Posted on 07/08/2009 7:47:46 AM PDT by Pope Pius XII
Today the much-anticipated social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Love) was released, after being delayed for a year due to the global economic crisis. The encyclical includes several passages of great interest to those involved in the pro-life movement. The most pertinent and striking passages dealing with the life issues are reproduced below. To read the complete encyclical click here.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
...wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity...
Bet the NYT won’t give this encyclical as much play as his “share the wealth” proclamation that preceded it. The msm is only interested in the Pope’s views if they further BO’s agenda.
Actually, the NYT would be doing some good, by calling attention to a moral scandal within the church (embrace of anti-human socialist notions) that is, in the long term, far more dangerous than the pedophilia incidents that have been in the news these past few years.
I think you are missing the heirarchy of truths in this encycical.
States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society,112 and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.States are supposed to assume responsibility for family finances? Thanks but no thanks, Your Holiness....
“2. The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics”
There’s the message of the encyclical right there.
The lefties will no doubt point to isolated passages of C in V and scream “See… the Pope is decrying Capitalism… the Pope is decrying Capitalism!!...We have to listen to the Pope! We have to build up the UN and form an International Government..”.
But never will you hear something like “We have to first eliminate ALL abortion and ban embryonic stem-cell research worldwide as a starting point or none of this will work…”.
Par.#28 cannot be separated out from the rest of this encyclical as though it were simply another plank in a party platform that can be voted on and discarded if not supported. It forms the moral and ethical foundation of the entire message.
To bind “life ethics” to “social ethics” that include condemnation of wealth, achievement, and self-reliance is to invite sensible people to reject the former just as they rightly reject the latter.
No. When the Government fails to take care of the poor it leads to pure forms of socialism.
No. When the Government fails to take care of the poor it leads to pure forms of socialism.
You are falling for the leftist media spin — Read the entire document, please.
You are cherry-picking just like the leftist media. Are you a dimocrat?
Needs, Steve.
NEEDS. That means the government should not let people starve. I agree with that. That means the government should work to allow opportuniies to grow. I agree with that too.
The compound phrasing “economic and fiscal needs” clearly refers to more than basic survival. (Is there no one word in Latin that means “survival”?)
NEEDS.
As Frank Morriss points out:
Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum predicted his insistence on the state protecting public welfare with this statement:
“It is not right for either the citizen or the family to be absorbed by the state; it is proper that the individual and the family should be permitted to retain their freedom of action, so far as this is possible without jeopardizing the common good.”
He also condemned such taxation that amounts to public interference with “the productive activity of the multitude [which] can be stimulated by the hope of acquiring some property in land.”
“. . . These advantages can be attained only if private wealth is not drained away by crushing taxes of every kind.”
And further:
“. . . [Justice] does forbid anyone to take from another what is his and, in the name of a certain absurd equality, to seize forcibly the property of others” (emphasis added).
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6155&CFID=10002238&CFTOKEN=54259324
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.