CSDC 384

The human person is the foundation and purpose of political life.⁷⁷⁵ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 25: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1045-1046; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1881; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life (24 November 2002), 3: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2002, p. 8. Endowed with a rational nature, the human person is responsible for his own choices and able to pursue projects that give meaning to life at the individual and social level. Being open both to the Transcendent and to others is his characteristic and distinguishing trait. Only in relation to the Transcendent and to others does the human person reach the total and complete fulfilment of himself. This means that for the human person, a naturally social and political being, “social life is not something added on” ⁷⁷⁶ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 25: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1045. but is part of an essential and indelible dimension. The political community originates in the nature of persons, whose conscience “reveals to them and enjoins them to obey” ⁷⁷⁷ John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 55 (1963) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1963), 258. the order which God has imprinted in all his creatures: “a moral and religious order; and it is this order — and not considerations of a purely extraneous, material order — which has the greatest validity in the solution of problems relating to their lives as individuals and as members of society, and problems concerning individual States and their interrelations”.⁷⁷⁸ John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 53 (1961) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1961), 450. This order must be gradually discovered and developed by humanity. The political community, a reality inherent in mankind, exists to achieve an end otherwise unobtainable: the full growth of each of its members, called to cooperate steadfastly for the attainment of the common good,⁷⁷⁹ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 74 AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1095-1097. under the impulse of their natural inclinations towards what is true and good.