PASTORAL CONSTITUTION: ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD
 
                            GAUDIUM ET SPES
 
     Proclaimed By His Holiness, Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965.
 
 
 
PREFACE
 
1. The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of
this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these
are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of
Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their
hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they
are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their
Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for
every man. That is why this community realizes that it is truly linked
with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds.
 
2. Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more profoundly into
the mystery of the Church, now addresses itself without hesitation, not
only to the sons of the Church and to all who invoke the name of Christ,
but to the whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain to
everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in
the world of today.
 
Therefore, the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the
whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of
which it lives; that world which is the theater of man's history, and the
heir of his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs; that world which
the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker's love, fallen
indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ, Who was
crucified and rose again to break the strangle hold of personified evil,
so that the world might be fashioned anew according to God's design and
reach its fulfillment.
 
3. Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and its
power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of the
world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the meaning
of its individual and collective strivings, and about the ultimate
destiny of reality and of humanity. Hence, giving witness and voice to
the faith of the whole people of God gathered together by Christ, this
council can provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, as
well as its respect and love for the entire human family with which it is
bound up, than by engaging with it in conversation about these various
problems. The council brings to mankind light kindled from the Gospel,
and puts at its disposal those saving resources which the Church herself,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, receives from her Founder. For the
human person deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be
renewed. Hence the focal point of our total presentation will be man
himself, whole and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and
will.
 
Therefore, this sacred synod, proclaiming the noble destiny of man and
championing the godlike seed which has been sown in him, offers to
mankind the honest assistance of the Church in fostering that brotherhood
of all men which corresponds to this destiny of theirs. Inspired by no
earthly ambition, the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward
the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ
entered this world to give witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit
in judgment, to serve and not to be served.[2]
 
 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT THE SITUATION OF MEN IN THE MODERN WORLD
 
4. To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of
scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light
of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can
respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life
and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other.
We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live,
its expectations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics.
Some of the main features of the modern world can be sketched as follows.
 
 Today, the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound
and rapid changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world.
Triggered by the intelligence and creative energies of man, these changes
recoil upon him, upon his decisions and desires, both individual and
collective, and upon his manner of thinking and acting with respect to
things and to people. Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and
social transformation, one which has repercussions on man's religious
life as well.
 
As happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought
serious difficulties in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in
every direction, he does not always succeed in subjecting it to his own
welfare. Striving to probe more profoundly into the deeper recesses of
his own mind, he frequently appears more unsure of himself. Gradually and
more precisely he lays bare the laws of society, only to be paralyzed by
uncertainty about the direction to give it.
 
Never has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth, resources
and economic power, and yet a huge proportion of the world's citizens are
still tormented by hunger and poverty, while countless numbers suffer
from total illiteracy. Never before has man had so keen an understanding
of freedom, yet at the same time, new forms of social and psychological
slavery make their appearance. Although the world of today has a very
vivid awareness of its unity and of how one man depends on another in
needful solidarity, it is most grievously torn into opposing camps by
conflicting forces. For political, social, economic, racial and
ideological disputes still continue bitterly, and with them the peril of
a war which would reduce everything to ashes. True, there is a growing
exchange of ideas, but the very words by which key concepts are expressed
take on quite different meanings in diverse ideological systems. Finally,
man painstakingly searches for a better world, without a corresponding
spiritual advancement.
 
Influenced by such a variety of complexities, many of our contemporaries
are kept from accurately identifying permanent values and adjusting them
properly to fresh discoveries. As a result, buffeted between hope and
anxiety and pressing one another with questions about the present course
of events, they are burdened down with uneasiness. This same course of
events leads men to look for answers; indeed, it forces them to do so.
 
5. Today's spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life are
part of a broader and deeper revolution. As a result of the latter,
intellectual formation is ever increasingly based on the mathematical and
natural sciences and on those dealing with man himself, while in the
practical order the technology which stems from these sciences takes on
mounting importance.
 
This scientific spirit has a new kind of impact on the cultural sphere
and on modes of thought. Technology is now transforming the face of the
earth, and is already trying to master outer space. To a certain extent,
the human intellect is also broadening its dominion over time: over the
past by means of historical knowledge; over the future, by the art of
projecting and by planning.
 
Advances in biology, psychology, and the social sciences not only bring
men hope of improved self-knowledge; in conjunction with technical
methods, they are helping men exert direct influence on the life of
social groups.
 
At the same time, the human race is giving steadily increasing thought to
forecasting and regulating its own population growth. History itself
speeds along on so rapid a course that an individual person can scarcely
keep abreast of it. The destiny of the human community has become all of
a piece, where once the various groups of men had a kind of private
history of their own.
 
Thus, the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality
to a more dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a
new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling for
efforts of analysis and synthesis.
 
6. By this very circumstance, the traditional local communities such as
families, clans, tribes, villages, various groups and associations
stemming from social contacts, experience more thorough changes every day.
 
The industrial type of society is gradually being spread, leading some
nations to economic affluence, and radically transforming ideas and
social conditions established for centuries.
 
Likewise, the cult and pursuit of city living has grown, either because
of a multiplication of cities and their inhabitants, or by a
transplantation of city life to rural settings.
 
New and more efficient media of social communication are contributing to
the knowledge of events; by setting off chain reactions they are giving
the swiftest and widest possible circulation to styles of thought and
feeling.
 
It is also noteworthy how many men are being induced to migrate on
various counts, and are thereby changing their manner of life. thus a
man's ties with his fellows are constantly being multiplied, and at the
same time "socialization" brings further ties, without however always
promoting appropriate personal development and truly personal
relationships.
 
This kind of evolution can be seen more clearly in those nations which
already enjoy the conveniences of economic and technological progress,
though it is also astir among peoples still striving for such progress
and eager to secure for themselves the advantages of an industrialized
and urbanized society. These peoples, especially those among them who are
attached to older traditions, are simultaneously undergoing a movement
toward more mature and personal exercise of liberty.
 
7. A change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls
accepted values into question, especially among young people, who have
grown impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become rebels in
their distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society, they
want a part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and educators to
experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging their tasks.
The institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down
from previous generations do not always seem to be well adapted to the
contemporary state of affairs; hence arises an upheaval in the manner and
even the norms of behavior.
 
Finally, these new conditions have their impact on religion. On the one
hand a more critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view
of the world and from the superstitions which still circulate purifies it
and exacts day by day a more personal and explicit adherence to faith. As
a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God. On the
other hand, growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in
practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the
abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences.
For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements
of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places
these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on
every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the
humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence,
many people are shaken.
 
8. This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly fashion,
combined with keener awareness itself of the inequalities in the world
beget or intensify contradictions and imbalances.
 
Within the individual person there develops rather frequently an
imbalance between an intellect which is modern in practical matters and a
theoretical system of thought which can neither master the sum total of
its ideas, nor arrange them adequately into a synthesis. Likewise an
imbalance arises between a concern for practicality and efficiency, and
the demands of moral conscience; also very often between the conditions
of collective existence and the requisites of personal thought, and even
of contemplation. At length there develops an imbalance between
specialized human activity and a comprehensive view of reality.
 
As for the family, discord results from population, economic and social
pressures, or from difficulties which arise between succeeding
generations, or from new social relationships between men and women.
 
Differences crop up too between races and between various kinds of social
orders; between wealthy nations and those which are less influential or
are needy; finally, between international institutions born of the
popular desire for peace, and the ambition to propagate one's own
ideology, as well as collective greeds existing in nations or other
groups.
 
What results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships. Of
such is man at once the cause and the victim.
 
9. Meanwhile the conviction grows not only that humanity can and should
increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that
it devolves on humanity to establish a political, social and economic
order which will growingly serve man and help individuals as well as
groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them.
 
As a result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those benefits
of which with vivid awareness they judge themselves to be deprived either
through injustice or unequal distribution. Nations on the road to
progress, like those recently made independent, desire to participate in
the goods of modern civilization, not only in the political field but
also economically, and to play their part freely on the world scene.
Still they continually fall behind while very often their economic and
other dependence on wealthier nations advances more rapidly.
 
People hounded by hunger call upon those better off. Where they have not
yet won it, women claim for themselves an equity with men before the law
and in fact. Laborers and farmers seek not only to provide for the
necessities of life, but to develop the gifts of their personality by
their labors and indeed to take part in regulating economic, social,
political and cultural life. Now, for the first time in human history all
people are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and
actually can be extended to everyone.
 
Still, beneath all these demands lies a deeper and more widespread
longing: persons and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of
man; one in which they can subject to their own welfare all that the
modern world can offer them so abundantly. In addition, nations try
harder every day to bring about a kind of universal community.
 
Since all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once
powerful and weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it
lies the path to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to
brotherhood or hatred. Moreover, man is becoming aware that it is his
responsibility to guide aright the forces which he has unleashed and
which can enslave him or minister to him. That is why he is putting
questions to himself.
 
10. The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern world labors
are linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the heart of
man. For in man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on
the one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude
of ways; on the other he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and
summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions he is
constantly forced to choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as a
weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to do
what he would.[1] Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from
these flow so many and such great discords in society. No doubt many
whose lives are infected with a practical materialism are blinded against
any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation; or else, weighed
down by unhappiness they are prevented from giving the matter any
thought. Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of
reality everywhere proposed these days, many look forward to a genuine
and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort; they
are convinced that the future rule of man over the earth will satisfy
every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men who despair of any
meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human
existence is devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a
total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone.
 
Nevertheless, in the face of the modern development of the world, the
number constantly swells of the people who raise the most basic questions
or recognize them with a new sharpness: what is man? What is this sense
of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist despite so much
progress? What purpose have these victories purchased at so high a cost?
What can man offer to society, what can he expect from it? What follows
this earthly life?
 
