Caritas in Veritate

Pope Benedict XVI

Selected Key Points

Jesus P. Estanislao, Ph. D.
I. Charity in Truth: Key to &
Driver of Development
 Development springs from
relationships.
 These relationships need to be imbued
with charity
 We practice charity in light of truth
I. Charity in Truth underscores:
 Justice

 Common good
I. Populorum Progressio (Paul VI)
40 years ago

 Globalization, a much bigger reality

today
 Relationships, not imbued with charity
in truth
 II. Message of Populorum
Progressio
 Church: can not be confined to works of
charity
: must proclaim truths for
development
 Development: for every person involving
all aspects of life (incl. Spiritual)
II. Message of Populorum
Progressio
 Development: can not be without God
(technology alone, NO)
 Social ethics (justice & peace,
personal dignity) connected with life
ethics (value of human life)
 Salvation connected with personal and
social development
 II. Message of Populorum
Progressio
• Development: a calling, vocation from God.
• We must respond freely and responsibly
do , know , have more = be more

• It is for all, in all aspects •will

•mind
•charity
• Rely on God
III. Human Development in
Our Time

Ideal Actual
Economic Participation by Rising inequality
emerging within and across
economies economies
Social Educated Rising insecurity
societies
Political Democracies Weakening of
nation states
III. Human Development in
Our Time
 Culture : relativism and leveling
 Poverty: hunger; no respect for right to
life, food, access to water
 Life: not open to life; anti-birth mentality
 Religious freedom: violence &
terrorism in God’s name; religious
indifference
III. Human Development in
Our Time
• Need for dialogue between disciplines
• Inter-action: science (truth) with charity
• Less segmentation:
Theology and science
Social cohesion
Social capital
Trust in democracy
Long-term sustainability
IV. Fraternity, Economic
Development, Civil Society
 Each person is a gift, never self-
sufficient;
 Each economy can not be self-
sufficient;
 The market is necessary, must operate
on solidarity
IV. Fraternity, Economic
Development, Civil Society
Justice Commutative
Distributive
Social
Logic Economic (Exchange)
Political (redistribution)
Unconditional gift (fraternity)
Institutions Market
The state
Civil Society
Giving To acquire
Out of duty
Solidarity, gratuitousness
IV. Fraternity, Economic
Development, Civil Society

In markets •Shareholders & stakeholders

•Short-term & Long-term value
•Social responsibility & economic returns
•Not for profit & for profit corporations and
. associations
In politics •Dispersed political authority
•Democracy

•Respect for human rights

In globalization •Neither
good nor bad
•Communion
 V. Development of People, Rights
& Duties, the Environment

 Need to stress both rights & duties

 Duties set limits, provide framework to
rights
 Rights come from our personal nature,
not from consensus of majority
 Responsible Pro-creation

 Contributes to human development

 Deeper meaning of sexuality
 Openness to life  rich resource
 Low birth rates  problems •social
•economic
•psychological
 Corporate Social Responsibility
 Stress on ethics, not as a salve for greedy
conscience
 Based on 2 pillars  personal dignity
 transcendent moral norms
 Call for “for-profit” corporations
oriented to social welfare
stressing “centrality” of persons
 The Environment
 2 extremes  nature more important than person
 subject nature to total technical subjugation
 Nature: for the benefit and progress of humanity and its successive
generations
efficiency in tapping
non-renewables
lower consumption
 Energy:
renewables: stress
 Responsible consumption and life style
a. Connect human and environmental ecology • life
b. Respect for life and respect for nature • sexuality
c. Respect for person and respect for environment • marriage
• family
• social relation
 Development

 Not a mere product of man

 A calling from God. A part of his plan
 A duty
 God shows us the way to development
 VI. Cooperation of the Human
Family

 Isolation – deepest form of poverty and

unhappiness
 We are born for relationships
 Our social nature is basis for human family
 Relationships enrich our identity
 Humanity: one human family
 VI. Cooperation of the Human
Family

 Openness to culture of others

 Right to profess one’s religion
a. Against secularism
b. Against fundamentalism
c. Need: dialogue between faith and reason
 VI. Cooperation of the Human
Family

 Subsidiarity  autonomy of intermediate bodies

 calls for freedom and participation
 against absolute welfare state
 complemented by solidarity
 VI. Cooperation of the Human
Family

 Aid  empowerment of recipients

 no total give-away. Recipients contribute
 free trade > more aid
 extend beyond economics
 stress education / no cultural imperialism
 Some Issues

 Education : no relativism in understanding human

nature
 Tourism : sex tourism reflects perverse abuse in
international contacts
 Labor Migration: problems are international and
demand cooperation
 Some Issues
 Provision of decent work: prime responsibility of national economies
 Finance: Not an autonomous sector
Must serve production
Needs regulation to curb greed
Needs continues experimentation
Underscore: responsibility of investors and financiers
Micro-finance: opens doors
Consumer cooperatives
Marketing cooperatives
 UN : Reform and strengthening
Participation of emerging countries
Needed: a world authority with effective enforcement powers
 VII. Development of People &
Technology

 Development of people is development of

individual person
 NOT by technology or finance alone
 Can not write off God & His laws
 VII. Development of People &
Technology

 Technology reflects man’s genius.

 Can not be self-sufficient
 Addresses “how”. We must also ask “why”
 Balanced with moral responsibility
 Combine: doing with thinking
 Development
 More than professional competence
 financial engineering
 free markets
 faster reforms
 flow of investments
 Also moral consistency
 Confusion of ends & means economics: profit max
 Conscience politics: power
science: research findings
 uprightness
 common good
 Development
 Peace-making : not merely technical agreements
aid
: also listening &
common values
 Media : focus on human dignity, fraternity &
common good
: reason (technology) open to transcendence
(faith)
 Development
 Immanence (self-enclosed system)
 indifferent attitude to what is human
 materialistic, mechanistic view of life
 disregards humane dignity
 indifference to hunger & poverty
 neurosis & psychological problems
 no importance to interior life
 no immaterial, spiritual dimension
 no reaching out to the heights
 Needed for Authentic
Development
 A humanism open to God.
 Regard for life as a gift.
 a joyful task
 accomplished in solidarity
 for the common good
 through social, civic, political institutions
 built on foundations of justice & peace
 Caritas in Veritate
Pope Benedict XVI

Selected Key Points

Jesus P. Estanislao, Ph. D.