The doctrine teaches that the church is a self-sufficient or independent group which already has all the necessary resources and conditions to achieve its overall goal (final end) of the universal salvation of mankind.
[6] Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei, explains this teaching in relation to the Catholic Church:[7] it is a society chartered as of right divine, perfect in its nature and in its title, to possess in itself and by itself, through the will and loving kindness of its Founder, all needful provision for its maintenance and action.
Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the nature and special object of the province of eachBenedict XV wrote:[8] The Church, a most wise Mother, wanted by Christ, her Founder, in such a way that she possessed all the characteristics of a perfect society, from her earliest beginnings, when according to the task assigned to her by the Lord, she began to educate and govern all peoples, she gave herself to regulate and defend the conduct of consecrated persons and of the Christian people with certain laws.Until the Second Vatican Council, the doctrine of the two perfect societies of Leo XIII was held to be official in theological studies.
During the council itself, as well as in the new 1983 Code of Canon Law itself, the doctrine was no longer explicitly mentioned and the Aristotelian "Perfect Community" was all but replaced by the biblical "People of God".
[citation needed] In any event, Pope Paul VI mentioned it and summarized it in the 1969 motu proprio Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum on the tasks of the papal legate: It cannot be disputed that the duties of Church and State belong to different orders.