Settle down with the pope
The Saturday morning business shows on cable television news networks always have lively roundtable discussions of the current headlines as they affect the economy, finances and the everyday lives of Americans. This time ’round, President Obama’s meeting with Pope Benedict and, particularly, Benedict’s new social encyclical were hot topics on one of the shows. ‘Is the Pope left of Obama on capitalism, free trade and the new world order?’ was one rather sensational question dropped like a grenade to launch one of the rounds. The question, and some of the responses, showed how much some media are still playing it by ear with Caritas in Veritate, and what they’re hearing about it is largely distorted or just….wrong.
This encylical is easy to misread….especially for those who don’t read it, but either skim it for the buzz phrases, or read some of the media coverage about it. I was going to link to a couple of articles from the Acton Institute, one by Fr. Robert Sirico and one by Dr. Samuel Gregg.
But before I got to that, Acton got together a very rich resource page on the pope’s social encylical, which should be bookmarked by anyone interested in understanding it and promoting its wisdom.
In his new social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI has strongly reaffirmed and deepened the connection between morality and the free economy. Benedict has repudiated practices that led to a global economic crisis in which the love of truth has been abandoned in favor of a crude materialism.
Don’t miss the PowerBlog there.
As the squabbling continues over the at-times contradictory policy-suggestions contained in Benedict XVI’s social encyclical, there’s a risk that the deeper – and more important – theological themes of the text will be overlooked. It’s also possible some of the wider implications for the Catholic Church’s own self-understanding and the way it consequently approaches questions of justice will be neglected.
Fr. Sirico had this analysis in the WSJ, a necessary clarification.
In his much anticipated third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI does not focus on specific systems of economics — he is not attempting to shore up anyone’s political agenda. He is rather concerned with morality and the theological foundation of culture. The context is of course a global economic crisis — a crisis that’s taken place in a moral vacuum, where the love of truth has been abandoned in favor of a crude materialism. The pope urges that this crisis become “an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future.”
Yet his encyclical contains no talk of seeking a third way between markets and socialism. Words like greed and capitalism make no appearance here, despite press headlines following the publication of the encyclical earlier this week. People seeking a blueprint for the political restructuring of the world economy won’t find it here. But if they look to this document as a means for the moral reconstruction of the world’s cultures and societies, which in turn influence economic events, they will find much to reflect upon.
Take the time to do that. Obama promised he would.
Here’s another resource to help get into it.