Italian
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation and head of the annual training course, Mons. Guy-Réal Thivierge explained why Catholic social thought cannot be reduced to charity and good works, but requires rigorous study and systematic reflection capable of guiding action in the world.
VATICAN CITY. The social doctrine of the Church is not just a set of works to be done: it is, above all, a “knowledge, a body of knowledge”. With this statement, Mons. Guy-Réal Thivierge, a member of the Scientific Committee of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, placed at the center of his speech the intellectual and formative dimension of Catholic social thought, which is too often reduced to the background of charitable action.
“Often we talk about the social doctrine of the Church, but we talk about the works that are done, works of charity, of help, all of this. People often forget that the social doctrine of the Church is a body of knowledge”. A costly oversight, according to Thivierge, because
This commitment to education stems from the belief that Mons. Thivierge has been pursuing for over five years alongside a colleague, coordinating the annual course of the Foundation aimed at its members. An event that brings together about fifty people each time:
“People already engaged in professional life, but also intelligent young people come, young people who want to start reflecting in a more organized way on the thought of the Church’s social doctrine.”
For Thivierge, the challenge is to restore to Catholic social thought its nature as a “corpus of rigorous reflection”, which is not improvised, but requires study and dialogue.
The connection with the Gospel remains central: “the link we make and that we must learn to make very clearly between action and the Gospel is very important for this”. It is in the evangelical root, combined with intellectual rigor, that the Church’s social doctrine finds its driving force. A force that, according to Thivierge, is renewed every time people of good will come together to study — and then to build together — a fairer world.
