Caritas In Veritate Bishop Lafont

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Benedict XVI’s Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Encyclical « « Caritas in Veritate Caritas in Veritate » » Presentation Presentation To the AEC Regional Justice To the AEC Regional Justice and Peace convention and Peace convention 12-13 September, 2009 12-13 September, 2009

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Power point presentation by Bishop Emmanuel Lafont, Diocese of Cayenne, French Guiana and AEC Chairman of the Justice and Peace(J&P) Commission at the Seminar at the St John Vianney Seminary, Tunapuna Trinidad on 12 and 13 September.

Transcript of Caritas In Veritate Bishop Lafont

Page 1: Caritas In Veritate   Bishop Lafont

Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Benedict XVI’s Encyclical « « Caritas in VeritateCaritas in Veritate » »

PresentationPresentationTo the AEC Regional Justice and To the AEC Regional Justice and

Peace conventionPeace convention12-13 September, 200912-13 September, 2009

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HistoryHistory

• Caritas in Veritate is one of the longest ever papal documents

• It has a long history; it was due to be published in 2007

• Its publication, however, is very timely in the middle of a world financial, economic and social crisis

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Content:Content:Introduction• Chapter 1: The Message of Populorum

Progressio• Chapter 2: Human Development in our Time• Chapter 3: Fraternity, Economic Development

and Civil Society• Chapter 4: The Development of People, Rights

and Duties, the Environment• Chapter 5: The Cooperation of the Human

Family• Chapter 6: The Development of Peoples and

Technology• Conclusion

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IntroductionIntroduction

• It is an impressive reflexion on the absolute complementarity between love and truth. If love is the essence of human life, according to God’s plan, it cannot be lived without truth

• Because without truth, charity could be mere subjectivity, sentimentality

• And truth without charity would end up as a cold, inhuman reality

• Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity

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• Therefore charity in truth is the driving force behind authentic human development.

• Caritas in Veritate is therefore the principle on which the Church’s social teaching is based

• A principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action.

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First criterion: JusticeFirst criterion: Justice

• Justice: in any society there is a system of justice.

• Charity goes beyond justice, because in loving I offer what is mine

• But charity supposes justice

• Because I must first give to people what is theirs!

• Justice is inseparable from charity

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2th criterion: the common good2th criterion: the common good

• “The common good” is the good of “all of us”

• I cannot live without others

• Others need me too.

• To love my neighbour is to take a stand for the “common good”

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40 years after PP. 40 years after PP. Benedict reaffirms that:Benedict reaffirms that:

• “The sharing of goods and resources,

• From which authentic development proceeds

• Is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility

• But by the power of love that overcomes evil with good” (cf. Rom 12:21).

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CHAPTER ONE: CHAPTER ONE: THE MESSAGE OF POPULORUM THE MESSAGE OF POPULORUM

PROGRESSIOPROGRESSIO• B XVI reads PP within its context (1967)

• Closely related to Vatican II Gaudium et Spes (1965)

• And with Paul VI’s magisterial teaching,

• In Octogesima Adveniens (1971)

• In Humanae Vitae (1968)

• In Evangelii Nuntiandi 1975)

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Populorum ProgressioPopulorum Progressio

• In PP, Paul VI says that progress is a vocation! • Such a vocation requires a free and

responsible answer, it requires freedom• Together with freedom, Progress requires

respect for the truth about human beings – promoting “integral development of the whole man and of all men”

• Progress as a vocation puts charity at a central place within development

• PP, finally, points out the urgency of reforms if we are to redress the injustices of this world

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CHAPTER TWO:CHAPTER TWO:HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN OUR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN OUR

TIMETIME• Paul VI, in 1967, wanted to fight hunger• Today, the situation is very different :

– The picture has many overlapping layers– The world’s wealth is growing in absolute

terms, but not equality– Demarcation between rich and poor is less

clear– Scandal of glaring inequalities continues– Corruption – no respect for human rights

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Present situationPresent situation

• Development has come, but not integral

• The world is more integrated – not more just

• Socially : deregulation, loss of rights and jobs

• Culturally: ecclectism and confusion

• Hunger still scandalously wide spread

• Life not respected (new policies) but in jeopardy, though openness to life is at the centre of integral development (n° 28)

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Summary chapter IISummary chapter II

• The present situation demands new solutions:

– Research on access to steady employment for all

– Proper reflexion on the meaning of the economy and its goals – man at the centre

– Far-sighted revision of the current model of development so as to correct its dysfunctions

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Populorum progressio’s legacyPopulorum progressio’s legacy

• Forty years after PP, the theme of progress remains an open question within a new framework of the explosion of worldwide interdependence, known as globalisation, which in itself, represents a major opportunity.

