Dives in Misericordia: “Mercy . . . from Generation to Generation” (10, continued)

Chapter 6 of “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) is entitled “Mercy . . . from Generation to Generation.” It continues as follows:

“10. . . . But side by side with all this, or rather as part of it, there are also the difficulties that appear whenever there is growth. There is unease and a sense of powerlessness regarding the profound response that man knows that he must give. The picture of the world today also contains shadows and imbalances that are not always merely superficial. The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council is certainly not the only document that deals with the life of this generation, but it is a document of particular importance. ‘The dichotomy affecting the modern world,’ we read in it, ‘is, in fact, a symptom of a deeper dichotomy that is in man himself. He is the meeting point of many conflicting forces. In his condition as a created being he is subject to a thousand shortcomings, but feels untrammelled in his inclinations and destined for a higher form of life. Torn by a welter of anxieties he is compelled to choose between them and repudiate some among them. Worse still, feeble and sinful as he is, he often does the very thing he hates and does not do what he wants. And so he feels himself divided, and the result is a host of discords in social life.’¹⁰⁹.”

109. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 10: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1032.

 

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Pope John Paul II: “Dives in Misericordia”