CSDC 522

In her social doctrine the Church offers above all an integral vision of man and a complete understanding of his personal and social dimensions. Christian anthropology reveals the inviolable dignity of every person and places the realities of work, economics and politics into an original perspective that sheds light on authentic human values while at the same time inspiring and sustaining the task of Christian witness in the varied areas of personal, cultural and social life. Thanks to the “first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom 8:23), Christians become “capable of discharging the new law of love (cf. Rom 8:1-11). Through this Spirit, who is ‘the pledge of our inheritance' (Eph 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of ‘the redemption of the body' (Rom 8:23)”. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1043. In this sense the Church's social doctrine shows how the moral basis of all social action consists in the human development of the person and identifies the norm for social action corresponding to humanity's true good and as efforts aimed at creating the conditions that will allow every person to satisfy his integral vocation.

Read the full chapter CHAPTER TWELVESocial Doctrine and Ecclesial Action ¶521–583