Christianity's right of citizenship

"Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness... the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity." This striking sentence marks the beginning of Pope Benedict's third encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). The 30,000+ word document was released last Tuesday just a few days before the world's leading countries met for the G8 summit in Italy.

The encyclical does not propose technical solutions to the grave problems facing the world today. This is not the Church's task. In the encyclical the Pope put into practice the Church's obligation to enlighten human history "with the light of truth and with the warmth of the love of Jesus Christ", as Cardinal Renato Martino so aptly put it during the press conference launching the letter.

This role of the Church is more important and lasting than to propose technical solutions to concrete problems. The principles that the Pope writes about are based on the Gospel. These principles enlighten those who have the duty to find solutions. These solutions are bound to fail if they are not enshrined in principles that place the long term good of a humanity, made up of people who are the sons and daughters of God, as the centre of human activity.

It is therefore important to read the encyclical in this light. Those who read it to discover whether the Pope is on the right or on the left get nowhere.

In the letter's introduction, the Pope reminds us that "charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine". The Pope, however, is conscious of the risk that this may be misinterpreted, as it could be divorced from ethical living. The idea that charity is mainly giving money to the poor is a common misconception. To avoid this risk, the Pope links charity with truth. "A Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance."

For Steve Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington, the encyclical offers a powerful warning to the modern world - especially the West. He said "it speaks to the dangers of commerce, popular culture and technology unhinged from a vision for the common good informed by charity".

According to several commentators the new encyclical is not just an updating of Pope Paul VI's 1967 social encyclical Populorum Progressio (The Progress of Peoples). The wide-ranging encyclical breaks new ground on such topics as micro-financing, intellectual property rights, globalisation and the concept of putting one's wealth at the service of the poor.

One can debate whether the encyclical is, in the words of John L. Allen Jr, an example of Christian humanism for the globalised world. However, there is no doubt that the encyclical proves without doubt that the Church has a valid contribution to make to contemporary culture and that its voice is a voice worth listening to.

Cardinal Martino aptly said that the encyclical shows that Christianity has the "right of citizenship" in building human society.

The encyclical's English version can be found online at www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm.