Pope Benedict XVI's Message on the Social Week has hit the nail on the head

The Church always stood for the total liberation of man, who is the image of God. The principles of justice and love are based on equality and formed on the light of the Gospel [Gaudium et spes 63]. Rerum Novarum, the first social Encyclical written by the pope Leone XIII on 15 May 1891, was the first social document, in which the Church clearly and authentically announced its stand on the political, social and economical issues of the world.

From ‘Rerum Novarum’ till ‘Deus Caritas est’ all the social encyclicals have been giving voice for the same problems. But few days before the letter written by his Holiness pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the Social week celebrations by the Italian Catholics addressed to the president of the Italian Bishops Conference, hit the headlines of the Italian news boards. The explicit theme of the letter is the “Common Good”, the message begins with respect for life and the family, but he does not stop there, but continues to say openly that in the Italian society, one concrete situation where the family must be protected and promoted is job security. Therefore, lack of job-security does not allow young people to build their own family, the authentic and complete development of society is seriously compromised and he invites the Italian citizens and especially the Catholic laity to respond to these challenges, with renewed dynamism, opening themselves trustingly to new relationships and not neglecting any of the energies capable of contributing to cultural and moral growth.

The reason why this message hit the headlines is very apparent, today in the unemployment percentage is increasing women and youth have significantly higher rates of unemployment [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4033.htm]. The number of official marriages celebrated in Italy has declined steadily since the early 1970’s, with 404,464 registered in 1971 and 264,026 in 2001, according to the national statistics bureau, Istat. The number fell to just over 250,000 in 2005, Istat said [www.sacbee.com – Family Issues]. The Italian government instead of solving the basic problems to promote legal families by job security it tries to bring legislation that would give legal rights to unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian partners. In this situation pope Benedict XVI’s message on the social week has hit nail on the head.