Centesimus Annus: On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum

Encyclicals of Pope John Paul II

by Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II issued this encyclical to reflect on the concerns of the working class 100 years after the first encyclical on this topic. Sections Introduction Characteristics of Rerum Novarum Towards the "New Things" Of Today The Year 1989 Private Property And The Universal Destination Of Material Goods State And Culture Man Is The Way Of The Church Notes

Genres: Religion, Theology, Catholic, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Christian

92 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

About the author

Saint Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected Pope at the Conclave of 16 October 1978, and he took the name of John Paul II. On 22 October, the Lord's Day, he solemnly inaugurated his Petrine ministry as the 263rd successor to the Apostle. His pontificate, one of the longest in the history of the Church, lasted nearly 27 years.

Driven by his pastoral solicitude for all Churches and by a sense of openness and charity to the entire human race, John Paul II exercised the Petrine ministry with a tireless missionary spirit, dedicating it all his energy. He made 104 pastoral visits outside Italy and 146 within Italy. As bishop of Rome he visited 317 of the city's 333 parishes.

He had more meetings than any of his predecessors with the People of God and the leaders of Nations. More than 17,600,000 pilgrims participated in the General Audiences held on Wednesdays (more than 1160), not counting other special audiences and religious ceremonies [more than 8 million pilgrims during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone], and the millions of faithful he met during pastoral visits in Italy and throughout the world. We must also remember the numerous government personalities he encountered during 38 official visits, 738 audiences and meetings held with Heads of State, and 246 audiences and meetings with Prime Ministers.

His love for young people brought him to establish the World Youth Days. The 19 WYDs celebrated during his pontificate brought together millions of young people from all over the world. At the same time his care for the family was expressed in the World Meetings of Families, which he initiated in 1994. John Paul II successfully encouraged dialogue with the Jews and with the representatives of other religions, whom he several times invited to prayer meetings for peace, especially in Assisi.

Under his guidance the Church prepared herself for the third millennium and celebrated the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 in accordance with the instructions given in the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio adveniente. The Church then faced the new epoch, receiving his instructions in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte, in which he indicated to the faithful their future path.

With the Year of the Redemption, the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist, he promoted the spiritual renewal of the Church. He gave an extraordinary impetus to Canonizations and Beatifications, focusing on countless examples of holiness as an incentive for the people of our time. He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies during which he proclaimed 1,338 Blesseds; and 51 canonizations for a total of 482 saints. He made Thérèse of the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church.

He considerably expanded the College of Cardinals, creating 231 Cardinals (plus one in pectore) in 9 consistories. He also called six full meetings of the College of Cardinals. His most important Documents include 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions, 45 Apostolic Letters. He promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the light of Tradition as authoritatively interpreted by the Second Vatican Council. He also reformed the Eastern and Western Codes of Canon Law, created new Institutions and reorganized the Roman Curia.

In the light of Christ risen from the dead, on 2 April 2005 at 9.37 p.m., while Saturday was drawing to a close and the Lord's Day was already beginning, the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, the Church's beloved Pastor, John Paul II, departed this world for the Father. On April 1, 2011, he was raised to the glory of the altars and on April 27, 2014 canonized.

Reviews

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The denial of God deprives the person of his foundation, and consequently leads to a reorganization of the social order without reference to the person's dignity and responsibility.

This is an essay by John Paul II on mankind and the dignity and necessity of work, on the 100-year anniversary of Pope Leo XII’s 1991 Rerum Novarum.

One thing it does is put G.K. Chesterton’s viewpoints on the same subject, and on socialism and capitalism, in a much better context. Their capitalism is a sort of brother to socialism rather than it’s opposite, both being a system of state control, rather than the freedom of who to buy from and work for that it is defined as today (at least among conservatives). He also uses the term “Liberalism” in its European and older sense that in the United States means conservative or at least libertarian, even contrasting it with leftism at one point.

According to Rerum novarum and the whole social doctrine of the Church, the social nature of man is not completely fulfilled in the State, but is realized in various intermediary groups, beginning with the family and including economic, social, political and cultural groups which stem from human nature itself and have their own autonomy, always with a view to the common good.

