CSDC 390

The profound meaning of civil and political life does not arise immediately from the list of personal rights and duties. Life in society takes on all its significance when it is based on civil friendship and on fraternity.⁷⁹⁰ Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Sententiae Octavi Libri Ethicorum, VIII, lect. 1: Ed. Leon. 47, 443: “Est enim naturalis amicitia inter eos qui sunt unius gentis ad invicem, inquantum communicant in moribus et convictu. Quartam rationem ponit ibi: Videtur autem et civitates continere amicitia. Et dicit quod per amicitiam videntur conservari civitates. Unde legislatores magis student ad amicitiam conservandam inter cives quam etiam ad iustitiam, quam quandoque intermittunt, puta in poenis inferendis, ne dissensio oriatur. Et hoc patet per hoc quod concordia assimulatur amicitiae, quam quidem, scilicet concordiam, legislatores maxime appetunt, contentionem autem civium maxime expellunt, quasi inimicam salutis civitatis. Et quia tota moralis philosophia videtur ordinari ad bonum civile, ut in principio dictum est, pertinet ad moralem considerare de amicitia”. The sphere of rights, in fact, is that of safeguarded interests, external respect, the protection of material goods and their distribution according to established rules. The sphere of friendship, on the other hand, is that selflessness, detachment from material goods, giving freely and inner acceptance of the needs of others.⁷⁹¹ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2212-2213. Civil friendship ⁷⁹² Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, De Regno. Ad Regem Cypri, I, 10: Ed. Leon. 42, 461: “omnis autem amicitia super aliqua communione firmatur: eos enim qui conueniunt uel per nature originem uel per morum similitudinem uel per cuiuscumque communionem, uidemus amicitia coniungi... Non enim conseruatur amore, cum parua uel nulla sit amicitia subiecte multitudinis ad tyrannum, ut prehabitis patet”. understood in this way is the most genuine actualization of the principle of fraternity, which is inseparable from that of freedom and equality.⁷⁹³ ”Liberty, equality, fraternity” was the motto of the French Revolution. “In the final analysis, these are Christian ideas”, John Paul II affirmed during his first visit to France: Homily at Le Bourget (1 June 1980), 5: AAS 72AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 72 (1980) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1980), 720. In large part, this principle has not been put into practice in the concrete circumstances of modern political society, above all because of the influence of individualistic and collectivistic ideologies.