Solidarność i sprzeciw u podstaw uczestnictwa w życiu społecznym. Refleksja nad społecznym nauczaniem Jana Pawła II ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem adhortacji „Christifideles laici”

Abstract

The paper is a reflection on the social teaching of John Paul II with particular attention to the adhortation Christifideles laid and the encyclical Sollidtudo rei socialis. The author suggests to make the category of participation and its two principles, ie solidarity and protest, an interpretative key for this social teaching. He makes reference, first of all, to what the Pope said in his book Person and Act written before the pontificate. Then he attemps to prove that it lies, along with the Vatican Council Il’s teaching, at the basic of the vision of Christians' taking part in social life, which vision is presented in John Paul Il’s Christifideles laid. A closer explanation of the very category of participation is prior to the presentation of the Polish background for this problem, which background was the subject-matter of the Pope’s addresses during his III pilgrimage to Fatherland. The category of participation has its personalistic (and here particularly Person and Act) and theological, ie Christological and ecclesial alike, explanation. Only in this light can man fully describe these two principles that lie at the basic of participation in social life, ie solidarity and protest. The author points out that in this manner one confirms on the one hand the truth of the fellowship dimension of the existence of human person, and on the other, that this person is a goal and centre of the whole social life. These two principles jointly reveal the essence of social life. When one of them is missing, it leads either to conformity or to evasion (withdrawal from social life).