The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for
all,[2] can through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength to
measure up to his supreme destiny. Nor has any other name under the
heaven been given to man by which it is fitting for him to be saved.[3]
 She likewise holds that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found
the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human
history. The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are
many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate
foundation in Christ, Who is the same yesterday and today, yes and
forever.[4] Hence under the light of Christ, the image of the unseen God,
the firstborn of every creature,[5] the council wishes to speak to al]
men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in
finding the solution to the outstanding problems of our time.
 
 
 
PART I  THE CHURCH AND MAN'S CALLING
 
11. The People of God believes that it is led by the Lord's Spirit, Who
fills the earth. Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher authentic
signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires
in which this People has a part along with other men of our age. For
faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God's design for man's
total vocation, and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully
human.
 
This council, first of all, wishes to assess in this light those values
which are most highly prized today and to relate them to their divine
source. Insofar as they stem from endowments conferred by God on man,
these values are exceedingly good. Yet they are often wrenched from their
rightful function by the taint in man's heart, and hence stand in need of
purification.
 
What does the Church think of man? What needs to be recommended for the
upbuilding of contemporary society? What is the ultimate significance of
human activity throughout the world? People are waiting for an answer to
these questions. From the answers it will be increasingly clear that the
People of God and the human race in whose midst it lives render service
to each other. Thus the mission of the Church will show its religious,
and by that very fact, its supremely human character.
 
 
 
CHAPTER I THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
 
12. According to the almost unanimous opinion of believers and
unbelievers alike, all things on earth should be related to man as their
center and crown.
 
But what is man? About himself he has expressed, and continues to
express, many divergent and even contradictory opinions. In these he
often exalts himself as the absolute measure of all things or debases
himself to the point of despair. The result is doubt and anxiety. The
Church certainly understands these problems. Endowed with light from God,
she can offer solutions to them, so that man's true situation can be
portrayed and his defects explained, while at the same time his dignity
and destiny are justly acknowledged.
 
For Sacred Scripture teaches that man was created "to the image of God,"
is capable of knowing and loving his Creator, and was appointed by Him as
master of all earthly creatures[1] that he might subdue them and use them
to God's glory.[2] "What is man that you should care for him? You have
made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and
honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all
things under his feet" (Ps. 8:5-7).
 
But God did not create man as a solitary, for from the beginning "male
and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). Their companionship produces the
primary form of interpersonal communion. For by his innermost nature man
is a social being, and unless he relates himself to others he can neither
live nor develop his potential.
 
Therefore, as we read elsewhere in Holy Scripture God saw "all that he
had made, and it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).
 
13. Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very
onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil
One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from
God. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, but their
senseless minds were darkened and they served the creature rather than
the Creator.[3] What divine revelation makes known to us agrees with
experience. Examining his heart, man finds that he has inclinations
toward evil too, and is engulfed by manifold ills which cannot come from
his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man
has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as
well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created
things.
 
Therefore man is split within himself. As a result, all of human life,
whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle
between good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man finds that
by himself he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil successfully,
so that everyone feels as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord
Himself came to free and strengthen man, renewing him inwardly and
casting out that "prince of this world" (John 12:31) who held him in the
bondage of sin.[4] For sin has diminished man, blocking his path to
fulfillment.
 
The call to grandeur and the depths of misery, both of which are a part
of human experience, find their ultimate and simultaneous explanation in
the light of this revelation.
 
14. Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily
composition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world;
thus they reach their crown through him, and through him raise their
voice in free praise of the Creator.[5] For this reason man is not
allowed to despise his bodily life; rather he is obliged to regard his
body as good and honorable since God has created it and will raise it up
on the last day. Nevertheless, wounded by sin, man experiences rebellious
stirrings in his body. But the very dignity of man postulates that man
glorify God in his body[6] and forbid it to serve the evil inclinations
of his heart.
 
Now, man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily
concerns, and as more than a speck of nature or a nameless constituent of
the city of man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum
of mere things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he enters
into his own heart; God, Who probes the heart,[7] awaits him there; there
he discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God. Thus, when he
recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being
mocked by a fantasy born only of physical or social influences, but is
rather laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.
 
15. Man judges rightly that by his intellect he surpasses the material
universe, for he shares in the light of the divine mind. By relentlessly
employing his talents through the ages he has indeed made progress in the
practical sciences and in technology and the liberal arts. In our times
he has won superlative victories, especially in his probing of the
material world and in subjecting it to himself. Still he has always
searched for more penetrating truths, and finds them. For his
intelligence is not confined to observable data alone, but can with
genuine certitude attain to reality itself as knowable, though in
consequence of sin that certitude is partly obscured and weakened.
 
The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and
needs to be, for wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a
love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom, man passes through
visible realities to those which are unseen.
 
Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made
by man are to be further humanized. For the future of the world stands in
peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out
that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and
can offer noteworthy advantages to others.
 
It is, finally, through the gift of the Holy Spirit that man comes by
faith to the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.[8]
 
16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not
impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning
him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary
speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law
written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he
will be judged.[9] Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a
man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.[10] In a
wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love
of God and neighbor.[11] In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined
with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine
solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals
from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway,
the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be
guided by the objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs
from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be
said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a
conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of
habitual sin.
 
17. Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our
contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and
rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license
for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part,
authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man.
For God has willed that man remain "under the control of his own
decisions,"[12] so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come
freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence
man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice
that is personally motivated and prompted from within, not under blind
internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity
when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his
goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself
through effective and skillful action, apt helps to that end. Since man's
freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God's grace can he
bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgment
seat of God each man must render an account of his own life, whether he
has done good or evil.[13]
 
18. It is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence grows
most acute. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing
deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual
extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors
and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person.
He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which
cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology,
though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation
of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which
is inescapably lodged in his breast.
 
Although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church
has been taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man has been
created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery.
In addition, that bodily death from which man would have been immune had
he not sinned[14] will be vanquished, according to the Christian faith,
when man who was ruined by his own doing is restored to wholeness by an
almighty and merciful Savior. For God has called man and still calls him
so that with his entire being he might be joined to Him in an endless
sharing of a divine life beyond all corruption. Christ won this victory
when He rose to life, for by His death He freed man from death.[15] Hence
to every thoughtful man a solidly established faith provides the answer
to his anxiety about what the future holds for him. At the same time
faith gives him the power to be united in Christ with his loved ones who
have already been snatched away by death; faith arouses the hope that
they have found true life with God.
 
19. The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion
with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited
to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by
God's love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully
according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes
himself to His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have never
recognized this intimate and vital link with God, or have explicitly
rejected it. Thus atheism must be accounted among the most serious
problems of this age, and is deserving of closer examination.
 
The word atheism is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from
one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe
that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him. Still others use such a
method to scrutinize the question of God as to make it seem devoid of
meaning. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences,
contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific
reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is
any absolute truth. Some laud man so extravagantly that their faith in
God lapses into a kind of anemia, though they seem more inclined to
affirm man than to deny God. Again some form for themselves such a
fallacious idea of God that when they repudiate this figment they are by
no means rejecting the God of the Gospel. Some never get to the point of
raising questions about God, since they seem to experience no religious
stirrings nor do they see why they should trouble themselves about
religion. Moreover, atheism results not rarely from a violent protest
against the evil in this world, or from the absolute character with which
certain human values are unduly invested, and which thereby already
accords them the stature of God. Modern civilization itself often
complicates the approach to God not for any essential reason but because
it is so heavily engrossed in earthly affairs.
 
Undeniably, those who willfully shut out God from their hearts and try to
dodge religious questions are not following the dictates of their
consciences, and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves
frequently bear some responsibility for this situation. For, taken as a
whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety
of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and
in some places against the Christian religion in particular. Hence
believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To
the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach
erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social
life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face
of God and religion.
 
20. Modern atheism often takes on a systematic expression which, in
addition to other causes, stretches the desire for human independence to
such a point that it poses difficulties against any kind of dependence on
God. Those who profess atheism of this sort maintain that it gives man
freedom to be an end unto himself, the sole artisan and creator of his
own history. They claim that this freedom cannot be reconciled with the
affirmation of a Lord Who is author and purpose of all things, or at
least that this freedom makes such an affirmation altogether superfluous.
Favoring this doctrine can be the sense of power which modern technical
progress generates in man.
 
Not to be overlooked among the forms of modern atheism is that which
anticipates the liberation of man especially through his economic and
social emancipation. This form argues that by its nature religion thwarts
this liberation by arousing man's hope for a deceptive future life,
thereby diverting him from the constructing of the earthly city.
Consequently when the proponents of this doctrine gain governmental power
they vigorously fight against religion, and promote atheism by using,
especially in the education of youth, those means of pressure which
public power has at its disposal.
 
21. In her loyal devotion to God and men, the Church has already
repudiated[16] and cannot cease repudiating, sorrowfully but as firmly as
possible, those poisonous doctrines and actions which contradict reason
and the common experience of humanity, and dethrone man from his native
excellence.
 
Still, she strives to detect in the atheistic mind the hidden causes for
the denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the questions which
atheism raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes these
questions ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly.
 
The Church holds that the recognition of God is in no way hostile to
man's dignity, since this dignity is rooted and perfected in God. For man
was made an intelligent and free member of society by God Who created
him; but even more important, he is called as a son to commune with God
and share in His happiness. She further teaches that a hope related to
the end of time does not diminish the importance of intervening duties
but rather undergirds the acquittal of them with fresh incentives. By
contrast, when a divine substructure and the hope of life eternal are
wanting, man's dignity is most grievously lacerated, as current events
often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of grief go
unsolved with the frequent result that men succumb to despair.
 
