As the news stories and commentary pour in on Caritas in Veritate, one thing is clear: the pope’s encyclical is not an easy one to sum up in an 800-word article.
Pope Benedict’s call for a “true world political authority” for example, has gotten a swarm of headlines, as has his criticism of abuses in the free market (“Pope blasts capitalism ahead of G-8 meeting,” a CNN headline presumptuously proclaims). Plenty of articles zero in on the pope’s exhortation for a return to ethical business practices, as well as attempt to pinpoint which side of the typical right/left theological, political and economic divides Caritas in Veritate falls (the overall consensus: neither).
Undoubtedly all these things are important to the pope, but at the end of the encyclical, no close reader will say that Pope Benedict’s underlying theme was a call for reform in the U.N., criticism of an economic system or even an exhortation for world leaders to suddenly begin thinking generic “ethics.”
After all, he writes, “Today we hear much talk of ethics in the world of economy, finance and business,” such as research centers and seminars on the ethical component of business practices.
“These processes are praiseworthy and deserve much support,” he says – but he adds this major caveat:
“The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly – not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centered.”
That qualifier sums up the real theme of this social encyclical. For Pope Benedict XVI, to live love in truth is to fully express our humanity and to practice true solidarity and fraternity with our global, human family.
