A Letter from the Pope
“Caritas in Veritate”
by Victor Hoagland, C.P.
One of the best known images of St. Peter is his statue in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The apostle, seated on a chair, has his hand raised, not just in blessing, but making a point. He’s the teacher of the church.
I passed that statue in November, 2008, and someone snapped my picture as I was doing what pilgrims have been doing for centuries - touching the apostle’s foot to ask his blessing.
When I looked at the photo later, I was in for a surprise. In the picture’s upper left hand corner was the statue of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of my community, the Passionists, high in a prominent niche among the founders of religious orders.
St. Paul of the Cross strongly supported the popes in the 18th century and urged his followers to do the same. By slipping into that picture, was he reminding me, I wondered, to listen carefully to those who follow Peter today?
A major encyclical
On June 29, 2009, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI issued Caritas in Veritate, a major encyclical on social issues affecting our world today. The present pope was continuing the ministry of Peter through a letter sent to bishops and people throughout the world.
It took me a week to read through the encyclical after it was released and I can’t say I’ve grasped it all, even though I’ve returned to it a number of times since, but let me tell you a few things I’ve taken away from it.
As you read this extensive, densely packaged work, remember that the word “encyclical” is close to the word “encyclopedia.” The pope is speaking about a world that’s big and complex. It can’t be dealt within “sound bites,” as our news media tend to do, nor can its problems be solved through shouting matches or screaming television ads.
No, our world doesn’t respond to a quick fix. It’s not a world of one issue, either. Caritas in Veritate doesn’t oversimplify life and the problems our world faces, and neither should we.
The name Pope Benedict chose for his encyclical “Charity in truth” says something in itself. We tend to reduce love to a personal dimension – loving our neighbor next door, our family, our circle of friends. That’s part of the truth of love we may know best.
Beyond a personal dimension
But the pope says that love calls us beyond that. We’re called to love a larger world and work at building – and repairing – our earthly city.
That’s not an easy job as our world struggles with a new globalism, advancing technology and, today especially, economic and political strife. We are living in a world where science offers promises, but it isn’t our sole answer. Love – patient love, hopeful love, sacrificing love, love that calls for all our talents and gifts – is needed. That love Christ begets in us.
Caritas in Veritate calls for Christ’s love, a love that serves not just me or my loved ones, or my country, or my church, but the development of the human being, the whole human being and all human beings who belong to the wide universe of creation.
It calls for a love that, respecting the reality of things and God’s plan for them, brings all its gifts of mind and heart to the cause of human development in our world.
The pope’s encyclical is many-faceted. The New York Times columnist, Ross Douthout, remarked on its “left-right fusionism.” “It links the dignity of labor to the sanctity of marriage. It praises the redistribution of wealth while emphasizing the importance of decentralized governance. It connects the despoiling of the environment to the mass destruction of human embryos.” (NY Times, July 13, 2009)
The pope obviously believes that Christians should be involved in a broad range of inter-connected social issues and not a single social problem.
I wondered after reading the encyclical how the 82-year-old pope felt after putting his signature to this massive, complex document. Tired out?
Surely he was. The encyclical and the big issues it deals with would tire out anyone who looks at it. But instead of exhaustion, the pope in his letter promises something else to those who involve themselves in the large issues that face our world – the surprising gratuitousness of God.
We often think it’s all up to us, the pope says. “Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society.” (34) But surprising, life-giving gifts await those who build our earthly city, “gifts beyond our merit… in many different forms” that awaken us to the presence of God.
“Charity in truth places us before the astonishing experience of gift.” That’s something to think about as we face our world today. We may tend to shun the massive problems that confront us in our own communities as well as the world community. Too much, we say.
But the pope says that love is at its best when life seems too much. Jesus Christ showed that when he faced with love the challenge of the Cross.
Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P. is former editor of The Passionists' Compassion Magazine.
Note: numbers following quotations refer to sections of the Encyclical, which may be found online.
