Octogesima adveniens. Octogesima Adveniens by Pope Paul VI 2023-01-01
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Dowry is a social practice that involves the transfer of money, property, or other material goods from the bride's family to the groom or his family upon the marriage of the bride and groom. It is a common practice in many parts of the world, including South Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. However, dowry has also been a source of significant problems, particularly in countries where it is a longstanding tradition.
One major problem with dowry is that it often puts a significant financial burden on the bride's family. This can be especially difficult for families who are already struggling financially, as they may have to take out loans or sell assets in order to meet the dowry demands of the groom's family. This can lead to financial instability and even poverty for the bride's family.
Another problem with dowry is that it can create a power imbalance in the marriage, with the groom and his family holding a great deal of power over the bride and her family. This can lead to situations where the groom's family uses the dowry as leverage to control or mistreat the bride. In extreme cases, there have been instances of dowry-related violence or even dowry-related deaths, where the bride or her family members have been subjected to physical abuse or even murder if they are unable to meet the dowry demands.
In addition to these problems, dowry also reinforces gender inequality and reinforces the idea that women are little more than property that can be bought and sold. It perpetuates the idea that a woman's worth is tied to her dowry, rather than to her own abilities and worth as an individual.
There have been efforts to address the dowry problem in many parts of the world. In India, for example, the Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961, which made the giving and receiving of dowry illegal. However, despite this law, the practice of dowry remains widespread in India, and enforcement of the law has been weak.
One potential solution to the dowry problem is to educate people about the negative effects of dowry and to promote alternative forms of marriage. This could involve promoting the idea of love marriages, where the couple chooses to marry each other based on mutual love and respect rather than on material considerations. It could also involve promoting the idea of non-monetary forms of gift-giving, such as the exchange of meaningful or sentimental gifts rather than large sums of money or property.
Overall, the dowry problem is a complex and longstanding issue that requires a multifaceted approach to address. It will require efforts to educate people about the negative effects of dowry, to enforce laws against dowry, and to promote alternative forms of marriage and gift-giving. By working together, we can help to reduce the prevalence of dowry and to create a more equal and just society.
Octogesima Adveniens Quotations
It is not for the State or even for political parties, which would be closed unto themselves, to try to impose an ideology by means that would lead to a dictatorship over minds, the worst kind of all. After long centuries, agrarian civilization is weakening. We have gone into the crowds and have heard their appeals, cries of distress and at the same time cries of hope. We are thinking of the precarious situation of a great number of emigrant workers whose condition as foreigners makes it all the more difficult for them to make any sort of social vindication, in spite of their real participation in the economic effort of the country that receives them. Without doubt, there has been just condemnation of the limits and even the misdeeds of a merely quantitative economic growth; there is a desire to attain objectives of a qualitative order also. How is he to master its growth, regulate its organization, and successfully accomplish its animation for the good of all? While very large areas of the population are unable to satisfy their primary needs, superfluous needs are ingeniously created.
Cite this page as follows: "Octogesima Adveniens - Summary" Literary Essentials: Christian Fiction and Nonfiction Ed. Yet a doubt arises today regarding both its value and its result What is the meaning of this never-ending, breathless pursuit of a progress that always eludes one just when one believes one has conquered it sufficiently in order to enjoy it in peace? This basic humility will rid action of all inflexibility and sectarianism, it will also avoid discouragement in the face of a task which seems limitless in size. This tradition is a lens through which a variety of people and cultures have been able to look, divine and contribute meaning to human life and spiritual journey. It is in this regard too that Christian organizations, under their different forms, have a responsibility for collective action. It also develops with the sensitivity proper to the Church which is characterized by a disinterested will to serve and by attention to the poorest. In industrial change, which demands speedy and constant adaptation, those who will find themselves injured will be more numerous and at a greater disadvantage from the point of view of making their voices heard. This current asserts itself both in the name of economic efficiency, and for the defense of the individual against the increasingly overwhelming hold of organizations, and as a reaction against the totalitarian tendencies of political powers.
