“The scandal of glaring inequalities”

As leaders of the wealthiest nations in the world prepare to gather this week for the G8 summit in Italy, Pope Benedict released his new encylical exactly in time to help guide their focus on economic and social justice.

Caritas in Veritate, (Charity in Truth), examines world events and issues like the economic crisis, sustainable development, environmental concerns and stewardship, all from the lens of human rights and dignity.

Charity is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine.

….Benedict stated early in the encyclical.

I am aware of the ways in which charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields — the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger — it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility.

Charity must be understood in light of the truth, he continues.

This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence.

Which is a continuation of his ongoing teaching to beware of the ‘dictatorship of relativism’ in our age.

As I’m reading this, I’m thinking about that false dichotomy that persists between ‘the peace and social justice crowd’ in Catholic activism and ‘the pro-life crowd’, as if they are mutually exclusive.

Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present.

And at this point, Benedict turns (or returns, from past and frequent references) to the ‘Common Good.’

To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of “all of us”, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it. To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity…

The sharing of goods and resources, from which authentic development proceeds, is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility, but by the potential of love that overcomes evil with good…

The Church doesn’t have technical solutions to offer, he says, and doesn’t want to interfere in state politics. But the Church does have the mission of advancing unchanging truths about human rights and dignity in a very changing global culture.

After all…

…as society becomes ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors but does not make us brothers.

And this is only the beginning of the encyclical.

International news media began picking up on it right away, perhaps surprisingly given other news stories captivating the media today.

Here’s Reuters:

The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence and called for “forms of redistribution” of wealth overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.

Benedict said “there is an urgent need of a true world political authority” whose task would be “to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result.”

Such an authority would have to be “regulated by law” and “would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights.”

“Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums,” he said.

The United Nations, economic institutions and international finance all had to be reformed “even in the midst of a global recession,” he said in the encyclical, a booklet of 141 pages.

That’s not surprising, given that Benedict tried to say the same thing – with nuance and gentle persuasion – before the General Assembly in his address at the UN last April. But that reform has to be grounded on moral truths about humanity.

The New York Times reported excitedly that Benedict is calling for a “new economic world order” and “radical rethinking” of the global economy. But it took until the last line of the article to get to this, and even then as an awkward afterthought:

In line with what he calls “respecting the intrinsic value of creation,” he also decried stem cell research, abortion and euthanasia.

Embryonic stem cell research, to be clear.

NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez had this interesting Tweet this afternoon:

if i were obama, i wouldnt want to meet the pope after he gives a 127 page (in the official vatican english version) defense of truth