Actually, Pope Francis is very orthodox. One cannot understand his pontificate if he does not understand his being profoundly a Jesuit. And being a Jesuit implies a mystic side, almost severe. Pope Francis has spoken several times about the existence of the devil, has warned about the perils of a do-it-yourself confession, and has underlined that the Church is hierarchical.

How all of this fits with some of his decisions characterizing his pontificate, it is yet to be understood. A possible explanation is that the Pope strictly separates doctrine from governing, not considering them to be one and the same. It seems that his vision is that the government must be reformed, and possibly dismantled, to be replaced with a more genuinely pastoral approach. And this may be carried out only through an open discussion, richer in questions than in answers.

This approach was noticeable during the last synod of bishops. Pope Francis sidelined the debate between a minority of bishops who focused on the casuistry of the very peculiar cases of homosexuals and divorced remarried, and the large majority of bishops who looked at pastoral care under the light of the doctrine. The Pope did not take a position, nor did he strive to have the synod reach consensus. He simply decided to publish the whole final report of the synod, and to make public the votes each paragraph had attracted, thus giving the impression of an open, almost parliamentarian, discussion with a majority and an opposition. Never mind if the majority is reached also because there are members who vote ‘yes’ only in order to avoid further discussions.

This informal style of government is reflected in the Pope’s everyday activities, in the non-scheduled meetings he holds at the Domus Sacntae Marthae, the daily gathering of opinions from his trusted counselors and from others he holds in high regard. Among the latter, the Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari.

A self-proclaimed atheist, Scalfari founded the leftist newspaper “La Repubblica”, which have never missed an occasion of pointing a finger against the Church, describing her as outdated and detached from the needs of the world. Pope Francis and Scalfari meet often. In two occasions, Scalfari has published the Pope’s words as a conversation. Scalfari himself admitted that the conversations were not recorded, and that he had attributed to the Pope words he had not actually said. The statements of the Holy See Press Office to set the record straight have been useless: everybody thinks that Pope Francis has really spoken the way Scalfari describes.

Last week, Scalfari published some excerpts of one of his conversations with the Pope about the Church’s missionarity, the truth, and the Jesuit and Franciscan identities. The excerpts were part of an op-ed, thus not raisinga lot of media attention. It was however a cunning operation: starting from the words that Pope Francis would have told him, Scalfari lays out – as Father Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office, has underscored – his “personal narrative”,reaching to the point of claiming that the the Pope implicitly supports the notion that truth is relative, and that in the end even the Gospels are a nice invention to fulfill man’s need to tell himself his own truth.

Certainly, Pope Francis did not express his views that way, but the fact that his words, his way to engage in dialogue, is interpreted as if he had, explains why there are so many expectations on his pontificate. A pontificate that everybody seems willing to interpret as rupture, a change of pace and in the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

The glaring proof of this came out last week, after the Pope’s remarks at the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences. The theme of the plenary was natural law. The Pope was present to inaugurate a bronze bust of Benedict XVI, displayed at the entrance of the Casina Pio IV, the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy in the heart of the Vatican.

Pope Francis’ speech was divided in two parts: the first praised his predecessor, the second presented the themes of the plenary, including the topic of evolution. Pope Francis said that «God is not a magician, but the creator who broughteverything to life» and that «the notion of evolution is not incompatible with the notion of God.»

Many have pointed out that the Catholic Church, and popes, have been stressing this for years. In fact, to do justice and recognize their contributions, the names of great Catholic scientists should be listed, illustrating such examples as that of Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian monk who pioneered the study of genetics. But the secular media hailed Pope Francis’ words as if they amounted to the advent of a new era and as if the Pope was inaugurating a substantial opening-upto science after years of obscurantism.

Of course, this is nonsense. But this media frenzy proves the extraordinary expectations around Pope Francis’ pontificate. He had won over everyone with his informal way of operating, and brought this peculiar style into the pontificate. He has his own vision – not a program, which he has underscored he does not have – which seems to be about bringing pastoral care back to the center of the life of the Church, even at the expense of the concept of truth. This vision can be summarized by the image of the light house and of the torch, presented at the synod of bishops by the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Italian Jesuit-ran magazine “La Civiltà Cattolica”, and inserted in all of the synod’s documents.

