just condemnation of the limits and even the misdeeds of a merely quantitative economic growth; there is a desire to attain obejectives of a qualitative order also. The quality and the truth of human relations, the degree of participation and of responsibility, are no less significant and important for the future of society than the quantity and variety of the goods produced and consumed. Overcoming the temptation to wish to measure everything in terms of efficiency and of trade, and in terms of the inter play of forces and interests, man today wishes to replace these quantitative creteria with the intensity of communication, the spread of knowledge and culture, mutual service and a combi ning of efforts for a common task. Is not genuine progress to be found in the development of moral conciousness, which will lead man to exercise a wider solidarity and to open himself freely to others and to God? For a Christian, progress neces sarily comes up against the eschatological mystery of death. The death of Christ and his resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord help man to place his freedom, in creat ivity and gratitude, within the context of the truth of all prog ress and the only hope which does not deceive.26