It is especially focused on the revolution that had recently occurred in the Soviet Union.

Also worthy of emphasis is the fact that the fall of this kind of "bloc" or empire was accomplished almost everywhere by means of peaceful protest, using only the weapons of truth and justice.

“Truth” is an important element in this encyclical; it undergirds nearly every argument.

As has been mentioned, this error [various forms of totalitarianism] consists in an understanding of human freedom which detaches it from obedience to the truth, and consequently from the duty to respect the rights of others. The essence of freedom then becomes self-love carried to the point of contempt for God and neighbour, a self-love which leads to an unbridled affirmation of self-interest and which refuses to be limited by any demand of justice.

The real problem with this very lengthy essay is the lack of real examples. Pope John Paul II specifically addresses this by saying that it isn’t the church’s responsibility to dictate the forms these recommendations take, which is good, but without concrete examples, much of what he writes could be taken as any point on the spectrum between freedom and state control short of full-on communist totalitarianism—and that only because he does specifically call out the previous failed examples of socialism indirectly as in the above quote.

He does say that any merging of Christianity and Marxism is “an impossible compromise”:

In the recent past, the sincere desire to be on the side of the oppressed and not to be cut off from the course of history has led many believers to seek in various ways an impossible compromise between Marxism and Christianity.

Compare this:

When people think they possess the secret of a perfect social organization which makes evil impossible, they also think that they can use any means, including violence and deceit, in order to bring that organization into being. Politics then becomes a “secular religion” which operates under the illusion of creating paradise in this world. But no political society—which possesses its own autonomy and laws—can ever be confused with the Kingdom of God.

with this:

It is not only a question of raising all peoples to the level currently enjoyed by the richest countries, but rather of building up a more decent life through united labour, of concretely enhancing every individual's dignity and creativity, as well as his capacity to respond to his personal vocation, and thus to God's call. The apex of development is the exercise of the right and duty to seek God, to know him and to live in accordance with that knowledge.

and then this:

In this sense, it is right to speak of a struggle against an economic system, if the latter is understood as a method of upholding the absolute predominance of capital, the possession of the means of production and of the land, in contrast to the free and personal nature of human work. In the struggle against such a system, what is being proposed as an alternative is not the socialist system, which in fact turns out to be State capitalism, but rather a society of free work, of enterprise and of participation.

The problem is that you’ll find quite a few socialists perfectly happy with defining not-socialism as that the state should control what it means for people to work and to own businesses. Yet that’s clearly not what he means:

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbours to those in need.

Much of what he writes could literally mean anything. For example:

The Church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. When a firm makes a profit, this means that productive factors have been properly employed and corresponding human needs have been duly satisfied.

Can’t get any clearer than that. Unless, of course, you add a “but”:

But profitability is not the only indicator of a firm's condition. It is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people—who make up the firm's most valuable asset—to be humiliated and their dignity offended. Besides being morally inadmissible, this will eventually have negative repercussions on the firm's economic efficiency. In fact, the purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.

You can read this to mean pretty much whatever you want. There is also a distinct anthropomorphizing of nations that appears to obscure the real differences between them:

Enormous resources can be made available by disarming the huge military machines which were constructed for the conflict between East and West. These resources could become even more abundant if, in place of war, reliable procedures for the resolution of conflicts could be set up, with the resulting spread of the principle of arms control and arms reduction, also in the countries of the Third World, through the adoption of appropriate measures against the arms trade.

This is a fine sentiment, but, again, without examples how would such a thing be to the benefit of humanity if these “reliable procedures” included dictatorships such as Syria or Iran having the same voice as democracies such as France or the United States?

He is, however, adamant and with no such equivocation, about the sanctity of the family and of life:

It is necessary to go back to seeing the family as the sanctuary of life.

…

In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life.

