CSDC 135

Man can turn to good only in freedom, which God has given to him as one of the highest signs of his image²⁵¹ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1705.: “For God has willed that man remain ‘under the control of his own decisions' (Sir 15:14), so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, neither under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure”²⁵² Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 17: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1037; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1730-1732.. Man rightly appreciates freedom and strives for it passionately: rightly does he desire and must form and guide, by his own free initiative, his personal and social life, accepting personal responsibility for it²⁵³ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 34: AAS 85AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 85 (1993) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1993), 1160- 1161; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 17: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1038.. In fact, freedom not only allows man suitably to modify the state of things outside of himself, but it also determines the growth of his being as a person through choices consistent with the true good²⁵⁴ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1733.. In this way man generates himself, he is father of his own being²⁵⁵ Cf. Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita Moysis, II, 2-3: PG 44, 327PG — Patrologia Graeca (Migne)B-328B: “unde fit, ut nos ipsi patres quodammodo simus nostri... vitii ac virtutis ratione fingentes”., he constructs the social order²⁵⁶ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 13: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 809-810..