Serie: Report on the Social Doctrine of the Church in the World 2010
Publisher: Cantagalli
Pages: 256
Price: €15,00

edited by

GIAMPAOLO CREPALDI and STEFANO FONTANA

 

PREFACE

Most. Rev. Rino Fisichella

President-appointee of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization of the West

 

This Second Report on the Social Doctrine of the Church in the World is being published after the decision by His Holiness Benedict XVI to create a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization of the West. This linkage spontaneously came to mind for a number of reasons when reading the Report of the Observatory Cardinal Van Thuân.

First of all because the Report is drafted by four institutional bodies active in various western countries. This is an interesting and promising experience of collaboration among Italy, Spain, France and Peru (for Latin America). Albeit in different ways and with differing degrees of intensity, the need for a new evangelization in these nations and geographical areas is evident to one and all, and collaboration with a view to better organizing a new public presence of Christians is of utmost importance.  

Secondly because the Report very clearly illustrates the role of the Social Doctrine of the Church as “an instrument of the new evangelization” in the sense voiced first by John Paul II and then by Benedict XVI. The Magisterium of the Church assigns a very important role to the Social Doctrine in this design. In fact, first secularization and then aggressive laicization tend to exclude Christianity from the public domain, and in so doing deny the structural relationship of reason with faith, nature with grace. In no way whatsoever, however, can Christianity forego its historical dimension. The vocation of man is not dual in nature: earthly for everyone and then transcendent for whomsoever so wishes. The selfsame earthly vocation receives full light only from the transcendent and eternal vocation of man. When these two vocations are separated, man also ends up losing any awareness of the value and dignity of his temporal vocation.

The entire Report strikes me as permeated with this tension: highlight the salvific value of the Gospel, likewise in an earthly sense. The Gospel liberates man from the oppression of underdevelopment and hyper-development, from the constraints of atavistic inhuman cultures and the new paganism associated with the most advanced technologies, and two are the chapters of the Report in which this is more evident: the introductory synthesis and the chapter on the social Magisterium of Benedict XVI in 2009.

Very well chosen, in my opinion, is the expression: “The Social Doctrine of the Church, sign of contradiction”. Well chosen also and above all in light of the issue of the new evangelization of the west. In fact, when Christianity bends with the winds of customary practice it is also welcomed by the world, but for this same reason is rendered powerless and tamed. Conversely, when Christianity proposes its ‘claim’ of salvation for temporal realities as well it is opposed and even persecuted.

The Report highlights how all this is happening on all five continents, but does so especially in the aforementioned two chapters.

 

 

Index

 

Salutation

Carlo Fratta Pasini

 

Preface

Most Rev. Rino Fisichella

 

Presentation

Most Rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi

 

Technical Brief on the Report

Stefano Fontana

 

Introductory Synthesis

2009: The Social Doctrine of the Church

sign of contradiction

Diego Arias Padilla, Philipp e de Saint Germain,

Stefano Fontana, Fernando Fuentes Alcantara

 

The Social Magisterium of Benedict XVI in 2009

Most Rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi

 

The Social Doctrine of the Church on the five continents

Pierre-Olivier Arduin, Diego Arias Padilla, Hélène

Bodenez, Maria Teresa Comp te Grau, Benedetta

Cortese, François de Lacoste Lareymondie, Philippe

de Saint Germain, Stefano Fontana, Flaminia

Giovanelli, Cristian Loza Adaui, Rafael Luciani,

Giorgio Mion, Elizabeth Montfort, Mattia Tosato

The Holy See and the international context

North America

Latin America

Africa

Asia and the Pacific

Europe

 

The Issue of 2009

Climate warming and the environment

Anthropic global warming and the Social Doctrine of the Church

Jerôme Stevenson, Paris

Climate warming and the safeguarding of created reality

In the light of  Caritas in Veritate and the Social Doctrine  

of the Church

Ángel Galindo García, Salamanca

 

The Teaching of 2009

Reason that opens to the mystery becomes true wisdom.

His Holiness Benedict XVI     

 

The Document of 2009

Presentation of the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate

His Eminence Cardinal Renato R. Martino

Presentation of the Encyclical Letter  Caritas in Veritate

Most Rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi

 

The Endeavor of 2009

Responsibility, solidarity, subsidiarity:

think the G8 in conjunction with the Doha Conference

Card. Van Thuân International Network 201

 

Appendix

International gleaning of articles on Caritas in Veritate in the specialized press

Benedetta Cortese, Cristian Loza Adaui, Maria

Teresa Compte Grau, Stefano Fontana, Luisa Maria

Salvi