…

Among the most important of these rights, mention must be made of the right to life, an integral part of which is the right of the child to develop in the mother's womb from the moment of conception; the right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the growth of the child's personality; the right to develop one's intelligence and freedom in seeking and knowing the truth; the right to share in the work which makes wise use of the earth's material resources, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself and one's dependents; and the right freely to establish a family, to have and to rear children through the responsible exercise of one's sexuality.

It’s hardly surprising that the leader of a 2,000-year-old bureaucracy would speak in bureaucratese, but it is disappointing to hear it from the successor to Saint Peter. I would expect more solidity from the rock of the Church. That said, these thoughts, like most of my Goodreads reviews, are mostly notes for me to remember, not reviews in general (although I do hope they can inform conversations, which is why I note them for later use). Despite the bureaucratese, this is a very interesting and occasionally even inspiring post-Soviet document about the Church’s view of what economic progress should mean following the decline of Marxism.

It is ultimately about the primacy of God, as incarnated in family and faith, and that any political or economic system that interferes with family and faith is by its nature a totalitarian system and one which also by its nature will descend into violence sooner or later. Despite the occasional evasiveness of the recommendations, this remains a powerful statement about the responsibilities of individuals and the dangers of the state abrogating those responsibilities to itself.

The State or the party which claims to be able to lead history towards perfect goodness, and which sets itself above all values, cannot tolerate the affirmation of an objective criterion of good and evil beyond the will of those in power, since such a criterion, in given circumstances, could be used to judge their actions… In a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and man is exposed to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and hidden.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Centesimus Annus je krásna encyklika, v ktorej si Ján Pavol II. pripomína inú, tiež výbornú encykliku, a síce Rerum Novarum. Tak, ako Lev XIII. hovoril o "nových veciach" jeho doby - hlavne o komunizme, tak aj Centesimus Annus jednak reaguje na osud komunistickej ideológie, ktorá sa po roku 1989 ukázala ako plne nefunkčná, jednak upozorňuje na nástrahy "nových vecí" nastávajúcej doby.

Čo sa týka komunizmu, k jeho pádu prispelo to, že porušoval práva práce a nastavenie a neschopnosť jeho hospodárskeho systému, ktorá je dôsledkom porušovania ľudských práv na podnikanie, na vlastníctvo a na slobodu v hospodárskej oblasti. JPII. hovorí, že človeka nemožno výlučne vnímať len zo stránky hospodárskej, ani ho jednoducho definovať podľa príslušnosti k triede. Človeka možno najúplnejšie vystihnúť, keď ho vidíme v spojitosti s jeho kultúrou cez jazyk, históriu a postoje k podstatným existenciálnym skutočnostiam, ako je narodenie, láska, práca a smrť. Ústredným bodom každej kultúry je postoj, aký človek zaujíma k najväčšiemu tajomstvu: tajomstvu Boha. Kultúry jednotlivých národov sú v zásade rôzne spôsoby, ako sa odpovedá na otázku o zmysle osobnej existencie. Ak sa táto otázka vylúči, kultúra a mravný život sa rozpadnú.

Marxizmus sľuboval vykoreniť z ľudského srdca smäd po Bohu, výsledky však ukázali, že sa to nedá dokázať bez zničenia samého srdca. Čo je však podstatne, JPII. varuje, že aj keď v 89. mnohé krajiny získali slobodu, ešte nevyhrali a nevyhral ani svet. Totalitarizmus a autoritarizmus môžu znova ožiť. Stále prebieha prehnaná propaganda čisto utilitaristických hodnôt spolu s bezuzdným dráždením pudov a túžby po okamžitom pôžitku. A preto treba byť na pozore.

JPII. následne vysvetľuje, aký by mal byť vzťah človeka k súkromnému vlastníctvu, k práci, povinnostiam, slobodám. V dnešnej dobe je najväčším bohatstvom človeka sám človek, jeho rozum. Uznáva dôležitosť voľného trhu v ekonomickej sfére, ale určite nehovorí, že vyrieši všetky problémy. Potrebuje politické a morálne regulácie. Odsudzuje neľútostný kapitalizmus, ktorý vedie k chudobe, ale aj ku konzumu, ubližuje životnému prostrediu, ale taktiež ľudskej ekológii. Jasne definuje, čo by malo byť úlohou štátu, pripomína princíp subsidiarity a potrebu jasnej morálky, stojacej na objektívnej pravde. Morálka však nemá byť nanútená, JPII. necháva priestor slobode človeka prísť k pravde. Veľmi výstižne kritizuje "welfare state", ktorý vytvára ľudí závislých na štáte.

