On March 26, 1967, Blessed Paul VI promulgated his social encyclical “Populorum Progressio” (“The Progress of Peoples”). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson is pictured in this 1964 photo with a group of civil rights leaders who include the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Clarence Mitchell and Patricia Roberts Harris. As our nation saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the emergence of the War on Poverty, the Catholic Church saw the advent of a landmark expression of its own social doctrine when Blessed Paul VI promulgated “Populorum Progressio,” “The Progress of Peoples,” in 1967. (CNS photo/Yoichi Okamoto, courtesy LBJ Library)
Fifty years later, the words of Blessed Paul may be more pertinent than ever.
Debates continue over nationalism, borders, globalization and isolation, divisions between rich and poor, and racial issues.
