CSDC 375

For the Church's social doctrine, the economy “is only one aspect and one dimension of the whole of human activity. If economic life is absolutized, if the production and consumption of goods become the centre of social life and society's only value, not subject to any other value, the reason is to be found not so much in the economic system itself as in the fact that the entire socio-cultural system, by ignoring the ethical and religious dimension, has been weakened, and ends up limiting itself to the production of goods and services alone”.⁷⁷⁰ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 39: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 842. The life of man, just like the social life of the community, must not be reduced to its materialistic dimension, even if material goods are extremely necessary both for mere survival and for improving the quality of life. “An increased sense of God and increased self-awareness are fundamental to any full development of human society”.⁷⁷¹ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2441.