Meanwhile every man remains to himself an unsolved puzzle, however
obscurely he may perceive it. For on certain occasions no one can
entirely escape the kind of self-questioning mentioned earlier,
especially when life's major events take place. To this questioning only
God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons man to
higher knowledge and humbler probing.
 
The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought in
a proper presentation of the Church's teaching as well as in the integral
life of the Church and her members. For it is the function of the Church,
led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies her ceaselessly,[17] to
make God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and in a sense visible.
This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature
faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master
them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to this faith and continue
to do so. This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the
believer's entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by
activating him toward justice and love, especially regarding the needy.
What does the most reveal God's presence, however, is the brotherly
charity of the faithful who are united in spirit as they worktogether for
the faith of the Gospel[18] and who prove themselves a sign of unity.
 
While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes
that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the
rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such an ideal
cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.
Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some state
authorities make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice to the
fundamental rights of the human person. The Church calls for the active
liberty of believers to build up in this world God's temple too. She
courteously invites atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an open
mind.
 
Above all the Church knows that her message is in harmony with the most
secret desires of the human heart when she champions the dignity of the
human vocation, restoring hope to those who have already despaired of
anything higher than their present lot. Far from diminishing man, her
message brings to his development light, life and freedom. Apart from
this message nothing will avail to fill up the heart of man: "Thou hast
made us for Thyself," O Lord, "and our hearts are restless till they rest
in Thee."[19]
 
22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the
mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of
Him Who was to come,[20] namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam,
by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully
reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not
surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their
root and attain their crown.
 
He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15),[21] is Himself
the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness
which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature
as He assumed it was not annulled,[22] by that very fact it has been
raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation
the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He
worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human
choice[23] and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has
truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.[24]
 
As an innocent lamb He merited for us life by the free shedding of His
own blood. In Him God reconciled us[25] to Himself and among ourselves;
from bondage to the devil and sin He delivered us, so that each one of us
can say with the Apostle: The Son of God "loved me and gave Himself up
for me" (Gal. 2:20). By suffering for us He not only provided us with an
example for our imitation,[26] He blazed a trail, and if we follow it,
life and death are made holy and take on a new meaning.
 
The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the
firstborn of many brothers,[27] received "the first-fruits of the Spirit"
(Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of
love.[28] 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): "If the Spirit
of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who raised
Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies
because of his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).[29] Pressing upon
the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against
evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked
with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will
hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope.[30]
 
All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will
in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way.[31] For, since Christ died
for all men,[32] and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one,
and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known
only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with
this paschal mystery.
 
Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers
in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the
riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they
overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His death; He has
lavished life upon us[33] so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in
the Spirit: Abba, Father![34]
 
 
 
CHAPTER II  THE COMMUNITY OF MANKIND
 
23. One of the salient features of the modern world is the growing
interdependence of men one on the other, a development promoted chiefly
by modern technical advances. Nevertheless brotherly dialogue among men
does not reach its perfection on the level of technical progress, but on
the deeper level of interpersonal relationships. These demand a mutual
respect for the full spiritual dignity of the person. Christian
revelation contributes greatly to the promotion of this communion between
persons, and at the same time leads us to a deeper understanding of the
laws of social life which the Creator has written into man's moral and
spiritual nature.
 
Since rather recent documents of the Church's teaching authority have
dealt at considerable length with Christian doctrine about human
society,[1] this council is merely going to call to mind some of the more
basic truths, treating their foundations under the light of revelation.
Then it will dwell more at length on certain of their implications having
special significance for our day.
 
24. God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men
should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of
brotherhood. For having been created in the image of God, Who "from one
man has created the whole human race and made them live all over the face
of the earth" (Acts 17:26), all men are called to one and the same goal,
namely God Himself.
 
For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest
commandment. Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God
cannot be separated from love of neighbor: "If there is any other
commandment, it is summed up in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.... Love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom.
13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing daily more dependent on one
another, and to a world becoming more unified every day, this truth
proves to be of paramount importance.
 
Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be
one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human
reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine
Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness
reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for
itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of
himself.[2]
 
25. Man's social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human
person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another. For the
beginning, the subject and the goal of all social institutions is and
must be the human person, which for its part and by its very nature
stands completely in need of social life.[3] Since this social life is
not something added on to man, through his dealings with others, through
reciprocal duties, and through fraternal dialogue he develops all his
gifts and is able to rise to his destiny.
 
Among those social ties which man needs for his development some, like
the family and political community. relate with greater immediacy to his
innermost nature; others originate rather from his free decision. In our
era. for various reasons, reciprocal ties and mutual dependencies
increase day by day and give rise to a variety of associations and
organizations, both public and private. This development, which is called
socialization while certainly not without its dangers, brings with it
many advantages with respect to consolidating and increasing the
qualities of the human person, and safeguarding his rights.[4]
 
But if by this social life the human person is greatly aided in
responding to his destiny, even in its religious dimensions, it cannot be
denied that men are often diverted from doing good and spurred toward
evil by the social circumstances in which they live and are immersed from
their birth. To be sure the disturbances which so frequently occur in the
social order result in part from the natural tensions of economic,
political and social forms. But at a deeper level they flow from man's
pride and selfishness, which contaminate even the social sphere. When the
structure of affairs is flawed by the consequences of sin, man, already
born with a bent toward evil, finds there new inducements to sin, which
cannot be overcome without strenuous efforts and the assistance of grace.
 
26. Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads
by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is,
the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and
their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their
own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and
consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human
race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate
aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the
entire human family.[5]
 
At the same time, however, there is a growing awareness of the exalted
dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and
his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must
be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life
truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a
state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to
employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information,
to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to
protection of privacy and to rightful freedom, even in matters religious.
 
Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the
benefit of the human person if the disposition of affairs is to be
subordinate to the personal realm and not contrariwise, as the Lord
indicated when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath.[6]
 
This social order requires constant improvement. It must be founded on
truth, built on justice and animated by love; in freedom it should grow
every day toward a more humane balance.[7] An improvement in attitudes
and abundant changes in society will have to take place if these
objectives are to be gained.
 
God's Spirit, Who with a marvelous providence directs the unfolding of
time and renews the face of the earth, is not absent from this
development. The ferment of the Gospel too has aroused and continues to
arouse in man's heart the irresistible requirements of his dignity.
 
27. Coming down to practical and particularly urgent consequences, this
council lays stress on reverence for man; everyone must consider his
every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account
first of all his life and the means necessary to living it with
dignity,[8] so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the
poor man Lazarus.[9]
 
In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor
of every person without exception, and of actively helping him when he
comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by all, a
foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child born of an
unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not commit, or a
hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the voice of the
Lord, "As long as you did it for one of these the least of my brethren,
you did it for me" (Matt. 25:40).
 
Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of
murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction,
whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation,
torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself;
whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling
of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where
men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and
responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are
infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to
those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover,
they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator.
 
28. Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act
differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters.
In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking
through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter
into dialogue with them.
 
This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent
to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ
to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish
between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error,
who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by
false or inadequate religious notions.[10] God alone is the judge and
searcher of hearts; for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about
the internal guilt of anyone.[11]
 
The teaching of Christ even requires that we forgive injuries,[12] and
extends the law of love to include every enemy, according to the command
of the New Law: "You have heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies, do good
to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate
you" (Matt. 5:43-44).
 
29. Since all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's
likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed
by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic
equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition.
 
True, all men are not alike from the point of view of varying physical
power and the diversity of intellectual and moral resources.
Nevertheless, with respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every
type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex,
race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome
and eradicated as contrary to God's intent. For in truth it must still be
regretted that fundamental personal rights are still not being
universally honored. Such is the case of a woman who is denied the right
to choose a husband freely, to embrace a state of life or to acquire an
education or cultural benefits equal to those recognized for men.
 
Therefore, although rightful differences exist between men, the equal
dignity of persons demands that a more humane and just condition of life
be brought about. For excessive economic and social differences between
the members of the one human family or population groups cause scandal,
and militate against social justice, equity, the dignity of the human
person, as well as social and international peace.
 
Human institutions, both private and public, must labor to minister to
the dignity and purpose of man. At the same time let them put up a
stubborn fight against any kind of slavery, whether social or political,
and safeguard the basic rights of man under every political system.
Indeed human institutions themselves must be accommodated by degrees to
the highest of all realities, spiritual ones, even though meanwhile, a
long enough time will be required before they arrive at the desired goal.
 
30. Profound and rapid changes make it more necessary that no one
ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness, content himself with
a merely individualistic morality. It grows increasingly true that the
obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person,
contributing to the common good, according to his own abilities and the
needs of others, also promotes and assists the public and private
institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life. Yet
there are those who, while professing grand and rather noble sentiments,
nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the
needs of society. Many in various places even make light of social laws
and precepts, and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and
deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to society. Others
think little of certain norms of social life, for example those designed
for the protection of health, or laws establishing speed limits; they do
not even avert to the fact that by such indifference they imperil their
own life and that of others.
 
Let everyone consider it his sacred obligation to esteem and observe
social necessities as belonging to the primary duties of modern man. For
the more unified the world becomes, the more plainly do the offices of
men extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole
world. But this development cannot occur unless individual men and their
associations cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues, and
promote them in society; thus, with the needed help of divine grace men
who are truly new and artisans of a new humanity can be forthcoming.
 
31. In order for individual men to discharge with greater exactness the
obligations of their conscience toward themselves and the various groups
to which they belong, they must be carefully educated to a higher degree
of culture through the use of the immense resources available today to
the human race. Above all the education of youth from every social
background has to be undertaken, so that there can be produced not only
men and women of refined talents, but those great-souled persons who are
so desperately required by our times.
 
