CSDC 391

A community has solid foundations when it tends toward the integral promotion of the person and of the common good. In such cases, law is defined, respected and lived according to the manner of solidarity and dedication towards one's neighbour. Justice requires that everyone should be able to enjoy their own goods and rights; this can be considered the minimum measure of love.⁷⁹⁴ Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 99: Ed. Leon. 7, 199- 205; Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 23, ad 1um: Ed. Leon. 8, 168. Social life becomes more human the more it is characterized by efforts to bring about a more mature awareness of the ideal towards which it should be oriented, which is the “civilization of love”.⁷⁹⁵ Paul VI, Message for the 1977 World Day of Peace: AAS 68AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 68 (1976) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1976), 709. The human being is a person, not just an individual.⁷⁹⁶ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2212. The term “person” indicates “a nature endowed with intelligence and free will”: ⁷⁹⁷ 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), 259. he is therefore a reality that is far superior to that of a subject defined by the needs arising solely from his material dimension. The human person, in fact, although participating actively in projects designed to satisfy his needs within the family and within civil and political society, does not find complete self-fulfilment until he moves beyond the mentality of needs and enters into that of gratuitousness and gift, which fully corresponds to his essence and community vocation.