“The Russian revolution was mentioned by the Pope in his encyclical, because it embodied the actual development of Marx’s philosophy on the revolutionary changes in the world, as anticipated in his works": with these words, card. Cottier explained why the Pope mentioned Russia instead of any other communist country (China, Cambodia, etc.), which were also under Communist regimes. "The ‘near’-praise of Marx which is contained in the text he added expresses a recognition of his importance as a social thinker, even if the Pope did not fail to clearly say what his mistake was, i.e. having reduced the human horizon to the material dimension”. Asked whether the encyclical has "mostly a European dimension", he answered that the text "mentions figures from Asia and Africa, standing for the openness of the Church to the world”. Card. Vanhoye highlighted that "individual little hopes have a value in themselves, but they are not decisive, and the myth of progress is always ambiguous. If it withdraws onto itself, hope is a loser; if instead it opens up, it takes on a transcending breadth”.
