Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes
President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"
PRESENTATION OF THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER
"CARITAS IN VERITATE"
BY THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I have been asked to situate the Encyclical Caritas in veritate
within the context of the thought and magisterium of Benedict XVI. His
first Encyclical,
Deus caritas est, on the theology of charity, contained
indications on social doctrine (nn. 26-29). Now we have a text dedicated
entirely to this subject. What strikes me from the outset is that the
central concept remains caritas understood as divine love
manifested in Christ. This is the source that inspires the thinking and
behavior of the Christian in the world. In its light, truth becomes
“gift …, not produced by us, but rather always found or, better,
received” (n. 34). It cannot be reduced merely to human goodwill or
philanthropy. In my intervention, I wish to comment first on social
doctrine within the mission of the Church, and then treat one of its
principles: the centrality of the human person.
1. Social Doctrine in the Mission of the Church
1.1. The Church’s task is not to create a just society
The Church was constituted by Christ to be a sacrament of salvation for
all men and women (LG 1). This specific mission subjects her to a
constant misunderstanding: secularization to the point of making her a
political agent. The Church inspires, but does not do politics. Drawing
on
Populorum Progressio, the new Encyclical states clearly: “The
Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim to
meddle in the politics of the State” (n. 9). The Church is neither a
political party, nor a politicizing actor. Woe to those who reduce the
Church’s mission to a worldly pressure movement to obtain political
results. Cardinal Ratzinger himself opposed this possible
misunderstanding in the 80’s as Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in the face of certain theologies of liberation. (Instructio
of 6.8.1984).
This implies in turn that the social doctrine of the Church is not a
“third way,” that is a political program to be implemented in order to
attain a perfect society. Whoever thinks in this way risks –
paradoxically – creating a theocracy, in which the valid principles
concerning faith become tout court principles to be applied for
social life, both for believers and unbelievers, embracing even violence.
In the face of such errors, the Church safeguards, together with
religious freedom, the rightful autonomy of the created order, as
assured by the Second Vatican Council.
1.2. Social Doctrine as an element of evangelization
Of course, the Encyclical Caritas in veritate expresses the
import of the Church social doctrine in various places, for example
number 15, which treats the relationship between evangelization and
human promotion, from the starting point of
Populorum Progressio. Whereas, up until now, social doctrine
emphasized action to promote justice, now the pastoral side is broached:
social doctrine is affirmed as an element of evangelization. That is to
say: the Church’s perennial announcement of Christ dead and risen has a
consequence also for social living. This affirmation contains two
aspects.
We cannot read social doctrine outside the context of the Gospel and its
proclamation. Social doctrine, as this Encyclical demonstrates, is born
from and is interpreted in the light of Revelation.
On the other hand, social doctrine cannot be identified with
evangelization, but is one element. The Gospel deals with human acting
also in social relations and institutions born from them, but cannot
limit man to his social life. John Paul II vigorously defended this
concept in
Redemptoris missio (n.11). Hence, the Church’s social doctrine
cannot take over the announcement of the Gospel in the person-to-person
encounter.
1.3. Social Doctrine: not without revelation
A brief historical overview: as a result of the industrial revolution
(19th century) and its negative consequences, the Church’s leaders
urgently pressed the State for a response in order to reestablish social
justice and the dignity of the human person in philosophical terms.
Later, with
Pacem in terris, John XXIII focused largely on the horizon of
faith and spoke of sin and victory over it through the divine work of
salvation. John Paul II then introduced the concept of “structures of
sin” and applied salvation also to the fight against human misery. His
Sollicitudo
rei socialis integrated social doctrine within moral theology:
“This belongs, therefore, not to the field of ideology, but theology,
and especially moral theology” (n. 41). With this step, social doctrine
enters clearly into the theological domain. The principles of social
doctrine have not remained merely philosophical, therefore, but have
their origin in Christ and His word. In
Deus caritas est, Benedict XVI writes that faith purifies reason
and thus helps it to create a just order in society; this is where
social doctrine is inserted (cfr. 28a).
This proceeds, then, upon the foundation of a discussion accessible to
all reason, and hence on the basis of natural law. But it recognizes its
dependence on faith.
The new Encyclical treats more explicitly and more decisively all of
this, with charity as the foundation. It teaches, “charity is the
supreme path of the Church’s social doctrine” (n. 2). Charity understood
here as “received and given” by God (n. 5).
The love of God the Creator Father and His Redeemer Son, poured out in
us through the Holy Spirit, empowers the social life of man on the basis
of certain principles. It affirms for development the “centrality … of
charity” (n. 19). Wisdom – it also says – capable of orienting man “must
be ‘mixed’ with the ‘salt’ of charity” (n. 30). These simple –
apparently obvious – affirmations conceal some important implications.
