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.
Love and truth, he writes, show us “what goodness is, and in what our true happiness consists. It shows us the road to true development.”
That’s nowhere near as concrete as a “true world political authority” – and thus a lot harder to stuff into a 30-word lede – but it is the heart of Pope Benedict’s message. Continuing to draw from the deep well of Catholic social teaching, he unapologetically links true development to “the advancement of all men and of the whole man” – an advancement that transcends the economic level and finds completeness in Christ.
It’s from that distinctly Christian view of man that Pope Benedict lays out his observations and exhortations in regards to the world’s current ills.
When one loses sight of the “inviolable dignity of the human person,” he warns, chaos results – as has been witnessed by corruption in the financial industry, exploitation of Third World countries, destruction of the environment and population control policies now wrecking havoc on nations’ economies.
A return to ethics in the marketplace and, overall, a “profound cultural renewal” in which the world rediscovers “fundamental values” is sorely needed, Pope Benedict says, but such a new beginning must be grounded in Truth: namely, the dignity of the human person, and the “transcendent value of natural moral norms.”
When “ethics” drifts from these two pillars, Pope Benedict warns, “it inevitably risks losing its distinctive nature and it falls prey to forms of exploitation.”
The pope’s treatment of bioethical issues such as in vitro fertilization and embryonic research likewise returns to an anthropological argument: that such “development” has actually dulled our humanity, affecting not only our approach to science but to the world at large:
How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human? What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect. Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated. While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human.
“Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer,” Pope Benedict concludes, “Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us.”
It’s from that posture that true reform – beginning in personal conversion – will come, along with a consistent ethic of life and a more human globalized society. The seeds of the civilization of love have been “planted in every people, in every culture,” Pope Benedict says. From Caritas in Veritate, we learn how to nurture them.
-- Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor
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