"Why is “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical on the world economy and authentic human development, so poorly written?
That is meant as a serious, honest question, not a snap way of dismissing a remarkable document, brimming with profound ideas and moral passion and issued at a time when it could hardly be more relevant."
When I read through the encyclical on printouts, I was very excited about the trajectory of the pope's thoughts and the challenge for me with regard to my work, my political and cultural involvement, my engagement with reality. When Steinfels and Weigel bluster about confusion, what they're really saying is that the document does not lend itself to the ideological forms that they're used to interpreting things. I'm taking the encyclical with me on vacation this week — and eagerly awaiting my own copy in the next issue of Traces.
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Ray Tapajna Chronicles reviews Pope Benedict economic encyclical at http://tapsearch.com/pope-benedict-economic-encyclical
Rerum Novarum stood the test of time for more than a 100 years and still stands as a standard for workers human dignity and employers rights.
Pope Benedict now responds to the Bewildered New World ( Manuel Castells 0 and it may be too late and too little to stop the surge of globalization and free trade that created a new "ism" that came in the world without any real announcement or portfolio.
See also http://linkbun.ch/aztb selection of sites that forecasted our economic storms for years.
This new encyclical will be read by nuns, priests, pundits and Catholic teachers as de rigeur. It will be read by few others. The world government thing is an example of thinking the nice thing and saying it irrespective of whether it is the realistic thing given that the UN itself is no one's idea of efficiency and security for all the world. Their soldiers watched silently for four years as Syria delivered truckloads of missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon; they have been accused of sexual molestation in Africa; they left Iraq as soon as their offices were hit with a bomb. And now it seems Benedict wants a still bigger version of this. Watch the encyclical drop out of Catholic web discourse which it already has at some sites.
WE are not compelled to flatter everything coming into encyclical form and since the world authority thing is a new idea, it doesn't qualify under LG 25 as something often repeated by the Pope. Let's pray he never goes there again.
Hi Bill,
Interesting that you're focusing on one line. I guess you haven't had time to read the whole thing in depth yet either... :)
I read the whole thing, found it to be self correcting generalities and that is why I think no business or political leader who are short on time by nature...will read it at all. And Obama will give up when he early on hits the praise the encyclicals section...with its introduction of the term "great" for Pope Paul VI. Nothing like branding one's product by sheer flattery. It...the encyclical... will vanish as did the motu proprio embroilment as to the Latin Mass. Where did that go?
Yes, I've read it through once also, but I haven't yet read it in depth. Personally, I felt excited and challenged as I read it. There is a group besides teachers, monks, nuns, and priests who will read it, and that is those who have already connected with the writings of Pope Benedict. Not most Catholics to be sure - perhaps overwhelmed by the vastness of Catholicism, most Catholics develop filters in the form of smugness.
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