After many conversations with friends and reporters and interested parties, I’m willing to make three predictions about Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate, due out shortly:
1) The media will basically ignore it, as President Obama’s visit with the pope occupies all the attention the press is able to give Catholic topics.
2) The encyclical will be a mishmash of themes, topics, and prescriptions, some close to contradictory to others. Considered merely as a literary production, Caritas in Veritate will be much more like the jumble of Sollicitudo Rei Socialis than the writerly unity of Evangelium Vitae.
3) No matter what it actually says, left-leaning Catholics will claim it as a victory and the repudiation of John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus.
July 3rd, 2009 | 8:40 am
“Mishmash” is rather a harsh word to use of any encyclical before it comes out.
July 3rd, 2009 | 10:40 am
Repudiation of Centesimus Annus? It will be fully consistent with CA, just as CA was consistent with all social encyclicals that came before. It will certainly be inconsistent with the *dishonest* abridged version of CA put out by Neuhaus and Weigel.
July 3rd, 2009 | 12:18 pm
Ouch. I have to agree with Jonathan; this seems like a preemptively harsh take on an encyclical from a level-headed pontiff. Perhaps some conservative cafeteria Catholicism is at work? And nothing positive to say about the potential that this document has?
In that case, I am quite joyful in my ignorance and lack of connections to worldly elites; I still eagerly anticipate Benedict XVI’s life-giving words in the upcoming encyclical.
July 3rd, 2009 | 2:09 pm
[...] attention the “mainstream media” will devote towards the new encyclical. I concur with one of Jody’s predictions: It’s highly probable that the it’s release will be overshadowed by the Pope’s [...]
July 3rd, 2009 | 5:44 pm
“The encyclical will be a mishmash of themes, topics, and prescriptions, some close to contradictory to others. Considered merely as a literary production, Caritas in Veritate will be much more like the jumble of Sollicitudo Rei Socialis than the writerly unity of Evangelium Vitae.”
I guess that’s one reading of an encyclical that, by most accounts, has been pre-occupying the Holy Father–a man known for his meticulous & systematic nature–and his advisers for an inordinate amount of time (numerous delays, etc.). May be your right, Mr. Bottom, but I have no idea how the above conclusion follows from the available evidence.
Unfortunately, I suspect your trying to pre-empt any Leftist spin that, as you correctly note, will inevitably be applied to the forthcoming encyclical. Why not just wait to rebut their arguments rather than minimize the significance of Holy Father’s third encyclical?
July 6th, 2009 | 11:27 am
Morning’s Minion:
It [Caritas in Veritate] will certainly be inconsistent with the *dishonest* abridged version of CA put out by Neuhaus and Weigel.
Would you care to elaborate on this charge of dishonesty on the part of Fr. Neuhaus and Mr. Weigel?
July 7th, 2009 | 10:57 am
[...] much speculation about its contents, the new papal encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released earlier [...]
July 7th, 2009 | 11:56 am
[...] much speculation about its contents, the new papal encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released earlier [...]
July 7th, 2009 | 2:54 pm
[...] Looks like I was wrong in my prediction that the American media would ignore the new encyclical in favor of stories about President [...]
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