With these words the Church magisterium describes the nature of social doctrine. Accordingly, the research activities of the Centre, developed by professors and researchers of Università Cattolica in collaboration with scholars from other Italian and foreign universities, are characterized by trans-disciplinary dialogue, attentive to the social teaching of the Church and theology, involving philosophy, social and human sciences, and techno-sciences.
The Centre has steadily addressed the major issues of contemporary social life, with the contribution of many colleagues, who actively participated in various research projects. The deep exchange of ideas among the members of the interdisciplinary working groups has resulted in rigorous texts, however accessible to a large audience. The creation of the journal Dictionary of the Social Teaching of the Church. The new things of the XXI century, follows this line. The journal started its publication in March 2021: here you can find more about the project.
Over the years, the Centre has dealt with these main topics:
The “priority” of work, key to the social question, with reference to the current experience of globalization. Together with work, the great issue of our times is development, which need re-thinking along the lines of the authoritative magisterium of Caritas in veritate by Benedict XVI and Laudato si’ by Pope Francis. Two encyclicals that reconsider and deepen, fifty years after Populorum progressio, the powerful and far-sighted magisterium of Paul VI: the social question ties all human beings together, in every part of the world;
In this perspective, the Centre also studied the food crisis with special reference to its technological dimensions, in collaboration with ExpoLAB, so to contribute to “feeding the planet” (Expo Milan 2015), and explored concrete paths to development, in the perspective of integral ecology of Laudato si’.
As to the global financial crisis, the Centre analyzed the economic and financial system from the perspective of an ethics “friendly to the person”, highlighting the difficult relationships that exist between the economic system and the family, and exploring the viability of a financial system that truly fulfills its function of making development possible.
Assessing the links between democracy, human rights and truth allows rethinking democratic processes. A democracy that denies the question of truth tends to implicitly or explicitly result in new forms of totalitarianism.
The relevance of the Church’s social doctrine, in our globalized and “plural” world, becomes particularly in interreligious dialogue and dialogue with different cultures are practices, building upon the broad concept of reason repeatedly referred to by Benedict XVI. The Centre has promoted multiple initiatives, including three international conferences: The Grandeur of Reason (Rome, 2008), John Henry Newman today. Logos and dialogue (Milan, 2009), Between Reason and Faith. The Social Doctrine of the Church and its “Ecumenical” Value (Milan, 2014), with the contribution of eminent religious leaders and authoritative scholars of different Christian denominations and other faiths.
