Awaiting Pope Benedict’s “Caritas in Veritate”

Well, it’s official. The Vatican has announced that Benedict XVI’s new encyclical, titled “Caritas in Veritate,” will be released Tuesday, July 7 :

Those participating in Tuesday’s conference will be: Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” and Stefano Zamagni, professor of political economy at the University of Bologna, Italy and consultor of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Signed by the Holy Father on June 29th, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and released in time for the G8 international summit in L’Aquila, Italy (July 8-10), Caritas in Veritate will be the first social encyclical to be written in almost two decades .

There has been much speculation as to what the encyclical will say. Fortunately, the Pope himself has given several helpful indications.

• In a March 2009 question-and-answer session with parish priests and clergy in the Diocese of Rome, the Pope responded to the petition of Father Giampiero Ialongo, for “the courage to denounce an economic and financial system that is unjust at its roots” and “an authoritative word, a free word, which will help Christians . . . to administer the goods that God has given “:

  As you know, for a long time we have been preparing an encyclical on these issues. And on this long path I see how difficult it is to speak competently, because if the economic reality is not addressed competently, one cannot be credible. And, on the other hand, we must speak with a great ethical consciousness, created and inspired by a conscience forged by the Gospel. In the end, it is about human avarice as sin or, as the Letter to the Colossians says, of avarice as idolatry. We must denounce that idolatry that is opposed to the true God and that falsifies the image of God through another god, “mammon.”
  

  [ . . . ] Because egoism, the root of avarice, consists in loving myself more than anything else and of loving the world in reference to myself. It happens in all of us. It is the obscuring of reason, which can be very learned, with extremely beautiful scientific arguments but which, nevertheless, can be confused by false premises. [ . . . ] Without the light of faith, which penetrates the darkness of original sin, reason cannot go forward. But it is faith, precisely, that then runs into the resistance of our will. It does not want to see the way, which would be a path of self-denial and of correction of one’s own will in favor of the other, not of oneself.
  

  [W]hat is needed is the reasonable and reasoned denunciation of the errors, not with great moral statements, but rather with concrete reasons that prove to be understandable in today’s economic world. [ . . . ] To realize that these great objectives of macro-science are not realized in micro-science — the macroeconomics in the microeconomics — without the conversion of hearts. If there are no just men, there is no justice either [ . . . ] Justice cannot be created in the world only with good economic models, even if these are necessary. Justice is only brought about if there are just men. And there are no just men without the humble, daily endeavor of converting hearts, and of creating justice in hearts.

  
  
• On June 13th, meeting with the “Centesimus Annus - Pro Pontifice” Foundation, the Pope commented on the global economic crisis and offered a brief preview :

  “I am pleased to learn – he continued – that you have examined, in particular, interdependence between institutions, businesses and market starting from, in accordance with the encyclical Centesimus annus of my venerated predecessor John Paul II, the reflection that recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector’ (n. 42), which can be a path of economic and civic progress only if oriented towards the common good (n. 43). This vision however must be accompanied by another reflection into which the freedom in the economic sector must be inserted ‘within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious’ (n. 42). Opportunely the aforementioned encyclical states: ‘Just as the person fully realizes himself in the free gift of self, so too ownership morally justifies itself in the creation, at the proper time and in the proper way, of opportunities for work and human growth for all’ (n. 43)”.
  

  “As you all know – he concluded - my next encyclical, soon-to-be published, is dedicated to the vast theme of the economy and work: it will evidence the objectives that Christians must pursue and the values Christians must promote and defend tirelessly, in order to realize a world in which all people can live together in a manner that is truly free and based on mutual assistance”.

  
  
• In his June 29th homily on the feast of Saints Peter & Paul, the Pope reprised his “dictatorship of relativism” speech and offered a further glimpse of the encyclical’s subject :

  Taking up again the social themes in “Populorum Progressio,” written by the Servant of God Paul VI in 1967, this document — dated in fact today, June 29, feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul — aims to go deeper in certain aspects of the integral development of our age, in the light of charity in truth. I entrust to your prayer this new contribution that the Church offers to humanity in its commitment to sustainable progress, in full respect of human dignity and the real needs everyone has.



