Links to the Vatican

This section is a reminder of important links to documents on the Vatican website for quick use

Writings of Pope John Paul II

Apostolic Exhortation:


Catechesi Tradendae

reconciliatio-et-paenitentia

RECONCILIATION AND PENANCE
In particular his writings about the effects of our sins on other people

"John Paul II: " To speak of social sin means in the first place to recognize that, by virtue of human solidarity which is as mysterious and intangible as it is real and concrete, each individual's sin in some way affects others. This is the other aspect of that solidarity which on the religious level is developed in the profound and magnificent mystery of the communion of saints, thanks to which it has been possible to say that "every soul that rises above itself, raises up the world." To this law of ascent there unfortunately corresponds the law of descent. Consequently one can speak of a communion of sin, whereby a soul that lowers itself through sin drags down with itself the Church and, in some way, the whole world. In other words there is no sin, not even the most intimate and secret one, the most strictly individual one, that exclusively concerns the person committing it. With greater or lesser violence, with greater or lesser harm, every sin has repercussions on the entire eclesial body and the whole human family" (article 16)"

Found this on the following web site House of Prayer


Second Vatican Council
Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World)

Gaudium Et Spes