CSDC 412

As an instrument of the State, public administration at any level — national, regional, community — is oriented towards the service of citizens: “Being at the service of its citizens, the State is the steward of the people's resources, which it must administer with a view to the common good”.⁸⁴⁴ John Paul II, Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace, 5: AAS 90AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 90 (1998) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1998), 152. Excessive bureaucratization is contrary to this vision and arises when “institutions become complex in their organization and pretend to manage every area at hand. In the end they lose their effectiveness as a result of an impersonal functionalism, an overgrown bureaucracy, unjust private interests and an all-too-easy and generalized disengagement from a sense of duty”.⁸⁴⁵ John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 41: AAS 81AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 81 (1989) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1989), 471-472. The role of those working in public administration is not to be conceived as impersonal or bureaucratic, but rather as an act of generous assistance for citizens, undertaken with a spirit of service.