Caritas in Veritate

Encyclical Letter of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI on integral human development in charity and truth

Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in veritate, published on 29 June 2009, consists of an Introduction, six chapters and a Conclusion.

In the Introduction (nn. 1 – 9), the Pope recalls that “charity is the main driving force for the true development of every person and of all humanity” (n. 1).

It moves people to commit themselves, with courage and generosity, in the field of justice and peace and therefore charity must be considered as “the main path of the Social Doctrine of the Church” (n. 2).

However, charity must be combined with truth «not only in the direction indicated by Saint Paul of veritas in caritate (Eph 4, 15), but also in the opposite and complementary direction of caritas in veritate» (n. 2). Without truth (i.e. without justice), charity can slip into sentimentality and love becomes an empty shell to be filled arbitrarily:

«A Christianity of charity without truth can easily be mistaken for a reserve of good feelings, useful for social coexistence, but marginal» (n. 4). «The Social Doctrine of the Church – continues the Pope – is then configured as a service to charity: Caritas in veritate in re sociali» (n. 5).

The Encyclical, for authentic development, indicates two guiding criteria of a moral nature which are justice and the common good. Whoever loves others must first of all be just towards them (n. 6), and want their good. Remember, however, that alongside the individual good there is a good linked to the social life of people, the common good, which the Pope defines thus: «The good of all of us made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who unite in a social community » (n. 7).

Referring to the Populorum Progressio, Benedict XVI develops and updates its teachings, in particular the theme of “integral human development”, that is, the development of all men and the whole man (n. 8).

The teaching of Populorum progressio

The first chapter of the Encyclical is in fact entitled: The message of Populorum progressio (nn 10 – 20). Blessed

XVI recalls that the central point of Paul VI’s Encyclical is human development: development which must concern all men and the whole man in all his dimensions. He states this in the light of the gospel: Jesus Christ, by revealing the mystery of the Father and his love, also fully reveals the true dignity of man. And this is precisely the reason why the Church is legitimized to intervene in development problems (n. 16): «Taught by her Lord, the Church offers the world what she possesses: a global vision of man and humanity” (n. 18).

Benedict XVI deduces that without charity there cannot be true human growth, and that the causes of underdevelopment are to be found primarily «in the lack of brotherhood between men and peoples», and notes: «The increasingly globalized society brings us closer, but it does not make us brothers” (n. 19).

Today’s difficulties for authentic development

Human development in our time is the topic of the second chapter of the Encyclical (nn 21 – 33). The development hoped for by Paul VI, which was supposed to rescue people first and foremost from hunger, poverty and endemic diseases, has not yet been fully and everywhere achieved. Even today there are dramatic problems: badly used and mostly speculative financial activity; massive migratory flows, often only provoked and not adequately managed; unregulated exploitation of the earth’s resources; economic crisis of vast proportions.

Faced with these problems, the Pope invites us to “a profound cultural renewal and the rediscovery of fundamental values ​​on which to build a better future”, aware that the exclusive search for profit, “poorly produced and without the objective of the common good as an end lastly, it risks destroying wealth and creating new poverty” (n. 21).

Observe how the ongoing economic crisis weighs negatively on the population with effects such as the reduction of social safety nets, job mobility, unemployment (n. 22). Faced with these new social problems, the Pope (citing Gaudium et spes n. 63) reminds all governments committed to giving a renewed profile to the economic and social structures of the world, that «the first capital to be safeguarded and valorised is man, the person in his entirety: man is the author, the center and the goal of all economic-social life” (n. 25).

Benedict XVI then speaks of the hunger scandal and states: «The elimination of hunger in the world, in the era of globalization, is a goal to be pursued to safeguard the peace and stability of the planet», and hopes for «a fair agrarian reform in developing countries”, underlining the need for “a conscience of solidarity to develop that considers food and access to water as universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination” (n. 27).

It also highlights another aspect of the problem: the lack of respect for human life: the situation of poverty still causes high infant mortality rates in many regions, and in various parts of the world population control practices persist on the part of governments, which often they spread contraception and even went so far as to impose abortion. Benedict XVI notes with regret that in the most economically developed countries, anti-life legislation is widespread and spreads an anti-natalist mentality, often passed off as cultural progress (n. 28).