Father Spadaro himself published on La Civiltà Cattolica a diary of the synod, inferring that tensions on key current issues included the call for even more pastoral opening to divorced remarried and homosexuals. This was true, but the bishops making this call constituted a minority. Very likely, the majority of bishops who acknowledged to have received «with dismay» the synod’s midterm report would not identify themselves with those calling for such changes.

Even this synod of bishops was subject to the pressure of the perceived need to tell the story of a Church that got rid of its historical brakes and which went forward toward progress. But this “progress”, in the end, looks like a surrendering to the spirit of the world. In the name of progress, the Church is to be told what to do and what to abstain from doing. And, in the name of progress, the very Church’s internal discourse is completely romanticized.

To present what is really the focus of the Church’s discourse, media should write – and Synod fathers, as well as every priest, should discuss – about the Truth, the formation of priests, and even about confession. They should cover how the Church reflects on how to shape the world and how to orientate it toward the common good. They should understand that the Church is not just about setting up field hospitals, because she works also to address the conditions that make people need those hospitals in the first place.

These are the challenges of vocation and mission of the family, to be discussed at the next synod of bishops. The notion that we are witnessing the second phase of Pope Francis’ pontificate has been widely mentioned, stressing that Francis’ honeymoon with public opinion has come to an end. But this notion – yet if it was clear it dealt with the Western world – focuses on the possible resolutions of the synod’s alleged controversies, leaving aside the most important challenges, which in fact have no appeal to news media.

This is how Pope Francis’ pontificate risks in the end to be completely romanticized and misconstrued, and used as a Trojan horse to make the Church more worldly, closer to secular mentality.

Critics often label “fear of new things” this line of reasoning,leveraging as a counterargument Pope Francis’ October 19 homily for the mass of beatification of Paul VI (and the synod’s concluding mass). On that occasion, Pope Francis declared that «God is not afraid of novelty.»

Pope Paul VI did not fear novelty either. He opened the Church to the modern world. But he always did it with the aim of evangelizing the world – two of Paul VI’s collaborators, cardinals Etchegaray and Poupard have recently stressed. And he also had the courage to write Humanae Vitae, the most cultural countercurrent encyclical ever recorded in history.

What did the Pope wish when he was 7? «I would like – he wrote – the Volks-Schott, a green suit to celebrate the Holy Mass and a Jesus’ Heart. I will always be good. Best regards, Joseph Ratzinger.» The letter was so peculiar that Maria – the Pope’s sister, who took care of Ratzinger until her death – decided to keep it. The letter was recovered when Ratzinger’s house in Pentling was being restored. The house is now a museum, inaugurated at the end of last summer by Georg Gaenswein, then Benedict XVI’s private secretary. Gaenswein reported that the rediscovery of the letter «made the Pope very happy, and made him smile.»

What is most striking is that little Joseph does not ask for toys or sweets. He asks for the Schott, one of the first books in German with a breviary and missal (with its text in Latin also). At that time, two editions were available in Germany: one for children and one for adults. Little Joseph, through that book, begins to love the liturgy that sets the rhythm of his family’s life. Little Ratzinger then asks for a vestment to celebrate Mass. No surprise, because the Ratzinger brothers used to pretend to be “parish priest”, and their mother made vestments for that. «We pretended to celebrate Mass – Georg Ratzinger, the Pope’s brother, told the American monthly Inside the Vatican – and we had vestments made for us by our mother’s seamstress. In turns, one of us was the priest and the other the altar boy». Finally, little Ratzinger asks for a «Jesus’ Heart» i.e. an image of the Sacred Heart, which his family was very devoted to.

Just an anecdote. But perhaps one should keep in mind this anecdote when Benedict XVI delivers his speeches. Whenever he defends family, there is something about memories of his own family. That it was a happy family, which life rhythm was set by liturgy, and where all rejoiced with one another.  It was a family in which it was sensible to be, because it represented the best for a child’s growth. When he became theologian, Joseph Ratzinger expanded his reflection on the meaning of family, based on the Holy Family of Nazareth. Through the example of the Holy Family, he wanted to explain why a «traditional» family was needed. This defense of family started on strictly theological basis. But also on a rational basis.

