Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

l397), one also reads that, according to the will of God, foreign trade should tie a „bond of
love“ around the nations. 76
2. Pius XII applied these thoughts to the present: self-interest „must be replaced according to
the prescriptions of divine law by an honest and rightful economic solidarity, a brotherly collaboration
between nations“ (December 24, l940). Within the framework of a „new order
based on morality,“ there is „no place for narrow-minded, self-seeking calculations which aim
at an appropriation of economic resources and raw materials intended for the public welfare
such that the nations less favored by nature remain excluded“ (December 24, l94l).
John XXIII took up this demand and exhorted the „wealthy nations“ not „to look with indifference
upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to
enjoy even elementary human rights.“ People in all parts of the world are, as it were, „members
of a common family“, so that „it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long
as glaring economic and social imbalances persist“ (Mater et magistra, l57).
The fact of the increasing interdependence of all states makes it clear that the moral category
of a global 'solidarity' must be called for inevitably and persistently. The Pope defines it as
the „firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say
for the good of all and of each individual, in other words for the well-being of all and for each
individual because we are all really responsible for all“ (Sollicitudo rei socialis 38,5). Solidarity
avoids all forms of exploitation and oppression; it points out positively the „path to
peace and at the same time to development“(39.8).
CHAPTER TWO: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITY OF
NATIONS
§ 1 Necessity of the Organization of the Community of Nations
l. As a juridical community, mankind is able to exercise authority only when made capable of
acting through the creation of an organization - an idea that was very familiar to the medieval
orbis christianus and had already taken shape in the idea of the emperor. The whole human
race, Dante recognizes in his De Monarchia, is a partial order within the great universe ruled
by the one God. Mankind is therefore harmoniously inserted into God’s creation as an image
of the cosmos only when ruled by a supreme monarch. If there were several fully independent
states, there would be no judge above them in the case of a controversy. For this reason, there
must be a highest and final judge on this earth „for whom all contentions are judiciable either
directly or indirectly; and this will be our world-governor or emperor,“ the guarantor of justice
and freedom. 77
2. Concerning the plan „to create an effective political organization of the world,“ Pius XII
remarked: „Nothing agrees more with the traditional teaching of the Church, nothing corresponds
more to its preaching about just and unjust war, especially under the present conditions.
An organization of this kind must therefore come about“ (April 6, l95l). The „way to
the community of nations and its establishment“ does not have „the will of states as its sole
and ultimate norm“, but rather „nature or the creator“ (December 6, l953).
76 Cf. Joseph Höffner, Wirtschaftsethik und Monopole im 15. u. 16. Jh., 2nd ed. (Darmstadt, 1969), 79f.
77 Dante, De Monarchia, lib. 1, c. 10.
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