Now a man can scarcely arrive at the needed sense of responsibility,
unless his living conditions allow him to become conscious of his
dignity, and to rise to his destiny by spending himself for God and for
others. But human freedom is often crippled when a man encounters extreme
poverty, just as it withers when he indulges in too many of life's
comforts and imprisons himself in a kind of splendid isolation. Freedom
acquires new strength, by contrast, when a man consents to the
unavoidable requirements of social life, takes on the manifold demands of
human partnership, and commits himself to the service of the human
community.
 
Hence, the will to play one's role in common endeavors should be
everywhere encouraged. Praise is due to those national procedures which
allow the largest possible number of citizens to participate in public
affairs with genuine freedom. Account must be taken, to be sure, of the
actual conditions of each people and the decisiveness required by public
authority. If every citizen is to feel inclined to take part in the
activities of the various groups which make up the social body, these
must offer advantages which will attract members and dispose them to
serve others. We can justly consider that the future of humanity lies in
the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations
with reasons for living and hoping.
 
32. As God did not create man for life in isolation, but for the
formation of social unity, so also "it has pleased God to make men holy
and save them not merely as individuals, without bond or link between
them, but by making them into a single people, a people which
acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness."[13] So from the
beginning of salvation history He has chosen men not just as individuals
but as members of a certain community. Revealing His mind to them,
 
God called these chosen ones "His people" (Ex. 3:7-12), and even made a
covenant with them on Sinai.[14]
 
This communitarian character is developed and consummated in the work of
Jesus Christ. For the very Word made flesh willed to share in the human
fellowship. He was present at the wedding of Cana, visited the house of
Zacchaeus, ate with publicans and sinners. He revealed the love of the
Father and the sublime vocation of man in terms of the most common of
social realities and by making use of the speech and the imagery of plain
everyday life. Willingly obeying the laws of his country, He sanctified
those human ties, especially family ones, which are the source of social
structures. He chose to lead the life proper to an artisan of His time
and place.
 
In His preaching He clearly taught the sons of God to treat one another
as brothers. In His prayers He pleaded that all His disciples might be
"one." Indeed as the redeemer of all, He offered Himself for all even to
point of death. "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). He commanded His Apostles to preach
to all peoples the Gospel's message that the human race was to become the
Family of God, in which the fullness of the Law would be love.
 
As the firstborn of many brethren and by the giving of His Spirit, He
founded after His death and resurrection a new brotherly community
composed of all those who receive Him in faith and in love. This He did
through His Body, which is the Church. There everyone, as members one of
the other, would render mutual service according to the different gifts
bestowed on each.
 
This solidarity must be constantly increased until that day on which it
will be brought to perfection. Then, saved by grace, men will offer
flawless glory to God as a family beloved of God and of Christ their
Brother.
 
 
 
CHAPTER III  MAN'S ACTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
 
33. Through his labors and his native endowments man has ceaselessly
striven to better his life. Today, however, especially with the help of
science and technology, he has extended his mastery over nearly the whole
of nature and continues to do so. Thanks to increased opportunities for
many kinds of social contact among nations, the human family is gradually
recognizing that it comprises a single world community and is making
itself so. Hence many benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly
powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for himself.
 
In the face of these immense efforts which already preoccupy the whole
human race, men agitate numerous questions among themselves. What is the
meaning and value of this feverish activity? How should all these things
be used? To the achievement of what goal are the strivings of individuals
and societies heading? The Church guards the heritage of God's word and
draws from it moral and religious principles without always having at
hand the solution to particular problems. As such she desires to add the
light of revealed truth to mankind's store of experience, so that the
path which humanity has taken in recent times will not be a dark one.
 
34. Throughout the course of the centuries, men have labored to better
the circumstances of their lives through a monumental amount of
individual and collective effort. To believers, this point is settled:
considered in itself, this human activity accords with God's will. For
man, created to God's image, received a mandate to subject to himself the
earth and all it contains, and to govern the world with justice and
holiness;[1] a mandate to relate himself and the totality of things to
Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by
the subjection of all things to man, the name of God would be wonderful
in all the earth.[2]
 
This mandate concerns the whole of everyday activity as well. For while
providing the substance of life for themselves and their families, men
and women are performing their activities in a way which appropriately
benefits society. They can justly consider that by their labor they are
unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages of their brother
men, and are contributing by their personal industry to the realization
in history of the divine plan.[3]
 
Thus, far from thinking that works produced by man's talent and energy
are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational creature exists
as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced that the
triumphs of the human race are a sign of God's grace and the flowering of
His own mysterious design. For the greater man's power becomes, the
farther his individual and community responsibility extends. Hence it is
clear that men are not deterred by the Christian message from building up
the world, or impelled to neglect the welfare of their fellows, but that
they are rather more stringently bound to do these very things.[4]
 
 35. Human activity, to be sure, takes its significance from its
relationship to man. Just as it proceeds from man, so it is ordered
toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society,
he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources,
he goes outside of himself and beyond himself. Rightly understood, this
kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be
garnered. A man is more precious for what he is than for what he has.[5]
 Similarly, all that men do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood,
a more humane disposition of social relationships has greater worth than
technical advances. For these advances can supply the material for human
progress, but of themselves alone they can never actually bring it about.
 
Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine
plan and will, it harmonize with the genuine good of the human race, and
that it allow men as individuals and as members of society to pursue
their total vocation and fulfill it.
 
36. Now many of our contemporaries seem to fear that a closer bond
between human activity and religion will work against the independence of
men, of societies, or of the sciences.
 
If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and
societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be
gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is
entirely right to demand that autonomy. Such is not merely required by
modern man, but harmonizes also with the will of the Creator. For by the
very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed
with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man
must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the
individual sciences or arts. Therefore if methodical investigation within
every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner
and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith, for
earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the same God.[6]
 Indeed whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble
and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless
being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and
gives them their identity. Consequently, we cannot but deplore certain
habits of mind, which are sometimes found too among Christians which do
not sufficiently attend to the rightful independence of science and
which, from the arguments and controversies they spark, lead many minds
to conclude that faith and science are mutually opposed.[7]
 
But if the expression, the independence of temporal affairs, is taken to
mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use them
without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God will
see how false such a meaning is. For without the Creator the creature
would disappear. For their part, however, all believers of whatever
religion always hear His revealing voice in the discourse of creatures.
When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible.
 
37. Sacred Scripture teaches the human family what the experience of the
ages confirms: that while human progress is a great advantage to man, it
brings with it a strong temptation. For when the order of values is
jumbled and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay heed
solely to their own interests, and not to those of others. Thus it
happens that the world ceases to be a place of true brotherhood. In our
own day, the magnified power of humanity threatens to destroy the race
itself.
 
For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the
whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the
world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested.[8]
 Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is
to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without
great efforts and the help of God's grace.
 
That is why Christ's Church, trusting in the design of the Creator,
acknowledges that human progress can serve man's true happiness, yet she
cannot help echoing the Apostle's warning: "Be not conformed to this
world" (Rom. 12:2). Here by the world is meant that spirit of vanity and
malice which transforms into an instrument of sin those human energies
intended for the service of God and man.
 
Hence if anyone wants to know how this unhappy situation can be overcome,
Christians will tell him that all human activity, constantly imperiled by
man's pride and deranged self-love, must be purified and perfected by the
power of Christ's cross and resurrection. For redeemed by Christ and made
a new creature in the Holy Spirit, man is able to love the things
themselves created by God, and ought to do so. He can receive them from
God and respect and reverence them as flowing constantly from the hand of
God. Grateful to his Benefactor for these creatures, using and enjoying
them in detachment and liberty of spirit, man is led forward into a true
possession of them, as having nothing, yet possessing all things.[9] "All
are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:22-23).
 
38. For God's Word, through Whom all things were made, was Himself made
flesh and dwelt on the earth of men.[10] Thus He entered the world's
history as a perfect man, taking that history up into Himself and
summarizing it.[11] He Himself revealed to us that "God is love" (1 John
4:8) and at the same time taught us that the new command of love was the
basic law of human perfection and hence of the world's transformation.
 
To those, therefore, who believe in divine love, He gives assurance that
the way of love lies open to men and that the effort to establish a
universal brotherhood is not a hopeless one. He cautions them at the same
time that this charity is not something to be reserved for important
matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary circumstances of
life. Undergoing death itself for all of us sinners,[12] He taught us by
example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world and the
flesh inflict upon those who search after peace and justice. Appointed
Lord by His resurrection and given plenary power in heaven and on
earth,[13] Christ is now at work in the hearts of men through the energy
of His Holy Spirit, arousing not only a desire for the age to come, but
by that very fact animating, purifying and strengthening those noble
longings too by which the human family makes its life more human and
strives to render the whole earth submissive to this goal.
 
Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse: while He calls some to give
clear witness to the desire for a heavenly home and to keep that desire
green among the human family, He summons others to dedicate themselves to
the earthly service of men and to make ready the material of the
celestial realm by this ministry of theirs. Yet He frees all of them so
that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly resources
into the service of human life they can devote themselves to that future
when humanity itself will become an offering accepted by God.[14]
 
The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life's
journey in that sacrament of faith where natural elements refined by man
are gloriously changed into His Body and Blood, providing a meal of
brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
 
39. We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of
humanity,[15] nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As
deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away;[16] but we are
taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where
justice will abide,[17] and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all
the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart.[18] Then, with
death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was
sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with
incorruptibility.[19] Enduring with charity and its fruits,[20] all that
creation[21] which God made on man's account will be unchained from the
bondage of vanity.
 
