Encyclical Letter on Social Concerns
John Paul II, Pope
Pope John Paul II’s observations on the Church’s social teaching twenty years after Populorum Progressio
The twentieth anniversary of Paul VI’s revolutionary encyclical Populorum Progressio, gave John Paul the opportunity to expand upon the Catholic social teaching, especially with regard to human and economic development.
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis remains impressively relevant especially in discussions related to globalisation. “There is a better understanding today that the mere accumulation of goods and services, even for the benefit of the majority, is not enough for the realisation of human happiness. Nor, in consequence, does the availability of the many real benefits provided in recent times by science and technology, including the computer sciences, bring freedom from every form of slavery. On the contrary, the experience of recent years shows that unless all the considerable body of resources and potential at man’s disposal is guided by a moral understanding and by an orientation towards the true good of the human race, it easily turns against man to oppress him.” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28)
