ZE07112109 - 2007-11-21
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-21072?l=english

Putting Social Doctrine in the Limelight

Justice and Peace Council Consider Key Task

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church's social doctrine is a treasure that needs to be better known and understood, said the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

In his Tuesday report to open the dicastery's plenary assembly, Monsignor Giampaolo Crepaldi explained that the promotion of Christian social doctrine is one of the group's key tasks.

“Within this perspective,” explained the secretary of the Pontifical Council, “all the activities have been planned as instruments to give a new momentum to social doctrine, in order to detect ways of relaunching it in the various social, economic and political fields."

Monsignor Crepaldi considered the reception of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, presented for the first time publicly in October 2004, and now already officially released in countries all over the world. The compendium continues to be translated into more and more languages, he said.

"We should try to make a provisional review of the reception of the compendium three years since its publication,” affirmed Monsignor Crepaldi. "I dare say, that it has been welcomed with greater enthusiasm outside Europe -- in Asia, Africa, Latin America -- than on the European continent.”

According to the secretary of the Vatican dicastery, “There is still much to do so the compendium will be used systematically as a point of reference for a social pastoral plan adapted to these times, conforming to the teachings of the Church, and trusting that the light of the Gospel is still the principal motor of human development.”

Among the many places in which the compendium was presented, Monsignor Crepaldi emphasized Russia and Cuba.

“In Russia, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the presentation of the compendium helped contact with the Orthodox Church,” the monsignor said. “In Cuba, because of the presence of a communist regime in that country, and on account of the vivacity of a Catholic Church very committed on the part of the laity, the presentation of the compendium was a very opportune initiative.”

For Monsignor Crepaldi, the compendium “can do much good because it helps to clarify, helps one understand and dialogue in search of the truth.”