Therefore, while we are warned that it profits a man nothing if he gain
the whole world and lose himself,[22] the expectation of a new earth must
not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For
here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able
to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age.
 
Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from the
growth of Christ's kingdom, to the extent that the former can contribute
to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital concern to the
Kingdom of God.[23]
 
For after we have obeyed the Lord, and in His Spirit nurtured on earth
the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all the
good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again, but
freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over to the
Father: "a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth and life, of
holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace."[24] On this earth that
Kingdom is already present in mystery. When the Lord returns it will be
brought into full flower.
 
 
 
CHAPTER IV THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD
 
40. Everything we have said about the dignity of the human person, and
about the human community and the profound meaning of human activity,
lays the foundation for the relationship between the Church and the
world, and provides the basis for dialogue between them.[1] In this
chapter, presupposing everything which has already been said by this
council concerning the mystery of the Church, we must now consider this
same Church inasmuch as she exists in the world, living and acting with
it.
 
Coming forth from the eternal Father's love,[2] founded in time by Christ
the Redeemer and made one in the Holy Spirit,[3] the Church has a saving
and an eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the
future world. But she is already present in this world, and is composed
of men, that is, of members of the earthly city who have a call to form
the family of God's children during the present history of the human
race, and to keep increasing it until the Lord returns. United on behalf
of heavenly values and enriched by them, this family has been
"constituted and structured as a society in this world"[4] by Christ, and
is equipped "by appropriate means for visible and social union."[5] Thus
the Church, at once "a visible association and a spiritual community,"[6]
 goes forward together with humanity and experiences the same earthly lot
which the world does. She serves as a leaven and as a kind of soul for
human society[7] as it is to be renewed in Christ and transformed into
God's family.
 
That the earthly and the heavenly city penetrate each other is a fact
accessible to faith alone; it remains a mystery of human history, which
sin will keep in great disarray until the splendor of God's sons is fully
revealed. Pursuing the saving purpose which is proper to her, the Church
does not only communicate divine life to men but in some way casts the
reflected light of that life over the entire earth, most of all by its
healing and elevating impact on the dignity of the person, by the way in
which it strengthens the seams of human society and imbues the everyday
activity of men with a deeper meaning and importance. Thus through her
individual members and her whole community, the Church believes she can
contribute greatly toward making the family of man and its history more
human.
 
In addition, the Catholic Church gladly holds in high esteem the things
which other Christian Churches and ecclesial communities have done or are
doing cooperatively by way of achieving the same goal. At the same time,
she is convinced that she can be abundantly and variously helped by the
world in the matter of preparing the ground for the Gospel. This help she
gains from the talents and industry of individuals and from human society
as a whole. The council now sets forth certain general principles for the
proper fostering of this mutual exchange and assistance in concerns which
are in some way common to the world and the Church.
 
41. Modern man is on the road to a more thorough development of his own
personality, and to a growing discovery and vindication of his own
rights. Since it has been entrusted to the Church to reveal the mystery
of God, Who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens up to man at the same
time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth about
himself. The Church truly knows that only God, Whom she serves, meets the
deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied by
what this world has to offer.
 
She also knows that man is constantly worked upon by God's Spirit, and
hence can never be altogether indifferent to the problems of religion.
The experience of past ages proves this, as do numerous indications in
our own times. For man will always yearn to know, at least in an obscure
way, what is the meaning of his life, of his activity, of his death. The
very presence of the Church recalls these problems to his mind. But only
God, Who created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides
the most adequate answer to these questions, and this He does through
what He has revealed in Christ His Son, Who became man. Whoever follows
after Christ, the perfect man, becomes himself more of a man. For by His
incarnation the Father's Word assumed, and sanctified through His cross
and resurrection, the whole of man, body and soul, and through that
totality the whole of nature created by God for man's use.
 
Thanks to this belief, the Church can anchor the dignity of human nature
against all tides of opinion, for example those which undervalue the
human body or idolize it. By no human law can the personal dignity and
liberty of man be so aptly safeguarded as by the Gospel of Christ which
has been entrusted to the Church. For this Gospel announces and proclaims
the freedom of the sons of God, and repudiates all the bondage which
ultimately results from sin.[8] (cf. Rom. 8:14-17); it has a sacred
reverence for the dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice,
constantly advises that all human talents be employed in God's service
and men's, and, finally, commends all to the charity of all (cf. Matt.
22:39).[9]
 
his agrees with the basic law of the Christian dispensation. For though
the same God is Savior and Creator, Lord of human history as well as of
salvation history, in the divine arrangement itself, the rightful
autonomy of the creature, and particularly of man is not withdrawn, but
is rather re-established in its own dignity and strengthened in it.
 
The Church, therefore, by virtue of the Gospel committed to her,
proclaims the rights of man; she acknowledges and greatly esteems the
dynamic movements of today by which these rights are everywhere fostered.
Yet these movements must be penetrated by the spirit of the Gospel and
protected against any kind of false autonomy. For we are tempted to think
that our personal rights are fully ensured only when we are exempt from
every requirement of divine law. But this way lies not the maintenance of
the dignity of the human person, but its annihilation.
 
42. The union of the human family is greatly fortified and fulfilled by
the unity, founded on Christ,[10] of the family of God's sons.
 
Christ, to be sure, gave His Church no proper mission in the political,
economic or social order. The purpose which He set before her is a
religious one.[11] But out of this religious mission itself come a
function, a light and an energy which can serve to structure and
consolidate the human community according to the divine law. As a matter
of fact, when circumstances of time and place produce the need, she can
and indeed should initiate activities on behalf of all men, especially
those designed for the needy, such as the works of mercy and similar
undertakings.
 
The Church recognizes that worthy elements are found in today's social
movements, especially an evolution toward unity, a process of wholesome
socialization and of association in civic and economic realms. The
promotion of unity belongs to the innermost nature of the Church, for she
is, "thanks to her relationship with Christ, a sacramental sign and an
instrument of intimate union with God, and of the unity of the whole
human race."[12] Thus she shows the world that an authentic union, social
and external, results from a union of minds and hearts, namely from that
faith and charity by which her own unity is unbreakably rooted in the
Holy Spirit. For the force which the Church can inject into the modern
society
 
of man consists in that faith and charity put into vital practice, not in
any external dominion exercised by merely human means.
 
Moreover, since in virtue of her mission and nature she is bound to no
particular form of human culture, nor to any political, economic or
social system, the Church by her very universality can be a very close
bond between diverse human communities and nations, provided these trust
her and truly acknowledge her right to true freedom in fulfilling her
mission. For this reason, the Church admonishes her own sons, but also
humanity as a whole, to overcome all strife between nations and races in
this family spirit of God's children, and in the same way, to give
internal strength to human associations which are just.
 
With great respect, therefore, this council regards all the true, good
and just elements inherent in the very wide variety of institutions which
the human race has established for itself and constantly continues to
establish. The council affirms, moreover, that the Church is willing to
assist and promote all these institutions to the extent that such a
service depends on her and can be associated with her mission. She has no
fiercer desire than that in pursuit of the welfare of all she may be able
to develop herself freely under any kind of government which grants
recognition to the basic rights of person and family, to the demands of
the common good and to the free exercise of her own mission.
 
43. This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive
to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the
Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no
abiding city but seek one which is to come,[13] think that they may
therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting
that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up to
these duties, each according to his proper vocation.[14] Nor, on the
contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion
consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral
obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly
affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from
the religious life. This split between the faith which many profess and
their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of
our age. Long since, the Prophets of the Old Testament fought vehemently
against this scandal[15] and even more so did Jesus Christ Himself in the
New Testament threaten it with grave punishments.[16] Therefore, let
there be no false opposition between professional and social activities
on the one part, and religious life on the other. The Christian who
neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and
even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation. Christians should rather
rejoice that, following the example of Christ Who worked as an artisan,
they are free to give proper exercise to all their earthly activities and
to their humane, domestic, professional, social and technical enterprises
by gathering them into one vital synthesis with religious values, under
whose supreme direction all things are harmonized unto God's glory.
 
Secular duties and activities belong properly although not exclusively to
laymen. Therefore acting as citizens in the world, whether individually
or socially, they will keep the laws proper to each discipline, and labor
to equip themselves with a genuine expertise in their various fields.
They will gladly work with men seeking the same goals. Acknowledging the
demands of faith and endowed with its force, they will unhesitatingly
devise new enterprises, where they are appropriate, and put them into
action. Laymen should also know that it is generally the function of
their well-formed Christian conscience to see that the divine law is
inscribed in the life of the earthly city; from priests they may look for
spiritual light and nourishment. Let the layman not imagine that his
pastors are always such experts, that to every problem which arises,
however complicated, they can readily give him a concrete solution, or
even that such is their mission. Rather, enlightened by Christian wisdom
and giving close attention to the teaching authority of the Church,[17]
 let the layman take on his own distinctive role.
 
Often enough the Christian view of things will itself suggest some
specific solution in certain circumstances. Yet it happens rather
frequently, and legitimately so, that with equal sincerity some of the
faithful will disagree with others on a given matter. Even against the
intentions of their proponents, however, solutions proposed on one side
or another may be easily confused by many people with the Gospel message.
Hence it is necessary for people to remember that no one is allowed in
the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church's authority for
his opinion. They should always try to enlighten one another through
honest discussion, preserving mutual charity and caring above all for the
common good.
 
Since they have an active role to play in the whole life of the Church,
laymen are not only bound to penetrate the world with a Christian spirit,
but are also called to be witnesses to Christ in all things in the midst
of human society.
 
