Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

exist“ sufficient qualities and energies ...by virtue of the fact that man is an image of the
Creator and is under the influence of the redeeming Christ who is 'close to every person „
and because the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit :fulfils the earth' (Wis.l,7). Thus „there
is no justification there for despair or inertia. Where underdevelopment is concerned one can
also „sin through fear; indecision and, basically, through cowardice“ (47,2)
In many developing countries, the Church is running up against the Marxist countergospel
that, with a claim to absoluteness, announces to all nations the innerworldly message of salvation
of the classless society. It is amazing that great nations, which are rightly proud of their
culture and history, uncritically accept dialectical materialism, which is still a typical product
of Western thought, without considering that in this way they are becoming the prey of an
ideological neo-colonialism.
In the final chapter of his book Joseph Höffner refers to the „Marxist anti-Gospel“ which the
Church, he says, comes up against „in many developing countries.” A year after the publication
of the last edition, in an address to the German Bishops' Conference entitled „The
Church's social doctrine or theology of liberation?“ (published by the Secretariat of the German
Bishops' Conference, Bonn, 1984) he made a critical appraisal of the use of „Marxist
analysis“ in certain postulations of liberation theology. The encyclical „Sollicitudo rei socialis”
draws attention to the „positive values as well as the deviations and risks to deviate
...connected with this form of theological reflection and work“ as set out in the instructions
„Libertatis nuntius“ ( 6 August 1984) and „Libertatis conscientia“ (22 Apri11986) (46,2). It
leaves no doubt that the Church's „first contribution to the solution of the urgent problem of
development“ consists in the fact that she „proclaims the truth about Christ, about herself
and about man, applying this truth to a concrete situation. As her instrument for reaching this
goal, the Church uses her social doctrine.“ She has no alternative. She therefore deems it
appropriate to acquire „a more exact awareness and a wider diffusion of the ‘set of principles
for reflection, criteria for judgment and the directives for action' proposed by the
Church's teaching“ („Sollicitudo rei socialis“ 41,5). That is also the purpose of this new edition
of Joseph Höffner’s textbook.
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