Prymat osoby ludzkiej w życiu społecznym

Abstract

The social doctrine of the Church stresses that man is the basic subject of social life. This means that social reality, in so far as it is to be measured according to man as a person, should be based on the fundamental principle of personalism. The personalistic principle, highlighting the primacy of the person before society, means that the proper functioning of society should be closely connected with the respect and promotion of the dignity of the human person. The person may never be treated as a means to ends for another man, or else the whole of community, nor can it be reduced to the role of a thing or object. Respect for the human person is manifested, above all, in the recognition and respect for human rights. It is important to work out such a model of social life which would respect the dignity and rights of man. It has also taken the realization of duties which result from social life. The Church refers to the principle of auxiliarity. That principle defends the members of a given community and smaller communities from any attempts at a totalitarian imposition of the social order. On the one hand, it safeguards the basic entitlement of an individual towards a community; on the other it obliges community to create such conditions and opportunities which would be favourable for the realization of the principal rights.