Caritas in Veritate: The Truth about Humanity

This is part of a series by Jennifer Roback Morse. This installment focuses on the introductory chapter.

Many commentators read Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate as if it were a think tank white paper, and ask whether he endorses their particular policy preferences. It is a mistake to read the encyclical in this way. A close look at the document’s introduction makes plain that Benedict is not a man of the Left or of the Right: He is a non-ideological man of God.

The opening sentence soars above any political platform: “Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal force behind authentic development of every person and of all humanity.” This is our first clue that we are not dealing with a technocrat or ideologue. “Authentic development” points away from the deliberations of politicians and policy wonks. Benedict does not define his objectives in material terms, such as maximizing GDP. Neither does he conduct focus groups or consult experts to figure out what people want. Rather in this encyclical, Benedict reflects on what it means to be authentically human and what the human good actually entails. That is to say, he seeks the truth about man in society.

http://www.acton.org/press/caritas_in_veritate_truth_about_humanity.php

Freedom, solidarity, subsidiarity

Martin Fitzgerald

Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical continues 120 years of Catholic social doctrine based on the dignity of the human person and his participation in society.
To understand Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical, Caritas in veritatem (Charity in truth), you need to know something about the history of ideas. This is not a document which the Pope tossed off after a couple of months of reflection. It is the latest instalment of at least 120 years of major documents from popes commenting on social trends especially in the field of economics. Broadly speaking, this is called the “social doctrine” of the Catholic Church. It is a collection of principles governing social development while still respecting the integrity of the human person.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/Freedom_solidarity_subsidiarity/

Liberal academic Edward Green: the Pope is right about Aids and condom

According to Harvard professor Edward Green, Benedict XVI tells the truth about fighting the plague of the millennium in Africa: fidelity and abstinence promotion are better weapons than preservatives.

During his latest visit to Africa pope Benedict XVI told the journalists: “Condom distribution is not the solution to Aids, on the contrary they worsen it”. An editorial comment of The Lancet retorted that the Pope's comment was “outrageous and wildly inaccurate”. Based on your experience about the issue, is the Pope right or wrong?

http://www.tempi.it/007320-liberal-academic-edward-green-pope-right-about-aids-and-condom?page=0

Primacy of Culture in "Caritas in Veritate"

Encyclical Offers Opportunity to "Think With the Church"
By Jennifer Roback Morse
SAN MARCOS, California, JULY 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's "Caritas in Veritate" is his contribution to the course of Catholic social teaching.

Many commentators seem to read this document as if it were a think-tank white paper, and ask whether the Pope endorses their particular policy preferences. I must say that I surprised myself by not reflexively reading it in this way. After all, I spent many years teaching free-market economics.

I distinctly remember reading "Centesimus Annus" for the first time, and mentally checking to see if I agreed with it.

But this is not the correct way to read papal documents. The papacy's prophetic role is to interpret the past, and provide guidance for the future, while avoiding the excesses of its own time. In "Caritas in Veritate," Benedict XVI argues for the centrality of moral considerations in both economics and politics. Without charity and truth, we cannot create a truly decent society, no matter how sophisticated our technology or how thorough-going our democracy. Benedict XVI stresses the centrality of the social, cultural sphere for several reasons.

http://www.zenit.org/article-26488?l=english

Money from love

Robert A. Gahl, Jr
In an encyclical released this week, an intellectually adventurous Pope asserts that love is ultimately the solution to the world economic crisis.
Today, by "economy" or "economical", what first comes to mind is low-cost, parsimonious, sparing, small, fuel-efficient, and, often, cheap. But now, with his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate ("Charity in Truth") Benedict subverts and reverses the common understanding of "economy" as a parsimonious reduction in costs or a miserly (re)distribution of resources. For this counter-cultural Pope, "economy" is principally a question of charity, of love. In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est ("God is Love"), the Pope argued that love is inherently expansive, ecstatic, and effusive. For Benedict, the social doctrine of the Church, that includes a now rapidly developing theology of political economy, is not just about the distribution of wealth. Benedict is at least as interested in fostering wealth creation motivated by love, while exercising responsible stewardship over the environment.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/money_from_love/

A new Benedict for a new Dark Ages

Thaddeus J. Kozinski
The Pope's latest encyclical is another skirmish in his war on the moral relativism which undermines our culture.
I bet it never crossed the minds of many living during the Dark Ages that they were particularly dark, or of those living during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire that it was speedily declining, let alone falling. Since the Owl of Minerva flies at dusk, and hindsight is 20/20, it appears to be an inexorable law of both history and human nature that men recognize the "signs of the times" only after those times have passed.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/a_new_benedict_for_a_new_dark_ages/

Harvard Aids expert supports Pope's stance on contraception

by Anne Thomas

A leading Aids expert from Harvard University has come out in support of comments made by the Pope Benedict XVI suggesting that the distribution of contraception actually spreads rather than prevents Aids.
Edward C Green, the director of the Aids Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, said that research into the spread of AIDS actually supports the position of the Catholic Church and the Pope.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/harvard.aids.expert.supports.popes.stance.on.contraception/22827.htm

The Politics of Condoms

When it comes to AIDS prevention, science stoops to narrow ideology

By CHRISTOPHER B. LACARIA

“The Pope may be right,” suggested Dr. Edward C. Green to The Harvard Crimson, “The marketing and distribution of condoms won’t solve the problem. Partner fidelity has a much better chance.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527691

A ‘deficit of ethics’

Sheila Liaugminas

One of the main causes for the global financial crisis, Pope Benedict told G20 leaders. The pope sent a letter to Britain’s Gordon Brown at the start of the summit last week, and it got little attention in the pop media circus around the events and especially, the Obamas. But Benedict’s letter made incisive points. He told the leaders he appreciated…

"the meeting’s noble objectives based on the conviction, shared by all the participating Governments and international organizations, that the way out of the current global crisis can only be reached together, avoiding solutions marked by any nationalistic selfishness or protectionism."

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/a_deficit_of_ethics/

The Pope was right about AIDS in Africa

Who’s the real expert?
Jokin de Irala

Did any journalists ask an epidemiologist whether the Pope might be right about the ineffectiveness of condoms in fighting the African AIDS epidemic? We did.

Pope Benedict XVI ignited a firestorm of controversy earlier this week. On a flight to Cameroon where he later greeted rapturous crowds, he held a press conference. A French journalist asked him about the African AIDS epidemic. What he said was only half a sentence, but the repercussions in the Western media were explosive: “the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem.”

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/whos_the_expert/