This ambition then stands in the way of setting up structures in which the rhythm of progress would be regulated with a view to greater justice, instead of accentuating inequalities and living in a climate of distrust and struggle which would unceasingly compromise peace. This feeling sometimes leads to Malthusian solutions inculcated by active propaganda for contraception and abortion. Besides, who can deny that those movements, in so far as they conform to the dictates of right reason and are interpreters of the lawful aspirations of the human person, contain elements that are positive and deserving of approval? But in this immense field much remains to be done. Likewise an ever finer discernment is needed, in order to strike at the roots of newly arising situations of injustice and to establish progressively a justice which will be less and less imperfect. Advantages and limitations of juridical recognition 23. Lumen Gentium, 31: AAS 57 1965 , pp. Change of attitudes and structures 45.
The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good. Because the teachings, once they are drawn up and defined, remain always the same, while the movements, being concerned with historical situations in constant evolution, cannot but be influenced by these latter and cannot avoid, therefore, being subject to changes, even of a profound nature. It is disquieting in this regard to note a kind of fatalism which is gaining a hold even on people in positions of responsibility. Thus many people are reaching the point of questioning the very model of society. Urbanization, undoubtedly an irreversible stage in the development of human societies, confronts man with difficult problems. Where the inalienable right to marriage and procreation is lacking, human dignity has ceased to exists.
It does not, for all that, deprive individuals and intermediary bodies of the field of activity and responsibility which are proper to them and which lead them to collaborate in the attainment of this common good. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family. In the case of television, moreover, what is coming into being is an original mode of knowledge and a new civilization: that of the image. Bureaucratic socialism, technocratic capitalism and authoritarian democracy are showing how difficult it is to solve the great human problem of living together in justice and equality. Here and there the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes — the right to which as a final means of defense remains certainly recognized — conditions which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the social body, or to desire to obtain in this way demands of a directly political nature. Therefore the Christian who wishes to live his faith in a political activity which he thinks of as service cannot without contradicting himself adhere to ideological systems which radically or substantially go against his faith and his concept of man.
. These are questions which because of their urgency, extent and complexity must in the years to come take first place among the preoccupations of Christians, so that with other men the latter may dedicate themselves to solving the new difficulties which put the very future of man in jeopardy. Rebirth of utopias 37. A greater spread of education and culture is becoming possible. The role of women Similarly, in many countries a charter for women which would put an end to an actual discrimination and would establish relationships of equality in rights and of respect for their dignity is the object of study and at times of lively demands. These are truths which are certainly greater than man but, if he so wills, he can himself find their traces. There is of course a wide diversity among the situations in which Christians — willingly or unwillingly — find themselves according to regions, socio-political systems and cultures.
Man is suddenly becoming aware that by an ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation. Such is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. In this he follows Pius XI, who issued the 1931 social encyclical Flagrant inequalities exist in the economic, cultural and political development of the nations: while some regions are heavily industrialized, others are still at the agricultural stage; while some countries enjoy prosperity, others are struggling against starvation; while some peoples have a high standard of culture, others are still engaged in eliminating illiteracy. Of course there exist medium-sized towns, the dimension of which ensures a better balance in the population. Having rationally endeavored to control nature, 7 is he not now becoming the slave of the objects which he makes? Bureaucratic socialism, technocratic capitalism and authoritarian democracy are showing how difficult it is to solve the great human problem of living together in justice and equality. While being able to offer employment to those that progress in agriculture makes available, they permit an adjustment of the human environment which better avoids the proletarianism and crowding of the great built-up areas.
Here and there the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes-the right to which as a final means of defense remains certainly recognized-conditions which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the social body, or to desire to obtain in this way demands of a directly political nature. In both cases is it not man that risks finding himself alienated? This scientific reduction betrays a dangerous presupposition. All particular activity must be placed within that wider society, and thereby it takes on the dimension of the common good. This social teaching has been worked out in the course of history and notably, in this industrial era, since the historic date of the message of Pope Leo XIII on "the condition of the workers", and it is an honor and joy for us to celebrate today the anniversary of that message. They install themselves in the heart of the cities sometimes abandoned by the rich; they dwell on the outskirts — which become a belt of misery besieging in a still silent protest the luxury which blatantly cries out from centers of consumption and waste. Their activity, however, is not without its difficulties. Suspicion of the human sciences affects the Christian more than others, but it does not find him disarmed.
