28. The human community

28. THE HUMAN COMMUNITY SEEKING AUTHENTIC HUMAN DEVELOPMENT , THE CHURCH PROMOTES SUBSIDIARITY, SOLIDARITY AND THE COMMON GOOD. Compendium 401-414 1 Peter 2:13-17 1. We can only find happiness in community. 2. God is a community of Persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit and all who are called to friendship with him. 3. The human family is modeled on the Holy Trinity. 4. The human person must be the principal, subject and end of social institutions. 5. SUBSIDIARITY: the family is the basic unit of society and must not be deprived of its fundamental authority by the State or higher institutions which must be at the service of the basic unit of society and the common good. The State should not preempt parental authority. 6. There must be a priority of ethics over technology, and persons over things and spirit over matter. 7. The Common Good is the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their members to flourish with relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment and must be sought using morally licit means and requires the personal integrity of leaders. 8. The dignity of each person, especially the most vulnerable, must be respected. 9. Unjust or immoral laws are not binding. 10. Solidarity requires that we must work for a more humane society with generous charity for the most needy because we are all created in God's image with a rational soul and are destined to share the same eternal happiness with him. 11. The continuous disparity between rich and poor is contrary to the Gospel. 12. The remedy for this disparity are the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. 12. The corporal works of mercy are: 1. To feed the hungry 2. Give drink to the thirsty 3. Clothe the naked 4. Shelter the homeless 5. Visit the sick 6. Visit the imprisoned 7. Bury the dead. 13. The spiritual works of mercy are 1. Counsel the doubtful 2. Instruct the ignorant 3. Admonish the sinner 4. Comfort the afflicted 5. Forgive offensives 6. Bear wrongs patiently 7. Pray for the living and the dead. 14. These works of mercy require a personal and individual participation and involvement. When they are relegated to central government authorities they become impersonal and inefficient entitlements which rob people of human dignity as they crush the economy with waste and corruption and cause even greater poverty.