CSDC 457

The results of science and technology are, in themselves, positive. “Far from thinking that works produced by man's own talent and energy are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational creature exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced that the triumphs of the human race are a sign of God's grace and the flowering of His own mysterious design”⁹⁵⁰ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 34: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1053.. The Council Fathers also emphasize the fact that “the greater man's power becomes, the farther his individual and community responsibility extends”⁹⁵¹ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 34: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1053., and that every human activity is to correspond, according to the design and will of God, to humanity's true good⁹⁵² Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 35: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1053.. In this regard, the Magisterium has repeatedly emphasized that the Catholic Church is in no way opposed to progress⁹⁵³ Cf. John Paul II, Address given at Mercy Maternity Hospital, Melbourne (28 November 1986): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 9 December 1986, p. 13., rather she considers “science and technology are a wonderful product of a God-given human creativity, since they have provided us with wonderful possibilities, and we all gratefully benefit from them”⁹⁵⁴ John Paul II, Meeting with scientists and representatives of the United Nations University, Hiroshima (25 February 1981), 3: AAS 73AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 422.. For this reason, “as people who believe in God, who saw that nature which he had created was ‘good', we rejoice in the technological and economic progress which people, using their intelligence, have managed to make”⁹⁵⁵ John Paul II, Meeting with employees of the Olivetti workshops in Ivrea, Italy (19 March 1990), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 26 March 1990, p. 7..