Commentaries on “Caritas in Veritate” are well underway, as the Catholic world counts down to tomorrow’s release of Pope Benedict’s highly anticipated encyclical on social issues.
Journalist John Allen provides an invaluable “key to reading” the document, pointing out that, in typical Benedict fashion, “Caritas in Veritate” will stress a “both/and” synthesis to perceived dichotomies in Catholic thought.
For example, while some analysts will be quick to emphasize the political and economic implications of the work, Allen points out the pope has gone on record time and again to insist that true social change cannot occur without prior, personal conversion. Both are necessary, and they can’t stand without the other.
Another dichotomy Allen portrays is that between the Church’s “pro-life and peace-and-justice commitments” – a tension perceptible to anyone who’s ever observed or participated in Church affairs. As an encyclical deals with the effects of a globalized economy – in particular, in the developing world – the latter camp will undoubtedly have much to feast on. But again, Pope Benedict stresses that an either/or divide between these areas of focus is false, and that both must be incorporated.
According to leaked portions of the text, for example, the pope writes that “openness to life is at the heart of true development. … If personal and social sensibility for welcoming new life is lost, then other forms of welcome which are also useful for social life dry up.”
Meanwhile, Knights of Columbus leader Carl Anderson has been featured in another Catholic news outlet, again stressing the importance of reading “Caritas in Veritate” with humility and an openness to being challenged – rather than “through a political lens.”
In the interview with Catholic News Agency, Anderson also hits on the “personal conversion” aspect that lies at the core of the encyclical.
“We could sum up the pope’s thinking on the economy this way: Each of us must answer Christ’s question, ‘Who do you say that I am?’” Anderson says. “If we, with Peter, answer ‘The Messiah,’ then that should direct the axis of our life. … We must realize that exercise of freedom cannot take the form of simply amassing the most wealth that we can.”
The pope’s point on tying economic development to the welcoming of new life comes as the U.S. delegation to the United Nations continues its advocacy for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health services” – code known by every country to mean abortion.
The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports that the United States joins with several European countries in this push for the controversial language. Meanwhile, the G-77 developing nations’ bloc – at the receiving end of much of the proposal’s “services,” to be sure – is still determining its own stance on the U.S.’s language.
On a related note, last week we posted an article from MercatorNet.com that simply must be highlighted here for its stunning irony: an interview with the head of South Korea’s International Planned Parenthood affiliate, who says the organization’s new goal is to reverse the country’s “national crisis of super-low fertility.”
In no way has Choi Seon-jeong become the spokesperson for pro-lifers in international politics. He says Korea’s earlier “family control policy” – the government, in conjunction with Planned Parenthood, urged couples to have only one child – “was a kind of family planning to meet the needs of that time.” But his pragmatic approach to dealing with his country’s real crisis today is at least honest, and a fascinating contrast to attempts by American pro-abortion groups to dig in their heels against certain abortion reduction measures considered by the White House.
In response to the country’s rapidly aging population and low birth rates, Seon-jeong says the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea has:
… started to design and implement more comprehensive family planning programs, such as programs to prevent induced abortions, programs to support infertile couples, match-making programs, programs to dispatch assistance to women with her new-born babies, programs to enhance awareness of the public, and so on. To promote child-bearing and child-rearing, we should make efforts to prevent induced abortion, especially in cooperation with religious circles.
The man’s words speak for themselves in revealing a two-fold truth, even if unintentionally: first, that South Korea’s current crisis – which will undoubtedly affect its economy – is directly linked to attempts to limit the number of children per married couple. Many would say that South Korea’s neighbor, China, is beginning to see signs of implosion from its strictly enforced one-child policy, as well. Second, one can only marvel at the disconnect between Seon-jeong’s reasoning and his own Planned Parenthood associates in America.
Apparently, it took a large-scale population crisis to get this man’s attention and refocus his organization’s mission. What will it take to do the same in our country?
-- Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor
Comments