Measure of the political order

Society organized for the common good of its members corresponds to a requirement of the social nature of the person. The natural law appears then as the normative background in which the political order is called to move. It defines the ensemble of values that appear as humanizing for a society. When we place ourselves in the social and political environment, values can be no longer of a private, ideological or confessional nature, but regard all the citizens. They do not express a vague agreement between them, but are based on the requirements of their common humanity. So that society may fulfill correctly its own mission of serving the person, it should promote the realization of the person’s natural inclinations. The person is therefore prior to society, and society is humanized only if it responds to the expectations inscribed in the person insofar as he is a social being.