CSDC 385

The political community finds its authentic dimension in its reference to people: “it is and should in practice be the organic and organizing unity of a real people”.⁷⁸⁰ Pius XII, Christmas Radio Message of 24 December 1944: AAS 37AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 37 (1945) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1945), 13. The term “a people” does not mean a shapeless multitude, an inert mass to be manipulated and exploited, but a group of persons, each of whom — “at his proper place and in his own way” ⁷⁸¹ Pius XII, Christmas Radio Message of 24 December 1944: AAS 37AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 37 (1945) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1945), 13. — is able to form its own opinion on public matters and has the freedom to express its own political sentiments and to bring them to bear positively on the common good. A people “exists in the fullness of the lives of the men and women by whom it is made up, each of whom ... is a person aware of his own responsibilities and convictions”.⁷⁸² Pius XII, Christmas Radio Message of 24 December 1944: AAS 37AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 37 (1945) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1945), 13. Those who belong to a political community, although organically united among themselves as a people, maintain an irrepressible autonomy at the level of personal existence and of the goals to be pursued.