Charity and Truth
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
26 Jul 2009
"Charity in Truth" is the title of Pope Benedict's recent encyclical letter on social justice. It is a good title, but linking both together in practice can be difficult.
Especially since Pope Leo XIII's famous letter "Rerum Novarum" in 1891 on the Industrial Revolution, the popes have written regularly on public life.
Pope Benedict's letter has not provoked a storm of publicity or controversy, but it has been well received.
I found it an unusual encyclical because it broke very little new ground, while it echoed some of Pope Benedict's principal concerns, such as the necessity of God and love for society's well being and the importance of continuity and development in understanding Catholic history and doctrine. In other words the Catholic Church did not reinvent itself at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and did not reject its earlier history.
Pope Benedict does not look on the New Testament as providing a set of answers for situations which it did not discuss, perhaps because they did not then exist. These have to be developed from general principles and specific prudent actions.
An accurate diagnosis, using our reason to recognize truth, is necessary before our charity or faith can be effective.
Many of those who work for social justice were sympathetic also to the Pope's concern for the physical environment. But too many passed over in silence the Pope's linking of life issues, of marriage and family to social justice, his rejection of abortion and euthanasia on justice grounds. A proper moral ecology is not just limited to financial matters (although honest, hard working people are vital for prosperity), but requires freedom for religious discussion, an acknowledgement of the sanctity of life and a recognition of our duties as well as our rights. We have a duty to future generations to use resources prudently and not damage the environment.
This letter draws on Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, which emphasized the redistribution of wealth to the poor. It was something of a surprise that so little was said of the present world-wide financial crisis of capitalism, where 40 per cent of the world's wealth evaporated and where debt levels across the globe are three times what they were in the 1980s.
The Pope insists that good intentions are not enough and that we have to be using a proper understanding of human nature to make things better. Truth and reason and needed with good will.
