Encycli-bites for reading “Caritas in veritate”

Social justice must begin with freedom.
Without freedom there can be no social justice.

The Church’s social thinkers should either
extol and proclaim this principle
or refute it.

From the article:

It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new. (12)
Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty. (21)
“The scandal of glaring inequalities” continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones. Among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers. (22)
Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers… (25)
Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. (25)
The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. (27)
It is necessary to cultivate a public conscience that considers food and the access to water as a universal right of all humans, without distinction or discrimination. (27) (Cf. Benedict , Message for the 2007 World Food Day: (2007), 933-935.)
Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country’s international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development. (32)
Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behavior to emerge, and hence an attentiveness to ways of civilizing the economy. (38)
In order to defeat underdevelopment, action is required not only on improving exchange-based transactions and implanting public welfare structures, but above all on gradually increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion. (39)
Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. (48)
The international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process. (49)
The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption. (49)
In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together. (57)
Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance. (62) (Cf. Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi (3 May 2004): AAS 96 (2004), 762-822.)
The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated. (64)
In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. (67)

Have you read the entire document?

You are spinning left just like the dimocrats.

Here is the truth.

The New Encyclical [Cairtas in Veritate -- Love and Truth] {Ecumenical]

AP, Reuters Go Full Tilt in Spinning Latest Writing of Pope

Caritatis [sic] in Veritate: papal encyclical calls for new moral approach to global economy (CWN)

Supreme Knight criticizes use of Pope's encyclical for political agendas

Benedict XVI explains gifts and limitations of free market economy

Benedict XVI Tightens Up the Church's Social Teaching

Excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI New Encyclical "CARITAS IN VERITATE" (CHARITY AND TRUTH)

Love for others requires involvement in politics, pope says

Thanks Father Z. Pope Benedict XVI is speaking for the good of the people -- not for the good of a larger government!

July 7, 2009

Encycli-bites for reading “Caritas in veritate”

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULA — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 8:58 pm

L’Osservatore Romano of 8 July has a few articles pertaining to the new encyclical.

Here is one of them. Some folks helped to ferret out the corresponding English.

These bullet points were offered to help a reading of the encyclical.

Call them… call them…. "encycli-bites".

It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new. (12)
The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics,... (15).
Only when it is free can development be integrally human; only in a climate of responsible freedom can it grow in a satisfactory manner. (17)
Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty. (21)
“The scandal of glaring inequalities” continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones. Among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers. (22)
The global market has stimulated first and foremost, on the part of rich countries, a search for areas in which to outsource production at low cost with a view to reducing the prices of many goods, increasing purchasing power and thus accelerating the rate of development in terms of greater availability of consumer goods for the domestic market. (25)
Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers… (25)
Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. (25)
The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity. (25)
The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. (27)
It is necessary to cultivate a public conscience that considers food and the access to water as a universal right of all humans, without distinction or discrimination. (27) (Cf. Benedict , Message for the 2007 World Food Day: (2007), 933-935.)
One of the most striking aspects of development in the present day is the important question of respect for life, which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples. (28)
In economically developed countries, legislation contrary to life is very widespread, and it has already shaped moral attitudes and praxis, contributing to the spread of an anti-birth mentality; frequent attempts are made to export this mentality to other States as if it were a form of cultural progress. (28)
Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition. (28)
Charity does not exclude knowledge, but rather requires, promotes, and animates it from within. Knowledge is never purely the work of the intellect. (30)
Moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in hand, and charity must animate them in a harmonious interdisciplinary whole, marked by unity and distinction. (31)
Human costs always include economic costs, and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs. (32)
Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country’s international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development. (32)
In the list of areas where the pernicious effects of sin are evident, the economy has been included for some time now. (34)
Without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot completely fulfil its proper economic function. And today it is this trust which has ceased to exist, and the loss of trust is a grave loss. (35)
The poor are not to be considered a “burden”[91], but a resource, even from the purely economic point of view. (35) (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 28: loc. cit., 827-828.)
Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic. This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility. (36)
In commercial relationships the principle of gratuitousness and the logic of gift as an expression of fraternity can and must find their place within normal economic activity. (36)
Every economic decision has a moral consequence. (37)
Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behavior to emerge, and hence an attentiveness to ways of civilizing the economy. (38)
In order to defeat underdevelopment, action is required not only on improving exchange-based transactions and implanting public welfare structures, but above all on gradually increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion. (39)
Business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business: the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference. (40)
Yet it is not right to export these things merely for the sake of obtaining advantageous conditions, or worse, for purposes of exploitation, without making a real contribution to local society by helping to bring about a robust productive and social system, an essential factor for stable development. (40)
The broader conception of business activity favors cross-fertilization between different types of business activity, with shifting of competences from the “non-profit” world to the “profit” world and vice versa, from the public world to that of civil society, from advanced economies to developing countries. (41)
To consider population increase as the primary cause of underdevelopment is mistaken, even from an economic point of view. (44)
The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centered. (45)
“Ethical financing” is being developed, especially through micro-credit and, more generally, micro-finance. These processes are praiseworthy and deserve much support. (45)
In recent decades a broad intermediate area has emerged between the two types of enterprise. It is made up of traditional companies which nonetheless subscribe to social aid agreements in support of underdeveloped countries, charitable foundations associated with individual companies, groups of companies oriented towards social welfare, and the diversified world of the so-called “civil economy” and the “economy of communion.” (46)
Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. (48)
The international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process. (49)
The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption. (49)
In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together. (57)
Cooperation for development must not be concerned exclusively with the economic dimension: it offers a wonderful opportunity for encounter between cultures and peoples. (59)
Greater solidarity at the international level is seen especially in the ongoing promotion — even in the midst of economic crisis — of greater access to education. (61)
Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance. (62) (Cf. Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi (3 May 2004): AAS 96 (2004), 762-822.)
No consideration of the problems associated with development could fail to highlight the direct link between poverty and unemployment. In many cases, poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work. (63)
The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated. (64)
Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in- hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise. (66)
In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. (67)
A particularly crucial battleground in today’s cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development is radically called into question. (74)
Following his lead, we need to affirm today that the social question has become a radically anthropological question, in the sense that it concerns not just how life is conceived but also how it is manipulated, as bio-technology places it increasingly under man’s control. (75)
There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people’s spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul. (76)

