Just over forty years since Paul VI’s The Progress of People (1967) and twenty years since John Paul II’s Concern for Social Order (1987), Benedict addresses the principles and challenges of genuinely human development in a rapidly changing world. The primary purpose of the document is to clarify that worldly progress cannot proceed separated from the Truth.
Truth means much more than being nice to people. It is God’s love for us applied to public as well as private relationships, to global systems as well as day-to-day behaviours. “The ardour of love and the wisdom of truth” can work together for genuine human progress. These principles underlie two main criteria of the Church’s social doctrine: Justice and the Common Good.
“Every society draws up its own system of justice”, the document states, but, “Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is ‘mine’ to the other, but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is ‘his’”.
Charity demands going beyond mere rights, but giving people their rights is the least we can do, and is an act of love. It goes without saying that Christians must not fool themselves into feeling satisfied when they have fulfilled this minimal requirement, but must be ready to give generously and freely, to be merciful and forgiving.
Similarly, love demands some regard for the common good. “It is the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society”. We Christians are supposed to participate in civic life, to play our part as citizens because “the more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them”.
If we believe in Christ, we have to help each other learn and grow. Christianity has always gone forth to teach the ignorant, to urge the earth to give fruit, to care for the earth the way God cares for us – that is, by bringing out the full potential and beauty of creation. So just as in the Middle Ages the monks helped Europe become agriculturally and technologically advanced, as well as doing their best to save souls, so can modern Christians help those around them and in the under-developed parts of the world.
However, we have to keep in mind that without teaching and living the Truth – which is our God – all this work is just empty, and we will treat both people and the rest of the created world as tools, not as what they really are. Only Truth gives meaning, and only love gives a reason to go on. Truth is freedom’s guarantee.
It is not coincidental that the encyclical, which addresses the moral dimensions of economic and human development, was released on the eve of the annual G8 summit. Clearly, Pope Benedict was extending an offer of the significant wisdom of the Church to the summit leaders.
The encyclical is not meant solely to be studied by bishops, priests, religious and theologians. The introductory salutation says, “To the Bishops, Priests, Religious and Faithful of the Whole Catholic World, and to All Men of Good Will”. Therefore every faithful Catholic should take to heart the principle and teaching of this encyclical.
To this end our theologian Raymond J. de Souza will start to examine Caritas in Veritate in our next November issue. He will contribute a series of articles which, with the insightful clarity characteristic of his works, will help us understand this important document, this moral compass which points the way to a better world.
Updated on October 06 2016