Popular perception of official Catholic teaching has focused of late on the Church's unswerving opposition to birth control and abortion. This hefty volume is to be welcomed then for documenting the considerable emphasis on social welfare and justice that has characterized ecclesiastical concerns since Pope John XXIII's day. First, Fr. Gremillion (diocesan priest from Louisiana and first Secretary of the Vatican's Justice and Peace Commission) outlines the many directions by which the hierarchy is attempting to promote secular human aspirations, often in opposition to prevailing economic and political conditions. He concludes with an agenda of crucial theological questions which this teaching raises about the nature of God, church, and man. In the second and main section, he has gathered 22 documents--dating from 1961 to 1975 and including papal encyclicals, Vatican II decrees, reports of the Bishops' Synod, and other episcopal pronouncements--which spell out this burgeoning Catholic commitment to the basic human problems of the City of Man. The statements champion (if often cautiously and not without some historical irony) fundamental human rights, liberation from oppression, the socialization of economic power, and movement toward global harmony. Neither part makes light reading; but this well-conceived volume provides a valuable service.