Abstract

The contribution intends to reconstruct the attitude of the catholic church towards the human rights from a historical point of view. Five phases are distinguished: 1. The source of an antithesis in the age of French Revolution; 2. A first opening during the papacy of Leo XIII in the field of the social and economic rights; 3. A new emphasis on the dignity of human person in the age of the struggle against the totalitarian states; 4. The support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the encyclical "Pacem in terris" (1963); 5. A period of fluctuations in the post-conciliar church.