😱 Octogesima adveniens. Octogesima Adveniens. 2022-10-16

Octogesima Adveniens by Pope Paul VI

Bureaucratic socialism, technocratic capitalism and authoritarian democracy are showing how difficult it is to solve the great human problem of living together in justice and equality. Top catholic leaders felt that the church needed urgent and radical reforms so as to make the church relevant and engage it to the modern world. But, as we have often stated, the most important duty in the realm of justice is to allow each country to promote its own development, within the framework of a cooperation free from any spirit of domination, whether economic or political. Certainly they have many positive aspects. Is sufficient attention being devoted to the arrangement and improvement of the life of the country people, whose inferior and at times miserable economic situation provokes the flight to the unhappy crowded conditions of the city outskirts, where neither employment nor housing awaits them? Paul VI affirms the importance of equality and participation within political society, both of which point to democratic life. These are questions which because of their urgency, extent and complexity must in the years to come take first place among the preoccupations of Christians, so that with other men the latter may dedicate themselves to solving the new difficulties which put the very future of man in jeopardy. But in this immense field much remains to be done.

Octogesima Adveniens

This ambition then stands in the way of setting up structures in which the rhythm of progress would be regulated with a view to greater justice, instead of accentuating inequalities and living in a climate of distrust and struggle which would unceasingly compromise peace. This better knowledge of man makes it possible to pass a better critical judgment upon and to elucidate a fundamental notion that remains at the basis of modern societies as their motive, their measure and their goal: namely, progress. In industrial change, which demands speedy and constant adaptation, those who will find themselves injured will be more numerous and at a greater disadvantage from the point of view of making their voices heard. In other places they are a weak minority whose voice makes itself heard with difficulty. Media of social communication 20. In this search for the changes which should be promoted, Christians must first of all renew their confidence in the forcefulness and special character of the demands made by the Gospel. The inordinate growth of these centers accompanies industrial expansion, without being identified with it.

Octogesima Adveniens Themes

Is it not in order to be faithful to this desire that the Church has sent on an apostolic mission among the workers priests who, by sharing fully the condition of the worker, are at that level the witnesses to the Church's solicitude and seeking? They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated. While being able to offer employment to those that progress in agriculture makes available, they permit an adjustment of the human environment which better avoids the proletarianism and crowding of the great built-up areas. After a seven-paragraph introduction, Octogesima adveniens turns to a reading of the signs of the times, which highlight the challenges faced by particular groups of people e. Christian meaning of political activity 46. Because the teachings, once they are drawn up and defined, remain always the same, while the movements, being concerned with historical situations in constant evolution, cannot but be influenced by these latter and cannot avoid, therefore, being subject to changes, even of a profound nature.

Library : Octogesima Adveniens

But the anniversary of Rerum Novarum, venerable brother, gives us the opportunity today to confide our preoccupations and thoughts in the face of this problem to you as President of the Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace and of the Council of Laity. Going beyond every system, without however failing to commit himself concretely to serving his brothers, he will assert, in the very midst of his options, the specific character of the Christian contribution for a positive transformation of society Rebirth of utopias 37. He cannot adhere to the Marxist ideology, to its atheistic materialism, to its dialectic of violence and to the way it absorbs individual freedom in the collectivity, at the same time denying all transcendence to man and his personal and collective history; nor can be adhere to the liberal ideology which believes it exalts individual freedom by with drawing it from every limitation, by stimulating it through exclusive seeking of interest and power, and by considering social solidarities as more or less automatic consequences of individual initiatives, not as an aim and a major criterion of the value of the social organization. The other section related to employment indicates that the state has a positive role in encouraging the creation of new jobs. To this should be devoted enterprises of invention and capital as important as those invested for armaments or technological achievements. The eightieth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Rerum Novarum, the message of which continues to inspire action for social justice, prompts us to take up again and to extend the teaching of our predecessors, in response to the new needs of a changing world.

Reading Octogesima Adveniens, Part I

According to the vocation proper to is, the political power must know how to stand aside from particular interests in order to view its responsibility with regard to the good of all men, even going beyond national limits. In other places they are a weak minority whose voice makes itself heard with difficulty. Is not genuine progress to be found in the development of moral consciousness, which will lead man to exercise a wider solidarity and to open himself freely to others and to God? The inordinate growth of these centers accompanies industrial expansion, without being identified with it. There must be greater justice in the sharing of goods nationally and internationally. If man lets himself rush ahead without foreseeing in good time the emergence of new social problems, they will become too grave for a peaceful solution to be hoped for. When it is a question of public service, required for the life of an entire nation, it is necessary to be able to assess the limit beyond which the harm caused to society become inadmissible. As a social being, man builds his destiny within a series of particular groupings which demand, as their completion and as a necessary condition for their development, a vaster society, one of a universal character, the political society.