• The pope does not lament, he wants to look at the situation in a positive way

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CHAPTER THREE:CHAPTER THREE:FRATERNITY, ECONOMIC FRATERNITY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CIVIL DEVELOPMENT AND CIVIL

SOCIETYSOCIETY• In this chapter, B XVI makes two major

points:

• 1. There will be no true development without a dimension of gift and gratuity

• 2. Every aspect of Economy, Finance, Business enterprise, has a moral value and moral standard to uphold

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Chapter III – its contentChapter III – its content

• 1. Its starts by affirming the necessity of gratuity in human social life: man is made for gift

• 2. It continues by analysing the role of the market

• 3. It analyses the moral dimension required in the life of any business enterprise

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Chapter III – the experience of giftChapter III – the experience of gift

• Human beings are made for gift, which expresses and makes present their transcendent dimension.

• But this nature is wounded – and if we believe ourselves to be self sufficient, we end up confusing happiness and salvation

• This leads to major abuses, for states are unable to deliver justice as promised.

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2. The ambivalence of market2. The ambivalence of market

• In a climate of mutual trust, the Market is a good institution, permitting encounter between people.

• Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through commercial logic. It needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good:

• The market is just an instrument which needs to be directed

• Principle of gratuitousness and the logic of gift must find their place within economic activity

• The market must draw its moral energies from other subjects

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The ambivalence of MarketThe ambivalence of Market

• Justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity – every economic decision has a moral dimension (37).

• In the global era, economic activity cannot prescind from gratuitousness. Without gratuity there can be no justice in the first place (38)

• The international market, according to PP, must be capable of including all people and not just the better-off. The State has to work for this (39).

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3. New way of understanding 3. New way of understanding Business EnterpriseBusiness Enterprise

• Need for a new way of understanding business enterprise (40).– They are too much answerable to investors– Without any stable director– Lacking sense of responsibility towards the stakeholders (workers,

suppliers, consumers)– Quick to globalize merely for profit purposes

• There is a need for a greater social responsibility on their part

• Investment always has moral, as well as economic significance

• There is a need to take more care of the workers. They are part of the enterprise.

• Business activity has to be seen as a human significance, prior to its professional one.

• Every one who works is a creator (Paul VI)

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CHAPTER FOUR:CHAPTER FOUR:THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF

PEOPLES – PEOPLES – RIGHTS AND DUTIES – THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES – THE

ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

• This chapter brings a profound reflexion on human beings and their participation in the integral development of humankind.

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Chapter four - contentChapter four - content

• 1. Man, subject of rights… and duties! (43)• 2. Population growth, not a threat to

progress (44)• 3. The economy needs ethics at all levels

– under which criteria ? (45-47)• 4. Development and natural environment –

energy – etc… need for more solidarity (48)

• 5.We ought to look for a new lifestyle! (51)

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Chapter 4 – 1: Rights and DutiesChapter 4 – 1: Rights and Duties

• “the reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty”

– One cannot claim only his or her rights.– Need for a new reflexion on how rights presuppose

duties, if they are not to become mere licence.– Grave contradiction : claiming alleged “rights” while

many people’s rights are violated– In fact, duties reinforce rights and call for their

defence and promotion as a task to be undertaken in the service of the common good.

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Chapter 4 – 2 population growthChapter 4 – 2 population growth

• Population growth is not the primary cause of underdevelopment.

• Cf. what happens in developed societies (reduction of infant mortality – rise in average life expectancy) and crisis where there is alarming decline in birth rate.

