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Created in the image of the one god and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.
The equality of men rests essentially on their
dignity as persons and the right that flow from it.
Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamen-
tal personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social
conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradi-
cated as incompatible with God's design.
On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. The "talents" are not distributed equally.
These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:
I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of
them to each person, but some to one, some to others…I
shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; hu-
mility to this one, a living faith to that one…And so I have
given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal,
with such diversity that I have not given everything to one
single person, so that you may be constrained to practice
charity towards one another…I have willed that one should
need another and that all should be my ministers in distrib-
uting the graces and gifts they have received from me.
There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men
and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:
Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for
fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and
social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one
human race is a source of scandal and militates against social
justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and interna-
tional peace.
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