Another related aspect of the lack of development is the denial of the right to religious freedom and the practical atheism present in many parts of the world. The Pope recalls the struggles and conflicts that are still fought in the world for religious reasons, especially “fundamentalist terrorism” which generates pain, devastation and death and “blocks dialogue between nations and diverts large resources from their peaceful and civil use ». But even religious indifference, practical atheism, present in many countries, contrasts with the needs of the development of peoples: by denying God, “the guarantor of the true development of man” is missing (n. 29).

Finally, Benedict XVI recalls the red thread that guides the entire Encyclical, that is, “charity in truth”, and recalls the need to know the serious problems that mark humanity today, but warns that human knowledge is insufficient and that conclusions of the sciences will not be able to indicate by themselves the path towards the integral development of man: we need to go further and draw on the “needs of love”, which do not contradict those of reason, but illuminate them. And he concludes: «Doing is blind without knowledge and knowledge is sterile without love» (n. 30).

The logic of free

The theme of the third chapter of the Encyclical is entitled Fraternity, economic development and civil society (nn 34 – 42). The chapter opens with a praise of the experience of gift: «Gratuitousness is present in man’s life in multiple forms, often not recognized due to a purely productivist and utilitarian vision of existence» (n. 34). The logic of the gift, states the Pope, does not exclude justice and is not juxtaposed with it at a later time and from the outside; economic, social and political development, if it wants to be authentically human, must make room for the principle of gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity (n. 34).

The logic of the gift also applies to the market, subject to the principles of so-called commutative justice which regulates the relationships of giving and receiving. But the Church has always recalled, even in this context, the principles of distributive justice and social justice: the market, which is a human activity, if left to the sole principle of the equivalence of the values ​​of the goods exchanged, does not manages to produce the social cohesion that it also needs (n. 35). The Social Doctrine of the Church – the Pope recalls – has always taught that even within economic activity and not only outside of it or after it, authentically human relationships of brotherhood, solidarity and friendship can be experienced.

Political action must not be extraneous in this sector: «The mercantile logic must be aimed at pursuing the common good which must also and above all be taken care of by the political community». Separating the economic activity which is responsible for producing wealth and the political activity which is responsible for pursuing social justice through redistribution often causes serious imbalances (n. 36). «Perhaps it was once conceivable – observes the Pope – to first entrust the production of wealth to the economy and then assign the task of distributing it to politics. Today all this is difficult given that economic activities are not restricted within territorial limits, while the authority of governments continues to be above all local” (n. 37).

The Encyclical also refers to business, and hopes that alongside the profit-oriented private business, there can also be productive organizations that pursue mutualistic and social goals: «Charity in truth, in this case means that it is necessary to give shape and organization to those economic initiatives which, without denying profit, intend to go beyond the logic of the exchange of equivalents and profit as an end in itself” (n. 38). The Pope invites us to ensure that the management of businesses takes into account not only the interests of the owners, but also takes responsibility for the other subjects who contribute to the life of the business itself: workers, customers, suppliers, the community, the territory of reference. It must be remembered that “investing always has a moral as well as an economic meaning” (n. 40).

The chapter ends with a new evaluation of the phenomenon of globalization, not to be understood only as a process concerning the economy, but humanity itself which thus becomes increasingly interconnected. «The globalization process, properly conceived and managed, offers the possibility of a great redistribution of wealth at a planetary level; if poorly managed, however, it causes poverty and inequality to grow, as well as infecting the entire world with a crisis” (n. 42).

Legitimate rights, but also duties

The fourth chapter is entitled: Development of peoples, rights and duties, environment (nn 43 – 52).  The Pope first states that for authentic development it is necessary to recognize the rights of all, and that governments and international organizations can never forget “the objectivity and unavailability of rights” which are specific to every man, remembering that when these needs are disregarded, the true development of peoples is put in danger. But he observes that there are also duties, without which rights transform into arbitrariness: «Individual rights, freed from a framework of duties, go crazy and fuel a spiral of requests that is practically unlimited and devoid of criteria» (n. 43) .