An idea the Pope has put front and center in his Christmas address to the Roman Curia. In that address, the Pope generally looks back at the life of the Church in the year that is coming to an end. As usual, the Pope flew high. No hint of Vatileaks, nor of internal problems: in the end, these problems really do not amount to much, just petty miseries of the human condition, when compared to the Church’s challenges and agenda. So, Benedict XVI put on the table three issues that marked the Church’s life and that will be on the agenda for the next ten years: family, dialogue, and new evangelization.

The Papal address starting point is the family.  The Pope approaches the topic through the arguments which the Chief Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim made in defense of the traditional family. Bernheim also sent to the French President François Hollande a 25 pages brief, to explain all the reasons why he and his community are against «marriages for all».  The Pope states: before, the family was in crisis due to a misconception of freedom; today, the very idea of man is in crisis.

This crisis has a specific name: gender.  It is at the same time a neutral and lethal name, as is much of the new «vocabulary» promoted in United Nations documents and continuously denounced by Holy See officials.

Gender points to the human being that calls his own nature into question. «He – the Pope says, drawing on German idealism philosophy – is now only spirit and will.  The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned.  Nowadays, there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be». If there is no more duality, if human being loses his identity, there is no more family.  «When the freedom to be creative – Benedict XVI notes, with Bernehim – becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being.  The defence of the family is about man himself.  And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears.  Whoever defends God is defending man.»

Defending man is the Church’s mission, and integral humanism is the Holy See’s International agenda. This agenda is the basis of the dialogue with states, with societies and with religions. The Church’s– the Pope notes – makes memory part of herself, because «human culture, of which she is a guarantee, has developed from the encounter between divine revelation and human existence.  The Church represents the memory of what it means to be human in the face of a civilization of forgetfulness, which knows only itself and its own criteria.  Yet just as an individual without memory has lost his identity, so too a human race without memory would lose its identity».  And Benedict XVI concludes: «In its dialogue with the state and with society, the Church does not, of course, have ready answers for individual questions.  Along with other forces in society, she will wrestle for the answers that best correspond to the truth of the human condition.»

For what concerns interreligious dialogue, the Pope states that the dialogue does not take place on theological grounds, but on practical and cultural grounds, in order not to lose one’s own identity. How to engage in dialogue? «Dialogue – Benedict XVI says – does not aim at conversion, but at better mutual understanding: that is correct.  But all the same, the search for knowledge and understanding always has to involve drawing closer to the truth. »

And truth is Christ himself, and «both sides in this piece-by-piece approach to truth are therefore on the path that leads forward and towards greater commonality, brought about by the oneness of the truth.» This is also one of the main themes of the first Benedict XVI’s message for the World Day of Peace, meaningfully titled In truth, peace. «Being inwardly held by the hand of Christ – the Pontiff says – makes us free and keeps us safe: free – because if we are held by him, we can enter openly and fearlessly into any dialogue;  safe – because he does not let go of us, unless we cut ourselves off from him.  At one with him, we stand in the light of truth.»

What constitutes the good news, then? Benedict XVI points us to the Gospel passage where Andrew and Simon follow Jesus. Both of them are seekers, and that is why «stimulated by the proclamation, their seeking becomes concrete.» The Pope then explains the proclamation is «effective in situations where man is listening in readiness for God to draw near, where man is inwardly searching and thus on the way towards the Lord.»  The Pope’s wish for Christmas, which is also the agenda for next decades, is to know Jesus better, because as one «walks with Jesus, he is led to the place where Jesus lives, to the community of the Church, which is his body.  That means entering into the journeying community of catechumens, a community of both learning and living, in which our eyes are opened as we walk.»

In the end, it is the same agenda of little Ratzinger. He asked for a Schott as a Christmas gift, a book of liturgies, to lock himself in step with Jesus, starting a long walk in life that brought him to the Papacy.

