A Universal Criterion to Evaluate Socioeconomic Systems: John Paul II’s Concept of Human Rights
Stanisław FEL
Chair of Catholic Social Thought and Sociology of Morality, Institute of Sociological Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3975-665X
Abstract
The aim of the article is to reconstruct John Paul II’s idea of universal human rights, outline his basic approach, key conceptual theses, and contribution to building and promoting more effective forms of human rights protection against the backdrop of the contemporary crisis of the universality of the rights of the human person. The views of Karol Wojtyła–John Paul II, rooted in the Polish intellectual tradition shaped by Christianity, were formed in the process of his own scientific research at the Catholic University of Lublin and personal involvement in the protection of human rights. The Pope made the human person and their rights the guiding idea of his social teaching and global pastoral activity. The concepts of the human person and their inalienable dignity he developed determine the complementary understanding of all human rights, independent of ideological and political contexts. The involvement in the dissemination of this concept co-shaped international standards of human rights protection, and the scale of his contribution to the development of human rights theory and protection constitutes the basis for describing him as the pope of human rights. His idea of universal human rights is an important point of reference in the face of contemporary efforts to fundamentally reinterpret them.
Keywords:
John Paul II, human rights, dignity of the human person, social doctrine of Catholic ChurchReferences
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Chair of Catholic Social Thought and Sociology of Morality, Institute of Sociological Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3975-665X