Bishops, to whom is assigned the task of ruling the Church of God,
should, together with their priests, so preach the news of Christ that
all the earthly activities of the faithful will be bathed in the light of
the Gospel. All pastors should remember too that by their daily conduct
and concern[18] they are revealing the face of the Church to the world,
and men will judge the power and truth of the Christian message thereby.
By their lives and speech, in union with Religious and their faithful,
may they demonstrate that even now the Church by her presence alone and
by all the gifts which she contains, is an unspent fountain of those
virtues which the modern world needs the most.
 
By unremitting study they should fit themselves to do their part in
establishing dialogue with the world and with men of all shades of
opinion. Above all let them take to heart the words which this council
has spoken: "Since humanity today increasingly moves toward civil,
economic and social unity, it is more than ever necessary that priests,
with joint concern and energy, and under the guidance of the bishops and
the supreme pontiff, erase every cause of division, so that the whole
human race may be led to the unity of God's family."[19]
 
Although by the power of the Holy Spirit the Church will remain the
faithful spouse of her Lord and will never cease to be the sign of
salvation on earth, still she is very well aware that among her
members,[20] both clerical and lay, some have been unfaithful to the
Spirit of God during the course of many centuries; in the present age,
too, it does not escape the Church how great a distance lies between the
message she offers and the human failings of those to whom the Gospel is
entrusted. Whatever be the judgment of history on these defects, we ought
to be conscious of them, and struggle against them energetically, lest
they inflict harm on spread of the Gospel. The Church also realizes that
in working out her relationship with the world she always has great need
of the ripening which comes with the experience of the centuries. Led by
the Holy Spirit, Mother Church unceasingly exhorts her sons "to purify
and renew themselves so that the sign of Christ can shine more brightly
on the face of the Church."[21]
 
44. Just as it is in the world's interest to acknowledge the Church as an
historical reality, and to recognize her good influence, so the Church
herself knows how richly she has profited by the history and development
of humanity.
 
The experience of past ages, the progress of the sciences, and the
treasures hidden in the various forms of human culture, by all of which
the nature of man himself is more clearly revealed and new roads to truth
are opened, these profit the Church, too. For, from the beginning of her
history she has learned to express the message of Christ with the help of
the ideas and terminology of various philosophers, and has tried to
clarify it with their wisdom, too. Her purpose has been to adapt the
Gospel to the grasp of all as well as to the needs of the learned,
insofar as such was appropriate. Indeed this accommodated preaching of
the revealed word ought to remain the law of all evangelization. For thus
the ability to express Christ's message in its own way is developed in
each nation, and at the same time there is fostered a living exchange
between the Church and the diverse cultures of people.[22] To promote
such exchange, especially in our days, the Church requires the special
help of those who live in the world, are versed in different institutions
and specialties, and grasp their innermost significance in the eyes of
both believers and unbelievers. With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is
the task of the entire People of God, especially pastors and theologians,
to hear, distinguish and interpret the many voices of our age, and to
judge them in the light of the divine word, so that revealed truth can
always be more deeply penetrated better understood and set forth to
greater advantage.
 
Since the Church has a visible and social structure as a sign of her
unity in Christ, she can and ought to be enriched by the development of
human social life, not that there is any lack in the constitution given
her by Christ, but that she can understand it more penetratingly, express
it better, and adjust it more successfully to our times. Moreover, she
gratefully understands that in her community life no less than in her
individual sons, she receives a variety of helps from men of every rank
and condition, for whoever promotes the human community at the family
level, culturally, in its economic, social and political dimensions, both
nationally and internationally, such a one, according to God's design, is
contributing greatly to the Church as well, to the extent that she
depends on things outside herself. Indeed, the Church admits that she has
greatly profited and still profits from the antagonism of those who
oppose or who persecute her.[23]
 
45. While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the
Church has a single intention: that God's kingdom may come, and that the
salvation of the whole human race may come to pass. For every benefit
which the People of God during its earthly pilgrimage can offer to the
human family stems from the fact that the Church is "the universal
sacrament of salvation",[24] simultaneously manifesting and exercising
the mystery of God's love for man.
 
For God's Word, by whom all things were made, was Himself made flesh so
that as perfect man He might save all men and sum up all things in
Himself. The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the
longings of history and of civilization, the center of the human race,
the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings.[25] He it is
Whom the Father raised from the dead, lifted on high and stationed at His
right hand, making Him judge of the living and the dead. Enlivened and
united in His Spirit, we journey toward the consummation of human
history, one which fully accords with the counsel of God's love: "To
reestablish all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on
the earth" (Eph. 11:10).
 
The Lord Himself speaks: "Behold I come quickly! And my reward is with
me, to render to each one according to his works. I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Apoc.
22:12-13)."
 
 
 
PART II SOME PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL URGENCY
 
46. This council has set forth the dignity of the human person, and the
work which men have been destined to undertake throughout the world both
as individuals and as members of society. There are a number of
particularly urgent needs characterizing the present age, needs which go
to the roots of the human race. To a consideration of these in the light
of the Gospel and of human experience, the council would now direct the
attention of all.
 
Of the many subjects arousing universal concern today, it may be helpful
to concentrate on these: marriage and the family, human progress, life in
its economic, social and political dimensions, the bonds between the
family of nations, and peace. On each of these may there shine the
radiant ideals proclaimed by Christ. By these ideals may Christians be
led, and all mankind enlightened, as they search for answers to questions
of such complexity.
 
 
 
CHAPTER I FOSTERING THE NOBILITY OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY
 
47. The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian
society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community
produced by marriage and family. Hence Christians and all men who hold
this community in high esteem sincerely rejoice in the various ways by
which men today find help in fostering this community of love and
perfecting its life, and by which parents are assisted in their lofty
calling. Those who rejoice in such aids look for additional benefits from
them and labor to bring them about.
 
Yet the excellence of this institution is not everywhere reflected with
equal brilliance, since polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free
love and other disfigurements have an obscuring effect. In addition,
married love is too often profaned by excessive self-love, the worship of
pleasure and illicit practices against human generation. Moreover,
serious disturbances are caused in families by modern economic
conditions, by influences at once social and psychological, and by the
demands of civil society. Finally, in certain parts of the world problems
resulting from population growth are generating concern.
 
All these situations have produced anxiety of consciences. Yet, the power
and strength of the institution of marriage and family can also be seen
in the fact that time and again, despite the difficulties produced, the
profound changes in modern society reveal the true character of this
institution in one way or another.
 
Therefore, by presenting certain key points of Church doctrine in a
clearer light, this sacred synod wishes to offer guidance and support to
those Christians and other men who are trying to preserve the holiness
and to foster the natural dignity of the married state and its
superlative value.
 
48. The intimate partnership of married life and love has been
established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in
the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. Hence by that
human act whereby spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a
relationship arises which by divine will and in the eyes of society too
is a lasting one. For the good of the spouses and their off-springs as
well as of society, the existence of the sacred bond no longer depends on
human decisions alone. For, God Himself is the author of matrimony,
endowed as it is with various benefits and purposes.[1] All of these have a
very decisive bearing on the continuation of the human race, on the
personal development and eternal destiny of the individual members of a
family, and on the dignity, stability, peace and prosperity of the family
itself and of human society as a whole. By their very nature, the
institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the
procreation and education of children, and find in them their ultimate
crown. Thus a man and a woman, who by their compact of conjugal love "are
no longer two, but one flesh" (Matt. 19:6), render mutual help and
service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of
their actions. Through this union they experience the meaning of their
oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a mutual
gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good of the children
impose total fidelity on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable oneness
between them.[2]
 
Christ the Lord abundantly blessed this many-faceted love, welling up as
it does from the fountain of divine love and structured as it is on the
model of His union with His Church. For as God of old made Himself
present[3] to His people through a covenant of love and fidelity, so now
the Savior of men and the Spouse[4] of the Church comes into the lives of
married Christians through the sacrament of matrimony. He abides with
them thereafter so that just as He loved the Church and handed Himself
over on her behalf,[5] the spouses may love each other with perpetual
fidelity through mutual self-bestowal.
 
Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and
enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the
Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful
effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a
father or a mother.[6] For this reason Christian spouses have a special
sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration
in the duties and dignity of their state.[7] By virtue of this sacrament,
as spouses fulfill their conjugal and family obligation, they are
penetrated with the spirit of Christ, which suffuses their whole lives
with faith, hope and charity. Thus they increasingly advance the
perfection of their own personalities, as well as their mutual
sanctification, and hence contribute jointly to the glory of God.
 
As a result, with their parents leading the way by example and family
prayer, children and indeed everyone gathered around the family hearth
will find a readier path to human maturity, salvation and holiness.
Graced with the dignity and office of fatherhood and motherhood, parents
will energetically acquit themselves of a duty which devolves primarily
on them, namely education and especially religious education.
 
As living members of the family, children contribute in their own way to
making their parents holy. For they will respond to the kindness of their
parents with sentiments of gratitude, with love and trust. They will
stand by them as children should when hardships overtake their parents
and old age brings its loneliness. Widowhood, accepted bravely as a
continuation of the marriage vocation, should be esteemed by all.[8]
 Families too will share their spiritual riches generously with other
families. Thus the Christian family, which springs from marriage as a
reflection of the loving covenant uniting Christ with the Church,[9] and
as a participation in that covenant, will manifest to all men Christ's
living presence in the world, and the genuine nature of the Church. This
the family will do by the mutual love of the spouses, by their generous
fruitfulness, their solidarity and faithfulness, and by the loving way in
which all members of the family assist one another.
 
49. The biblical Word of God several times urges the betrothed and the
married to nourish and develop their wedlock by pure conjugal love and
undivided affection.[10] Many men of our own age also highly regard true
love between husband and wife as it manifests itself in a variety of ways
depending on the worthy customs of various peoples and times.
 
