“The Pope’s argument, in his encyclical, highlights the articulation between human ‘hopes’, which are varied and different, and ‘the big hope’, the hope of the recapitulation of everything in God. All the men who have the right hopes and are oriented to good do contribute to improving the world. That’s why we have to rejoice for all the good we see being born”: it was said by card. Cottier during this morning’s press conference in the Vatican. According to Cottier, “in this sense, progress is not denied, it is the ‘religion of progress’ as the ultimate goal, that is denied. In his encyclical, the Pope highlights, in this respect, that for us Christians nowadays there are still some big tasks to be accomplished on this level". About the same subject, card. Vanhoye added that "the encyclical speaks of the defeat of human political hopes, which cannot get to establish a truly renewed world. Hope without God is insubstantial he added, quoting the encyclical , and proof of this was given by the Communist regimes, in which freedom did not exist, and oppression was the heaviest ever”.
