Bishop calls for greater implementation of Church’s social teachings in Latin America

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 4, 2005 / 22:00 pm

During the presentation of the Compendium of Social Teachings of the Church at the Catholic University of Argentina (CUA), the President of the Bishops’ Committee on Social Ministry, Bishop Carmelo Giaquinta, called for greater study and implementation of the social teachings of the Church in Argentina and Latin America.

Bishop Giaquinta emphasized the importance and usefulness of these teachings for achieving a just and peaceful social order in the Latin American nations that goes hand in hand with true human progress.

During the ceremony an agreement between the CUA and the Pontifical Lateran University was also signed for the joint development of a Masters in the Social Teachings of the Church.  The President of the Redemptor Hominis Pastoral Institute of the Lateran University, Father Denis Biju-Duval, said the Compendium is an updated synthesis of the Church’s social teachings, in which the teachings of the Vatican Council and of John Paul II shine forth.

He also called the text “an especially valuable instrument” that the laity can use to “gage the ecclesial nature of their social commitments.”  The Compendium, Father Biju-Duval noted, is “a true source of inspiration for giveing ever-new answers to the challenges of the times, in complete communion with the entire Church.”

The 570-page volume was published by the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina with the economic assistance of the German bishops.