Read the Catechism in a Year
Day 241 - Social Justice
How does social justice come about in a society?
Social justice comes about where the inalienable dignity of every person is respected and the resulting rights are safeguarded and championed without reservation. Among these is also the right to active participation in the political, economic, and cultural life of the society.
The basis of all justice is respect for the inalienable dignity of the human person, “whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt” (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, published 1987). Human rights are an immediate consequence of human dignity, and no State can abolish or change them. States and authorities that trample these rights underfoot are unjust regimes and lose their authority. A society is not perfected by laws, however, but rather by love of neighbor, which makes it possible for everyone to “look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as ‘another self’ ” (GS 27, 1).
To what extent are all men equal in God’s sight?
All men are equal in God’s sight insofar as all have the same Creator, all were created in the same image of God with a rational soul, and all have the same Redeemer.
Because all men are equal in God’s sight, every person possesses the same dignity and has a claim to the same human rights. Hence every kind of social, racist, sexist, cultural, or religious discrimination against a person is an unacceptable injustice. (YOUCAT questions 329-330)
Dig Deeper: Corresponding CCC section (1929-1935) and other references here.
No comments:
Post a Comment