Development of the Whole Man and of All Men: Guidelines of the Catholic Church for Societal Development

Since the encyclical Populorum Progressio of Pope Paul VI (1967) the social teaching of the Catholic Church has been treating the problem of development of the Third World. John Paul II in Sollicitudo Rei Sociales (1987) and Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate (2009) have underlined, as did Paul VI, that development is only true development when it is the development of the whole man and of all men. of the whole man requires not only the overcoming of poverty but also a social and cultural development, as well as an opening to the transcendent dimension of human life. Benedict XVI speaks from an anthropological and a theological point of view about the duty of man to develop both himself and the world. of all men requires besides economic growth, which must be profitable for all, the development of social and political structures that include good governance and the respect of human life from conception until natural death. Manfred Spieker, Development of the Whole Man and of All Men: Guidelines of the Catholic Church for Societal Development, Journal of Markets & Morality 13, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 263-278