Megan Velcich's Profile

"Neither can false philosophical teachings regarding the nature, origin and
destiny of the universe and of man be identified with historical movements that
have economic, 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 movements, 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 approval?

John XXIII in
Pacem in Terris

Careful judgment is
called for.

ask whether an historical development of

might
not authorize certain concrete rapprochements.

Marxism

it is first and foremost the collective exercise
of political and economic power under the direction of a single party,

viewed as a
socialist ideology based on historical materialism and the denial of everything
transcendent

a renewal of the liberal ideology

better perceived through
the concrete systems in which they are trying to affirm themselves.

we are witnessing the rebirth of what it is agreed to
call "utopias"

"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"

The "human sciences" are today enjoying a
significant flowering.

"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 possesses as her
characteristic attribute: a global vision of man and of the human race".

desire
to know man better

If it is not attained, it leaves one
dissatisfied.

It is with all its dynamism that the social teaching
of the Church accompanies men in their search.

Relationships based
on force have never in fact established justice in a true and lasting manner,

human solidarity - to question the models of growth of the rich nations
and change people's outlooks, so that they may realize the prior call of
international duty, and to renew international organizations so that they may
increase in effectiveness.

he excessive concentration of means and powers that
Pope Pius XI already condemned on the fortieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum is
taking on a new and very real image.

the most revolutionary
ideologies lead only to a change of masters

in the competition that sets them in
opposition and which carries them along, is to attain technological, economic
and military power

"a source of brotherhood and a sign of Providence"

It is
true that in the term "politics" many confusions are possible and must
be clarified, but each man feels that in the social and economic field, both
national and international, the ultimate decision rests with political power.

the true aim of all social activity should be
to help individual members of the social body, but never to destroy or absorb
them"

To take politics seriously at its different levels - local, regional,
national and worldwide - is to affirm the duty of man,

Politics are a demanding manner

In Mater et Magistra (31) Pope John XXIII stressed how much the
admittance to responsibility is a basic demand of man's nature,

In order to
counterbalance increasing technocracy, modern forms of democracy must be
devised,

human groups will gradually begin to share and to live as communities.

"Laymen should take up as their own proper task the
renewal of the temporal order. If the role of the hierarchy is to teach and to
interpret authentically the norms of morality to be followed in this matter, it
belongs to the laity, without waiting passively for orders and directives, to
take the initiatives freely and to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality,
customs, laws and structures of the community in which they live"

The Christian's hope comes primarily from the fact that
he knows that the Lord is working with us in the world, continuing in his Body
which is the Church - and, through the Church, in the whole of mankind - the
Redemption which was accomplished on the Cross and which burst forth in victory
on the morning of the Resurrection

The same
Christian faith can lead to different commitments

"The bonds which unite the faithful are mightier
than anything which divides them"

Others feel so deeply
the solidarity of classes and cultures that they reach the point of sharing
without reserve all the judgments and options of their surroundings

Without putting themselves
in the place of the institutions of civil society, they have to express, in
their own way and rising above their particular nature, the concrete demands of
the Christian faith for a just, and consequently necessary, transformation of
society

Second Development Decade - particularly concerning the duties of the community
of nations in the serious question of the integral and concerted development of
man are still fresh in people's minds.

"awakening the People of
the God to a full understanding of its role at the present time" and of
"promoting the apostolate on the international level"