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Social encyclical coming 'soon," Pope says, offering preview
Catholic Culture ^ | 6/15/09 | Catholic Culture

Posted on 06/15/2009 6:32:06 PM PDT by bdeaner



Pope Benedict XVI offered a quick preview of his forthcoming social encyclical, and disclosed that it would be issued "soon," during a June 13 audience with members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation.

The Holy Father said that a market economy serves society "only if oriented toward the common good." Moreover, he said, "freedom in the economic sector must be circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality."

The Pontiff said that reflections on economics and the common welfare are particularly necessary today in light of the worldwide financial crisis. That crisis, he said, "clearly indicates the need to reconsider certain economic-financial paradigms that have dominated over the last few years."

Pope Benedict said that his encyclical, applying the principles of Catholic social teaching to current economic discussions, will address that need for a new examination of the global economy. The text, he said, will "highlight what, for us as Christians, are the objectives that need to be pursued and what values to be tirelessly promoted and defended in order to create a truly free and united form of human coexistence."

Sources:

A modern economy respectful of the rights of the weakest (VIS)


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholic; economy; encyclical; pope


Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to Your shepherd, the Pope, a spirit of courage and right judgement, a spirit of knowledge and love.

By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he, as successor to the apostle Peter and vicar of Christ, build Your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
1 posted on 06/15/2009 6:32:07 PM PDT by bdeaner
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To: bdeaner

Any bets this news will aid socialistic thinking?


2 posted on 06/15/2009 6:35:11 PM PDT by arrogantsob
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To: bdeaner

I really hope this encyclical doesn’t endorse some kind of left-wing “social justice” redistributive economic scheme. People have been pushing socialism while hiding behind “Catholic social teaching” for decades - they don’t need more ammo.

Furthermore, if that happens, it will be interesting to see libs use this encyclical to push socialist economic policies, while ignoring Catholic teaching on abortion and other moral issues.


3 posted on 06/15/2009 6:36:07 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
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To: bdeaner

In further news, the Pope announced that he is selling off all of the Catholic Church’s land holdings along with all of the artwork, jewels, and precious metals to serve society orienting all the booty toward the common good. /s


4 posted on 06/15/2009 6:39:42 PM PDT by anonsquared (Where's Harry Tuttle when you need him?)
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To: arrogantsob
Any bets this news will aid socialistic thinking?

I'm not the least bit worried about that. The Pope is not a socialist.
5 posted on 06/15/2009 6:53:13 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: St. Louis Conservative

I will predict the Pope will write a very well reasoned encyclical that will be misquoted and taken out of context by the Socialists in the Catholic Church. He’s somewhat hemmed in by Rerum Novarum, Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capial and Labor. I’m sure Pope Benedict knows this encyclical well.


6 posted on 06/15/2009 6:56:54 PM PDT by ALPAPilot
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To: anonsquared
SEE HERE

Excerpt:

'The internal costs incurred by the church's aid agencies can be considered exemplary,' Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, who heads the Pontifical Council Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development, said.

He was speaking at a Vatican news conference to present Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten message which urges the faithful to do more to help the poor.

According to Cordes, in 2006 the administrative costs of foundations presided by his body only accounted for 3 per cent of their budget.

Other Roman Catholic charities, including Caritas and Aid to the Church In Need, recorded similarly low administrative costs, meaning that the bulk of their funds went directly to the needy, Cordes said.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1389018.php#ixzz0LfOzihQy&D
7 posted on 06/15/2009 7:05:07 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: bdeaner
Legislatively reforming the free market so that it serves "the common good" sounds more than faintly socialist. In fact, it sound a lot like a speech Hillary Clinton gave a few years back.

Victim politics thrives on class envy. I hope the Pope isn't inadvertently giving his approbation to that envy and creating a sense of entitlement in some of the supposed "have nots" who believe they are poor because they weren't simply handed their "fair share" of wealth created by someone else.

The Pope couldn't have intended that. I'll have to listen to him more carefully.

8 posted on 06/15/2009 7:06:54 PM PDT by behzinlea
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To: arrogantsob

My thoughts exactly. I’m sure the pope would love it if we were all under his thinking.


9 posted on 06/15/2009 7:15:38 PM PDT by kingpins10
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To: kingpins10

You wrote:

“My thoughts exactly. I’m sure the pope would love it if we were all under his thinking.”

The pope believes in the free market. He just believes in responsibility. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlTnF5BzyCE


10 posted on 06/15/2009 7:34:18 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
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To: bdeaner

While in principle the ideas are good, they are couched in terms with respect to philosophy, not faith. There is no such thing as a “common good”, as there is no commonality between those who lead lives of timid piety and little consequence, and those who must overcome momentous obstacles in their lives to achieve redemption, perhaps as their final act of life.

Common good cannot be created by law, save by standing back and perhaps inhibiting evil, to let the common good emerge from those who propagate it. In truth, most people will only ever act in their own self interest. But that may be enough, if as a side effect, the lives of others are improved as well.

One cannot force others to do good, any more than forcing a child to grow and learn their lessons faster than they can. If it is forced, it is inherently not good.


11 posted on 06/15/2009 7:40:05 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: bdeaner

My daughter is excited about this. She’s an Economics major at Ave Maria University, and she’d taking a course called “Catholic Social Teaching” this Fall. She’s hoping the encyclical will be available to study during the course.


12 posted on 06/15/2009 8:13:26 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: bdeaner
Funny how people get twitchy when the Catholic Church mentions the words "common good". Inevitably the word "socialism" is trotted out in a form of preemptive strike.

The Church's teaching on our social obligations, of course, long predates the flawed systems of socialism and communism. These systems took portions of Catholic teaching, such as our obligations to those less fortunate and twisted them.