This love is an eminently human one since it is directed from one person
to another through an affection of the will; it involves the good of the
whole person, and therefore can enrich the expressions of body and mind
with a unique dignity, ennobling these expressions as special ingredients
and signs of the friendship distinctive of marriage. This love God has
judged worthy of special gifts, healing, perfecting and exalting gifts of
grace and of charity. Such love, merging the human with the divine, leads
the spouses to a free and mutual gift of themselves, a gift providing
itself by gentle affection and by deed; such love pervades the whole of
their lives:[11] indeed by its busy generosity it grows better and grows
greater. Therefore it far excels mere erotic inclination, which,
selfishly pursued, soon enough fades wretchedly away.
 
This love is uniquely expressed and perfected through the appropriate
enterprise of matrimony. The actions within marriage by which the couple
are united intimately and chastely are noble and worthy ones. Expressed
in a manner which is truly human, these actions promote that mutual
self-giving by which spouses enrich each other with a joyful and a ready
will. Sealed by mutual faithfulness and hallowed above all by Christ's
sacrament, this love remains steadfastly true in body and in mind, in
bright days or dark. It will never be profaned by adultery or divorce.
Firmly established by the Lord, the unity of marriage will radiate from
the equal personal dignity of wife and husband, a dignity acknowledged by
mutual and total love. The constant fulfillment of the duties of this
Christian vocation demands notable virtue. For this reason, strengthened
by grace for holiness of life, the couple will painstakingly cultivate
and pray for steadiness of love, largeheartedness and the spirit of
sacrifice.
 
Authentic conjugal love will be more highly prized, and wholesome public
opinion created about it if Christian couples give outstanding witness to
faithfulness and harmony in their love, and to their concern for
educating their children; also, if they do their part in bringing about
the needed cultural, psychological and social renewal on behalf of
marriage and the family. Especially in the heart of their own families,
young people should be aptly and seasonably instructed in the dignity,
duty and work of married love. Trained thus in the cultivation of
chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to enter a marriage of
their own after an honorable courtship.
 
50. Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the
begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift
of marriage and contribute
 
very substantially to the welfare of their parents. The God Himself Who
said, "it is not good for man to be alone" (Gen. 2:18) and "Who made man
from the beginning male and female" (Matt. 19:4), wishing to share with
man a certain special participation in His own creative work, blessed
male and female, saying: "Increase and multiply" (Gen. 1:28). Hence,
while not making the other purposes of matrimony of less account, the
true practice of conjugal love, and the whole meaning of the family life
which results from it, have this aim: that the couple be ready with stout
hearts to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Savior, Who
through them will enlarge and enrich His own family day by day.
 
Parents should regard as their proper mission the task of transmitting
human life and educating those to whom it has been transmitted. They
should realize that they are thereby cooperators with the love of God the
Creator, and are, so to speak, the interpreters of that love. Thus they
will fulfill their task with human and Christian responsibility, and,
with docile reverence toward God, will make decisions by common counsel
and effort. Let them thoughtfully take into account both their own
welfare and that of their children, those already born and those which
the future may bring. For this accounting they need to reckon with both
the material and the spiritual conditions of the times as well as of
their state in life. Finally, they should consult the interests of the
family group, of temporal society, and of the Church herself. The parents
themselves and no one else should ultimately make this judgment in the
sight of God. But in their manner of acting, spouses should be aware that
they cannot proceed arbitrarily, but must always be governed according to
a conscience dutifully conformed to the divine law itself, and should be
submissive toward the Church's teaching office, which authentically
interprets that law in the light of the Gospel. That divine law reveals
and protects the integral meaning of conjugal love, and impels it toward
a truly human fulfillment. Thus, trusting in divine Providence and
refining the spirit of sacrifice,[12] married Christians glorify the
Creator and strive toward fulfillment in Christ when with a generous
human and Christian sense of responsibility they acquit themselves of the
duty to procreate. Among the couples who fulfill their God-given task in
this way, those merit special mention who with a gallant heart, and with
wise and common deliberation, undertake to bring up suitably even a
relatively large family.[13]
 
Marriage to be sure is not instituted solely for procreation; rather, its
very nature as an unbreakable compact between persons, and the welfare of
the children, both demand that the mutual love of the spouses be embodied
in a rightly ordered manner, that it grow and ripen. Therefore, marriage
persists as a whole manner and communion of life, and maintains its value
and indissolubility, even when despite the often intense desire of the
couple, offspring are lacking.
 
51. This council realizes that certain modern conditions often keep
couples from arranging their married lives harmoniously, and that they
find themselves in circumstances where at least temporarily the size of
their families should not be increased. As a result, the faithful
exercise of love and the full intimacy of their lives is hard to
maintain. But where the intimacy of married life is broken off, its
faithfulness can sometimes be imperiled and its quality of fruitfulness
ruined for then the upbringing of the children and the courage to accept
new ones are both endangered.
 
To these problems there are those who presume to offer dishonorable
solutions indeed; they do not recoil even from the taking of life. But
the Church issues the reminder that a true contradiction cannot exist
between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those
pertaining to authentic conjugal love.
 
For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry
of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man. Therefore from
the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care
while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes. The sexual
characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction wonderfully
exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life. Hence the acts themselves
which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accord with
genuine human dignity must be honored with great reverence. Hence when
there is question of harmonizing conjugal love with the responsible
transmission of life, the moral aspects of any procedure does not depend
solely on sincere intentions or on an evaluation of motives, but must be
determined by objective standards. These, based on the nature of the
human person and his acts, preserve the full sense of mutual self-giving
and human procreation in the context of true love. Such a goal cannot be
achieved unless the virtue of conjugal chastity is sincerely practiced.
Relying on these principles, sons of the Church may not undertake methods
of birth control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of
the Church in its unfolding of the divine law.[14]
 
All should be persuaded that human life and the task of transmitting it
are not realities bound up with this world alone. Hence they cannot be
measured or perceived only in terms of it, but always have a bearing on
the eternal destiny of men.
 
52. The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity. But if it is to
achieve the full flowering of its life and mission, it needs the kindly
communion of minds and the joint deliberation of spouses, as well as the
painstaking cooperation of parents in the education of their children.
The active presence of the father is highly beneficial to their
formation. The children, especially the younger among them, need the care
of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be safely
preserved, though the legitimate social progress of women should not be
underrated on that account.
 
Children should be so educated that as adults they can follow their
vocation, including a religious one, with a mature sense of
responsibility and can choose their state of life; if they marry, they
can thereby establish their family in favorable moral, social and
economic conditions. Parents or guardians should by prudent advice
provide guidance to their young with respect to founding a family, and
the young ought to listen gladly. At the same time no pressure, direct or
indirect, should be put on the young to make them enter marriage or
choose a specific partner.
 
Thus the family, in which the various generations come together and help
one another grow wiser and harmonize personal rights with the other
requirements of social life, is the foundation of society. All those,
therefore, who exercise influence over communities and social groups
should work efficiently for the welfare of marriage and the family.
Public authority should regard it as a sacred duty to recognize, protect
and promote their authentic nature, to shield public morality and to
favor the prosperity of home life. The right of parents to beget and
educate their children in the bosom of the family must be safeguarded.
Children too who unhappily lack the blessing of a family should be
protected by prudent legislation and various undertakings and assisted by
the help they need.
 
Christians, redeeming the present time[15] and distinguishing eternal
realities from their changing expressions, should actively promote the
values of marriage and the family, both by the examples of their own
lives and by cooperation with other men of good will. Thus when
difficulties arise, Christians will provide, on behalf of family life,
those necessities and helps which are suitably modern. To this end, the
Christian instincts of the faithful, the upright moral consciences of
men, and the wisdom and experience of persons versed in the sacred
sciences will have much to contribute.
 
Those too who are skilled in other sciences, notably the medical,
biological, social and psychological, can considerably advance the
welfare of marriage and the family along with peace of conscience if by
pooling their efforts they labor to explain more thoroughly the various
conditions favoring a proper regulation of births.
 
It devolves on priests duly trained about family matters to nurture the
vocation of spouses by a variety of pastoral means, by preaching God's
word, by liturgical worship, and by other spiritual aids to conjugal and
family life; to sustain them sympathetically and patiently in
difficulties, and to make them courageous through love, so that families
which are truly illustrious can be formed.
 
Various organizations, especially family associations, should try by
their programs of instruction and action to strengthen young people and
spouses themselves, particularly those recently wed, and to train them
for family, social and apostolic life.
 
Finally, let the spouses themselves, made to the image of the living God
and enjoying the authentic dignity of persons, be joined to one
another[16] in equal affection, harmony of mind and the work of mutual
sanctification. Thus, following Christ who is the principle of life,[17]
 by the sacrifices and joys of their vocation and through their faithful
love, married people can become witnesses of the mystery of love which
the Lord revealed to the world by His dying and His rising up to life
again.[18]
 
 
 
CHAPTER II  THE PROPER DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE
 
53. Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture, that is
through the cultivation of the goods and values of nature. Wherever human
life is involved, therefore, nature and culture are quite intimately
connected one with the other.
 
The word "culture" in its general sense indicates everything whereby man
develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities; he strives
by his knowledge and his labor, to bring the world itself under his
control. He renders social life more human both in the family and the
civic community, through improvement of customs and institutions.
Throughout the course of time he expresses, communicates and conserves in
his works, great spiritual experiences and desires, that they might be of
advantage to the progress of many, even of the whole human family.
 
Thence it follows that human culture has necessarily a historical and
social aspect and the word "culture" also often assumes a sociological
and ethnological sense. According to this sense we speak of a plurality
of cultures. Different styles of life and multiple scales of values arise
from the diverse manner of using things, of laboring, of expressing
oneself, of practicing religion, of forming customs, of establishing laws
and juridic institutions, of cultivating the sciences, the arts and
beauty. Thus the customs handed down to it form the patrimony proper to
each human community. It is also in this way that there is formed the
definite, historical milieu which enfolds the man of every nation and age
and from which he draws the values which permit him to promote
civilization.
 