Upozorňuje na to, že človek stojí pod tlakom z dvoch strán. Z jednej je štát a z druhej trh. Zavše sa zdá, že jestvuje len ako výrobca a spotrebiteľ tovarov, alebo ako predmet štátnej správy.Zabúda sa, že spolužitie ľudí nie je zamerané ani na trh, ani na štát, pretože má samo v sebe jedinečnú hodnotu, ktorej má slúžiť štát i trh. Človek je predovšetkým bytosť, ktorá hľadá pravdu, usiluje sa ju žiť a hlbšie chápať vo vytrvalom dialógu, ktorý pojíma do seba minulé i budúce generácie.

Je to také sociálne učenie Cirkvi v kocke, vrelo odporúčam každému veriacemu, ale aj všetkým ľuďom dobrej vôle, ako sa hovorí, lebo Centesimus Annus obsahuje veľa dobrého a pravdy o človeku a ukazuje, že pohľad Cirkvi na fungovanie spoločnosti je logické, zmysluplné, vychádzajúce z jasnej antropológie človeka, ktorá si je vedomá jednak dôstojnosti človeka, ale aj jeho hriešnosti.

[Juan Callejas Aquino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Por cuestiones de un proyecto de trabajo leí este documento escrito 100 años después de la publicación de Rerum Novarum. Es muy interesante ver la continuidad en los documentos y la relevancia que tiene al analizar la situación del mundo actual, sin perder el hilo conductor de 100 años de pensamiento y trabajo sobre las cuestiones de la vida en el mundo moderno que estos documentos abordan.

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

"There is a reasonable hope that the many people who profess no religion will also contribute to providing the social question with the necessary ethical foundation...I also addressed an appeal to the Christian Churches and to all the great world religions, inviting them to offer the unanimous witness of our common convictions regarding the dignity of man, created by God. In fact I am convinced that the various religions, now and in the future, will have a preeminent role in preserving peace and in building a society worthy of man."

This sums up everything wrong with this encyclical.

[Giulio Ciacchini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questa enciclica scritta da Giovanni Paolo II nel 1991, nasce in occasione del centenario dell'enciclica "Rerum Novarum" di Papa Leone XIII.
Entrambe le encicliche affrontano le questioni sociali ed economiche, ma lo fanno da prospettive diverse, considerando i contesti storici e le sfide specifiche dei loro tempi.
La "Rerum Novarum" affrontava le questioni sollevate dalla rivoluzione industriale del XIX secolo, mentre la "Centesimus Annus" si confronta con le sfide poste dalla fine del XX secolo, tra cui la caduta del comunismo, la globalizzazione economica e la crescita del capitalismo finanziario.

Come il suo predecessore Wojtyla si scaglia sia contro i totalitarismo ed in particolare contro la minaccia comunista, che all'epoca era molto concreta, sia contro il liberismo sfrenato che lascia indietro fette della popolazione.
Lungi dal negare i problemi del proletariato ed in generale delle persone più fragili, il Papa spinge per una soluzione mediana, in medio stat virtus.

