CSDC 318

Mechanistic and economistic interpretations of the activity of production, however prevalent and influential they may be, have been outdated by scientific analysis of the problems connected with work. More today than in the past, these conceptions are seen to be completely inadequate for interpreting the facts, which everyday demonstrate more and more the meaning of work as a free and creative activity of the human person. Concrete findings should also provide the impetus for the immediate dismissal of theoretical perspectives and restrictive, insufficient operative criteria concerning the present dynamics. These prove to be intrinsically incapable of identifying the broad spectrum of concrete and urgent human needs that go well beyond merely economic categories. The Church is well aware and has always taught that men and women, unlike every other living being, have certain needs that are not restricted merely to “having”,⁶⁷⁹ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 35: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1053; Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 19: AAS 59AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 59 (1967) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1967), 266-267; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 20: AAS 73AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 629-632; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28: AAS 80AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 80 (1988) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1988), 548-550. because their nature and vocation are inextricably linked with the Transcendent One. The human person faces the adventure of the transformation of things through work in order to satisfy requirements and needs that are first of all material, but he does so in obedience to an impulse that pushes him ever further beyond the results obtained, to the quest of what will correspond most intimately to his vital inner needs.