Chapter Five, section two, of the "Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation," issued April 5, 1986, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, contains a remarkable phrase, one that could easily be overlooked in the public discussion over the significance of the Instruction for Latin American liberation theology. It is obvious that this section of the Instruction is an abbreviated version of the thought of Pope John Paul II on the meaning of human work. It serves as an invitation to reread his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens. And yet, in one important respect, the Instruction goes one step further than the encyclical Laborem Exercens. In an imaginative leap it knits together the various socioethical principles found there by giving a name to the vision that inspired them, a vision that is gradually emerging as the centerpiece of contemporary Catholic social thought. The name the Instruction bestows on this moral vision is "a civilization of work."

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