00 07/07/2009 05:26




SOCIAL ENCYCLICAL OUT
ON JULY 7-8 ?



Both Corriere della Sera and Repubblica today report that Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate will be released on July 7 or 8. This would make it in time for the G8 summit of the world's most industrialized nations.

But Repubblica also makes much of the allegation that the Vatican's Latin experts have not yet delivered the Latin translation to the printers because they have been having a hard time translating new economic terms for which Latin does not have the words.

[One would think the Vatican could hire any number of Latin experts living in Rome to help out. The Vatican itself has an agency for Latinitas which has been compiling and updating a dictionary of 'neologisms' in Latin for contemporary words such as 'blue jeans' and scientific terminology which the ancient Romans had no idea of!]





Paolo Rodari has advance information in some detail about the contents of the encyclical but does not set a specific release date other than that it will come out before the Pope goes on vacation on July 13.



'There is a crisis -
and it must be fought
with charity and truth'

by PAOLO RODARI
Translated from

June 27, 2009


On Monday, June 29, feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Benedict XVI will sign his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate - three and a half years after Deus caritas est (December 25, 2005) and one and a half years after Spe salvi.The text will be released shortly thereafter, probably by July 10.

This newspaper, from conversations with those who assisted in its preparation in one way or another, can anticipate the essential points of a text whose purpose was clearly stated by the Pontiff himself during the audience with the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice Foundation last June 13.

With this encyclical, he told them, he seeks to "highlight what we Christians consider the objectives to pursue and the values to promote and defend tirelessly, in order to realize human coexistence that is truly free and fraternal."

The following is Rodari's summary of the 'essential points' in the encyclical. Though he does not present them as direct quotations, they evidently use language from the encyclical itself:

How can these objectives and values be pursued?

Only with 'charity and truth', the principal propulsive force for the true development of every person and of all mankind. Indeed, everything comes from God's love. And we also know that charity can only shine and be authentic in truth, the light which gives meaning and value to charity.

This light is, at the same time, that of reason and faith, through which human intelligence can arrive at the natural and supernatural truth of charity, and what it means in terms of giving, of reciprocal acceptance and of communion.

The social doctrine of the Church revolves around this principle of 'love in truth'. Indeed, this social doctrine is the announcement of the truth of Christ's love to society at large.

This doctrine preaches a service of love but always in truth, which preserves and expresses the liberating power of love in the ever-new events in man's history. This truth is at the same time the truth of faith and the truth of reason, with the distinction and synergy of these two cognitive areas.

Development, social wellbeing, an adequate solution to the serious problems that afflict humanity - all have need of this truth. Without it, without mutual trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action falls prey to private interests and the logic of power, with disaggregating effects for society, particularly one that has become globalized, when it finds itself in crisis as it does today.

Only through love, illuminated by the light of reason and faith, will it be possible to pursue development objectives endowed with a more human and humanizing value.

Love in truth demands justice: «ubi societas, ibi ius» - where there is society, there is law. I cannot give of what is mine to another without giving him what is justly due him. But it must be said that love goes beyond justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving.

The 'city of man' is not promoted only through relationships based on rights and duties, but even more, and first of all, by relationships of giving freely, of mercy and of communion. Thus, justice and love require working effectively for the common good .

Already in 1967, with the encyclical Populorum progressio, Paul VI illuminated the subject of the development of peoples with the light of truth and the power of Christ's love.

Now, Benedict XVI, with Caritas in veritate, pays homage to Papa Montini by taking up his teachings on integral human development in his own way and actualizing it to the present.

Paul VI taught this: the authentic development of man concerns integrally the individual in all his dimensions. In Populorum progressio, he pointed out that authentic development is above all, a calling, a vocation.

Since vocation is a call that requires a response, integral human development presupposes responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: No structure can guarantee such a development outside of human responsibility itself, responsibility that can recognize in the idea of development as vocation the centrality of love in truth.

Even today, as in the time of Populorum progressio, love in truth urgently demands facing with courage and without delay the great problems of injustice in the development of peoples.

Indeed, the economic development that Paul VI wished for is one that produces real growth which extends to everybody and is concretely sustainable.

But it must be acknowledged that at a distance of 40 years, economic development has been and continues to be weighed down by gross distortions and dramatic differences.

Today, the new responsibilities called forth by the present world scenario must be taken up with realism and confidence, recognizing that they require profound cultural renewal and a rediscovery of basic values upon which to build a better future.

The current world crisis obliges a reprogramming of the path of development, setting up new rules, and finding new forms of commitment that focus on positive experiences and reject the negative.

Crisis can become an occasion for discernment and new planning: it requires broadening reason so that it is capable of recognizing and orienting the new dynamics deriving from the explosion of plenetary interconnectedness now known as globalization. This in itself must be seen as a great opportunity.

Development today is multifaceted, and the causes of underdevelopment are multiple. But the scandal of painfully obvious development inequalities continues, even as many areas of the planet have become highly evolved.

It must be said that it is not enough to progress economically and technologically: indeed, coming out of economic backwardness, although positive, does not resolve the complex issue of human development.

What then is at the center of true development? It is openness to life. If personal and social sensibility towards the acceptance of new life is lost, then even other forms of acceptance that are useful for life will dry up.

Even the right to religious freedom is linked closely to development. God is the guarantor for true human development. Moreover, development that hinges on the absoluteness of technology and a Promethean vision of man ends up by nullifying development itself and enslaving man.

