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The economical thought at Caritas in veritate
with Markus Krienke
CONFUSION IN THE MESSAGE OF THE ENCYCLICAL?
The actual encyclical Caritas in veritate
of Benedict XVI
takes and proposes many themes
which until now, we have not
seen in previous encyclicals,
in the long tradition of 100 years
of social encyclicals
of Rerum novarum
of 1891 to the
Centesium annus of 1991.
We only think, pars pro toto,
about the dynamics,
about the questions of the mass-media,
of the bioethics,
of the environment
and many other questions,
also of the technique etc,
which for the first time
are resumed in this encyclical.
This makes reborn the doubt
if this encyclical is not
a little to large,
if it doesn't loose the concentration
exactly on the political economic questions,
on which, until now,
the social encyclicals
were always focused.
First of all, we have to say
that this enlargement of prospective
is due to an enlargement of reflection
which the same Benedict XVI
elaborates in this actual encyclical.
The great Pope theologian
re-thought the fundamental
of social doctrine of the Church,
which is the human dignity
and the principle of personality,
and has declined not only
for it’s incisiveness on classical
principles of solidarity and subsidiarity,
of common wealth,
but also for all the interpersonal
social dimensions
of relations between people,
which the encyclicals have not
underlined with this intensity
and with this incisiveness.
We remember that Benedict XVI
says that it’s not enough
theorize the structures
and the principles of a correct society,
we must also awaken
the sense of reciprocity,
for the dimension of how we behave
between one and the other
how we behave towards others.
This thematizes once again
a dimension that maybe
in the encyclicals
which followed a vein which tend to be
a little more liberal,
was not considered with this intensity,
namely the dimension of duty,
the duty of the first person.
And that’s the question,
the prospective which opens
many new fields of reflexion,
because towards the environment
the human being is especially
requested, not because of the rights,
towards the environment,
but because of duty towards
of the environment.
In the bioscience, in the bioethics,
in the mass media,
we meet the same dynamics,
all dynamics which float
on a wave of a globalization
which give to people,
in this ambit, only rights
without remember that
they have deep ethic
and moral duties.
That’s why the Pope
when he thematizes,
especially the globalization
in the actual encyclical,
tends to underline the dimension
of the duty, and the duty
in all this fields
which the globalization has opened,
which before wasn't in the middle
of the reflexion of the social problematic.
So, if the Pope resumes
all this dynamics
he does nothing else than apply the intuition,
the deep idea of the Social doctrine
of the Church, to resume
all the difficult moments,
which require answers in our society,
which today is no more only
a European national society,
but it’s a worldwide society,
and tries to give answers.
It gives answers starting from
that dimension of duty
who everyone have regarding each other,
of the environment,
through all the new sciences
and new techniques.
Because of that we have to say
that it’s rather a merit
of this new encyclical
to thematize all this new dimensions,
to valorize, for then get
from it the concrete consequences,
stands to whole the theological
research to the whole work
of the announcement of the Church
and of the work of the experts
to get from this cues
of concrete applications,
applications which in this sense
the same encyclical doesn't want
and may not give.
That’s why all this dimensions
open rather a richness,
in a certain sense,
which feeds a confusion
which someone could maybe criticize.