CSDC 152

The movement towards the identification and proclamation of human rights is one of the most significant attempts to respond effectively to the inescapable demands of human dignity³⁰² Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 1: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 929-930.. The Church sees in these rights the extraordinary opportunity that our modern times offer, through the affirmation of these rights, for more effectively recognizing human dignity and universally promoting it as a characteristic inscribed by God the Creator in his creature³⁰³ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 41: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1059-1060; Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 32, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, pp. 36-37.. The Church's Magisterium has not failed to note the positive value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948, which Pope John Paul II defined as “a true milestone on the path of humanity's moral progress”³⁰⁴ John Paul II, Address to the 34th General Assembly of the United Nations (2 October 1979), 7: AAS 71AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 71 (1979) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1979), 1147-1148; for John Paul II, this Declaration “remains one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time”: Address to the Fiftieth General Assembly of the United Nations (5 October 1995), 2: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11 October 1995, p. 8..