CSDC 207

No legislation, no system of rules or negotiation will ever succeed in persuading men and peoples to live in unity, brotherhood and peace; no line of reasoning will ever be able to surpass the appeal of love. Only love, in its quality as “form of the virtues”⁴⁵⁶ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 23, a. 8: Ed. Leon. 8, 72; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1827., can animate and shape social interaction, moving it towards peace in the context of a world that is ever more complex. In order that all this may take place, however, it is necessary that care be taken to show love not only in its role of prompting individual deeds but also as a force capable of inspiring new ways of approaching the problems of today's world, of profoundly renewing structures, social organizations, legal systems from within. In this perspective love takes on the characteristic style of social and political charity: “Social charity makes us love the common good”⁴⁵⁷ Paul VI, Address to the Food and Agriculture Association on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation (16 November 1970): Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. VIII, p. 1153., it makes us effectively seek the good of all people, considered not only as individuals or private persons but also in the social dimension that unites them.