Personalism

Personalism and Human rights
The main encyclical that talks about that topic is the titled Pacem in terries (“Peace on Earth”) published in April of 1963 by Pope John XXVIII. As we can expect by reading the title, the main idea of that encyclical is the peace in the planet, between countries, religions, cultures, etc. The fundamental moral principles presented by the Pope to support peace arehuman rights, which according to him are naturals, universal (to anybody, for people of all ages, nationalities, cultures, etc.), inviolable (under no circumstance it will “broken”) and inalienable (that we cannot get out from someone). Lying beyond this rights is an understanding of the human person according to the bible and influenced of the thoughts of Tomas Aquinas. In the middle XX’s century,Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), a philosopher who was born in France and lived and worked in the United States, called that way of thinking and understanding those principles and rights was called Personalism, under the influence of the Social Catholic thought.

The Personalist philosophy of Jacques Maritain:
Pope Leo and his successor were against the liberalism but Pope XXIII had a posture infavor to liberalism emphasizing the concept of freedom in the liberalism. But this freedom wasn’t just individual freedom of choice it also had to be to promote it.
Philosophers of the 20’s century developed the notion of the social character of humans of Thomas Aquinas and became known as personalims. It would be correct to say that the contemporary Catholic social thought is Personalism.Jacques Maritains developed in a deeper way that issue.
As we have already said, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), was a philosopher who was born in France and lived and worked in the United States of America and his is remembered for his interpretation of Thomas Aquinas ideas for the modern world. His interpretation influenced strongly the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Maritainheld that human nature possesses two substantial elements: the individual, the person is a part of the whole society but we, the humans, are more than just individuals because we are persons that are in relation with God, so we have a transcendent character. For the author, that transcendent character of human nature “surprasses and is superior to all temporal societies”. We have an essence, amoral dignity that gives us rights over societies.
For Maritain we doesn’t just uses the personalist philosophy to justify human rights, also democracy and the religious principle of pluralism. Maritain’s work also helped to develop the foundation of the Catholic social thought in the second half of the 20th Century.

The United Nations:
The United Nations were officially existed since the 26thof June of 1945 and at the beginning was formed by 50 nations all around the world. The Catholic Church has always been an strong supporter of the organization. In Pacem in terries, Pope John XXIII affirms the great job the the United Nations are doing and in particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many popes have done speeches on the General Assembly and the Catholic Church is apermanent observer. So because of the fact that they are permanent observers, they have full right around the union like they can express they ideas and thought, however they can’t vote because they “represent” people with same convictions, not from the same nation.
By reading the preamble and first articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we can see a big influence of theencyclical Pacem in terris .

Catholic and America:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident”, that’s how the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence dated in July 4 of 1776. The signers of that declarations were thought they were presenting a universal truth when they started that “all men are created equal” and that all have “certain unalienable Rights,” primarily the rights to “Life,...