Occorre qui sottolineare due cose: da una parte, la grande lucidità nel percepire, in tutta la sua crudezza, la reale condizione dei proletari, uomini, donne e bambini; dall'altra, la non minore chiarezza con cui si intuisce il male di una soluzione che, sotto l'apparenza di un'inversione delle posizioni di poveri e ricchi, andava in realtà a detrimento di quegli stessi che si riprometteva di aiutare. Il rimedio si sarebbe così rivelato peggiore del male. Individuando la natura del socialismo del suo tempo nella soppressione della proprietà privata, Leone XIII arrivava al nodo della questione.
Le sue parole meritano di essere rilette con attenzione: "Per rimediare a questo male (l'ingiusta distribuzione delle ricchezze e la miseria dei proletari), i socialisti spingono i poveri all'odio contro i ricchi, e sostengono che la proprietà privata deve essere abolita e i beni di ciascuno debbono essere comuni a tutti...; ma questa teoria, oltre a non risolvere la questione, non fa che danneggiare gli stessi operai, ed è inoltre ingiusta per molti motivi, giacché contro i diritti dei legit timi proprietari snatura le funzioni dello Stato e scompagina tutto l'ordine sociale" Non si potrebbero indicare meglio i mali indotti dall'instaurazione di questo tipo di socialismo come sistema di Stato: quello che avrebbe preso il nome di socialismo reale.

Inoltre pur riconoscendo i benefici dell'economia di mercato e della libertà economica, il Papa afferma che tali principi possono favorire la crescita economica, l'innovazione e lo sviluppo. Tuttavia, il Papa avverte anche contro il pericolo di un capitalismo sfrenato e senza regole, che può portare a disuguaglianze estreme e all'esclusione sociale.

Ritornando ora alla domanda iniziale, si può forse dire che, dopo il fallimento del comunismo, il sistema sociale vincente sia il capitalismo, e che verso di esso vadano indirizzati gli sforzi dei Paesi che cercano di ricostruire la loro economia e la loro società? E forse questo il modello che bisogna proporre ai Paesi del Terzo Mondo, che cercano la via del vero progresso economico e civile? La risposta è ovviamente complessa. Se con capitalism si indica un sistema economico che riconosce il ruolo fondamentale e positivo dell'impresa, del mercato, della proprietà privata e della conseguente responsabilità per i mezzi di produzione, della libera creatività umana nel settore dell'economia, la risposta è certamente positiva, anche se forse sarebbe più appropriato parlare di economia d'impresa, o di economia di mercato, o semplicemente di economia libera. Ma se con capitalismo si intende un sistema in cui la libertà nel settore dell'economia non è inquadrata in un solido contesto giuridico che la metta al servizio della libertà umana integrale e la consideri come una particolare dimensione di questa libertà, il cui centro è etico e religioso, allora la risposta è decisamente negativa.
La soluzione marxista è fallita, ma permangono nel mondo fenomeni di emarginazione e di sfruttamento, specialmente nel Terzo Mondo, nonchè fenomeni di alienazione umana.

Nel criticare i totalitarismi, il Papa sottolinea come appunti questi sistemi tendono a inglobare l'individuo dentro al proprio sistema

La cultura e la prassi del totalitarismo comportano anche la negazione della Chiesa. Lo Stato, oppure il partito, che ritiene di poter realizzare nella storia il bene assoluto e si erge al di sopra di tutti i valori, non può tollerare che sia affermato un criterio oggettivo del bene e del male oltre la volontà dei governanti, il quale, in determinate circostanze, può servire a giudicare il loro comportamento. Ciò spiega perché il totalitarismo cerca di distruggere la Chiesa o, almeno, di assoggettarla, facendola strumento del proprio apparato ideologico.
Lo Stato totalitario, inoltre, tende ad assorbire in se stesso la Nazione, la società, la famiglia, le comunità religiose e le stesse persone.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by a brother-in-law. I initially started reading it a few months back before I realized it was on Goodreads. I didn't keep up with reading it (or even keep track of when I started reading it, somewhere around the end of February), so I started over instead of adding it to the DNF list. It is a very dense read, and coming from Pope John Paul II, I am not surprised. Because it is dense, it was a slow read for me whenever I did take time to read it. John Paul II made some excellent points and is very clear on his position regarding how faith, the person, and economies should intertwine. I take it that it is a response to or extension of the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which I have not read, but was not essential to understanding the encyclical at hand, although reading it prior probably would have provided more insight. As a fan of John Paul II, I generally like his position on matters, but I cannot say this particular piece wowed me, so that is why I gave it 3 stars. Maybe if I had read it over a shorter span of time I could have gotten more out of it and given it a higher rating.

