Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis
Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis
justice and social law through its works and initiatives. „Today’s justice is yesterday’s love“; today’s love is tomorrow’s justice.“ 35 As its goal Christian social teaching has in mind a system of order, „based, as it must be, on truth, tempered by justice, motivated by mutual love, and holding fast to the practice of freedom“ (Pacem in terris, 149) „Love, not fear, must dominate the relationships between individuals and between nations. It is principally characteristic of love that it draws men together in all sorts of ways, sincerely united in the bonds of mind and matter; and this is a union from which countless blessings can flow“(ibid. 129). It teaches us to distinguish „between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person, even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions“ (Gaudium et spes, 28). 35 M. Gillet, Justice et Charité, in: Semaine sociale de France 1928, p. 132. 46
PART TWO: THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL ORDER Christian social teaching does not content itself with the elaboration of socio-philosophical and socio-theological principles. It also investigates the exceedingly manifold structure of social order as it stands before us in families, professions, communities, workplaces, associations, states and so on. In the almost bewildering multiplicity of social relationships and formations, transtemporally valid essential structures are recognizable which are, however, realized only in the current conditions that are subject to continual change, so that the tension between essential form and historicity emerges in all its strength. Social orders such as e.g. the economy and the state possess certain inherent laws; they even 'function' in some way w hell the divine legislator is denied, such as in the Bolshevist states. Nevertheless, man is continually threatened in this case by the danger of being degraded into a mere object of economic or state processes. SECTION ONE: MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY CHAPTER ONE: MARRIAGE Philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, physicians, lawyers and theologians are all striving to interpret marriage, so that we are threatened with the danger of stopping at a confused inventory. Like every essential form, marriage too is a whole, although the most varied levels of man as a body-soul being are harmonized in it. Since, however, we are not able to look intuitively at essences in a single glance, but have laboriously to discover and unfold their structures, ten realms that are important for the interpretation of marriage are to be distinguished, although it should not be overlooked that, at bottom, it is only a question of different levels of the one whole that we call marriage. § 1 Sexuality I. Sexuality which appears as the polarity of male and female, and which is a fundamental presupposition of marriage, is not to be equated with the sexual drive. It is more comprehensive, determines the biological dynamics of both sexes, and moulds the whole body-soul essence of men and women, which in turn has its effect in thought and action, feeling and disposition, and even in one's relation to God. Whereas it is more characteristic of the man to be interested in work, the essence of the woman is determined by a devoted motherliness related to the interpersonal other. The man is therefore not the measure of the woman, even if, on the basis of their great adaptability, many women and girls consciously or unconsciously take the man as their measure, especially in professional work outside the home. Incidentally, one should not exaggerate the spiritual difference between the sexes. The fundamental human essence is the same in man and woman. And both sexes are the 'image of God' in their being as a man or a woman. God has bestowed dignity and the same inalienable rights on both. For both man and woman God is equally „the calling, loving, working Creator.“ Both should listen to him, answer him and serve him. Both are „equal in their dignity as God's creatures, but also equal in their misery if they deny him.“ 36 God has had mercy on man and woman equally. Indeed, even more: he took a woman, the Virgin Mary, into his work of salvation in a special way. We believe and confess that the 36 The German Bishops' Conference, Zu Fragen der Stellung der Frau in Kirche und Gesellschaft, 21, September 1981, (Bonn: Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, 1981),9. 47
- Page 1 and 2: Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN
- Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLIS
- Page 5 and 6: 2. The Family in the Service of Spi
- Page 7 and 8: e) Competition is what steers the o
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- Page 11 and 12: 3. The Contribution of the Church .
- Page 13 and 14: on the basis of the classical socia
- Page 15 and 16: INTRODUCTION § 1 The Concerns and
- Page 17 and 18: powerful grace of Christ“ that ma
- Page 19 and 20: 5. In this outline, the presentatio
- Page 21 and 22: ern society considers everything
- Page 23 and 24: human sociality.“ 3 In the prayer
- Page 25 and 26: CHAPTER TWO: COMMUNITY, SOCIETY, LO
- Page 27 and 28: a) The flight into the impersonal
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- Page 31 and 32: intended; it is the totality of ins
- Page 33 and 34: ure and, above all, to the misuse o
- Page 35 and 36: tional economic co-operation (Gaudi
- Page 37 and 38: tive law, and that, on the other ha
- Page 39 and 40: In view of this sharp rejection of
- Page 41 and 42: „justice“ according to this law
- Page 43 and 44: 1. When the legal partners encounte
- Page 45: new formal object is exhibited here
- Page 49 and 50: wished to have the feminine princip
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- Page 53 and 54: than an enchantment (fascination),
- Page 55 and 56: trivialize the serious problem of '
- Page 57 and 58: tion towards a decrease in the divo
- Page 59 and 60: Christian marriage and family are d
- Page 61 and 62: the family. Its origin is not of th
- Page 63 and 64: speaks of a new „metropolitan mat
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- Page 71 and 72: Abstracting from so-called 'asocial
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- Page 75 and 76: great thing if I could make shoes.
- Page 77 and 78: § 3 Work and Leisure 1. The Proble
- Page 79 and 80: ings, fields and work sites. In a s
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justice and social law through its works and initiatives. „Today’s justice is yesterday’s love“;<br />
today’s love is tomorrow’s justice.“ 35<br />
As its goal Christian social teaching has in mind a system of order, „based, as it must be, on<br />
truth, tempered by justice, motivated by mutual love, and holding fast to the practice of freedom“<br />
(Pacem in terris, 149) „Love, not fear, must dominate the relationships between individuals<br />
and between nations. It is principally characteristic of love that it draws men together<br />
in all sorts of ways, sincerely united in the bonds of mind and matter; and this is a union from<br />
which countless blessings can flow“(ibid. 129). It teaches us to distinguish „between error,<br />
which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being<br />
a person, even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions“ (Gaudium et spes,<br />
28).<br />
35 M. Gillet, Justice et Charité, in: Semaine sociale de France 1928, p. 132.<br />
46
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