Dear Salvation,

Some of these “encycl-bites” are wonderful. Others are gobbledygook. Others suggest hidden assumptions that are in error.

I don't like to parse the encyclicals of popes, but it may be that Mr. Weigel is right, and part of this document was actually written by Pope Benedict, while other parts were written by the “Justice and Peace” crowd and left in to appease the dopes in the audience.

sitetest

Some of these “encycl-bites” are wonderful. Others are gobbledygook. Others suggest hidden assumptions that are in error.

I don't like to parse the encyclicals of popes, but it may be that Mr. Weigel is right, and part of this document was actually written by Pope Benedict, while other parts were written by the “Justice and Peace” crowd and left in to appease the dopes in the audience.

I am told that encyclicals technically aren't made ex cathedra, and therefore the possibility exists of doctrinal error - in addition to the possibility of political and economic errors. I have been told that there have only been a handful of ex cathedra statements in the history of the Church (remembering that infallible teachings must by definition be on dogma and doctrine), and if I'm right, this ain't one of them!

I'm glad to see that one of the FRCatholics has the guts to question the more egregious recommendations made here. I'm afraid that all too many Catholics push their admiration of the Pope into idol worship, believing that the Pope speaks impeccably in all matters. As one FReeper explained it to me years ago, "papal impeccability is not a Catholic dogma."

Dear Alex Murphy,

An encyclical can be used to give an infallible statement, but popes make lots of encyclicals, and exceedingly few infallible statements.

But keep in mind, an encyclical can make an infallible statement (whether by reiterating a de fide teaching of the Church or defining something infallibly for the first time), but that doesn't make the encyclical as a whole infallible.

Thus, one can look at an encyclical like Humanae Vitae, which continues the Church's 2,000 year old teaching that artificial contraception is morally evil. In that the Church has always and everywhere taught this, it was unnecessary for Pope Paul VI to explicitly add the note of infallibility. It is an infallible teaching.

But Humanae Vitae’s arguments are not, to my own mind, especially compelling. Pope Paul argued against the acceptability of artificial contraception in part by telling of its consequences. He got a lot of it right; his voice was prophetic. Nonetheless, it's a weak argument, logically, to say that something is intrinsically evil because it may cause bad effects down the road. It's the fallacy of consequentialism.

For years, this was a stumbling block for me. I'd ask, how can this teaching be true when it is so poorly argued? What eventually helped me was to review the many other times the Church had taught against artificial contraception. First, I found the force of argument more persuasive from other teaching documents, and second, I could see that this wasn't some new teaching that had sprung up in 1968, and was just some old man being stubborn about things.

But something else helped me, and that was to learn that the central teaching of an encyclical can be right even if much of the rest of the encyclical is wrong. Even if the encyclical makes errors of fact, errors of logic, etc. The Holy Spirit guides popes to teach what is true (even at the level of teaching below that of infallibility), and the pope's teachings must always be accorded respect and a docile reception. But the Holy Spirit does not make the pope logical, clear, coherent or correct in the assertion of facts in support of his teachings.

“I have been told that there have only been a handful of ex cathedra statements in the history of the Church (remembering that infallible teachings must by definition be on dogma and doctrine), and if I'm right, this ain't one of them!”

There are a significant number of infallible teachings, but only a few have come directly through the infallible teaching office of the papacy. Thus, the doctrines of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the doctrine of the Theotokos, these are all infallible, de fide (of the faith) teachings, but they were declared so by Ecumenical Councils, not directly through the pope's charism of infallibility. Although, as I understand it, an Ecumenical Council's teachings are marked by the charism of infallibility only insofar as they are accepted and confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff.

However, the pope could make infallible statements concerning economic issues, in that the Church's infallibility extends to all matters concerning faith and morals. In that there are many moral considerations related to economic behavior, it is within the scope of the Church's teaching authority to teach on them.

“I'm afraid that all too many Catholics push their admiration of the Pope into idol worship, believing that the Pope speaks impeccably in all matters.”

No, to speak “impeccably” in all matters would mean that the pope would speak personally free from any sin. That's almost an incoherent statement.

But there is a tendency for Catholics, especially devout Catholics, to permit a bit of “scope creep” of the pope's charism of infallibility.

sitetest

Bump to your excellent post, as usual, Alex. The truth will out.

We're being sold into slavery even from within.

Social justice must begin with freedom.
Without freedom there can be no social justice.

The Church’s social thinkers should either
extol and proclaim this principle
or refute it.

= = =

Well said.

That is a frightening article from the Pope! It ties in exactly with the Universal Push for One World Governance Agenda....as well as the New Age Spirituality/Environmentalist Green Movement and others like it, moving rapidly now across the countries.

Further it sides with the organizations attempting to trash capitalism and businesses who make a profit. Amazing really!