AAS 80 - La Santa Sede

Acta Ioannis Pauli Pp. II 821
from the federal, State and municipal governments ; people of various
races and ethnie backgrounds, fellow Catholics ; Christian and non­
Christian brothers and sisters ; men and women of good will !
I feel that I must thank the Lord our God for this wonderful
occasion. Detroit is a place where work, hard daily work—that privi­
lège, duty and vocation of the human person 1 —is a truly distinctive
characteristic of urban life. This is indeed a city of workers, and
very many of you here—men and women, younger people and older
people, immigrants and native-born Americans—earn your living and
that of your families in and around Detroit through the work of your
hands, your mind, indeed your whole person. And many of you
suffer from the problems that not infrequently charaeterize the work
situation in an industrial urban setting.
This is why I would like to make référence to a subject which,
as you are well aware, is close to my heart. This subject is social
progress and human development in relation to the requirements of
justice and to the building of a lasting peace, both in the United
States and throughout the world.
Of course, dear friends, dear people of Detroit and this whole
area, it is you I have primarily in mind in dealing with such a
subject—you who have been created in the image and likeness of God,
you who have been redeemed by the blood of the Savior, you who are
children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ, you who for all
of these reasons possess an incomparable dignity. But in looking at
you, assemblea here in Hart Plaza, / see beyond you ali the people
of this country and the peoples of the whole world. I see ali the men
and women who, like you, are confronted every day anew with the
obligation and the challenge to provide for their livelihood and for
the livelihood of their family through their own work. Work means
any activity, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature
or whatever its circumstances, by which a human being earns his
or her daily bread and contributes to science and progress, civilización
and culture. 2 Human work is such a fundamental dimension of human
existence, that one cannot speak about it without touching upon all
its aspects.
1 Cf. Laborem Exercens, 9.
2 Cf. Laborem Exercens, 1.