Human freedom is freedom only when it responds to the fascination of technology with decisions that are the fruit of moral responsibility. And economic development is impossible without human networks, without economic workers and political men who are sincerely aware of the call to the common good and live to carry it out.

In many countries, hunger reaps too many victims. To give food to the hungry is a categorical imperative for the Church. The structural causes of hunger in the world must be eliminated and the agricultural development of poor countries must be promoted.

Then there must be a fraternal consciousness that considers food and water as universal rights for everyone. It is evident that the solution for the global crisis today must include fraternal support for the development of the poorer countries.

The role and the power of states - limited today in the face of the global economic and financial crisis - should be re-evaluated so that states are in a position to face such a challenge.

Even the participation of citizens in political life and the activities of labor unions should also be re-evaluated so as not to forget that the first form of 'capital' to be safeguarded must be man himself, the individual in his entirety.

In this sense, all the sciences, including theology and metaphysics, should interact and work together in the service of man.

Therefore, all this requires a new reflection on the meaning of economics and its ends - in short, a profound and far-sighted revision of development models.

Recognizing the plurivalent meaning of terms like 'entrepreneurship' and 'political authority', and the fact that economics requires an ethic in order to function properly, this profound re-evaluation should lead to the proper appreciation of reciprocal supportiveness, the recovery of gratuitous giving, and the recognition that the market economy must be oriented ultimately towards the common good.

It is necessary to think in terms of new lifestyles that help to safeguard life and the environment. Duties towards the environment are linked to duties towards the person as an individual and in relation to others.

Moreover, it is evident that the development of peoples cannot but depend on the recognition that mankind is one single family that must work together in communion, one in relation to the other and to God.

A particular manifestation of love - and the guiding criterion for the fraternal collaboration of believers and non-believers - is the principle of subsidiarity. [Subsidiarity is an organizing principle, adopted universally from Catholic social teaching, according to which matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority, and that higher authority must intervene only if these smaller authorities are insufficient or incapable.]

It is a principle appropriate for regulating globalization, especially if it is linked to the principle of solidarity (fraternal supportiveness).

In the face of these issues, in order to work for equitable international commerce and for a sharing of energy resources, there is need for a true world authority which regulated by law, which abides consistently with the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, be subordinate to the realization of the common good, and committed to the promotion of authentic and integral human development inspired by the values of love in truth.

This development must include spiritual growth, other than the merely material, because the human person is both things together - body and soul.



So, judging by Rodari's account, Benedict XVI does not reject the market economy, or capitalism - as some quarters have speculated - but considers it seriously flawed in its present form by its dissociation from basic social values and ethics, and from the idea of the common good and integral human development as its true objectives.

P.S. It turns out John Allen blogs on
ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/fighting-hunger-beefing-unions-part-pope%E2%80%99s-new-social-en...
about Corriere della Sera's own 'preview' today of the encyclical using direct quotations (much of it used by Rodari as indirect quotations. Rodari's account is more cohesive and flowing, while touching all the points that Corriere does.






While I was occupied translating the above, there's a third story out now on the encyclical:


Rushing the encyclical to print
in time for the G8 summit





The G8 summit was originally to be held at the resort town of La Maddalena in Sardinia, but it was decided to hold it in L'Aquila as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Holy Week earthquake. Italy has the presidency of the G8 in 2009. Leaders of the world's richest countries will hold their meetings in the same Finance Guard Training School campus where Benedict XVI thanked law and order personnel, health care workers, and volunteers for their rescue and assistance work in behalf of the earthquake victims, and where the funeral Mass was said on Good Friday for those who died in the quake..



ROME, June 27 (Translated from ASCA) - The intention is that the first copies should be ready to put on the desks of the leaders of the developed world who are meeting at L'Aquila for the their biannual summit meeting from July 8-10.

Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in veritate, is undergoing final touches before it goes to print.

The Pontiff is to sign the document on June 29, feast of Saints Peter and Paul, but it will not be presented until it can be printed in all eight official languages of the Vatican (now including Chinese and Arabic).

Publication dates mentioned are July 4, 6 or 7, on the very eve of the G8 summit which is expected to rewrite the rules of global finance and economy in response to the present worldwide crisis. The Vatican press office itself has not given a publication date out of prudence.

The preparaion of this encyclical on a very complex subject has lasted years. It was originally intended to come out on the 4t0h anniversary of Paul VI's encyclical Populorum progressio in 2007.

Besides the Curial dicastery that has sectoral responsibility on the subject, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (whose prefect, Cardinal Rafaele Martino has reached retirement age and will actually retire as soon as the encyclical is published), the Pope has consulted economists, academics and other experts like the Archbishop of Munich, Mons, Reinhold Marx; the 'third-sector' expert Steffano Zamagni; and banker Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was been the editorialist for L'Osservatore Romano on economic and financial affairs.

A major factor in the delay, however, was the sudden eruption last year of the current financial and economic crisis which required not just simple 'updating' of the contents but a re-analysis that would take the new situation into account appropriately.

Papa Ratzinger has said that the encyclical is dedicated to 'the vast subject of the economy and labor'.

The financial-economic crisis "which has struck the industrialized nations, nations emerging economically, and developing nations alike", the Pope said, "obviously shows that it is necessary to rethink certain economic-financial paradigms that have become dominant in recent years".

This demsnds, he said, that attention should be focused on "the values and the rules to which the economic world must adhere in order to put in place a new model of development that is more in line with the demands of solidarity and more respectful of human dignity."

In this, he said, it is necessary that the world powers and the major multinational enterprises face up to "the challenge of a sustainable and ethical economy".