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'CARITAS IN VERITATE'

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Authentic human development:
Caritas in Veritate

By Rev. Richard Benson, C.M.

August 14, 2009


Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.


Pope Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), provides a timely challenge to a contemporary world in which the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" continues to grow, where materialism and individualism are sought after in place of authentic human fulfillment, and where the "consumer" and short term "profit" have become the benchmarks of too many capitalists and too many capitalist enterprises.

If anything is clear after a thorough reading of the encyclical, it is that, despite the "fall of communism" in the former Soviet Union and its satellites, capitalism has not triumphed as a means to guarantee integral human development.

The meltdown of Wall Street combined with the personal and institutional corruption that has come to light in the world of banking, investment and politics have provided just the right context to prove the need for a call to all members of society to rekindle a vision of a human society based on true charity, a charity based in truth.

The encyclical takes as its primary point of departure, the encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of that encyclical, Caritas in Veritate is both a theological reflection on the meaning of integral human development and a systematic analysis of the challenges to that integral development in the contemporary world: "More than forty years after Populorum Progressio, its basic theme, namely progress, remains an open question" (CV, n. 33).

If development is only measured by the amount of material wealth owned by individuals and countries, we will have missed the essential message of the encyclical.

In other words, this encyclical is primarily concerned with developing an understanding of "progress" and "development" that is meaningful for human society at the beginning of the 21st century and particularly one that works within an increasingly "global" society.


Three essential themes

In articulating an integral vision of human development Pope Benedict XVI teaches that there are three essential themes to Catholic Social Teaching, three themes that make love a truly authentic love, make it truthful:

- that persons are made as the imago Dei (the image of God);

- that the common good is the only true guarantor of the individual good;

- and that the imago Dei and the common good can only be authentically pursued and protected with a commitment to a consistent ethic of life.

The encyclical makes it clear that authentic human development must include God and the understanding of every person created in God's image:

"Such development requires a transcendent vision of the person, it needs God: without him, development is either denied, or entrusted exclusively to humanity, which falls into the trap of thinking it can bring about its own salvation, and ends up promoting a dehumanized form of development. Only through an encounter with God are we able to see in the other something more than just another creature, to recognize the divine image in the other, thus truly coming to discover him or her and to mature in a love that 'becomes concern and care for the other'" (n. 11)


The good of 'all of us'

The encyclical raises up another essential lynchpin of Catholic social morality - the common good:

"Another important consideration is the common good. To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of 'all of us'… It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community" (n. 7).

It is precisely within the context of the common good that the discussion about universal health care coverage must take place. We are not authentic disciples of Christ unless we acknowledge the fact that we are our sisters' and brothers' keepers. "Rugged individualism," may not in fact provide for true human flourishing and authentic human development.

Thirdly, the encyclical clearly articulates the moral disjunction that erupts when social "progress" is divorced from a consistent ethic of life. It is impossible to address the issue of poverty without addressing abortion and euthanasia, among other life issues.

As Pope Benedict XVI says, "…the social question has become a radically anthropological question…. 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" (n. 75).


People before profit

The Pope then addresses some particular issues; issues that deserve attention if this encyclical will have any direct moral impact on the Church and society.

He identifies "speculative financial dealing, large-scale migration of peoples, and the unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources" (n. 21). He shows concerns for the downside of "outsourcing," the "downsizing of social security systems," the difficulties that trade unions are experiencing "in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers."

For Pope Benedict, these are not themes to be identified with any particular political party; rather, they are part and parcel of the theme of authentic human development. Every society needs to develop just policies and laws that protect the integrity of every citizen. He is clear: The excesses of laissez faire capitalism are antithetical to full human development.

In all of this, we are reminded that the "primary capital to be safeguarded and valued" is the human person: "The human being is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life" (n. 25).

The encyclical is a timely reminder that the Church in her wisdom has always taught that "people" come before "profit." Capitalism must have a human face and spiritual soul; otherwise, it becomes a cold and evil taskmaster.


'A serious review of life-style'

While the encyclical is rich in all its teaching, I might suggest that a significant message for us in the United States is found in the section where Pope Benedict XVI discusses the connection between the environment and authentic development:

"This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences. What is needed is an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles 'in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of the common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments'" (n. 51).

Following up on this is the reminder that "consumer choices are always moral choices." In other words, for those of us who enjoy a developed economy, there is a moral imperative to ask ourselves before every retail purchase, "Is this something I and my family 'need,' or is it simply something I 'want'?"

The reality is that the greatest threat to the environment is not the earth's population but the developed world's thirst for unfettered consumerism. Solidarity with my sisters and brothers who share the same planet means that I make environmentally sane purchases. How many people who own Hummers really "need" them?


'Authentic spirituality'

In the end, it is clear that the underlying message of this encyclical is a call to authentic spirituality. Pope Benedict XVI reiterates in different places that unless each person realizes that everything we are and have is gift, integral human development cannot even get off the ground.

If development is only measured by the amount of material wealth owned by individuals and countries, we will have missed the essential message of the encyclical.

