VATICAN CITY, 4 MAY 2009 (VIS) - Benedict XVI today received members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the end of their fifteenth plenary meeting. The president of the academy is Mary Ann Glendon.
Speaking English, the Pope noted how the academy, "after studying work, democracy, globalisation, solidarity and subsidiarity in relation to the social teaching of the Church, ... has chosen to return to the central question of the dignity of the human person and human rights, a point of encounter between the doctrine of the Church and contemporary society".
"The Church has always affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they may have in various cultural contexts, are to be upheld and accorded universal recognition because they are inherent in the very nature of man, who is created in the image and likeness of God", said the Holy Father. For this reason "they share a common nature that binds them together and calls for universal respect". Thus the Church has always "taught that the ethical and political order that governs relationships between persons finds its origin in the very structure of man's being".
The modern period, with its "heightened awareness of human rights as such and of their universality, ... helped shape the idea that the message of Christ - because it proclaims that God loves every man and woman and that every human being is called to love God freely - demonstrates that everyone, independently of his or her social and cultural condition, by nature deserves freedom".
In the wake of the "vast suffering caused by two terrible world wars and the unspeakable crimes perpetrated by totalitarian ideologies" last century, "the international community acquired a new system of international law based on human rights" and, like Paul VI and John Paul II, "forcefully referred to the right to life and the right to freedom of conscience and religion as being at the centre of those rights that spring from human nature itself.
"Strictly speaking", he added, "these human rights are not truths of faith, even though they are discoverable - and indeed come to full light - in the message of Christ Who 'reveals man to man himself'. They receive further confirmation from faith. Yet it stands to reason that, living and acting in the physical world as spiritual beings, men and women ascertain the pervading presence of a logos which enables them to distinguish not only between true and false, but also good and evil, better and worse, and justice and injustice".
"The Church's action in promoting human rights is therefore supported by rational reflection, in such a way that these rights can be presented to all people of good will, independently of any religious affiliation they may have". At the same time, "insofar as human rights need to be re-appropriated by every generation and by each individual, and insofar as human freedom ... is always fragile, the human person needs the unconditional hope and love that can only be found in God and that lead to participation in the justice and generosity of God towards others".
He went on: "This perspective draws attention to some of the most critical social problems of recent decades, such as the growing awareness - which has in part arisen with globalisation and the present economic crisis - of a flagrant contrast between the equal attribution of rights and the unequal access to the means of attaining those rights. For Christians who regularly ask God to 'give us this day our daily bread', it is a shameful tragedy that one-fifth of humanity still goes hungry.
"Assuring an adequate food supply, like the protection of vital resources such as water and energy, requires all international leaders to collaborate in showing a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the natural law and promoting solidarity and subsidiarity with the weakest regions and peoples of the planet as the most effective strategy for eliminating social inequalities between countries and societies and for increasing global security".
ACAD-SS/HUMAN RIGHTS/GLENDON VIS 20090504 (690)
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