• Finally, for those who just can’t wait another week, The Italian daily Corriere della Sera published what it alleged were several original paragraphs of the Pope’s third encyclical .
  

Upon its publication next week, I hope to dedicate a post (or two) to rounding up coverage and commentary on “Caritas in Veritate” — charting what I expect will be some spirited discussions within the online Catholic community.

It remains to be seen just how much 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 long-awaited and much-celebrated audience with His Holiness, President Obama (did I say that correctly?).

Secondly, a document on Catholic social doctrine does not easily present itself for selective quotation to stir the fires of controversy. Unless, say, the Holy Father can work in a little something referencing condoms and AIDS; gay marriage, or Muslims and a certain 14th century emperor, I do not anticipate much enthusiasm from the secular media.

In the meantime, some additional items which may be of interest:

• 09/27/07 - Pope Benedict’s Critique of Capitalism Against The Grain September 27, 2007 - in which I presented Cardinal Ratzinger’s thought on the subject, as indicated in his address to the Latin American Bishop’s Council (CELAM) in May 2007; and his essay on “Market Economy and Ethics”, published in English under the title “Church and economy: Responsibility for the future of the world economy,” Communio 13 (Fall 1986): 199-204.


• 02/01/09 - Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and president of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory, speaks on the “timeliness” of Catholic social doctrine :

  The Holy Father is going to publish a new social encyclical precisely in order for a teaching dating back centuries to continue to be ever timely, alive and at work in history. What, therefore, is the source of this “timeliness”? On what basis can we say the social doctrine is “timely”?



• 06/06/09 - “Eve of an Encyclical. And from Germany, Marx Reappears” - Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, a contemporary of Ratzinger’s whose political thought was employed as starting thesis in the Ratzinger-Habermas debate , calls upon the Pope to engage in a “radical refutation” of capitalism, made obligatory by its current “evident collapse.” (Sandro Magister reports for Chiesa ).


• 06/29/09 - “What exactly is in Benedict XVI’s new encyclical on the economy and labor issues is not yet known,” notes Michael Novak in First Things . However, “Catholic leftists and progressives, though, are already trembling with excitement.” In “Economic Heresies of the Left” , he attempts to head off at the pass “three glaring errors” already surfacing in fevered speculations.


• 06/30/09 - Don Clemmer @ the USCCB Media Blog presents “a look at the history of Catholic social teaching, specifically as it has been expressed through papal encyclicals” .
  

  Likewise, if you have the time, I recommend Building the Free Society: Democrazy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching — a quick but informative romp through eleven key documents of Catholic social teaching — from Rerum Novarum to Centesimus Annus — edited by Robert Royal & George Weigel.



• 07/01/09 - Too many people are expecting the Pope’s encyclical to vindicate their ideas about the economy, finance, and business practices. Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl A. Anderson, however, believes the proper response is not, “What does the pope say I’m doing right?” but “What should I do to act more morally ?” — as head of the Knight’s 1.7 million-member organization and life insurance business, he will be seeking ways to apply the Pope’s teaching to his own profession.


• 07/02/09 - John Allen Jr., again managing to redeem a visit to the National Catholic Reporter , provides “a key to reading Benedict’s social encyclical” :

  Though the pope may not spell it out quite this way, much of Caritas in Veritate could well shape up as an attempt to synthesize three of the most persistent — and, Benedict would doubtless say, artificial — dichotomies in recent Catholic experience:
  

  • Personal conversion versus social reform;
  • Pro-life versus peace and justice commitments;
  • Horizontal versus vertical spirituality.

  
  

  All three points can be understood as partial versions of one “grand dichotomy,” that between truth and love.
  

  To be sure, that idea is unlikely to figure in many news headlines on Tuesday, which will probably focus on the pope’s policy recommendations, and/or his condemnations of greed. On the blogs, meanwhile, a slugfest will almost certainly erupt over whether the encyclical skews closer to the political right or left. (Its release just three days before President Barack Obama meets Benedict will probably fuel that cycle of spin.)
  

  For those interested in drilling down, however, I suspect “synthesis” will prove a helpful way of pulling the document’s strands together.