In his second papal encyclical, Spe Salvi, Latin for “Saved by Hope,” Pope Benedict XVI stays true to his many writings as a theologian in taking a basic Christian concept and “breathing new life into it, seeking to reinvigorate Catholic identity,” said Richard Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo.The encyclical was issued Nov. 30 as a means of teaching and exhorting, directed at the entire church, Mr. Gaillardetz said.
Some sections, however, such as the Pope’s detailed analyses of translated Greek words, are extremely scholarly in nature and would have little interest for average laypersons, according to the Rev. James Bacik, Toledo priest and theologian.
The new encyclical is evidence that “Pope Benedict is the best-trained theologian we’ve ever had as Pope,” Father Bacik said.
Encyclicals are letters written by popes to express their minds on doctrinal subjects and as a method of teaching, according to The Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary. They are not necessarily infallible documents, but “Catholics are expected to give both external and internal assent to doctrinal encyclicals.”
Before being elected Pontiff in April, 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a leading Catholic theologian and author whose focus was on defending traditional Catholic doctrine. He taught at German universities, served as a consultant in the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, and was prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith before being elected to the papacy after the death of Pope John Paul II.
Following his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), Spe Salvi is consistent with the German-born Pope’s longtime effort to combat increased secularization in Europe, Mr. Gaillairdez said. Some news services described it as an attack on atheism, citing the Pope’s references to the failures of Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto. But Mr. Gaillardetz and Father Bacik viewed the document as more of a warning against secularization.
“The argument against Western secularism is a common theme in his writings,” Mr. Gaillardetz said. “He is suspicious of hope grounded in nothing more than politics. He’s not opposed to the political world. He’s not arguing for a sectarianism in which Christians do not engage the world. But hope is not based on the latest ideological movement. Christian action in the world ought to be motivated by Christian hope, not some political agenda.”
Bishop Leonard Blair of the Toledo Catholic Diocese also said the encyclical lines up with the Pope’s lengthy theological record.
“A constant theme of Pope Benedict’s preaching and teaching is the priority of God,” Bishop Blair said. “Human thinking and acting in the modern world is increasingly man-centered rather than God-centered. But when God is lost sight of, the human person is lost sight of too. In Spe Salvi, the Pope says that we all need the ‘greater and lesser’ hopes of this life in order to keep going, but that God alone is the ‘great hope’ who makes life worth living, and who makes sense of it all in the light of eternity.”
The Pope did not just offer a theological commentary on suffering, but included real-life examples of saints who endured tremendous suffering and yet maintained their hope in God, Father Bacik pointed out.
“In the midst of all this theological writing there are some wonderful sections on suffering written from a pastoral point of view,” he said. “Those sections are what would be of most interest to people and of most pastoral use. And it’s done biographically; these concrete examples reinforce his analysis of suffering.”
Pope Benedict cites Josephine Bakhita, who was born in Darfur, Sudan, around 1869, kidnapped by slave-traders at age 9, “beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan.” Bearing 144 scars, she eventually began working for an Italian consul’s family, where she learned of “the Lord of all lords” who also had been flogged and beaten.
The Pope quotes Saint Bakhita, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II, as saying, “I am definitely loved and whatever happens to me — I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”
Another example he cited of the way hope in God can carry a person through difficulties was 19th century Vietnamese martyr Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, Pope Benedict said that despite being imprisoned, shackled, insulted, and tortured, Saint Le-Bao-Tinh wrote: “In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and gladness because I am not alone — Christ is with me.”
Mr. Gaillardetz said the Pope, knowing that people “tend to think the traditional saints are out of step with the church for the modern age,” specifically chose more modern saints “whose lives can speak to our contemporary era.”
One especially noteworthy element of the encyclical, both Father Bacick and Mr. Gaillardetz said, is that Pope Benedict makes no reference to the Second Vatican Council and its influential document Gaudium et Spes, Latin for “Joy and Hope,” yet repeatedly cites fifth century saint Augustine.
Both Father Bacik and Mr. Gaillardetz said Augustine’s views on hope are “more pessimistic” than the Vatican II document.
The frequent references to St. Augustine “reveals him as an Augustinian theologian,” Father Bacik said. “That is becoming clearer and clearer.”
“This shows Pope Benedict’s preference for early Christian writers,” Mr. Gaillardetz said. “He cites Augustine 13 times but it is striking that the most influential document of Vatican II, about how the church should engage the world in solidarity with the joy and hope of ordinary people, is not cited once in his encyclical about hope.”
Mr. Gaillardetz said that when not splitting theological hairs, the Pope has an elegant writing style.
“He is at his best in a catechetical or even homilitic mode,” he said, citing the way Pope Benedict writes about the meaning of eternity: “... Eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality — this we can only attempt.
It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love,” the Pontiff wrote.
“That is a poetic image, a poetic meditation,” Mr. Gaillardetz said. “He is saying, ‘Let’s think about what we believe. If our hope is eternal life, what do we believe eternal life to be?”
The Catholic News Service reported that Pope Benedict wrote the encyclical in his native German during the summer while vacationing at his villa in northern Italy. He simultaneously was working on another encyclical on social justice issues, but finished Spe Salvi first, the CNS reported.
The entire text of the encyclical is available online at the Vatican Web site, www.vatican.va.
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