Specific message of the Church
5. Amid the disturbances and uncertainties of the present hour, the Church has a specific message to proclaim and a support to give to men in their efforts to take in hand and give direction to their future. Since the period in which the encyclical Rerum Novarum denounced in a forceful and imperative manner the scandal of the condition of the workers in the nascent industrial society, historical evolution has led to an awareness of other dimensions and other applications of social justice. The encyclicals Quadragesimo Anno and Mater et Magistra already noted this fact. The recent Council for its part took care to point them out, in particular in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes. We ourself have already continued these lines of thought in our encyclical Populorum Progressio. "Today", we said, "the principal fact that we must all recognize is that the social question has become worldwide". "A renewed consciousness of the demands of the Gospel makes it the Church's duty to put herself at the service of all, to help them grasp their serious problem in all its dimensions, and to convince them that solidarity in action at this turning point in human history is a matter of urgency".
6. It will moreover be for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops itself to study more closely and to examine in greater detail the Church's mission in the face of grave issues raised today by the question of justice in the world. But the anniversary of Rerum Novarum, venerable brother, gives us the opportunity today to confide our preoccupations and thoughts in the face of this problem to you as President of the Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace and of the Council of Laity.
7. …. These problems include human conditions of production, fairness in the exchange of goods and in the division of wealth, the significance of the increased needs of consumption and the sharing of responsibility. In the present changes, which are so profound and so rapid, each day man discovers himself anew, and he questions himself about the meaning of his own being and of his collective survival. Reluctant to gather the lessons of a past that he considers over and done with and too different from the present, man nevertheless needs to have light shed upon his future - a future which he perceives to be as uncertain as it is changing - by permanent eternal truths. These are truths which are certainly greater than man but, if he so wills, he can himself find their traces.
New Social Problems: You may like to read the following sections in the complete document, Octogesima Adveniens.
Urbanization## 8 - 9
Christians in the City ## 10 - 12
Youth # 13
The Role of Women # 13
Workers # 14
Victims of Changes # 15
Discrimination # 16
Right to emigrate # 17
Creating Employment # 18 - 19
Media of social communication # 20
The environment ## 21 – 22
Advantages and limitations of juridical recognition # 23
The political society ## 24 - 25
Ideologies and human liberty ## 26 – 29
Historical movements # 30
Attraction of socialist currents # 31
Historical evolution of Marxism # 32 - 34
The liberal ideology # 35
Christian discernment # 36
Rebirth of utopias # 37
The questioning of the human sciences ## 38 - 39
Widening the horizons # 40
Ambiguous nature of progress # 41
Christians Face to Face with These New Problems
Call to Action
"Awakening the People of God" ## 51 - 52
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