ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI

Contributions of Roman Catholic Encyclical of Pope Paul VI



Contributions of Roman Catholic Encyclical of Pope Paul VI

Introduction

Over the period of centuries in history, development of people has been considered as one of the major aims of the Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI wrote encyclical POPULORUM PROGRESSIO in 1967 focussing on the development of people. This essay describes the contribution of this encyclical.

Discussion

Pope Paul VI wrote the encyclical “POPULORUM PROGRESSIO”, focussing mainly on the people that suffer from misery, hunger and endemic diseases. Despite of the fact that paradigm of human development has worked on more advanced areas of human developments such as women's role, building of democracy, governance, and justice between the generations, POPULORUM PROGRESSIO was able to make some unique contributions for development of peoples.

The encyclical included the topics which can be considered as much advanced for the era when it was developed. It focused on the topics such as solidarity, the development which is cantered on people; in addition, Pope was also able to predict the social issues along with their global nature, and the need of free trade was urged as it is one of the important demands of social justice. The major contribution of encyclical is that it provoked many volunteers and faithful people to work for the cause of peace and social justice, all around the world. In the fifth paragraph of encyclical, the creation of peace and justice commission was also announced by the Pope, which would mainly work for providing social justice to the developing nations. The commission would work for creating awareness in the people about the social issues; this would help the developing nations to progress at increased rate and to establish the social justice not locally but internationally. This would also help the poorer nations to work for their own development, so that they would become able to survive without the need of external help and financial assistance.

Once provoked by Pope Paul, various national and international associations started working for promoting the same cause, and the process is continued even in the most advanced and globalized world of toady. The pope called people from all around the world to gather urgently and work for reducing the suffering of people who live in the world of hunger, poverty, injustice, consumerism and violence. For example, in 1979, a group of people started working in Hong Kong; they have developed a centre which works for promoting the progress and serving people so they could get justice and peace. Such centres are excellent examples of the contributions made by Pope Paul.

POPULORUM PROGRESSIO means a lot for the Church when it makes efforts for establishing global justice. The encyclical has provided guidelines to resolve the issues of globalization, cultural conditions of different nations, economic issues. The encyclical showed its contemporary, radical and futuristic nature as it condemned the neo liberal development solutions. Pope did not encourage the people only for attending the prayers in Church, in order to ...