Does complying with the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church suffice to have a better future? Students at the Studium Aquinatis – a workshop on the Social Doctrine of the Church held in the Marian Sanctuary of Canneto, Southern Italy, July 21 to 23 – tried to give an answer to this question. A quick review of the discussions from the workshop allows us to understand two things: how much society is imbued by Christian values, even if nowadays nobody wants to define these values as “Christian”; and, secondly, that young people need to live out these values, and are searching for new reference points.

A new generation of Catholic politician. A glance at Europe

In Italy, this reference point has been for a long time the Democrazia Cristiana, i.e. Christian Democracy, a political party which for years represented the Catholic electorate. While not all Catholics supported Christian Democracy –which inherited the legacy of the Partito Popolare, the Italian People’s party founded by the Italian priest don Luigi Sturzo– the party offered a solid Catholic point of reference. It attracted the best people formed in Catholic associations. That of Christian Democracy was a 40 year-old story which came to a halt with the Tangentopoli scandal –the trial on the kickbacks that fed the Italian political system– and was never resumed fully. Nowadays, Catholics are said to be increasingly irrelevant in the Italian political landscape.

Benedict XVI has spoken –several times– of the need to give rise to a new generation of Catholic politicians capable of putting into practice the Social Doctrine of the Church. The Pope was not only appealing to Italians, but to peoples in all countries.  There is a living Catholic family in the world whose struggles are far from parochial.  The future of humanity itself is at stake in these struggles.

Just take a look at some European examples. In Finland, Timo Soini, a Catholic, has presided over a spectacular growth of his party.  His political program was mostly focused on the economy.  Soini did not defend the banks and the European Monetary System. He defended States and their sovereignty, even by accentuating Finnish Pride.  His approach stood in contrast to that of the euro-bureaucracy and the Europe of technocrats.  In fact, there are major differences between the European ideal early model and that of today.

In Hungary, the Fidesz political party won the elections with such an ample majority that it was able to push through constitutional reforms confidently.  The new Hungarian constitution considers Christian values the roots of the Hungarian state, forbids abortion and euthanasia, and limits the arbitrary power of judges.

Yet, both Timo Soini and Fidesz Leader Viktor Orban have been characterized as excessively nationalistic and conservative. In Hungary in particular, the new balance of influence has occurred within the Church itself.  The Hungarian Bishops’ Conference changed the name of its «Justice and Peace» commission to Commission Caritas in Veritate, a change later emulated by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences.

Life in Christ. The principal factor of development

Caritas in veritate, however, is not the only encyclical which deals with justice and peace. It is one of the social encyclicals that -from Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum on– has enriched in succession the history of the Catholic Church. The Social Doctrine is in some way a sort of summary of all the social encyclicals, each strongly influenced by the signs of their times. Caritas in Veritate itself, drafted in 2008, was strongly influenced by the global financial crisis that erupted that same year. The multiple revisions of the encyclical draft, with contributions also from people not involved in the Social Doctrine of the Church, underscored magnitude of the challenge.

Because many people contributed to it, Caritas in Veritate has been interpreted in several different ways. Its theological foundation, however, should not be underestimated. Drawing from Paul VI’s social teaching, paragraph 8 of Caritas in Veritate quotes the late Pope’s declaring how «life in Christ is the first and principal factor of development». This affirmation is revolutionary. It signifies a new hierarchy of predominant values. Go back to the Gospel and reinitiate your path from there, Benedict XVI has often said. Proclaiming Christ cannot be set aside, Joseph Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reminded the theologians of Liberation Theology who placed the poor, rather than Christ, at the heart of their doctrine. The Gospel cannot be set aside, Benedict XVI told the Church of Germany, underscoring the need for the Church to be less worldly, because a wealthy Church risks losing sight of the Good News announced in the Gospels.

To give rise to a new generation of Catholic politicians, the starting point must be the Gospel. «The rejection of the common or social good can lead to all kinds of sins». This admonition from Saint Thomas Aquinas dates back to the XIII century, yet it is extraordinarily pertinent to the present times. There has been a long debate on the role of Catholics in political organizations, and periodically there are parties that claim to be inspired by Christian values. Thomas Aquinas inverts paradigms, underscoring that it is not sin that brings about rejection of the common good; it is the rejection of the common good that leads to all kinds of sins.

What are the distinctive features of a politically and socially committed Catholic? How can this man/woman put into action this distinctiveness? These questions still beg answers. Occasionally, someone will propose a formula. Other times, the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church will be presented in purely «secular» terms, as if the exponent would be afraid to affirm his own identity. As if it all amounts to just words, ultimately.

Look no further than to Thomas Aquinas

We need to look no further than to Thomas Aquinas and his «integral humanism» –as philosopher Jaques Maritain defined it– and more deeply into the heart of Catholicism to realize that being a Christian in society is simple and at the same time difficult, just as following Jesus is simple at the same time difficult. The starting point is the heart of the human person, an awareness of having been created in His own image.  This new persona then sets into action in history, relating to others in a spirit of fellowship. Are these «secular» terms? No, they are not. They are simply Christian terms. To embrace these dynamics is quite different from merely becoming a professional politician. It essentially means living the Gospel truly.

When Benedict XVI talked about a new generation of Catholic politicians, he is calling for a new generation of people committed in civil society and conscious of the challenge of the Gospel. This appeal risks but must not be misunderstood.  Often, the emphasis is on appearances and not enough on life itself.  For example, in Italy, groups on the Social Doctrine of the Church are established, and local and international special events around the Social Doctrine are organized, feeding an endless search for the right formulations that increasingly lose sight of teaching the Gospel.

A new commitment of Catholics in the public sphere

These were the key issues that Msgr. Mario Toso, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, addressed to the students of the Studium Aquinatis who listened attentively to prominent speakers during the three-day workshop. Toso focused on the Gospel and the importance to start again from the Gospel. Then, he underlined the need for a new commitment. It can be a political party, but not necessarily. It can take the shape of a new project.   How this «venture» will take form is not crucial.  What is most important is to begin in the heart of the human person, which is ultimately at the core of the Social Doctrine of the Church and the heart of the Gospel. Starting again from the Gospel, and learning to apply it to everyday life, and thus to society.  Only thus the common good will not be discarded.

A new venture can only take off from two places: families and parishes. One must start from our immediate surroundings and work our way to the international arena, to live the Gospel also there.  That is how we make a U-turn in the misguided political path of the present and inaugurate a different kind of politics.

This new political season can begin from the grassroots. Father Francesco Occhetta, SJ, a regular contributor and editorial staff member of Civiltà Cattolica –the oldest magazine in Italy, whose drafts are reviewed, before printing, at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.– shared three fascinating insights with the young participants of the workshop.  First of all, he talked about a personal experience: when he was in Chile doing apostolic work, he was asked to celebrate a funeral for a woman who died in an isolated village in the desert. He thought no one would attend the funeral. But when he got to the church, a crowd was there. That woman had committed her life to resolve conflicts in his parish and in her village, from a place and position that was essentially a center of power.  The people acknowledged her commitment, celebrating her funeral as if it were that for a Head of State. «What kind of justice model do we want for ourselves?» Father Occhetta asked the students, challenging them to fundamentally change the prevalent political mindsets of today.  He did not seek practical answers, but rather to stir a fruitful reflection.

Justice and reconciliation are two pillars of the Social Doctrine of the Church. «From South Sudan to the Middle East, from Latin America to Congo, from Colombia to the Philippines, the Catholic Church is a powerful force of peace, freedom, justice and reconciliation. But this impressive and courageous commitment to peace-building of Catholic communities is often not acknowledged, it is hardly studied, and it is not valued», Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, wrote on the Osservatore Romano.

There have been many justice and reconciliation commissions that have built peace in countries, especially in Africa. The students of Studium Aquinatis considered this model for Italy, but concluded that each country must set its own path, based on its particular experience and identity. For Italy, they proposed other venues of reconciliations. For example, the project Cesare deve morire  (Caesar must die) of the Rebibbia prison in Rome – where prisoners are encouraged to be part of theatrical plays that in some ways re-enact the crimes they committed.  More broadly, the students noted that reconciliation is fully meaningful from the certainty of the punishment applied, and also that the rights of the inmates should be fully restored after sentences are fulfilled.

Father Occhetta highlighted the importance of the education dimension. Nowadays, everybody uses overtly technical and specialist vocabularies, hindering our collective capacity to define the horizontal landscape of reality. Even politics – father Occhetta said – has become technocratic, losing sight of achieving development in the medium term. Politics have also fallen to the power of the mass media, which now controls consensus building in society.

Solutions and practices

Fortunately, in the midst of these problems –which were identified in Caritas in Veritate– there are also solutions and best practices about how to live the Social Doctrine of the Church. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace shed light on some of these best practices last May, during a conference to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the promulgation of John XXIII’s encyclical Mater et Magistra.

Centers for the Study of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church rise up in very difficult conditions –just think of the Institut des Artisans de Justice et de la Paix in Benin and the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection in Zambia. While in Mexico anticlericalism is going through a sort of revival, the  Imdosoc (Istituto Mexicano de Doctrina Social Cristiana) continues to facilitate networks, train social entrepeneurs, and teach the Social Doctrine.  In Brazil, a popular initiative supported by the Episcopal Conference brought about the approval of the Ficha Limpa national law, which sets standards for the eligibility of candidates who run for public office.

Is this enough? The «diplomatic path» of Catholic Church has its sight on the long term, favoring a reform of the United Nations. «Justice – Msgr. Toso says – must be founded on the acknowledgement of the universal human good. Social conscience must be applied and advanced within the market economy. A world governance based on cooperation among nation is needed. It must be a true ‘world authority’, able to take objective decisions. A new economic, political and financial architecture is required». Above all, the primacy of politics over the economy must be restablished. What is now missing is a “Catholic laity” capable of assuming and advancing Christian values. There must be politicians Christianly trained, who can grasp the positive challenge to embrace the Social Doctrine of the Church. Confronted with world imbalances, this Christian laity must be capable of specifically contributing to greater equality». The time has come for the Social Doctrine of the Church to take action.

Unchain the Social Doctrine

There is also a need to unchain the Social Doctrine, as the last «Van Thuan Observatory» Report on the Social Doctrine of the Church states. What are the shackles of the Social Doctrine of the Church? There are external shackles – the report says – i.e. «the aggressive lay culture that violently mobilized to secularize society not only from religion, but also from ethics and finally from the sense of the common good.  At the international level, these forces are planning a brutal and sustained attack on life and family, by using huge sums of money to have all countries adopt laws that favor abortion and destroy the family.  These forces are the cultural agencies that impose unilateral views on individual freedom, relations among sexes, and procreation.  They are the strong economic interests, and the absence of a Christian and ethical perspective regarding business administration and finance resulting in poverty and sufferance». And then, there are the internal shackles, i.e. «the disregard for the Pope’s teachings, which are often considered, sadly, as just one among many different perspectives» and even «not applying to the Social Doctrine of the Church the hermeneutic criteria that Benedict XVI suggested with respect to the Second Vatican Council, and instead continue to speak of two Social Doctrines, one pre-Council and one post-Council. By doing so, the faithful are deprived from having a Social Doctrine of the Church in its integrity and fully inserted in tradition».

The way in which the Social Doctrine is followed, ignored, or contrasted in different parts of the world is addressed in the second section of the report. Among the issues discussed are the work of U.N. agencies, and the change of vocabulary that is masquerading the emergence of worrisome changes in the world.  Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Holy See Permanent Observer at the UN in Geneva, has talked about the change of the U.N. vocabulary several times.  Most recently, Tomasi appealed the international community to defend the «universality of Human Rights», that already «foresees and provides for the prevention of discrimination.  To propose particular rights [for specific groups] weakens the principle of the universality of rights».

The drafters of the report conclude its introduction stating that «we think that the salient need evident in 2010 is the urgency of witnessing, sanctifying and martyrdom of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Our suggestion for the future is not to separate the diverse aspects of the Social Doctrine of the Church, but to keep them together in the authentic Christian life of the Church. Witnessing, sanctity and martyrdom remind us of this need. Without it, the Social Doctrine of the Church would surrender to the ferocious secularization currently under way, and would lose sight of the primacy of God».

Ultimately, there is the need to free the Social Doctrine of the Church for it to become the path to peace.