Charity in Truth

by Fr. Roger Landry - July 17, 2009

"To the bishops, priests and deacons, men and women religious, the lay faithful and all people of good will." That's how Pope Benedict addresses his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, dedicated to the integral development of the human person and human society. The Holy Father wrote this document for every Catholic who can read as well as for non-Catholics who desire to take a deeper look, from the perspective of the Christian faith, at many of the central issues that affect the present and future global economy. The encyclical contains a very powerful message, but for it to have the impact Benedict wish, it must first be read, then understood, assimilated, and put into practice. To help inspire people to the first step, we have printed the official Vatican summary of the encyclical on page 15, but this is only to whet the appetite, for no 1,350 word taste test can adequately do justice to a full 28,000 word meal. All readers are encouraged to download the encyclical for free from the Vatican's website and, since it is about the same length as a typical edition of this newspaper, read it over the course of the next couple of weeks when the Anchor will be on its annual summer hiatus.

The second step is to understand it, which goes beyond noting the particular things Benedict says about a wide variety of contemporary issues — about globalization, the environment, labor unions, food security, population control, religious liberty, redistribution of income, the economy consequences of contraception, abortion, and marital breakdown and much more — but seeing how they fit into an organic whole. This is a notable challenge. Many of the first reviewers of the encyclical in the media focused on some of the hot-button issues Benedict addresses, but most missed the forest for the trees. The essential point of the document is not to give a list of particular policy prescriptions, but to focus on the essentials for the integral growth of human beings and human society.

In order to grasp the whole of the document, we'd propose three concrete helps. The first is the title of the encyclical. Pope Benedict says that "charity in truth" is the "principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and all humanity" and the "heart of the Church's social doctrine." Truth-filled charity is the general principal that Benedict applies to every issue in the document. Charity, sacrificing oneself for others' good, is the opposite of the selfishness that disintegrates human societies and leads to personal and social misery. Charity, however, is not enough, Benedict states. To achieve its goal, it must be linked to the truth, accessible by reason and faith, about what is genuinely good for others, the truth about the human person, the truth of justice and giving each one his due. "Without truth," the Holy Father writes, "charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and options, the word 'love' is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social context." Examining each of the many issues Benedict tackles in the encyclical through the prism of truth-filled charity will help readers more easily grasp the whole of his message.

The second concrete help comes from a 1985 address the future Pope Benedict gave in Rome in 1985, entitled, "Market Economy and Ethics" (available at www.acton.org/issues/caritas_in_veritate.php, which is full of useful resources on the encyclical. In this address, Cardinal Ratzinger prophetically described in a crisp and concise way many of the warning signs he saw in an excessively materialistic view of a globalzied economy and sketched many of the central economic and social insights he would later develop at far greater length in the present encyclical. His central point was that economic analysis and excellence is not enough; there must also be ethical analysis and excellence.

"In order to find solutions that will truly lead us forward," Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 1985, "new economic ideas will be necessary. But such measures do not seem conceivable or, above all, practical without new moral impulses." He forewarned that the free market does not automatically work for the good, independent of the morality of those in the market; rather the economy "is governed not only by economic laws, but is also determined by men." It is not enough to rest the economy on the "beneficial effects of egoism and its automatic limitation through competing egoisms," because often this can lead to a "system of exploitations." It must be grounded on charity in truth that focuses not merely on the "maximum profit" but on a "maximum of ethical discipline" seen in "self-restraint and common service." He observed, "It is becoming an increasingly obvious fact of economic history that the development of economic systems that concentrate on the common good depends on a determinate ethical system, which in turn can be born and sustained only by strong religious convictions. Conversely, it has also become obvious that the decline of such discipline can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse." In short, the way out of the ethical mess involves the "truth" of solid scientific economic analysis and the "charity" of equally solid ethical principles. True progress, he concluded, "can only be realized if new ethical powers are completely set free. A morality that believes itself able to dispense with the technical knowledge of economic laws is not morality but moralism. As such it is the antithesis of morality. [On the other hand,] a scientific approach that believes itself capable of managing without an ethos misunderstands the reality of man. Therefore it is not scientific. Today we need a maximum of specialized economic understanding, but also a maximum of ethos so that specialized economic understanding may enter the service of the right goals. Only in this way will its knowledge be both politically practicable and socially tolerable." These are the general principles Pope Benedict elaborates in the body of the encyclical.

The third help to grasp the "big picture" of Caritas in Veritate came during Pope Benedict's July 8th general audience, which took place the day after the encyclical's publication. The Holy Father stressed the context of the document and then reiterated many of the points he had made as a Cardinal 24 years earlier: "The world situation, as the chronicle of recent months amply demonstrates, continues presenting not a few problems and the 'scandal' of outrageous inequalities. Peoples from all over are calling for reform that will overcome the discrepancy of development among peoples, and this cannot wait. The phenomenon of globalization can, in this sense, be a real opportunity, but for this, it is important to undertake a profound moral and cultural renewal and responsible discernment of the decisions that must be made for the common good. A better future for everyone is possible, if it is founded on the discovery of fundamental ethical values Upright people are needed as much in politics as in the economy, people who are sincerely attentive to the common good. The economy needs ethics for its correct functioning; it needs to recover the important contribution of the principle of gratuitousness [charity] and the 'logic of gift' in the economy of the market, in which the norm cannot be personal gain. But this is only possible thanks to a commitment from everyone, economists and politicians, producers and consumers, and presupposes formation of the conscience that gives strength to moral criteria in the elaboration of political and economic projects."

Benedict is counting, in a particular way, on the "commitment" of Catholics, so that the Church can be an instrument to help the world out of this economic crisis. That commitment begins with the "formation of conscience" that will flow from real study of the encyclical.

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.