• Morally acceptable openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource

– Where there is decline in birth rate, there is• Strain on social welfare services• Increase their cost• Reduction in the availability of qualified workers• Narrowing “brain pool” upon which nations draw for their needs• Very small families with impoverished social relations

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Chapter 4 – 3 EthicsChapter 4 – 3 Ethics

• Ethics, a word which has to be clarified– Everybody speaks of ethics. But on which

basis?– For the Church, two pillars to true ethics

• Ethics is based on man’s creation “in the image of God” (Gn 1:27)

• Transcendent value of natural moral norms

– Without these pillars, ethics risks becoming subservient to existing economic and financial systems rather than correcting their dysfunctional aspects.

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Chapter 4 – 3 Ethics in BusinessChapter 4 – 3 Ethics in Business

• In the present context, the distinction between profit-based companies and non-profit organisations can no longer do full justice to reality.

• Profit-based companies have to achieve the goal of a more human and social end

• In any company and in development programs, the principle of the centrality of the human person must be preserved.

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Chapter 4 – 4 EnvironmentChapter 4 – 4 Environment

• Development today is closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment.

– Man should consider nature as a gift at our disposal, a sign of God’s love

– Without being tempted to consider it as un untouchable taboo

– Or, on the contrary, abusing it;– Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of

nature as true fruit of God’s creation. – It is contrary to authentic development to view nature as

something more important than the human person.

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Chapter 4 – 5 energyChapter 4 – 5 energy

• need to look afresh to the question of energy:– Energy should not be hoarded by powerful states

against others.– International community has the duty to regulate

the exploitation of non renewable resources involving poor countries

– The pressing moral need for renewed solidarity.(49)

• Need to care for future generations: what kind of world are they going to inherit?

– Need to protect the environment – The notion of “efficiency” is not value-free.

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Chapter 4 – 6 New lifestyleChapter 4 – 6 New lifestyle

• Contemporary society has to review its lifestyle, away from hedonism and consumerism, so as to stop impoverishing the earth

– There is a need for what might be called a human ecology, correctly understood

– The deterioration of nature is connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence

– In order to protect nature, we ought to consider the moral tenor of society n° 51

– It there is a lack or respect for the right of life,... the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and that of environmental ecology

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CHAPTER FIVE:CHAPTER FIVE:THE COOPERATION OF THE THE COOPERATION OF THE

HUMAN FAMILYHUMAN FAMILY• In this chapter, the Holy Father calls us to

a renewed understanding of the human being as a being of relations (in the image of the Trinity).

• He then invites us to apply this concept of relationship to all peoples: international cooperation is of the essence if we want real progress in this world

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Chapter five: fostering relationsChapter five: fostering relations

• in n°53 – 55, the pope analyses the relational dimension of humanity.

• Christian faith holds that mankind is a family. the one family of God

• All religions ought to teach this. • A Religion which separates, isolates, does

not take part in the social life, fails to its role.

• Need for fruitful dialogue between believers and with non believers.(57)

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Chapter 5 – Human CooperationChapter 5 – Human Cooperation

• The cooperation between nations goes together with the principle of subsidiarity

• It is required for better education facilities

• It promotes true human tourism

• Accepts migrations as a challenging reality

• Tries to bring about dignified work for all

• Acknowledges that finances too must abide by ethical values

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Chapter 5 – Reform the United Chapter 5 – Reform the United NationsNations

• The Pope calls for a deep reform of the United Nations Organisation

• So that a true World Political Authority may emerge

• According to John XXIII’s wish and

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CHAPTER SIX: CHAPTER SIX: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF

PEOPLES AND TECHNOLOGYPEOPLES AND TECHNOLOGY

• In this chapter, the Pope reminds us that technology is a formidable instrument but only an instrument.

• Technology will not solve our problems mechanically. It needs a human vision, according to the truth about mankind and its destiny as created by God and for God

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ConclusionConclusion

• Without God, man neither knows which way to go nor even understands who he is.: “apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15, 5) Humanism which excludes God is inhuman humanism

• 79. Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, but deeply involved with others to bring about change in our lives.