CSDC 554

Culture must represent a privileged area for the presence and commitment of the Church and individual Christians. The Second Vatican Council sees the separation of Christian faith and daily life as one of the most serious errors of our day¹¹⁶² Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 43: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1062.. Without a metaphysical perspective, the loss of a longing for God in self-serving narcissism and the varied means found in a consumeristic lifestyle; the primacy given to technology and scientific research as ends in themselves; the emphasis placed on appearance, the quest for an image, communication techniques: all of these phenomena must be understood in their cultural aspects and placed in relation to the central issue of the human person, of integral human growth, of the human capacity to communicate and relate with other people, and of the constant human search for an answer to the great questions that run throughout life. It must be kept in mind that “culture is that through which man, as man, becomes more man, ‘is' more, has more access to ‘being'”¹¹⁶³ John Paul II, Address to UNESCO (2 June 1980), 7: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 23 June 1980, p. 9..