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Abstract

Justice, which is the subject matter of this article, consists in the firm and constant will to give everyone, including God, what they rightly deserve. The concept thus defined has two fundamental meanings: justice regarded as one of the four cardinal virtues and as a principle of social life. Since its early days, the social teaching of the Church has both demanded justice in social order and stressed that justice alone does not suffice to introduce it. Justice must be complemented by love, as stressed by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. Both John Paul II’s encyclical Dives in Misericordia and Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est were written in a similar spirit. As results from their teachings, justice and love are mutually indispensable and intertwined. Love complements justice; therefore, those values should not be regarded as separate but as closely related to each other instead. Today’s world severely lacks the fundamental requirements of justice; as a consequence, the world requires justice, which has to be complemented by love, or else it may turn into a reality harmful to the human person. The Church’s Magisterium emphasizes that the world will transform its miserable nature and become fairer only when people change. With this in mind, John Paul II in his apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte called for “a new imagination of mercy”, while Benedict XVI in the encyclical Deus Caritas Est appealed for the awakening of moral strength, which is a prerequisite for fair structures in social life.