Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Review of Pope Benedict's New Encyclical

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, has provided an introduction to Pope Benedict's new Encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" (Love in Truth). Here is a short quote from his article entitled "It's a Moral Document, Not a Political One".

"Long before there was a "left wing," or a "right wing," there was the Gospel, and long after these political labels have faded into oblivion, the Gospel will remain. In light of this, it is incredibly important that we come to Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," as a document that should inform our outlook.

We might sum up the Pope's thinking on the economy this way: Each of us must answer Christ’s question, "Who do you say that I am?" If we, with Peter, answer "The Messiah," then that should direct the axis of our life. Our most important reality must be the truth of our relationships. In this way, we can understand how the law and prophets could be summed up in Christ's two commandments: That we love God totally, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Thus we are able to speak of "caritas in veritate."
Once we accept Christ and these two commandments, we can no longer ask Cain's question: "Am I my brother’s keeper?" Instead, we must realize that our exercise of freedom cannot take the form of simply amassing the most wealth that we can. Rather, all that we do in freedom must reflect that reality and all our actions must take into account the effects of those actions on others. We need look no further than the first two words of the "Our Father," which Pope Benedict XVI quotes at the end of this document to see the common human family to which we belong."


Read Carl Anderson's entire article.


Read "Caritas In Veritate" in english.

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