Subsidiarity: If truly understood and utilized, could change the world that we live in.
The principle of subsidiarity goes back to the Bishop of Mainz, Emmanuel von Ketteler. His work shaped the social teaching of Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum and holds that government should undertake only those initiatives which exceed the capacity of individuals or private groups acting independently.
The principle of subsidiarity goes back to the Bishop of Mainz, Emmanuel von Ketteler. His work shaped the social teaching of Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum and holds that government should undertake only those initiatives which exceed the capacity of individuals or private groups acting independently.
Functions of government, business, and other secular activities should be as local as possible.
If a complex function is carried out at a local level just as effectively as on the national level, the local level should be the one to carry out the specified function.
The principle is based upon the autonomy and dignity of the human individual, and holds that all other forms of society, from the family to the state and the international order, should be in the service of the human person.
Subsidiarity assumes that these human persons are by their nature social beings, and emphasizes the importance of small and intermediate-sized communities or institutions, like the family, the church, and voluntary associations, as mediating structures which empower individual action and link the individual to society as a whole.
"Positive subsidiarity", which is the ethical imperative for communal, institutional or governmental action to create the social conditions necessary to the full development of the individual, such as the right to work, decent housing, health care, etc., is another important aspect of the subsidiarity principle.
The principle of subsidiarity was developed in the encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, as an attempt to articulate a middle course between the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism on the one hand and the various forms of communism, which subordinate the individual to the state, on the other.
The principle was further developed in Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno of 1931, and Economic Justice for All by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic Social TeachingPope Pius XI
Pope Pius XII
Pope John XXIII
Vatican II
Pope Paul VI
Pope John Paul II
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