Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino's Address on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
* H.E. Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino Visited to Korea and Delivered an Address on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church His Eminence Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and President of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, visited Korea with an invitation of Prime Minister Daniel Han Seung-soo from October 30 to November 2, 2008. During his visit, Cardinal Martino also delivered an address on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church with the theme of “The Church’s Mission for an Integral Humanism in Solidarity” to the Commission for Justice and Peace of the CBCK, on October 31, 2008. In his address, Cardinal Martino said that the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 2004 “is presented as an instrument for the moral and pastoral discernment of the complex events that mark our time.” Then he asserted that the responsibility to put into practice the social doctrine of the Church is put on all the members of the Church, bishops, priests, men and women religious, and lay people. Particularly, he stressed the role of the laity in the implementation of the Church's social teachings, referring to them as the compendium's "privileged partners." During a question-and-answer session, Cardinal Martino added, "However, the compendium is not the solution for social justice. It is advice, suggestion, direction, and general indication for different situations for each society. Each Church needs to interpret the teachings separately, based on its situation.” |