Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / 'Charity in Truth' encyclical hailed for insight, guidance
'Charity in Truth' encyclical hailed for insight, guidance
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 17, 2009
Detroit - Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), is being praised for its continuity with Catholic social teaching, insights into contemporary problems and guidance for the future.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron called the encyclical, released July 7, "a welcome blessing for Catholics, as well as for all our neighbors, here in southeast Michigan."
"At this moment in our history, we are living through profound changes in the social and economic fabric of our community. These changes are so significant that we are often led to compare them to a tsunami. In this context, all of us citizens, and especially our leaders, need to make wise and far-sighted decisions in order to lay the foundation for the better future we want to hand on to succeeding generations," the archbishop said after reading the document.
"The Holy Father's new encyclical, as the latest application of the Church's social teaching, offers an important resource for us in the great project we are engaged in. In particular, it will give us guidance, 'sign posts' as it were, about how to build a society that is grounded on the foundational truths about the human person, wisdom for a future that advances the true dignity and real progress of every individual," he continued.
Archbishop Vigneron added that he hopes not only believers, but all people of good will would give the encyclical "a thoughtful hearing, after which we can go on to work together to apply to our world the solid principles he articulates."
"A gift for us all"
Michael Hovey, director of Catholic social teaching for the Archdiocese of Detroit, called the encyclical "a gift for us all."
As with social encyclicals of popes going back to Leo XIII in the 19th century, Hovey said Pope Benedict "looks at the current situation around the world, and comments about it in light of our faith."
He noted that the encyclical, an earlier version of which was ready for publication last summer, was held up so it could be revised to reflect on the lessons of the global financial crisis.
"What we're observing is that for integral human development, without the human being at the center of the economic system as the subject of creating wealth, not surprisingly the system will not work - that people suffer because of it," Hovey said.
He pointed to the section of the encyclical in which Pope Benedict writes: "Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good of people as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty."
"That's exactly what we saw happen in the past year," Hovey commented.
The pope's thinking cannot be simply classified as either left or right, in Hovey's view: "He's critical of capitalism when it hurts people, just as our social teaching tradition is critical of any system when it hurts the individual."
One area in which the encyclical breaks new ground, however, regards the environment. "He says all of this is God's creation, and that all of us have a responsibility to care for God's creation and preserve it for future generations," Hovey adds.
"A great service"
Harry Veryser, director of graduate studies in economics at the University of Detroit Mercy, said Pope Benedict is correct in charging that leaders in business, economics, politics, biology, science and other fields too often act as if nothing matters except short-term goals and profit.
"Pope Benedict has done the world a great service by pointing the finger of blame for our current economic crisis where it belongs, at scientists and leaders who have abandoned traditional morals and ethics in pursuit of financial gain," Veryser said.
Rather than being somehow necessary or inevitable, many of today's worst problems "can be traced to moral relativism and a lack of ethics by people who know better," he continued.
"Benedict reminds us that each person is blessed with God-given dignity that must be respected at every level. The pope says it well when he writes that we cannot have a sane world, 'without upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose consciences are finely attuned to the requirements of the common good,'" Veryser said, quoting from "Caritas in Veritate."
Veryser said he was especially delighted that Benedict linked worldwide economic progress with population growth and respect for the right to life.
"Fifty years ago scientists at the Club of Rome said we faced overpopulation, and people took their advice seriously. And now, Benedict is explaining the reason whole countries in Europe and elsewhere are facing a loss of population that threatens their cultural survival and identity is that science lost touch with morality," he said.
Veryser, a member of SS. Cyril & Methodius (Slovak) Parish in Sterling Heights, said Pope Benedict "has given us a balanced approach to dealing with a wide variety of issues; globalization, poverty, religious persecution, environmentalism, population, fundamentalism and the economy."
"The critical thing is that, in most of these areas the ethical behavior of individuals makes all the difference in the world," he added.
"A transcendent document"
Economist Greg Kaza, a Catholic, said many of the early comments on "Caritas in Veritate" in the press seem to be from people seeking to find confirmation from the pope for what they already believe.
But Kaza, a former Michigan legislator who is now executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation in Little Rock, called the encyclical "a transcendent document that cannot be reduced to some point on an ideological spectrum."
The encyclical covers a wide scope of issues, including the "microfinance" movement that tries to address the needs of Third World people to have some capital and steady employment, and the potential of globalization to raise people's standard of living, he noted.
But Kaza also pointed out that, while the encyclical addresses the functioning of a market economy, Pope Benedict also warns of the danger constituted by "utopian and ideological visions."
"My interpretation is that's a rejection of not only Marxism-Leninism, but also of laissez-faire capitalism - the idea that the market can solve everything," he continued.
Pope Benedict's recognition of the role of "associations" harkens back to Pope Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarem," in Kaza's view.
"For Pope Benedict it's not that unions or corporations are always bad or always good, but the question is: Are they serving the common good?" he said.
Kaza said the Holy Father's concept of the common good would appear to include the rule of law; that people are able to participate in the economic system; that they have steady employment and their work has dignity; and that people are able to provide for their families.
But another aspect of Pope Benedict's thought in the encyclical is recognition that just what constitutes progress remains an open question, which Kaza said "shows the philosopher in him."
"We must be the evangelizers"
As archdiocesan director of Propagation of the Faith, Msgr. James Moloney approached analysis of the encyclical from a different perspective, relating it to the themes of Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical "Populorum Progressio" ("On the Progress of Peoples") as modified by his 1975 encyclical "Evangelii Nuntiandi" ("Announcing the Gospel").
After the 1967 encyclical, "We got so caught up in the material development of the world that the Church was losing its main purpose of evangelization, so he had to back off a little," said Msgr. Moloney, who is also pastor of St. Anselm Parish in Dearborn Heights.
And Pope Benedict's contribution in "Caritas in Veritate" is to place the responsibility for development on institutions, principally the United Nations, but with the Church's role being to serve as their conscience.
"We cannot be the developers of the world, we must be the evangelizers," Msgr. Moloney added.
" Charity is "fundamental"
Fr. David Buersmeyer also pointed to the continuity with the tradition of papal social encyclicals, and noted that Pope Benedict calls "Populorum Progressio" "the 'Rerum Novarem' of our Age."
He suggested that the new encyclical should be read in conjunction with Pope Benedict's first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," in which the Holy Father "looked at charity and how it is fundamental to how any person - especially a Christian - should think about life."
By making the point that we are all called to relationship with both God and neighbor, the new encyclical seeks to prevent any temptation to focus our efforts on just "this-worldly justice," continued Fr. Buersmeyer, who is pastor of SS. John & Paul Parish in Washington Township and an adjunct professor of theology with Siena Heights University.
He also made the point that it cannot be simply categorized as liberal or conservative. The Holy Father "says there has to be a better distribution of the resources of the world, but you have to do that in a way that honors the principal of subsidiarity," Fr. Buersmeyer added, referring to the principle of Catholic social teaching that responsibility for accomplishing a social good should lie with the smallest or least centralized agency or authority.
"Responding to a specific crisis"
Mark Latkovic, a professor of moral theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, said Pope Benedict has continued to frame his encyclicals in terms of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity - the first one focusing on charity, the second on hope, and now this one on charity and justice.
In "Caritas in Veritate" the pope is "a little more concrete" in his recommendations, probably because he is responding to a specific crisis, Latkovic continued.
He said the encyclical reflects "a very balanced perspective," and added that he found it to be "a very moderate document" in terms of its recommendations.
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