When it is loosed from Christian experience, social doctrine becomes
that ideology which John Paul taught it should not be. A political
manifesto without a soul. Social doctrine rather, in the first place,
commits the Christian to “incarnating” his faith. As the Encyclical
claims: “Charity manifests always, even in human relations, the love of
God, it gives theologal and salvific value to every worldly task” (n.
6). To the oft-formulated question: “What contribution does the
Christian make to the edification of the world?” social doctrine
provides the answer.
2. An anthropocentric approach
The heart of social doctrine remains the human person. I already said
that, in a first phase, the attention of this discipline was oriented,
rather, to problematic situations within society: regulation of work,
right to a just wage, worker representation. Later, these problems were
dealt with at an international level: the disparity between rich and
poor, development, international relations. With the theological
emphasis, John XXIII treats more decisively the question of all this in
terms of the human person – we are in a second phase in the evolution of
this discipline. John Paul II then reinforced this understanding
centering social reflection on the anthropological. This aspect is
present in a striking way in the document: “The first capital to be
defended and valued is man, the human person, in his entirety” (n. 25);
“The social question has become radically the anthropological question”
(n. 75). Progress, to be truly so, must, therefore, enable man to grow
in his entirety: in the text, we find references to the environment,
market, globalization, the ethical question, culture, that is, the
various places where man carries out his activity. This end remains a
precious heritage in social doctrine from its beginnings. But, more
deeply, the anthropological question implies answering a central
question: which man do we wish to promote? Can we consider true
development a development that imprisons man in an earthly horizon,
formed only by material well-being, ignoring the question of values,
meaning, the infinite to which he is called? Can a society survive
without foundational reference points, without looking at eternity,
denying man and woman an answer to their deepest questions? Can there be
true development without God?
In the logic of this Encyclical, we find then a further stage, perhaps a
third phase in the reflection on social doctrine. It is not by chance
that charity is placed as a key link: divine charity responds, as a
human act, through a theologal virtue, as I said at the beginning. Man
is not considered only as the object of a process, but as the subject of
this process. The man, who has known Christ, makes himself the agent of
change in order that social doctrine does not remain a dead letter. Pope
Benedict writes: “Development is impossible without upright men and
women, without economical actors and politicians who do not live
strongly in their consciences the call to the common good” (n. 71). Here,
we are in perfect continuity with the Encyclical
Deus caritas est, which, in its second part, treats the
characteristics of those who work in charitable organizations. And the
horizon widens to the public world, where often, in the north and south,
we experience phenomena that are all too well-known, preventing the
growth of people: corruption and illegality (cfr. n. 22), the lust for
power (cfr. DCE 28). The “orginal sin,” as the text recalls in n. 34,
prevents the construction of society in many places. Also in those who
guide society. We cannot confront the social question without the
ethical. The Encyclical refers to the “new man” in the biblical sense
(n. 12). There can be no new society without new men and women. Social
doctrine will not remain a treatise or an ideology only if there are
Christians prepared to live it in charity, with the help of God.
Authenticity on the part of all the actors is needed. Formulated without
any twist of words: “Far from God, man is troubled and sick” (n. 76). It
is very significant that the last paragraph of the Encyclical (n. 79) is
dedicated to prayer and the call to conversion: God renews the heart of
man so that he may dedicate himself to living in charity and justice.
Christians, therefore, do not simply stand at the window to watch or
protest, infected by the modern culture of denouncing others, but they
allow themselves to be converted to build, in God, a new culture. This
is true also for the Church’s members, both as individuals and groups.
3. Progress
I wish to end with a reflection on the concept of progress. Paul VI –
this Encyclical also recalls – spoke about it in a succinct way (Populorum
Progressio, n. 21). Unfortunately, human growth has often been
conceived as independent from the question of faith, as if human
promotion is one thing, and the proclamation of the faith another. In
addition to unifying the two dimensions, this document introduces a
further element in the concept of progress: hope (n. 34).
As Pope Benedict XVI stressed in
Spe salvi, hope cannot be that of progress constructed for
well-being in this world (n. 30), since this does not coincide with
human freedom (nn. 23-24); the foundation of Christian hope is the gift
of God (n. 31). Hence, hope helps us not to enclose progress in the
edification of an earthly kingdom, but it opens us to the gift: in God,
we find the crowning of the desire for man’s good. It is always within
this optic that the Church formulates social doctrine and Christians
find in it inspiration for their engagement in the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
There is great interest in this Encyclical. When read well, Benedict
XVI’s text is a light for society and, last but not least, for us
Christians.
