COUNCIL TO PUBLISH COMPENDIUM OF CHURCH'S SOCIAL DOCTRINE

VATICAN CITY, OCT 8, 2004 (VIS) - Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, announced today that the council will publish the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church" on October 25, the opening day of its annual plenary session. The cardinal made the announcement in Bologna, Italy during an address to the participants of the 44th Social Week of Italian Catholics as they meet on the theme "Democracy: New Scenarios, New Powers."

  Speaking of the meeting's specific theme, Cardinal Martino underscored how "the vision of the human person as treated in the social Magisterium of the Church has, among other things, the merit of indicating the limits of that individualistic concept which has been the matrix of several of the most serious degenerations of the democratic ideal. ... Safeguarding the values of democracy occurs through caring for the weakest in every corner of the earth and by supporting policies attentive to the rights not just of single persons but also of peoples, respected in their history, their traditions, their customs."
CON-IP/SOCIAL DOCTRINE/BOLOGNA:MARTINO        VIS 20041008 (180)