While we are called to address and remediate the evil of poverty and to dismantle the sinful structures that support injustice and continue to impoverish so many of our sisters and brothers, we also have to admit that any vision of development that does not include spiritual and moral growth is a false god.

"Development," writes Pope Benedict (n. 79), "needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, 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. For this reason … we must above all else turn to God's love.

"Development requires attention to the spiritual life, a serious consideration of the experiences of trust in God, spiritual fellowship in Christ, reliance upon God's providence and mercy, love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace."




CIV and bioethics:
For Benedict XVI, humans are more than just
utilitarian 'units', says ethicist

By Trista Turley



WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI "has a vision of the human person that transcends seeing us as economic units or raw units to be used for biotechnical development," said John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

"We don't have an understanding of a human being as truly human unless we see them as being open to the transcendent or the supernatural," he said in a July 20 phone interview with Catholic News Service.

He made the comments about the Pope's stance on bioethics in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), which was released July 7.

Haas said the Pope's writing offers a profound philosophical anthropology.

While the Pontiff dedicated a large portion of the recent encyclical to addressing the global economic crisis and issues of economic development, he also discussed bioethical concerns.

"A particularly crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development is radically called into question," the Pope said.

According to the Pontiff, the fundamental bioethical question for humanity is whether man is a product of his own labors or if he owes his existence to God.

Pope Benedict said scientific discoveries and advances in technology have forced a choice between two types of reasoning about humanity: reason open to transcendence and the spiritual or reason closed within "immanence," or, for example, not going beyond oneself.

The Pope made the church's position on the issue clear. "It is no coincidence that closing the door to transcendence brings one up short against a difficulty," he said. "How could being emerge from nothing, how could intelligence be born from chance?"

"Faced with these dramatic questions, reason and faith can come to each other's assistance," the pope stated. "Only together will they save man."

Pope Benedict specifically criticized in vitro fertilization, embryo research, human cloning and research into human hybrids for ignoring the transcendent nature of the human being.

"All (of these practices are) now emerging and being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture, which believes it has mastered every mystery because the origin of life is now within our grasp," the pontiff said.

In his encyclical he also denounced abortion and euthanasia as instruments of "the culture of death."

Haas believes the Pope's message of belief in a transcendent human being will appeal to a broad audience both within and outside the church.

"There are two different versions of the human person that are radically different from each other," he stated. "The (nontranscendent view) is frightfully reductionistic: If we're nothing more than a chance development in a mindless universe, how do we have any significance? We would be able to justify using other human beings for our own ends and our own purposes."

Haas said the Pope's view of the human person is far more appealing than the other and will inspire more people.

Father Tadeusz Pacholcyzk, director of education for the bioethics center, said the Pope's positions form essential ethical foundations for scientific research.

"The Pope is asking how we can promote real development in the realm of bioethics. He is saying that openness to life is at the center of true development," Father Pacholcyzk told CNS. "If you accept life for what it is, then it helps you establish a certain moral character."

"Without that underlying morality, ethics just becomes a label," he stated.

Father Pacholcyzk said none of the bioethical positions outlined by the pope in his encyclical are new to the church.

"In this arena the message is a fairly simple one," the priest said. "I think the Pope is trying to trigger a deeper reflection on some very basic moral truths that are essentially slipping through the fingers of our culture today."



CNS also came out with a round-up of early commentary on CIV, as follows:

Encyclical breaks new ground
on social issues, commentators say

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien



WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, breaks new ground on such topics as microfinancing, intellectual property rights, globalization and the concept of putting one's wealth at the service of the poor, according to Catholic scholars and church leaders.

In interviews with Catholic News Service and in statements about the encyclical released July 7 at the Vatican, commentators said the more than 30,000-word document takes on a variety of issues not previously addressed in such a comprehensive way.

"I was surprised ... at how wide-ranging it is," said Kirk Hanson, a business ethics professor at Santa Clara University in California and executive director of the Jesuit-run university's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. "It's not just an updating of Populorum Progressio, the 1967 social encyclical by Pope Paul VI, he added.

Hanson said he also was struck by Pope Benedict's concept of "gratuitousness" or "giftedness," which reminds people "not to consider wealth ours alone" and asks the wealthy to "be ready to put (their money) in service for the good of others."

The encyclical is "a plea for the wealthiest on the planet to put their wealth toward the development of peoples," he said. "In many ways, (Microsoft founder and philanthropist) Bill Gates would be the poster child for this document."

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated billions of dollars for health and development programs worldwide, as well as for education and housing programs in the United States.

Terrence W. Tilley, who chairs the theology department at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York and is immediate past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, said one unique aspect of the encyclical is Pope Benedict's "vision that all flows from the love of God."

"It's unusual as a theological reflection on social justice," he said. "But that's what holds it all together."

Tilley said the encyclical makes a "pedagogical attempt to get people out of the mindset that charity is just giving money to those poor people over there." The Pope rejects such a "dismissive attitude," he said.

The Fordham professor also said he was "delighted to see the strength with which (Pope Benedict) supports labor organizations." But the pope also stresses "the responsibility of both management ... and labor to take care of and be responsible to other than their own constituencies," he added.

