by
Richard Benson, Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians)
Pope Benedict XVI latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, provides a timely challenge to a contemporary world in which the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" continues to grow, where materialism and individualism are sought after in place of authentic human fulfillment and where the "consumer" and short term "profit" have become the benchmarks of too many capitalists and too many capitalist enterprises.
If anything is clear after a thorough reading of the encyclical it is that despite the "fall of communism" in the former Soviet Union and its satellites, capitalism has not triumphed as means that has guaranteed integral human development. The melt down of Wall Street, the personal and institutional corruption that has come to light in the world of banking, investment and politics has provided just the right context to prove the need for a call to all members of society to rekindle a vision of a human society based on true charity, a charity based in truth.
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by
William R. O'Neill, Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
In Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons, the aging Cardinal Wolsey admonishes Sir Thomas More: "You're a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see the facts flat on, without that horrible moral squint; with just a little common sense, you could have been a statesman."(1) Wolsey's heirs are quick to upbraid our latter-day Mores for their sentimental "moral squint" at public policy. Yet even statesmen of Wolsey’s stripe seldom see the facts “flat on.” Invariably, our perceptions betray our moral squints, the common sense with which we see the world.
Beginning with Leo XIII's magisterial encyclical on the rights of workers to a living wage (Rerum novarum, 1891), the Roman Catholic Church looks at public policy through the moral squint of its social teaching. Shortly after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum progressio (1967) promoted "integral human development" for all the world's peoples. Some twenty years later, Pope John Paul II renewed Paul VI's call for recognition of the global common good in Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987). Commemorating the fortieth anniversary of Populorum progressio, Pope Benedict's Caritas in veritate (Love in Truth), assesses contemporary globalization in light of this rich heritage, "ever old and ever new."
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 Encyclical Letter On the Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth
INTRODUCTION
1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22).
To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).
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• "If we love others we charity, then first of all we are just toward them." (6)
• "A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized." (15)
• "Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end...Once profit becomes the exclusive goal...without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty." (21)
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 From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops:
Pope Benedict's long-awaited social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate , will be be released on Tuesday, July 8, on the eve of the G8 summit in Italty. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops' staff has produced this summary of Catholic social teaching, specifically as it has been expressed through papal encyclicals. Here are the highlights:
Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) 1891, Pope Leo XIII -- essentially the Big Bang of Catholic social teaching, truly groundbreaking, and the standard that popes have looked back to ever since (see below). This encyclical tackles the turmoil surrounding labororers in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, touching on issues including socialism, unbridled capitalism, a living wage, the relationship between laborer and employer, and the relationship between classes. Pope Leo also makes a first mention of the preferential option for the poor.
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