 
SECTION 1 The Circumstances of Culture in the World Today
 
54. The circumstances of the life of modern man have been so profoundly
changed in their social and cultural aspects, that we can speak of a new
age of human history.[1] New ways are open, therefore, for the perfection
and the further extension of culture. These ways have been prepared by
the enormous growth of natural, human and social sciences, by technical
progress, and advances in developing and organizing means whereby men can
communicate with one another. Hence the culture of today possesses
particular characteristics: sciences which are called exact greatly
develop critical judgment; the more recent psychological studies more
profoundly explain human activity; historical studies make it much easier
to see things in their mutable and evolutionary aspects; customs and
usages are becoming more and more uniform; industrialization,
urbanization, and other causes which promote community living create a
mass-culture from which are born new ways of thinking, acting and making
use of leisure. The increase of commerce between the various nations and
human groups opens more widely to all the treasures of different
civilizations and thus little by little, there develops a more universal
form of human culture, which better promotes and expresses the unity of
the human race to the degree that it preserves the particular aspects of
the different civilizations.
 
55. From day to day, in every group or nation, there is an increase in
the number of men and women who are conscious that they themselves are
the authors and the artisans of the culture of their community.
Throughout the whole world there is a mounting increase in the sense of
autonomy as well as of responsibility. This is of paramount importance
for the spiritual and moral maturity of the human race. This becomes more
clear if we consider the unification of the world and the duty which is
imposed upon us, that we build a better world based upon truth and
justice. Thus we are witnesses of the birth of a new humanism, one in
which man is defined first of all by this responsibility to his brothers
and to history.
 
56. In these conditions, it is no cause of wonder that man, who senses
his responsibility for the progress of culture, nourishes a high hope but
also looks with anxiety upon many contradictory things which he must
resolve:
 
What is to be done to prevent the increased exchanges between cultures,
which should lead to a true and fruitful dialogue between groups and
nations, from disturbing the life of communities, from destroying the
wisdom received from ancestors, or from placing in danger the character
proper to each people?
 
How is the dynamism and expansion of a new culture to be fostered without
losing a living fidelity to the heritage of tradition? This question is
of particular urgency when a culture which arises from the enormous
progress of science and technology must be harmonized with a culture
nourished by classical studies according to various traditions.
 
How can we quickly and progressively harmonize the proliferation of
particular branches of study with the necessity of forming a synthesis of
them, and of preserving among men the faculties of contemplation and
observation which lead to wisdom?
 
What can be done to make all men partakers of cultural values in the
world, when the human culture of those who are more competent is
constantly becoming more refined and more complex?
 
Finally how is the autonomy which culture claims for itself to be
recognized as legitimate without generating a notion of humanism which is
merely terrestrial, and even contrary to religion itself?
 
In the midst of these conflicting requirements, human culture must evolve
today in such a way that it can both develop the whole human person and
aid man in those duties to whose fulfillment all are called, especially
Christians fraternally united in one human family.
 
 
SECTION 2 Some Principles for the Proper Development of Culture
 
57. Christians, on pilgrimage toward the heavenly city, should seek and
think of these things which are above.[2] This duty in no way decreases,
rather it increases, the importance of their obligation to work with all
men in the building of a more human world. Indeed, the mystery of the
Christian faith furnishes them with an excellent stimulant and aid to
fulfill this duty more courageously and especially to uncover the full
meaning of this activity, one which gives to human culture its eminent
place in the integral vocation of man.
 
When man develops the earth by the work of his hands or with the aid of
technology, in order that it might bear fruit and become a dwelling
worthy of the whole human family and when he consciously takes part in
the life of social groups, he carries out the design of God manifested at
the beginning of time, that he should subdue[3] the earth, perfect
creation and develop himself. At the same time he obeys the commandment
of Christ that he place himself at the service of his brethren.
 
Furthermore, when man gives himself to the various disciplines of
philosophy, history and of mathematical and natural science, and when he
cultivates the arts, he can do very much to elevate the human family to a
more sublime understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty, and to the
formation of considered opinions which have universal value. Thus mankind
may be more clearly enlightened by that marvelous Wisdom which was with
God from all eternity, composing all things with him, rejoicing in the
earth, delighting in the sons of men.[4]
 
In this way, the human spirit, being less subjected to material things,
can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the Creator.
Moreover, by the impulse of grace, he is disposed to acknowledge the Word
of God, Who before He became flesh in order to save all and to sum up all
in Himself was already "in the world" as "the true light which enlightens
every man" (John 1:9-10).[5]
 
Indeed today's progress in science and technology can foster a certain
exclusive emphasis on observable data, and an agnosticism about
everything else. For the methods of investigation which these sciences
use can be wrongly considered as the supreme rule of seeking the whole
truth. By virtue of their methods these sciences cannot penetrate to the
intimate notion of things. Indeed the danger is present that man,
confiding too much in the discoveries of today, may think that he is
sufficient unto himself and no longer seek the higher things.
 
These unfortunate results, however, do not necessarily follow from the
culture of today, nor should they lead us into the temptation of not
acknowledging its positive values. Among these values are included:
scientific study and fidelity toward truth in scientific inquiries, the
necessity of working together with others in technical groups, a sense of
international solidarity, a clearer awareness of the responsibility of
experts to aid and even to protect men, the desire to make the conditions
of life more favorable for all, especially for those who are poor in
culture or who are deprived of the opportunity to exercise
responsibility. All of these provide some preparation for the acceptance
of the message of the Gospel-- a preparation which can be animated by
divine charity through Him Who has come to save the world.
 
58. There are many ties between the message of salvation and human
culture. For God, revealing Himself to His people to the extent of a full
manifestation of Himself in His Incarnate Son, has spoken according to
the culture proper to each epoch.
 
Likewise the Church, living in various circumstances in the course of
time, has used the discoveries of different cultures so that in her
preaching she might spread and explain the message of Christ to all
nations, that she might examine it and more deeply understand it, that
she might give it better expression in liturgical celebration and in the
varied life of the community of the faithful.
 
But at the same time, the Church, sent to all peoples of every time and
place, is not bound exclusively and indissolubly to any race or nation,
any particular way of life or any customary way of life recent or
ancient. Faithful to her own tradition and at the same time conscious of
her universal mission, she can enter into communion with the various
civilizations, to their enrichment and the enrichment of the Church
herself.
 
The Gospel of Christ constantly renews the life and culture of fallen
man; it combats and removes the errors and evils resulting from the
permanent allurement of sin. It never ceases to purify and elevate the
morality of peoples. By riches coming from above, it makes fruitful, as
it were from within, the spiritual qualities and traditions of every
people and of every age. It strengthens, perfects and restores[6] them in
Christ. Thus the Church, in the very fulfillment of her own function[7]
 stimulates and advances human and civic culture; by her action, also by
her liturgy, she leads men toward interior liberty.
 
59. For the above reasons, the Church recalls to the mind of all that
culture is to be subordinated to the integral perfection of the human
person, to the good of the community and of the whole society. Therefore
it is necessary to develop the human faculties in such a way that there
results a growth of the faculty of admiration, of intuition, of
contemplation, of making personal judgment, of developing a religious,
moral and social sense.
 
Culture, because it flows immediately from the spiritual and social
character of man, has constant need of a just liberty in order to
develop; it needs also the legitimate possibility of exercising its
autonomy according to its own principles. It therefore rightly demands
respect and enjoys a certain inviolability within the limits of the
common good, as long, of course, as it preserves the rights of the
individual and the community, whether particular or universal.
 
This Sacred Synod, therefore, recalling the teaching of the first Vatican
Council, declares that there are "two orders of knowledge" which are
distinct, namely faith and reason; and that the Church does not forbid
that "the human arts and disciplines use their own principles and their
proper method, each in its own domain"; therefore "acknowledging this
just liberty," this Sacred Synod affirms the legitimate autonomy of human
culture and especially of the sciences.[8]
 
All this supposes that, within the limits of morality and the common
utility, man can freely search for the truth, express his opinion and
publish it; that he can practice any art he chooses: that finally, he can
avail himself of true information concerning events of a public
nature.[9]
 
As for public authority, it is not its function to determine the
character of the civilization, but rather to establish the conditions and
to use the means which are capable of fostering the life of culture among
all even within the minorities of a nation.[10] It is necessary to do
everything possible to prevent culture from being turned away from its
proper end and made to serve as an instrument of political or economic
power.
 
 
SECTION 3  Some More Urgent Duties of Christians in Regard to Culture
 
60. It is now possible to free most of humanity from the misery of
ignorance. Therefore the duty most consonant with our times, especially
for Christians, is that of working diligently for fundamental decisions
to be taken in economic and political affairs, both on the national and
international level, which will everywhere recognize and satisfy the
right of all to a human and social culture in conformity with the dignity
of the human person without any discrimination of race, sex, nation,
religion or social condition. Therefore it is necessary to provide all
with a sufficient quantity of cultural benefits, especially of those
which constitute the so-called fundamental culture lest very many be
prevented from cooperating in the promotion of the common good in a truly
human manner because of illiteracy and a lack of responsible activity.
 
We must strive to provide for those men who are gifted the possibility of
pursuing higher studies; and in such a way that, as far as possible, they
may occupy in society those duties, offices and services which are in
harmony with their natural aptitude and the competence they have
acquired.[11]
 
Thus each man and the social groups of every people will be able to
attain the full development of their culture in conformity with their
qualities and traditions.
 
Everything must be done to make everyone con