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The Universal Destination
of Goods and Private Property
28. The effects of the present
disordered situation confirm the need for all of human society to be constantly
reminded of the principles of justice, especially that of the universal
destination of goods.
As regards property, the social
teaching of the Church bases the ethics of the relationship between the human
person and the goods of the earth on the biblical view of the earth as God's
gift to all human beings: "God destined the earth and all it contains for
all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by
all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity .... We must
never lose sight of this universal destination of earthly goods."(18)
The right to the use of earthly
goods is a natural and primary right with universal application, referring to
every human being. It cannot be overridden by any other economic right,(19) but must be upheld and implemented through
laws and institutions.
29. While the social teaching of
the Church affirms the need to ensure that all persons always and in every
circumstance enjoy the goods of the earth, it also upholds the natural right to
individual appropriation of these goods.(20)
All persons can put the goods of
the earth that have been placed at their service to good use, making them bear
fruit and hence affirming themselves, if they are in a position to have free
use of these goods, having acquired their ownership.(21)
Such ownership is a condition and
protection of freedom and the presupposition and guarantee of human dignity.
"Private property or some form of ownership of external goods assures a
person a highly necessary sphere for the exercise of his personal and family
autonomy and ought to be considered as an extension of human freedom. Lastly,
in stimulating exercise of responsibility, it constitutes one of the conditions
for civil liberty."(22)
As history and experience show,
if the right to private ownership of goods — including productive goods — is
not recognized, this leads to a concentration of power, bureaucratization of
the various sectors of society's life, social discontent, and the suppression
or stifling of "the fundamental manifestations of freedom."(23)
30. The right to private property
is not, however, unconditional, according to the magisterium
of the Church, but entails some very precise obligations.
Whatever concrete forms private
property may take as a result of varying institutional and juridical
approaches, it is basically an instrument to implement the principle of the
universal destination of material goods, and hence a means and not an end.(24)
The right to private property,
which is of itself valid and necessary, must be circumscribed within the limits
of the fundamental social function of property. Every owner must, therefore,
always bear in mind the social mortgage on private property: "In
his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not
merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that
they can benefit others as well as himself."(25)
31. The social function directly
and naturally inherent in goods and their destination means that the social
teaching of the Church can state: "When a person is in extreme necessity
he has the right to supply himself with what he needs out of the riches of
others."(26) The right of every person to
the use of the goods needed in order to live sets a limit on the right of
private property.
This doctrine was expounded by St
Thomas Aquinas,(27) and it helps in evaluating
some complex situations of major socio-ethical importance, such as the
expulsion of peasant farmers from land they have been farming, without
guaranteeing their right to receive a portion necessary to sustain life; or,
again, cases of occupation of uncultivated land on the part of peasant farmers
who are not its owners and who live in conditions of dire poverty.
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