THE THEME of God’s love has been a focal point of the writings of Pope Benedict XVI. In his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, published last week, the pope takes up the relationship between charity and truth in the context of the social and economic realities of our world.Some might ask should justice rather than charity not be at the heart of the church’s social doctrine? In the Christian vocabulary the word charity is not about handouts or vague benevolence.
“Charity is at the heart of the church’s social doctrine – every responsibility, and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine, is derived from charity, which according to the teaching of Jesus is the synthesis of the entire law” (n.2).
Justice prompts us to offer others what is due to them. For Pope Benedict, charity goes beyond justice, “because to love is to give, to offer what is ‘mine’ to the other . . . Charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving” (n.6).
Christian charity is about gratuitousness, a giving not just of things and ideas but of self, without any of the price tags or packaged portions typical of consumer society. Christian charity is the counterbalance to a consumerist and utilitarian way of life.
What have charity and gratuitousness to say to the realities and mechanisms of economic life?
What has a papal encyclical, which is primarily a religious document, to say about the mechanics of economic and social development? The encyclical does not as such present fixed recipes for development. It draws inspiration from an understanding of a God who is love and who shares his life with us.
What might be the place of the idea of sharing in today’s competitive, market and profit-driven economy? The encyclical recognises the irreplaceable role of the market but notes that “without an internal form of solidarity and mutual trust the market cannot fulfil its proper economic function”.
The economy serves the common good but economic growth on its own will never respond to all the needs of social development. Development needs both economic growth and solidarity.
But the originality of the encyclical is in how it explores ways of illustrating that economic growth and solidarity are not two totally parallel tracks: “solidarity and reciprocity can also be conducted within economic activity and not only outside or after it”.
Pope Benedict takes up the concept of integral development as set out by Pope Paul VI 40 years ago: development of every person and of the whole person. There cannot be holistic development unless we address the spiritual and moral dimensions of the theme. Justice can only be attained by people who live justly.
Development is impossible without upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose consciences are finely attuned to the common good.
The sharing of goods, from which authentic development proceeds is not guaranteed by merely technical progress of relations of utility but by the potential of love that overcomes evil with good.
This requires “a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise” (n.40) since “investment always has a moral as well as an economic significance”.
In a wide-ranging reflection, the encyclical addresses many of the aspects of our current world order and especially the challenges of globalisation which the pope describes as “the explosion of worldwide interdependence”.
A section addresses the role of migrants noting that “no country can be expected to address today’s problems of migration on its own”, but clearly reminds that migrant workers “cannot be considered as a commodity or a mere workforce. They must not be treated like any other factor of production. Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance” (n.62).
The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued today is the human person in his or her integrity. The pope expresses his anxiety about “a downsizing of social security systems as the price to be paid for seeking greater competitiveness in the global market” (n.25). He stresses “the priority of the goal of access to steady employment for everyone” (n.32.) He notes the continuous call of the church’s teaching to the importance of workers organisations.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (IT)
SV (3)