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The dialogue, the method of the Church in its service to man explains Cardinal Hummes
The dialogue, the method of the Church in its service to man; explains Cardinal Hummes


Author: Staff | Source: zenit.org



The Church calls for justice and the search for the full development of the personality of every human being. The Church is also in the service of man and sympathizes with the poor by acting for charity. 

Christ and his Gospel explain the indispensable commitment of the Church to the service of human beings and their fundamental rights, explained Cardinal Claudio Hummes, O.F.M., at the first session of a conference organized by the Holy See on "The call to justice. The inheritance of the "Gaudium et spes" Forty years later». 

The meeting, convened by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which will be closed on Friday, recalls the forty years of the publication of the Pastoral Constitution, one of the most important of the Second Vatican Council. 

"The Church supports and favors all the current effort to seek the full development of the personality of each human being and to promote its fundamental rights, dignity and freedom," said the Brazilian Cardinal of 70 years of age. 

"But he also wants to help man find the full truth of the human being and his vocation in this world, and that is why he points to Jesus Christ, in whom this full truth is found," he added in his speech pronounced in Castilian. 



"The Church is at the service of man and all men, in the service of humanity and cannot claim to dominate humanity," added the cardinal to the members of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace and experts in social doctrine of the Church around the world. 

"A servant Church must have the priority of solidarity with the poor. The Apostle Paul wrote that what is worth is "faith acting for charity." Faith must be expressed in charity and solidarity, which is the civil version of charity, ' he said. 

With regard to the phenomenon of globalization, the Cardinal noted that the "Gaudium et spes" perceived the emergence of this phenomenon and recalled that "the Church should be at the service of this unit." 

«The Church also recognizes how good it is in the current social dynamism: above all the evolution towards unity, the process of a healthy civil and economic socialization. The promotion of unity is consistent with the Church's intimate mission », he recalled citing the pastoral Constitution. 

"The energies that the Church can communicate to the present human society lie in that faith and in that charity applied to practical life. They do not lie in mere external domination exercised by purely human means, said quoting the number 42 of "Gaudium et spes". 

In order to perform this work, the Cardinal said in his conclusion, 

«The Church must constantly exercise dialogue. Perhaps it is one of the most important methods today to relate positively and constructively with society. A dialogue with courage, open, frank, sensible and humble». 

«A dialogue with the contemporary man, with the human reason, the sciences, the advances of the biotechnology, with the philosophies 

And cultures, with politics and economics, with all that pertains to social justice, human rights, solidarity with the poor--said--. A dialogue with the whole society and its segments' ». 

In short, he concluded, it is a question of «proposing and not imposing; serve and not dominate. A Church dialogue with the contemporary world is what the "Gaudium et spes" delineates and promotes. A Church, which, assuming Jesus' mission, is in the world not to judge humanity but to love and save it ». 








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