Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
Overview
Written in 1987, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (Solicitude for Social Issues) was John Paul II's second social encyclical. In it, the pontiff elaborates on Catholic social teaching and applies its principles to the problem of under-developed and developing nations. Central to this social teaching is that all aspects of social action must "respect and promote all the dimensions of the human person." The pontiff's essential message is that progress is about more than the accumulation of material goods or social power, and so it supersedes vying economic or ideological systems. Rather, progress is found in justice and the "authentic development" of the human person. After the introduction, section two, "Originality of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio," comments on Pope Paul VI's letter of twenty years prior. Section three "Survey of the Contemporary World," lays out the pope's understanding of the current situation. Section four "Authentic Human Development," explores the meaning of "development" in light of Catholic social teaching. Section five, "A Theological Reading of Modern Problems," applies this teaching to the current situation. Section six, "Some Particular Guidelines," provides a way forward, paying special attention to the Church's "preference for the poor."
Top Highlights
“proclamation is always more important than condemnation” (source)
“Therefore political leaders, and citizens of rich countries considered as individuals, especially if they are Christians, have the moral obligation, according to the degree of each one’s responsibility, to take into consideration, in personal decisions and decisions of government, this relationship of universality, this interdependence which exists between their conduct and the poverty and underdevelopment of so many millions of people.” (source)
“This then is the picture: there are some people—the few who possess much—who do not really succeed in ‘being’ because, through a reversal of the hierarchy of values, they are hindered by the cult of ‘having’; and there are others—the many who have little or nothing—who do not succeed in realizing their basic human vocation because they are deprived of essential goods.” (source)
“while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled” (source)
“I must repeat that whatever affects the dignity of individuals and peoples, such as authentic development, cannot be reduced to a ‘technical’ problem. If reduced in this way, development would be emptied of its true content, and this would be an act of betrayal of the individuals and peoples whom development is meant to serve.” (source)