"Pacem in Terris at 50"

Here's George Weigel, at First Things, writing about the anniversary of Pacem in Terris.  Among other things, he notes:

 The second enduring impact of Pacem in Terris was to have inserted the Catholic Church fully into the late-modern debate over human rights, aligning the Church with those human rights activists who played key roles in bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending communist tyranny in Europe—a historic transition that made “peace on earth” (including the disarmament called for by John XXIII) more of a reality. Like many United Nations documents, and like subsequent Church statements, Pacem in Terris engaged in “rights talk” rather loosely, with virtually every imaginable social good being described as a “human right.” That has led to some enduring issues, even problems, in the explication of Catholic social doctrine. But matters of conceptual precision notwithstanding, there should be no doubt that the Church’s deployment of the language of “human rights” has helped magnify its moral voice in world affairs.

I remember, in college, confidently asserting to my mentor and philosophy teacher, who was supervising my senior thesis, that "rights talk" was problematic, etc.  He said (and this was at Duke!), "you should read Pacem in Terris."  Good point.