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Agrarian Reform: Guidelines
Implementing an Effective,
Equitable and Efficient Agrarian Reform
35. It often happens that
policies intended to promote a proper use of the right to private ownership of
land are unable to prevent its continued use in vast areas as an absolute right
without any limitations coming from the corresponding social obligations.
The social teaching of the Church
is very clear on this point, stating that agrarian reform is one of the most
urgent reforms and cannot be delayed: "In many situations radical and
urgent changes are therefore needed in order to restore to agriculture — and to
rural people — their just value as the basis for a healthy economy, within the
social community's development as a whole."(32)
John Paul II launched a particularly
dramatic appeal to members of the government and large landowners in Oaxaca,
Mexico: "...leaders of the people, powerful classes which sometimes keep
unproductive lands that hide the bread that so many families lack, human
conscience, the conscience of peoples, the cry of the destitute, and above all,
the voice of God, the voice of the Church, repeat to you with me: It is not
just, it is not human, it is not Christian to continue with certain situations
that are clearly unjust. It is necessary to carry out real, effective measures
— at the local, national and international levels — along the broad line marked
by the encyclical Mater et Magistra
(Part three). It is clear that those who must collaborate most in this, are those who can do the most."(33)
36. The social teaching of the
Church repeats several times that the greatest possible realisation
of agricultural productive potential must be guaranteed where a high percentage
of the population is dependent on work on the land. When large landholdings are
insufficiently used, this justifies expropriation of land — with adequate
compensation to the owners(34) — so that it
can be allocated to those who have none or not enough.(35)
However, it must be emphasized
that according to the social teaching, agrarian reform cannot be confined
simply to redistribution of the ownership of land.
Expropriation of land and its
redistribution are only one aspect — and not the most complex one — of an
equitable and effective policy of agrarian reform.(36)
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