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Reflection
 134:   Based on the Vatican II document 
Gaudium et Spes (Church in the world) 
Article 
30

 

Not good to edit this article.
Best to read it as it stands.
It's theme: no one is an island

"Profound and rapid changes make it more necessary
that no one ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness,
content himself with a merely individualistic morality.

It grows increasingly true that the obligations of justice and love
are fulfilled only if each person, contributing to the common good,
according to his own abilities and the needs of others,
also promotes and assists the public and private institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life.

Yet there are those who, while possessing grand and rather noble sentiments,
nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the needs of society.
Many in various places even make light of social laws and precepts,
and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to society.
Others think little of certain norms of social life, for example those designed for the protection of health,
or laws establishing speed limits;
they do not even avert to the fact that by such indifference they imperil their own life and that of others.

Let everyone consider it his sacred obligation to esteem and observe social necessities
as belonging to the primary duties of modern people.
For the more unified the world becomes,
the more plainly do the offices of people extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole world.
But this development cannot occur unless individual persons and their associations
cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues, and promote them in society;
thus, with the needed help of divine grace people who are truly new and artisans of a new humanity can be forthcoming"

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