Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 

On the social concern of the Church 

Encyclical letter of the Pope John Paul II 

30 December of year 1987 

The social concern of the Church, aimed at the authentic development of man and society, which respects and promotes in all its dimensions the human person, has always been expressed in a very diverse way. One of the leading means of intervention has been, in recent times, the Magisterium of the Roman pontiffs, who, from the encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII as a reference point, has frequently treated the issue, sometimes coinciding the dates of publication of the various social documents with the anniversaries of that first document. 

The high pontiffs have not ceased to illuminate with such interventions also new aspects of the social doctrine of the Church. 

General Index 

I. INTRODUCTION

II. NOVELTY OF THE ENCYCLICAL POPULORUM PROGRESSIO 

III. CONTEMPORARY WORLD PANORAMA

* Current World panorama 

IV. THE AUTHENTIC HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 

V. A THEOLOGICAL READING OF THE MODERM PROBLEMS 

VI. SOME PARTICULAR GUIDELINES

VII. CONCLUSION