PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL CATHOLICISM AND EUROPEAN LEGISLATION: PRIORITY ASSISTANCE TO THE POOR
The relevance of this article is due to the recent events as a pandemic in Russia and in the world, forcing to reconsider traditional techniques for ensuring social well-being. The number of people in need of medical and social assistance is growing. State institutions and social security and health care systems are rarely able to cope with current problems. Foreign countries are beginning to turn more actively to the experience of the Christian Church in the sphere of social support for people in need. The special attention should be paid to the theory of the Roman Catholic Church about the foundations, tools, tasks of social life and support of people in modern conditions, presented in the Church social doctrine. Modern European legislation is focused on the inclusion of non-governmental, non-profit organizations in the sphere of social support of people in order to fulfill the tasks of the welfare state, to ensure the obligations assumed by the state. One of the basic principles of the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is the principle of priority assistance to the poor. The practice of implementing this principle is also in demand today by the secular state, the church is considered by the legislator as a promising participant in the process of providing social assistance and support to people in need. The purpose of the article is to identify the links between modern European legislation and such a principle of the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church as the provision of priority assistance to the poor, the factor of influence of this principle on the development of legislation, which provide with content the humanistic function of law. The methods of the study are system, content analysis, comparative, formal legal. The results of the study can be used in legal sciences and disciplines: history and theory of state and law, constitutional law of foreign states, social security law, philosophy of law, sociology of law.