Note: I read a printed version my brother-in-law gave me, probably a PDF, so it was only 37 pages, including end notes. I could not find such a version on Goodreads.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But the true cause of the new developments was the spiritual void brought about by atheism, which deprived the younger generations of a sense of direction and in many cases led them, in the
irrepressible search for personal identity and for the meaning of life... to rediscover the person of Christ himself as the existentially adequate response to the desire in every human heart for goodness, truth and life."

"These events [1989] are a warning to those who, in the name of political realism, wish to banish law and morality from the political arena... It is by uniting his own sufferings for the sake of truth and freedom to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross that man is able to accomplish the miracle of peace and is in a position to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil and the violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse."

"when a culture becomes inward looking, and tries to perpetuate obsolete ways of living by rejecting any exchange or debate with regard to the truth about man, then it becomes sterile and is heading for decadence."

[Jonathan Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well balanced assessment of the challenges of the 20th century and how we can apply one of the greatest Papal Encyclicals (Rerum Novarum) to these challenges. I still went away feeling like John Paul II didn't quite go into the theological space that the liberation theologians would be happy with. Yet, I am not here to read books that agree and confirms my theology at all times. I find this encyclical both challenging and encouraging, I never felt that John Paul II was pandering to any specific school of theology whilst at the same time he recognised the merits of different theological approaches and in doing so helped bring the church into a space were it can properly deal with many of the challenges that plagued 1991 and still plague 2022.

[Jack Geise · Rating 5 out of 5]

so valuable and necessary in today's world. jp2 so beautifully expresses how so many of our modern issues social, economic, and political, really stem from an anthropological error - we must understand who the human person is before we can hope to meaningfully work towards understanding all these other issues.

[нєνєℓ ¢ανα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully crafted as well as written, although it was published in 1991, John Paul II wanted to refresh the ideas and insights of the famous Rerun Novarum encyclical by Pope Leon XIII. A century of celebration of this papal document which was made as a pontifical letter that issues the rights and duties of capital and labor in modern times. Enhorabuena!

[Gloria Fransisca Katharina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Centesimus Annus merupakan Ensiklik Bapa Suci Yohanes Paulus II tentang Ajaran Sosial Gereja (ASG) Masa Kini sebagai kenangan ulang tahun ke-seratus dari Ensiklik Rerum Novarum yang rilis pada 1 Mei 1991. Sebuah peringatan dan penegasan iman Kristiani pada komitmen keadilan sosial dan kemanusiaan.

[Collette BP · Rating 5 out of 5]

'As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism'

As relevant today as it was in 1991.

[Logan Streondj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview of the context of rerum novarum and modern changes to it.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every paragraph is uplifting and challenging at the same time.

[Enzo 87 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puntos de vista que ayudan al eclecticismo, presenta argumentos contra los extremismos y pondera el cuidado del trabajador por sobre las demás variables

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look back at Rerum Novarum : here, Pope John Paul II writes that capitalists shouldn't get overconfident after the fall of the Soviet Union. The pope doesn't mention labor unions as much as Pope Leo XIII did in the original. Instead, the Church admits that capitalism is a great wealth-generation machine, but cautions that man (not wealth) should be at the center of society, in order to keep up a healthy and moral culture.

[Quidec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviamente no es una lectura divertida, pero sí muy reveladora. La concepción de Juan Pablo II sobre la participación de la ciudadanía y la dinámica politico-económica es reveladora, aún en esta época. Le da fondo personal a todos estos diferentes procesos sociales que llevamos cargando por años (ya sea de aires capitalistas o socialistas), y un enfoque complementario. Me gustó, está para releerse. :D

[Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful work which lays out the balance between the individual's freedom and obligation to support themselves and their responsibility to balance work life, family life and rest time. John Paul II took plenty of time studying the concepts of economics so to make a more complete critique of economics from the perspective of Catholic Theology and it shows in this work. One of the best works on economics and morality I have ever read.