CSDC 206

Love presupposes and transcends justice, which “must find its fulfilment in charity”⁴⁵² John Paul II, Message for the 2004 World Day of Peace, 10: AAS 96AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 96 (2004) at vatican.va — list of its scanned parts (2004), 120.. If justice is “in itself suitable for ‘arbitration' between people concerning the reciprocal distribution of objective goods in an equitable manner, love and only love (including that kindly love that we call ‘mercy') is capable of restoring man to himself”⁴⁵³ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 14: AAS 72AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 72 (1980) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1980), 1223.. Human relationships cannot be governed solely by the measure of justice: “The experience of the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of itself ... It has been precisely historical experience that, among other things, has led to the formulation of the saying: summum ius, summa iniuria”⁴⁵⁴ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 12: AAS 72AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 72 (1980) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1980), 1216.. In fact, “in every sphere of interpersonal relationships justice must, so to speak, be ‘corrected' to a considerable extent by that love which, as St. Paul proclaims, ‘is patient and kind' or, in other words, possesses the characteristics of that merciful love which is so much of the essence of the Gospel and Christianity”⁴⁵⁵ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 14: AAS 72AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 72 (1980) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1980), 1224; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2212..