By her preaching the Gospel, the grace of the sacraments and the experience of

fraternal communion, the Church:

- heals and elevates the dignity of the human person

- consolidates society

- endows the daily activity of men with a deeper sense and meaning

The transformation of the world is a fundamental requirement of our time. To this

need, the Church’s social magisterium intends to:

- Offer the responses called for by the signs of the times

- Point the mutual love between human beings, in the sight of God, as the most

powerful instrument of change, on the personal and social levels

Man’s Ultimate End is God Himself

The human person cannot and must not be manipulated by social, economic or political

structures, because every person has the freedom to direct himself towards his ultimate end. On

the other hand, every cultural, social, economic and political accomplishment, in which the

social nature of the person and his activity of transforming the universe are bought about in

history, must always be considered also in the context of its relative and provisional reality.

God’s Plan and the Mission of the Church

The Church, the community of those who have been brought together by the Risen

Christ and who have set out to follow him, is “the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent

dimension of the human person”

Mission of the Church

The Church places herself concretely at the service of the Kingdom of God by :

PRIESTLY, PROPHETIC, KINGLY

- announcing and communicating the Gospel of salvation

- establishing new Christian communities

- helps people to accept God’s plan

- live ‘Gospel values’ and are open to the working of the Spirit

- make the family of mankind and its history more human

 Man, and the Church in God’s Plan

Fundamental Teaching with regard to the Identity and the Vocation of the Human Person

1. The creation of man and woman is a free and gratuitous act of God

2. That man and woman, because they are free and intelligent, represent the “thou”

created by God

- The inalienable dignity of the human person

• Made in the image and likeness of God
3. That only in relationship with him can they discover and fulfill the authentic and

complete meaning of their personal and social lives

- Social nature of human beings

• original relationship between man and woman,
“Constitutes the first form of communion between persons”
4. That in their complementarities and reciprocity they are the image of Trinitarian Love

in the created universe

The meaning of human activity

- That humanity may live in it and care for it in accordance with God’s will
• This is the vision of the human person, of society and of history that is rooted
in God

5. That to them, as the culmination of creation, the Creator has entrusted the task of

ordering created nature according to His design