CSDC 86

The Church's social doctrine is presented as a “work site” where the work is always in progress, where perennial truth penetrates and permeates new circumstances, indicating paths of justice and peace. Faith does not presume to confine changeable social and political realities within a closed framework¹³⁷ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 46: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 850-851.. Rather, the contrary is true: faith is the leaven of innovation and creativity. The teaching that constantly takes this as its starting point “develops through reflection applied to the changing situations of this world, under the driving force of the Gospel as the source of renewal”¹³⁸ Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 42: AAS 63AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 63 (1971) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1971), 431.. Mother and Teacher, the Church does not close herself off nor retreat within herself but is always open, reaching out to and turned towards man, whose destiny of salvation is her reason for being. She is in the midst of men and women as the living icon of the Good Shepherd, who goes in search of and finds man where he is, in the existential and historical circumstances of his life. It is there that the Church becomes for man a point of contact with the Gospel, with the message of liberation and reconciliation, of justice and peace.