Pope Benedict XVI has just published his first social encyclical letter On Integral Human Development In Charity and Truth, Caritate In Veritate. In keeping with conciliar and post-conciliar social doctrine, Caritate In Veritate presents the human being's development in the truthful, charitable and saving light of Jesus Christ. "Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and, especially, by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity."

With this extraordinary insightful introduction, Pope Benedict XVI is closely echoing and following the path already set by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter marking the beginning of his papal ministry, Redemptor Hominis. In that great encyclical, Pope John Paul said that the dignity of man is to be found in and through the redeeming act of Jesus Christ, who himself became man in order to save him. "This man is the way for the Church - a way that, in a sense, is the basis of all the other ways that the Church must walk because man, every man without any exception whatever, has been redeemed by Christ, and because with man, with each man without any exception whatever, Christ is, in a way, united, even when man is unaware of it: 'Christ, who died and was raised up for all, provides man', each man and every man, 'with the light and the strength to measure up to his supreme calling (Redemptor Hominis)'."

Furthermore, man's dignity also rests in his eternal destiny with God. Caritate In Veritate points out that this is, in fact, the path and the end of man's integral development. Thus, it holds that "without the perspective of eternal life, human progress in this world is denied breathing-space".

Charity in truth is at the service of man redeemed by Jesus Christ. The Pontiff explains that charity in truth is the principle that needs to guide man's moral actions: "justice and the common good". The Church's prophetic "mission of truth" is that of enlightening man to create "a society that is attuned to [him], to his dignity, to his vocation". Any human authentic development that man experiences is relevant solely insofar as it is initiated and worked from and with God, man's unique creator.

"To regard development as a vocation is to recognise... that it derives from a transcendent call," says Pope Benedict. This development is integral only when it "promote[s] the good of every man and of the whole man". When man is not one with his will, thought and, moreover, with other individuals and peoples he brings on himself the worst underdevelopment ever. Today's irony is that "as society becomes ever more globalised, it makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers". As people and Christians we are called to do everything possible in order that economics "evolve[s] towards fully human outcomes".

Unfortunately, the human development in our time is seriously impaired by speculative financial dealing, provoked and unattended migration of people, "the unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources", corruption, the domineering attitude of multinational enterprises towards workers, misuse of international aids and the monopoly of knowledge by the rich countries.

These problems call for "a new humanistic synthesis". This human existential catastrophe "obliges us to re-plan our journey".

In the prevailing situation men are divided among themselves in many ways. Rich countries outsourcing production at low cost, cultural eclecticism, cultural levelling, anti-birth mentality, violation of the right to religious freedom, violence, the promotion of atheism, short-term economy, a market and an economy that are free from the "'influences' of a moral character", individual rights without duties, hedonism, the bureaucratic machinery of international organisations, "the exploitation of non-renewable resources" and the "lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death". These problems can be effectively dealt with if one realises two things.

First, that "the development of peoples depend above all on a recognition that the human race is a single family".

Second, that the Christian faith together with other religions, is called to contribute to development "only if God has a place in the public realm". The latter can help extensively in the fostering of the principles of gratuitousness, transparency, honesty, responsibility, solidarity, subsidiarity, "the centrality and integrity of the family" and the respect for human life from its conception till its natural termination.

Real development in charity and truth "needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, "love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace". Only in this way can "the dignity of persons and peoples" be promoted and supported, as it should, most notably by "an ethics which is people-centred".

With Caritate In Veritate Pope Benedict XVI shed an important light on the prevailing international situation by re-proposing Christian humanism as the foundation and source from which authentic human integral development should be sought and pursued in charity and truth.