During the general audience in St Peter's Square on 18 June Pope John Paul II continued his catechesis on the theme of Divine Providence. His address was the seventeenth in the present series and was based on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

1. The truth about Divine Providence appears as a point of convergence of the so many truths contained in the statement: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth". Because of its richness and ever present topicality it had to be treated of by the entire magisterium of the Second Vatican Council, which did so in an excellent manner. In many documents of the Council we find appropriate references to this truth of faith, and it is present in a particular way in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes. By setting that out in relief we summarize, as it were, the previous catecheses on Divine Providence.

2. As is known, the Constitution Gaudium et Spes treats of the subject: the Church in the modern world. From the very first paragraphs, however, one sees clearly that it is impossible to treat of this subject on the basis of the Church's magisterium without going back to the revealed truth on the relationship of God with the world, and in the last analysis to the truth of Divine Providence.

We read in fact: "The world which the Council has in mind is the whole human family... the world which in the Christian vision has been created and sustained by the love of its maker, which has been freed from the slavery of sin by Christ, who was crucified and rose again in order to break the stranglehold of the evil one, so that it might be fashioned anew according to God's design and brought to its fulfilment" (G.S., 2).

This "description" involves the whole doctrine of Providence, understood both as God's eternal plan in creation, and as the carrying out of this plan in history, and also as the salvific and eschatological finalization of the universe and especially of the human world according to the "predestination in Christ", the centre and pivot of all things. This repeats in other terms the dogmatic statement of the First Vatican Council: "All that God created, he conserves and directs by his Providence 'reaching from end to end mightily and governing all things well' (cf. Wis 8:1). 'All lies bare and exposed to his eyes' (cf. Heb 4:13), even what will take place through the free initiative of creatures" (DS, 3003). More specifically, right from the very beginning, Gaudium et Spes focuses on a question as pertinent to our subject as it is of interest to modern man: how to reconcile the "growth" of God's kingdom with the development (evolution) of the world. We shall now follow the main lines of this exposition, indicating precisely its principal assertions.

Protagonists of development

3. In the visible world men and women are the protagonists of historical and cultural development. Created in the image and likeness of God, conserved in being by him and guided with fatherly love in the task of "exercising dominion" over other creatures, they are in a certain sense "providence" for themselves. "Individual and collective activity, that monumental effort of man through the centuries to improve the circumstances of the world, presents no problem to believers: considered in itself, it corresponds to the plan of God. Man was created in God's image and was commanded to conquer the earth with all it contains and to rule the world in justice and holiness: he was to acknow1edge God as maker of all things and relate himself and the totality of creation to him, so that through the dominion of all things by man the name of God would be majestic in all the earth" (GS, 34).

Previously, the same conciliar document had stated: "Man is not deceived when he regards himself as superior to bodily things and as more than just a speck of nature or a nameless unit in the city of man. For by his power to know himself in the depths of his being he rises above the whole universe of mere objects. When he is drawn to think about his real self he turns to those deep recesses of his being where God who probes the heart awaits him, and where he himself decides his own destiny in the sight of God" (GS, 14).

4. The development of the world towards economic and cultural orders ever more suited to the integral requirements of man is a task which enters into man's vocation to exercise dominion over the earth. Therefore the real successes also of modern scientific and technological civilization, no less than those of humanistic culture and of the "wisdom" of the centuries, enter into the scope of the "providence" shared with man for the implementation of God's plan in the world. In this light the Council sees and recognizes the value and function of the culture and work of our time. In fact, the Constitution Gaudium et Spes describes the new cultural and social condition of humanity, with its distinctive notes and its possibilities for such rapid advancement as to occasion amazement and hope (cf. GS, 53-54) The Council does not hesitate to witness to man's wonderful achievements, setting them in the framework of the divine plan and command, and linking then moreover with the Gospel of brotherhood preached by Jesus Christ: "By the work of his hands and with the aid of technical means man tills the earth to bring forth fruit and to make it a dwelling place fit for all mankind; he also consciously plays his part in the life of social groups; in so doing he is realizing the design, which God revealed at the beginning of time, to subdue the earth and perfect the work of creation, and at the same time he is improving his own person: he is also observing the command of Christ to devote himself to the service of his fellow men" (GS, 57, cf. also GS, 63).

5. However, the Council does not close its eyes to the immense problems concerning man's development today, whether in his dimension as a person, or in that of community. It would be illusory to believe that they can be ignored, just as it would be an error to formulate them in an inadequate or insufficient manner, under the pretext of omitting the necessary reference to God's providence and will. The Council says: "In wonder at their own discoveries and their own might men are today troubled and perplexed by questions about current trends in the world, about their place and their role in the universe, about the meaning of individual and collective endeavor, and finally about the destiny of nature and of men" (GS, 3). And it explains: "A transformation of this kind brings with it the serious problems associated with any crisis of growth. Increase in power is not always accompanied by control of that power for the benefit of man. In probing the recesses of his own mind man often seems more uncertain than ever of himself: in the gradual and precise unfolding of the laws of social living, he is perplexed by uncertainty about how to plot its course"(GS, 4).

The Council speaks expressly of the "contradictions and imbalances"begotten by a "rapid and disorderly" evolution in the socio-economic conditions, in the way of life, the culture, as well as in the outlook and conscience of man, in the family, in social relations, in relations between groups, communities and nations, with the consequent "mutual distrust,animosity, conflict and woe of which man is at once the author and the victim" (cf. GS, 8-10). Finally the Council arrives at the root of the problem when it states "that the imbalances under which the modern world labours are linked with that more basic imbalance in the heart of man" (GS, 10).

Value and function

6. In the presence of this situation of man in the world today there is no justification for the mentality according to which the "dominion" which man claims is absolute and radical and can be realized without any reference to Divine Providence. It is a vain and dangerous illusion to build one's own life and to make of the world the realm of one's happiness, by relying exclusively on one's own powers. It is the great temptation into which modern man has fallen, unmindful of the fact that the laws of nature govern also the industrial and post-industrial civilization (cf. GS, 26-27). But it is easy to be dazzled by a supposed self-sufficiency of the progressive "dominion" of the forces of nature, to the point of forgetting God or of setting oneself in his place. Today this claim arrives in some circles at forms of biological, genetic, psychological... manipulation. If this is not governed by criteria of the moral law (and consequently by the finalization of the Kingdom of God) it can result in the domination of man over man with tragically disastrous consequences. The Council, recognizing contemporary man's greatness, but also his limitation, in the legitimate autonomy of created things (cf. GS, 36), reminds him of the truth of Divine Providence which comes to man's assistance and help. In this relationship with God the Father, Creator and Provident, man can ever discover anew the basis of his salvation.