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The economical thought at Caritas in veritate
with Giulia Paola di Nicola
A LETTER OF HOPE
Generally, when a new encyclical letter
is published we think that
there will be a lot of news.
When reading it, I had the feeling,
and many others like me,
that there are not great news
when comparing it to the social doctrine of the Church,
but rather some fine brush strokes.
Subjects that in other places
had remained a little in the shade.
For example, the aspect of the third sector,
some aspects of finance,
even technical and specific,
which had not been touched.
Or even the responsible paternity,
the responsible procreation of
which has been talked about.
So I think that if we want to express
what is new in this encyclical letter,
we should rather look at the sentiment,
the positive approach, of hope,
with which Benedetto XVI
looks at the different problems.
And then the attempt to do
a big general summary
which encloses many problems.
It is substantially an encyclical letter
about economy, but when reading it
every one will notice that it touches
the problems of the environment,
and here and there the family,
and many other things which are not
directly economical.
It is an economic encyclical letter,
but at the meantime it is strongly anthropological.
Because in the thinking of the Church,
work does not exist
as an abstract concept.
In the same way well being material doesn't exist.
Everything is taken back to the human being.
And it would not be possible
to face an economic subject
without taking it back
to the human being who works,
who produces, who invests,
and so that is the place
where the ethic direction
of what would otherwise only be
an exact science lies,
a science which would touch
the materialistic dimension of life.