Too bad more people haven't listened to a gospel which stresses more than unbridled self-interest. The current global financial mess might have been avoided had they done so.

13 posted on 06/15/2009 8:25:51 PM PDT by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: SuziQ
My daughter is excited about this. She’s an Economics major at Ave Maria University, and she’d taking a course called “Catholic Social Teaching” this Fall. She’s hoping the encyclical will be available to study during the course.

That's wonderful your daughter is studying at Ava Maria University! I just visited the campus over New Year Holiday this past Winter. It is a beautiful campus -- and not too far from the beach. When folks ask me to recommend a university that is faithful to the Church teachings, Ava Maria is near the top of my list.
14 posted on 06/15/2009 9:15:45 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: marshmallow
Too bad more people haven't listened to a gospel which stresses more than unbridled self-interest. The current global financial mess might have been avoided had they done so.

Amen to that. A free market economy that is not grounded in ethical truth -- natural law -- is a market that is doomed to failure.
15 posted on 06/15/2009 9:46:26 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: All
Free Economies and the Common Good
by Rev. Robert A. Sirico

No one can seriously doubt that free enterprise is not only the greatest generator of human well being but that it also serves all classes in society. The old socialists dreamed of a world in which all classes the world over would share in the fruits of production. We look at the Wal-Marts — to cite only the most conspicuous case — opening up by the day in town after town all over the world. We see in a single store a veritable cornucopia of goods designed to serve human well being, at prices that make them affordable for all, a company that has created many millions of jobs and brought prosperity where there was only despair.

Now, you may not like Wal-Mart. You might find it tacky. You might not like to shop there. But there is no sense in denying that this enterprise, and hundreds more like it, has brought humanity an unparalleled opportunity for enhancing well being for all classes in society.

And who owns Wal-Mart? Call them capitalists if you want to, but its owners are shareholders all over the world, people of moderate incomes who have their savings invested in the well being of the company. It is owned by a class of people we can call worker-capitalists. Such an institution as this is more than any socialist of old could have imagined. Had Marx been shown this, he would not have believed his eyes.

Does free enterprise accord with the idea of the common good as the socialists imagined it? Certainly it does. It does not, however, accord with the “commonality of goods” as the socialists supposed that it would. What then can we say of those who today remain attached to socialism as a political goal or general trajectory of political activism? We can say that they do not know or have not understood the essential plot behind the economic history of the last 300 years. Or perhaps we can say that they are more attached to socialism as dogma than they are to the professed ideals of the founders of the dogma. I’m particularly struck by the neo-socialist concern for the well being of plants, animals, lakes and rivers, rain forests and deserts—particularly when the concern for the environment appears far more intense than their concern for the well being of the human family.

When we speak of the idea of the common good, we need to also be open minded about the political and juridical institutions that are most likely to bring it about. The answer is not to be found in the “commonality of goods” but in the very institutions that the socialists worked so hard to discredit. Let me list them: private property in the means of production, stable money to serve as a means of exchange, the freedom of enterprise that allows people to start businesses to pursue their dream, the free association of workers that permits people to choose where they would like to work and under what conditions, the enforcement of contract that provides institutional support to the idea that people should keep their promises, and a vibrant trade within and among nations to permit the fullest possible flowering of the division of labor. These institutions must be supported by a cultural infrastructure that respects private property, regards the human person as possessing an inherent dignity, and confers first loyalties to transcendent authority over civil authority. This is the basis of what we call freedom and results in what we call the common good.

The common good is incompatible with the violation of the right to economic initiative. As Pope John Paul the Great wrote of economic initiative: “It is a right which is important not only for the individual but also for the common good. Experience shows us that the denial of this right, or its limitation in the name of an alleged ‘equality’ of everyone in society, diminishes, or in practice absolutely destroys the spirit of initiative, that is to say the creative subjectivity of the citizen.”

In writing these words, the Pope was echoing the vision of the Second Vatican Council’s document entitled Gaudium et Spes: “Since property and other forms of private ownership of external goods contribute to the expression of the personality, and since, moreover, they furnish one an occasion to exercise his function in society and in the economy, it is very important that the access of both individuals and communities to some ownership of external goods be fostered. Private property or some ownership of external goods confers on everyone a sphere wholly necessary for the autonomy of the person and the family, and it should be regarded as an extension of human freedom.”

Let me close with a declaration that by the standards set forth in the first writings of the early socialists, we are all entitled to call ourselves socialist, if by the term we mean that we a devoted to the well being of all members of society. The means to achieve this ideal is the matter of dispute. It strikes me that the means to achieve this is not through the central planning by the state but through freedom itself. St. Thomas Aquinas had an axiom: bonum est diffusivum sui. The good pours itself out. The good of freedom has indeed poured itself out to the benefit of the whole of humanity.
16 posted on 06/15/2009 9:48:49 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: bdeaner
I haven't yet seen the new campus, but our daughter says it's really pretty. She likes biking around the campus and around town.

When she first went to Ave, they were still at the temporary site in the Vineyards. I think that's where the Law School is going to be, until their new digs are finished on the new campus, in the new town.

17 posted on 06/15/2009 10:44:32 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: bdeaner

While that may be true I can’t say that the Church is terribly friendly to the free enterprise system. I am not optimistic about the content.


18 posted on 06/17/2009 10:56:21 PM PDT by arrogantsob
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To: bdeaner

Would a free market grounded in Natural Law be one with no governmental interference?

BTW, failures are fundamental in the operations of free markets. You cannot have one without the other. Bleeding capital out of the economic system to fund social initiatives weakens it and makes it less able to fund them.


19 posted on 06/17/2009 11:05:48 PM PDT by arrogantsob
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