CSDC 107

Men and women, in the concrete circumstances of history, represent the heart and soul of Catholic social thought²⁰² Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 11: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 807.. The whole of the Church's social doctrine, in fact, develops from the principle that affirms the inviolable dignity of the human person²⁰³ Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 53 (1961) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1961), 453, 459.. In her manifold expressions of this knowledge, the Church has striven above all to defend human dignity in the face of every attempt to redimension or distort its image; moreover she has often denounced the many violations of human dignity. History attests that it is from the fabric of social relationships that there arise some of the best possibilities for ennobling the human person, but it is also there that lie in wait the most loathsome rejections of human dignity.