(Musings of your humble servant at Rerum Novarum)
On July 9, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI released to the public his third encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate dealing with the subject of "integral human development in charity and truth."{1} I predict that many of particular economic agendas will try to proof-text the pope's words and bend them to their own preconceived notions{2} rather than attempt to understand what is written there within the context of general norms of interpretation.
My purpose in this posting is to call attention to the encyclical and make a few passing comments on what I have seen of it so far. Admittedly, I have not read the text in detail yet. However, my original perusal of it in outline has generated some initial thoughts. But I am aware of how some people as an excuse for trying to dismiss my arguments may accuse me of putting a spin on the pope's words. For that reason, I will before I give my initial musings reference the pope's statement on the role of the church in politics as he enunciated in his first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est circa early 2006:
The Church's social teaching argues on the basis of reason and natural law, namely, on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being. It recognizes that it is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest. Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew. As a political task, this cannot be the Church's immediate responsibility. Yet, since it is also a most important human responsibility, the Church is duty-bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution towards understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.
The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply. [Pope Benedict XVI: Excerpt from the Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est section 18 (circa January 25, 2006)]
After all, if the pope's own clarifications previously enunciated on the general scope of the role of the church in politics and economics are not accounted for, there will be those of no small number who read too much into his words. These persons of various partisan bends will try to claim him as an ally in some kind of canonization of one particular school of economic thought over another. Insofar as the general thrust of the most recent encyclical, this paragraph towards the beginning of the text in my mind sums up the overarching intention of the document:
I am aware of the ways in which charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields — the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger — it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility. Hence the need to link charity with truth not only in the sequence, pointed out by Saint Paul, of veritas in caritate (Eph 4:15), but also in the inverse and complementary sequence of caritas in veritate. Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed within the “economy” of charity, but charity in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth. In this way, not only do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help give credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence. [Pope Benedict XVI: Excerpt from the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate section 2 (circa June 29, 2009)]
Now having situated the pope's latest encyclical in the context of principles he outlined in his first encyclical{3}, it seems appropriate for me to give my own view on the text from what I have thus far seen of it.
As I already said, I have not read the text in detail yet. Nonetheless, my original impression is one of the view that some of the ties it attempts to make are tenuous at best. But then again, encyclical letters virtually never prescribe precise formularies on these kinds of matters anyway. Instead, what they seek to present or re-illuminate in a variety of ways are general principles which can be of no small assistance for those who attempt to find solutions to these kinds of matters. There are a variety of ways of approaching issues or problems: not all of which are of equal merit. It is therefore of importance in such matters to not fail to account for important principles of ethics and morality along the way. That in a nutshell is what encyclicals such as this one intend to help avoid.
I should note also that those who think my representation of what encyclicals or other papal documents are intended to convey in these kinds of areas can consider my description in light of Pope Benedict XVI's own words as referenced above from his first encyclical letter where he touches on the role of the church in politics and the economic factors that go into building a just society. And while I will probably write on these matters as a combination of time, circumstances, and inclination coalesce to facilitate that, at the moment this will have to suffice for the subject at hand.
Notes:
{1} That is the subtitle of the encyclical as it reads on the Vatican's website version of the text.
{2} Particularly the distributivist sorts. I wrote some expository musings on this matter as well as interacted with emailers in the mid spring to late summer of 2007 in a series of postings. Here they are in reverse order:
Revisiting Distributivism (circa May 25, 2007)
"The
On Fundamental Rights, Private Property, and Authentic Dialogue: (circa May 31, 2007)
On the "Phantom Menace" of Distributivism (circa September 8, 2007)
"From the Mailbag" on Distributivism (circa September 10, 2007)
In the drafts folder of my weblog is an unfinished response from another emailer circa October of 2007 which challenges some of my statements on distributivism in the series above. In light of the pope's latest encyclical letter, it seems appropriate to set aside some time as I am inclined and finish that thread at some point before the end of the summer. I note it here to put pressure on myself to get to that thread as soon as I can -possibly as soon as the next blogging cycle which runs from July 22nd-August 21st.
{3} His second encyclical was on the topic of hope which is not as explicitly connected with the present encyclical as thematically as his first encyclical so evidently is.