Il dovere di solidarietà. Spunti di riflessione su Diritto Pubblico e Dottrina Sociale della Chiesa

Abstract

The dialectic between citizens and a foreigners illuminates the profound distance which divides Public Law from the Social Doctrine of the Church. According to the first, the identity of the citizen and the identity of the community are ruled by the laws which rule the belonging. According to the second, no one is a foreigner, and the Church is not foreign to any man. In no place. Should we be content with such distinction and endure the separation of groups, peoples and nations that it implies and supposes? Or should the State and the public law gain a new perspective on the problem? Trying to provide a valid answer to this question, the Author reconstructs the category of citizenship under the sign of duty, identifying in the term "duty" the only concept which could link together freedom, dignity, equality and common good. Keeping universal and particular intertwined, we can therefore propose the definitive overcoming of the ancient dialectic between citizen and civis mundi. Because a cohesive, open and caring society is possible if only both of them know and respect their own duties.