CSDC 374

A more human development in solidarity will also bring benefit to the richer countries themselves. In these countries “one frequently observes a sort of existential confusion, an inability to live and to experience properly the meaning of life, even though surrounded by an abundance of material possessions. A sense of alienation and loss of their own humanity has made people feel reduced to the role of cogs in the machinery of production and consumption and they find no way to affirm their own dignity as persons made in the image and likeness of God”.⁷⁶⁸ John Paul II, Address at General Audience (1 May 1991): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 6 May 1991, p. 3. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 9: AAS 80AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 80 (1988) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1988), 520-523. Rich countries have shown the ability to create material well-being, but often at the expense of man and the weaker social classes. “One cannot ignore the fact that the frontiers of wealth and poverty intersect within societies themselves, whether developed or developing. In fact, just as social inequalities — even to the point of lives of misery and poverty — exist in rich countries, so, in parallel fashion, in the less developed countries one often sees manifestations of selfishness and a flaunting of wealth which is as disconcerting as it is scandalous”.⁷⁶⁹ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 14: AAS 80AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 80 (1988) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1988), 526-527.