Octogesima Adveniens (May 14, 1971)

In the face of such widely varying situations it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. The Church directs her attention to those new "poor" - the handicapped and the maladjusted, the old, different groups of those on the fringe of society, and so on - in order to recognize them, help them; defend their place and dignity in a society hardened by competition and the attraction of success. To give a privileged position in this way to such an aspect of analysis is to mutilate man and, under the pretext of a scientific procedure, to make it impossible to understand man in his totality. It is the grave duty of those responsible to strive to control this process and to give it direction. Having rationally endeavored to control nature, 7 is he not now becoming the slave of the objects which he makes? They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated. Their activity, however, is not without its difficulties.

Octogesima adveniens

It is necessary to situate the problems created by the modern economy in the wider context of a new civilization. Equally, within these means of expression are a means to connect the human consciousness as a whole: it is through the examination of the history of the Catholic intellectual tradition that one is able to find a joining of human spirit, intellect, soul and emotion. Individuals are called to engage in social action in a variety of ways—ranging from activities at their own workplace to work involving migrants. For even if all agree to build a new society at the service of men, it is still essential to know what sort of man is in question. Christians can and should work within the political sphere. If it is not attained, it leaves one dissatisfied. Edition s used: Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, edited by David J.

Octogesima Adveniens (Latin)

With demographic growth, which is particularly pronounced in the young nations, the number of those failing to find work and driven to misery or parasitism will grow in the coming years unless the conscience of man rouses itself and gives rise to a general movement of solidarity through an effective policy of investment and of organization of production and trade, as well as of education. There is an urgent need to remake at the level of the street, of the neighborhood or of the great agglomerative dwellings the social fabric whereby man may be able to develop the needs of his personality. How is he to master its growth, regulate its organization, and successfully accomplish its animation for the good of all? In this he follows Pius XI, who issued the 1931 social encyclical Flagrant inequalities exist in the economic, cultural and political development of the nations: while some regions are heavily industrialized, others are still at the agricultural stage; while some countries enjoy prosperity, others are struggling against starvation; while some peoples have a high standard of culture, others are still engaged in eliminating illiteracy. It is necessary to situate the problems created by the modern economy in the wider context of a new civilization. This better knowledge of man makes it possible to pass a better critical judgment upon and to elucidate a fundamental notion that remains at the basis of modern societies as their motive, their measure and their goal: namely, progress. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family.

Octogesima Adveniens by Pope St. Paul VI

The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good. It can thus rightly be asked if, in spite of all his conquests, man Is not turning back against himself the results of his activity. If in fact he wishes to play a specific part as a Christian in accordance with his faith — a part that unbelievers themselves expect of him — he must take care in the midst of his active commitment to clarify his motives and to rise above the objectives aimed at, by taking a more all-embracing view which will avoid the danger of selfish particularism and oppressive totalitarianism. Change of attitudes and structures 45. To live in a hypothetical future is a facile alibi for rejecting immediate responsibilities. At other times, finally, it presents itself in a more attenuated form, one also more attractive to the modern mind: as a scientific activity, as a rigorous method of examining social and political reality, and as the rational link, tested by history, between theoretical knowledge and the practice of revolutionary transformation.

Octogesima Adveniens Quotations

We turned to the paragraphs on urbanization paragraphs 1013 , and the problem of loneliness: Man is experiencing a new loneliness; it is not in the face of a hostile nature which it has taken him centuries to subdue, but in an anonymous crowd which surrounds him and in which he feels himself a stranger. Gaudium et Spes, 63: AAS 58 1966 , p. This social teaching has been worked out in the course of history and notably, in this industrial era, since the historic date of the message of Pope Leo XIII on the condition of the workers, and it is an honor and joy for us to celebrate today the anniversary of that message. If man lets himself rush ahead without foreseeing in good time the emergence of new social problems, they will become too grave for a peaceful solution to be hoped for. Christians are asked to break through the barriers of isolation that urbanization has created, see the plight of the neighbors, and act to address it both by acts of personal charity and by building up new and more human social structures: To build up the city, the place where men and their expanded communities exist, to create new modes of neighborliness and relationships, to perceive an original application of social justice and to undertake responsibility for this collective future, which is foreseen as difficult, is a task in which Christians must share. Flagrant inequalities exist in the economic, cultural and political development of the nations: while some regions are heavily industrialized, others are still at the agricultural stage; while some countries enjoy prosperity, others are struggling against starvation; while some peoples have a high standard of culture, others are still engaged in eliminating illiteracy.

Octogesima adveniens. Octogesima Adveniens Quotations 2022-10-16