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Caritas in Veritate

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This is the first papal encyclical eighteen years that addresses social teaching of the Catholic Church, and the first such encyclical by the Pope Benedict XVI. The title is modeled on Ephesians 4:15, and in some way implies a continuation with the previous encyclical "God is Love" ("Deus caritas est"). The basic thesis of this encyclical is that love is not just an individual and personal attitude limited to one's circle of friends and relatives, but a universal guiding principle that ought to order the society at large. This is particularly evident when the synonym for love - charity - is used in the English translation. All the connotations of that word then become manifestly obvious. And yet, charity by itself, unless it is based and fortified by truth, can be little distinguished from emotionalism that is useless in promoting greater social and cultural development. It is precisely this truth that enables charity to have an impact and effect in social context.

This encyclical draws on earlier encyclicals that deal with social teaching of the Catholic Church, but in particular it views itself as a continuation and building upon of ideas presented in Pope Paul VI's "Populorum Progressio." It is a response to an increasingly globalized world in general and to the current economic crisis in particular. It addresses two dangerous extremes of the current debates on progress of society: the overreliance on technology on one hand, and the denial and rejection of any progress on another. It reemphasis one of the cornerstones of Catholic social teaching: the fact that life ethics and social ethics are inexorably connected. Authentic development requires adherence to truth and charity. Devaluing human life is contrary to it on both accounts.

Putting human life and human dignity at the very center of all economic and social development is seen as crucial for all development and social justice. The development and right ordering of all other human institutions is considered under the principle of subsidiarity: the appropriate level at which issues need to be addressed is the lowest lever at which they can be addressed effectively. This becomes especially relevant and urgent in the modern, increasingly interconnected, world.

In this encyclical Pope Benedict has given us another clear expression of Catholic social teaching, appropriated and updated to address the most pertinent social issues of today. It is a valuable resource and a source of teaching and guidance on matters that affect us all.

This encyclical comes out today in time for the historic conversation between the Supreme Ponitff and the President of the United States, Barrack Hussein Obama.

In this encyclical, a must read from every pulpit, from every street corner, in every market and home, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI expands upon his God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est) (Benedict XVI) and Sacramentum Caritatis: el Sacramento de la Caridad: una Exhortacion Apostolica Postsinodal (Spanish Edition), in particular the exciting second half of this latter. Kindly note each one holds caritas in the title: charity.

Where charity and love prevail . . .

His Holiness here exhorts us to consider concretely and to act upon the well-being of developing nations, to come to the real aid of the millions of human beings starving each day, to cease the "unregulated exploitation" of the environment, and calls for what he defines through this social encyclical a "Christian humanism."

Hey. Now. We were talking about that same thing a half century ago . . .

The global economic plan urged by His Holiness demands an integral concept of humanity, including the spiritual, and not that which is run by "technocrats," "private interests and the logic of power."

This is sounding very familiar to me. Have we been reading lately our Dom Helder Camara: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters) and Oscar Romero and the nonviolent struggle for justice? Our En rebelde fidelidad: Diario de Pedro Casaldaliga, 1977/1983 (Coleccion Testimonio) (Spanish Edition)?

Wary of trespassing amazon.com's limit of quoting twenty words and no more, let us consider this abbreviated quote from the Pope's new encyclical Caritas in veritate:

"The conviction that the economy must be autonomous ( . . .) led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way."

The ellipsis, cut for reasons of length, condemns the dropping of any moral sense of decency from the laissez-faire free market, which has now left so many billions of human beings hopeless and hungry and homeless, while a very few enjoy material riches beyond imagining, beyond measure.

One brightly shining light for most Americans here is His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's support for labor unions, a support which has been repeated time and again in Papal Encyclicals and writings across three centuries now. He also finds abortion, gay marriage and birth control to be poor economic planning.

The Pope also opposes cutting back social security. After Reagan the "safety net" is full of holes and must be cut no longer. His Holiness urges agricultural development, especially the sharing of new technologies which will freely lessen hunger (my amazon quote limit is reached or I would share the exact quote here).

His Holiness sees as an over-riding economic objective full, long term dignified employment for everyone, rather than the built-in unemployed intended to lower wages in an unfettered capitalist system.


His Holiness urgently stresses his often repeated call to guarantee the planet's ecological health, as we are stewards of God's Creation and will be called to account, as well as for our own survival.

He indicates that those who receive economic aid programs must be involved in their planning and development rather than finding them imposed from outside by bloated foreign organizations.

His Holiness demands we in the developed world now develop sustainable forms of energy, decrease our disproportionate demand, find renewable energy sources, and adapt to less energy demanding lifestyles.

His Holiness especially condemns the kind of intellectual property rights which keeps health care and medicines priced for profit and out of the hands of the poor. See the interesting discussion on this topic in Catholic Michael Moore's Sicko (Special Edition), in which people involved in this profitable industry explain how they change one molecule in a drug to demand a new patent and thus greater profit. The Pope condemns such profiteering of health care and demands medicines be made available at a low cost rather than horded in the name of intellectual property rights.

His Holiness insists that wealthy nations devote more of their wealth to development projects, and a great increase in education. He also calls for more open immigration policy than we have seen under the previous administration, and praises all of the benefits that migrants bring to their new home and send back to their old home.

He calls for a newly empowered United Nations (whose President is now the Reverend Father Miquel D'Escoto Brockmann), in justice and peace, and warns against the dangers of biotechnology.

He calls upon all to examine carefully the spiritual aspect of our lives, in Faith, and sees the promise of eternal life as that which gives breathing space to this life, and our meaning. He calls us to realize truly the need of the human person to find and to fulfill a transcendent vision of God.

In a press conference regarding this new and powerful encyclical, Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, supported Pope Benedict's call for a public role for religion in society opposing what Renato called "a militant secularism, sometimes exasperated." Interestingly, the encyclical specifically finds dangers in both secularism and in fundamentalism as they both prevent the necessary cooperation between Faith and reason.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI points out in particular the unrestrained, unregulated, largely mismanaged, highly speculative stock market and other financial dealings which have caused so much damage to humanity world-wide. His Holiness indicates the large-scale migrations of peoples, including families and refugees fleeing wars, and seeking work. He laments the unregulated exploitation of our finite natural resources, including those we now believe infinite. Pope Benedict XVI regrets what some feel their right to excess and to vice within affluent societies while so much of the world does without even the barest necessities of life, such as clean water, nutrition, basic education, rudimentary health care, even upon the edges of our large cities.

Through this encyclical, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI calls for a conversion of hearts and minds to solidarity in the struggle of the poor. He calls on everyone, including bankers and politicians, to get in line with the requirements of the common good.

This encyclical is strongly pro-union, as in Rerum Novarum: Encyclical Letter on the Condition of the Working Classes and its several successors, and insists that undocumented, alien and illegalized workers in developed nations also have a right to organize to improve working conditions and recompense.

Above all he defines the basic right to food and water as a universal right of all human beings, as a right to life.

The Pope calls this encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) for a new age, and styles it an update of Pope Paul VI's Encyclical Letter (Populorum Progressio) of His Holiness Paul VI on Fostering the Development of Peoples. His call for a true world authority echoes the great encyclical of Blessed POPE JOHN XXIII's PACEM IN TERRIS (Peace on Earth) In Question and Answer.

This is the first social encyclical of our new century, and marks the path for us to proceed in justice and in peace as a pilgrim church slouching for the Reign of God. Read it, please.