The European social model and the social doctrine of the Catholic Church

I have chosen as title of my presentation “The European Social Model and the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church”, because, as we all know, the Catholic Church is a very influential force in the new EU Member State Poland. I would like to consider the question whether the European Social Model and the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church are in concordance with each other. The existance of such a concordance cannot be assumed a priori. Most European countries are nowadays pluriform societies, which values can deviate from those of the Catholic Church. We see this clearly on issues like divorce, anticonception, abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality. On such items the divergence between the values of the EU and the Catholic Church are mean while so large, that even one year ago they led the European Parliament to dismiss the nomination of the Italian Buttiglioni for membership of the European Commission.