The current president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, Father Bryan N. Massingale, called the encyclical "a welcome contribution to the discussion of how Christians should think and act in a global economy."

An associate professor of theological ethics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Father Massingale said the encyclical's "most challenging insight ... is its repeated criticism of the short-term thinking and profit-making that has dominated our financial markets and political discussions on the economy."

Pope Benedict's "support for the longer view, as well as for active participation in the political process to ensure that financial markets serve the needs of all, and not simply those with access to wealth, will definitely challenge the usual political discourse in this country, if we have the courage to take his call seriously," he added.

Father Massingale, a Milwaukee archdiocesan priest, also said that, although the Pope's support for the labor movement "is hardly surprising to those familiar with Catholic social teaching, the force with which Benedict reaffirms the role of labor unions in the pursuit of economic justice is unmistakable."

John Sweeney, a Catholic who is president of the AFL-CIO, said Caritas in Veritate "reaffirms the need for exploited and marginalized workers to have the freedom to come together and form unions to bargain and negotiate for a better life."

"We stand with the Catholic Church in the belief that when workers can form unions they lift up their communities and nations and create a culture of dignity and respect for all workers," Sweeney added.

But Father Massingale noted that the encyclical also "calls upon unions to adopt a more international perspective in light of the global mobility of labor" -- a call that the theologian said "could spur creative thought in revitalizing movements for worker justice."

Bishop Michael P. Driscoll of Boise, Idaho, said the encyclical will be particularly helpful in these "difficult times for the poor in Idaho or anywhere around the world."

"The Holy Father, who has seen the terrible toll these times have taken, has given us a new vision on which to build a just economy, where all can thrive, not merely the rich and powerful," he said. "We cannot achieve true prosperity unless it is built upon a foundation of justice and care for all, including the poor."

In a different part of the country, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit said people in southeast Michigan "are living through profound changes in the social and economic fabric of our community."

"All of us citizens, and especially our leaders, need to make wise and farsighted decisions in order to lay the foundation for the better future we want to hand on to succeeding generations," he said. "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."

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said the encyclical is "very welcome and particularly timely as our political and economic leaders struggle to address the devastating global economic crisis."

The document also notes that "responsibility does not stop at a nation's borders nor does it fall solely to political leaders," the archbishop said. "Universal human truths about human dignity transcend geographic, economic and political boundaries."

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the encyclical provides helpful guidance for finding answers to the social, economic and moral questions of the contemporary world in a search for truth.

The document offers sound reflections on the vocation of human development as well as on the moral principles on which a global economy must be based, he added.

"This encyclical offers a powerful warning to the modern world -- especially the West," said Steve Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington. "It speaks to the dangers of commerce, popular culture and technology unhinged from a vision for the common good informed by charity."

Vincent Miller, associate professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington, said Pope Benedict "rejects the dominant vision of economics as abstract, technological efficiency" and "calls for a revisioning of economics as an essentially moral undertaking."

"His complex thought does not fit easily into our political map, but there is no doubt that Benedict is much more critical of contemporary economics than any political party in our country," added Miller, who was recently named to the Gudorf chair in Catholic theology and culture at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

Andrew Abela, an associate professor of marketing who chairs the department of business and marketing at Catholic University, said the pope's main message is "that spiritual development is essential to development, and that 'even in the most difficult and complex times, besides recognizing what is happening, we must above all else turn to God's love.'"

"I hope this core message is not drowned out in the politicizing of this encyclical that will inevitably happen," he added.

Abela said he was "intrigued by the pope putting forward the example" of Economy of Communion, a project launched in 1991 by Focolare movement founder Chiara Lubich that brings together more than 700 companies worldwide committed to pursuing a "higher goal" than just profit.

"I think that the Economy of Communion has the potential to revolutionize the relationship between workers and employers in positive ways," he added.

Officials of International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies known by the acronym CIDSE, hailed the encyclical as helpful to their work, saying that it might convince wealthier countries to "make up for broken promises" to the developing world.

"Political leadership in resolving the (global economic) crisis is lacking and developing countries continue to suffer the direst consequences," said Bernd Nilles, secretary-general of the organization based in Brussels, Belgium. "It's time for true reform and solidarity in the fight against global poverty."

"Economic processes should serve justice, one of the two dimensions of true human development set out by the Pope," said Rene Grotenhuis, president of CIDSE and director of Dutch Cordaid. "Every economic decision has moral consequences."

Allan C. Carlson, president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, Ill., said he found it "an interesting departure" that Pope Benedict did not mention the need to ensure a just "family wage" that would allow mothers to remain at home with their children. Such a call has been part of most social encyclicals dating back to Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum in 1891, he said.

Carlson also said the Pope "did a nice job of weaving in the bioethical questions with the questions of economic justice."

On population control, for example, Pope Benedict "insists that the problems of hunger and poverty are not the result of the number of people," he said. "He defends human beings as a positive good, when for some population control proponents, they are the problem."


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/08/2009 05:21]
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