CSDC 176

By means of work and making use of the gift of intelligence, people are able to exercise dominion over the earth and make it a fitting home: “In this way, he makes part of the earth his own, precisely the part which he has acquired through work; this is the origin of individual property”³⁶⁸ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 31: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 832.. Private property and other forms of private ownership of goods “assure a person a highly necessary sphere for the exercise of his personal and family autonomy and ought to be considered as an extension of human freedom ... stimulating exercise of responsibility, it constitutes one of the conditions for civil liberty”³⁶⁹ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 71: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1092-1093; cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 103-104; Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum: AAS 33AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 33 (1941) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1941), 199; Pius XII, Radio Message of 24 December 1942: AAS 35AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 35 (1943) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1943), 17; Pius XII, Radio Message of 1 September 1944: AAS 36AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 36 (1944) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1944), 253; 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), 428-429.. Private property is an essential element of an authentically social and democratic economic policy, and it is the guarantee of a correct social order. The Church's social doctrine requires that ownership of goods be equally accessible to all³⁷⁰ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 6: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 800-801., so that all may become, at least in some measure, owners, and it excludes recourse to forms of “common and promiscuous dominion”³⁷¹ Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 102..