The Encyclical recalls negative aspects that prevent the true progress of humanity: demographic growth considered as the primary cause of underdevelopment; sexuality reduced to a mere hedonistic and playful fact and little attention given to the family. In this regard, the Pope hopes that governments will vary policies that enhance and promote it (n. 44) and always take into account the centrality of the person (n. 45), a principle that must also guide development interventions by organizations international organizations whom the Pope asks to question themselves on the effectiveness of their bureaucratic apparatuses “often too expensive”, to the point of becoming advantageous only for them and not for the poor countries that these organizations are called to help (n. 47).

The family of peoples

The fifth chapter (nn 53 – 67) has as its theme: The collaboration of the human family. Benedict XVI states that one of the greatest forms of poverty is loneliness and that all other forms of poverty arise precisely from isolation; it follows that the development of peoples depends above all on the recognition of being a single family made up of people who do not simply live next to each other, but collaborate with each other in true communion (n. 53). The Pope then refers to the principle of subsidiarity, which offers help to the person “through the autonomy of intermediate bodies”. «Subsidiarity – he explains – is the most effective antidote against any form of paternalist welfare and is suitable for humanizing globalization». However, subsidiarity must never be separated from solidarity (nn. 57 – 58).

It then urges rich countries to “devote greater shares of gross domestic product for the development of poor countries, respecting the commitments made at the international community level” (n. 60); hopes for greater access to education and even more «to the complete formation of the person, which also concerns moral life», and sees in international tourism a notable factor of economic development and cultural growth, deploring however «the perverse phenomenon of sexual tourism » which often takes place with the approval of local governments, with the silence of those from which the tourists come and with the complicity of many operators in the sector (n. 61).

The Pope then addresses the “epochal phenomenon” of migration: “Every migrant, every foreign worker is a human person who possesses rights that must be respected by everyone and in every situation” (n. 62). In this context, he also speaks of the violations of the dignity of human work and the growing phenomenon of unemployment and recalls how work must always be an expression of the essential dignity of every man and every woman (n. 63).

The Encyclical then addresses the theme of finance. In consideration of the misuse that has been made of it and the damage that has resulted from it, it is necessary that it returns to being an instrument, i.e. a means aimed at the best production of wealth and development. “Ethics – states the Pope – cannot be extraneous even to finance and financial operators must combine right intention, transparency and the search for good results”. It is therefore useful to have a regulation of the sector that “protects the weakest subjects and prevents scandalous speculation”. He hopes for the experimentation of new forms of finance aimed at promoting development projects, such as microfinance and microcredit which protects the poor from usury (n. 65).

The last paragraph of the chapter, the Pontiff dedicates to the urgency of the reform of the United Nations Organization and to the international financial economy. To govern the world economy, to restore the economies affected by the crisis, to achieve effective disarmament, for food security and for peace, the presence of a true global political authority is needed, which abides by the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity and who enjoys effective power (n. 67).

The limits of technology

The sixth and final chapter (nn 68 – 77) focuses on the theme: The development of peoples and technology. The Encyclical finds in today’s culture a “Promethean claim”, according to which “humanity believes it can recreate itself by making use of the wonders of technology”, and underlines how the technicist mentality is increasingly growing, leading us to think that the true and the good always coincides with the feasible. «Technique is certainly a value – states the Pope – but it must be put at the service of man and of all humanity» (n.70), and this, in particular, must apply in the field of bioethics (n. 75 ).

In the Conclusion (nn. 78 – 79), Benedict XVI states that availability towards God opens up availability towards brothers (n. 78): «Authentic human growth needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in the gesture of prayer, moved by the awareness that love full of truth, caritas in veritate, from which true development proceeds, is not produced by us, but is given to us” (n. 79).

Source

• “L’anima del Mondo. Dialoghi sull’insegnamento sociale della Chiesa” of Mauro Viani

Images

• Image digitally created by spazio+spadoni