Love, truth, and the economy: a reflection on Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate.

• Author: Breen, John M.

INTRODUCTION

There is an old joke that goes something like this: It's late at night and two junkies are sitting on a park bench, both of them coming down from the high of their latest fix. One turns to the other and says, "Do you know what my problem is? Do you know what's wrong with the world? It's these dealers! They control everything! They control the supply and the quality. They corner the market and they charge whatever the hell they want! My problem is I can't afford the good stuff." The second junkie looks at the first with an incredulous smile. As it begins to rain on the two of them, he responds to his complaining bench mate with uncommon clarity and insight: "No, you got it all wrong. That's not your problem. Your problem is you're a junkie."

Although the respective situations are, of course, vastly different, in many important respects, the comments of the first addict are not unlike the government's response to the economic crisis that began in 2007 with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market--a collapse that led to the near total failure of the economy in the fall of 2008. In the aftermath of the crisis, several household names in the fields of financial services, insurance, securities, banking, and investment banking either ceased to exist, were acquired by other firms, or accepted substantial amounts of government money and partial government ownership in the face of imminent collapse. Among these entities were Countryside Financial, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, General Motors, and Chrysler--to name only the most obvious examples. (1)

The U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, and other government officials responded with a practical diagnosis of the financial crisis that had befallen the world. They looked to the existing structures and institutions to understand the problem and to formulate a solution. The problem was a lack of liquidity. The problem was the crushing burden of toxic assets. The problem was the opaque nature of the transactions. The problem was the faulty and insufficient information the ratings agencies provided. The problem was the atrocious lack of regulatory oversight. (2) In a few instances, the government sought to assign blame to those whom it regarded as the responsible parties. For the most part, however, the government simply sought to provide immediate relief by dramatically increasing the supply of what everyone agreed was desperately lacking-namely, credit. Although a more ambitious reform agenda has since been proposed, (3) this basic approach to basic structural reform remains in place.

The addict who complains about his supply of dope and the prices he must pay seems to offer a reasonable, perhaps even sophisticated analysis of the situation in which he finds himself. He looks to the market and sees a systemic problem--one of supply and demand. He seeks to assign blame by pointing to his unsympathetic pusher as the cause of his misery. We know, however, that his analysis falls short. It does not penetrate down to the reality in which his life is truly grounded. No matter how plausible it may sound when spoken, a relatively superficial analysis always yields a relatively superficial solution--a solution that will inevitably prove inadequate over time as circumstances change and the flawed premises upon which the solution is grounded reveal their true weakness.

Some might say that the addict is simply framing the problem as a "practical" matter that calls for a "practical" solution. Invoking such language, however, often masks the deeper values that are at stake in the matter at hand--values that lie hidden beneath the rhetorical gloss of practicality. What is presented as an obvious and simple matter of "common sense" is, upon closer examination, often revealed as something that is highly contestable, indeed, at odds with the values most people hold most dear.

Again, although clearly different in many important respects, the analysis offered by the second addict in the brief story recounted above is not unlike the diagnosis of the world economy offered by the former Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in his recent social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (4)--"Charity in Truth." That is, the Pope's analysis goes beyond a superficial analysis of immediate causes. It goes beyond the language of practicality. It goes beyond structures and institutions and cuts to the heart of the matter, all the way down to the bedrock of the human condition--all the way down to the human person herself.

The ostensible reason behind the publication of the letter--the third encyclical of Benedict's pontificate--was the fortieth anniversary of another papal document, Pope Paul VI's groundbreaking encyclical Populorum Progressio. (5) Celebrating the anniversaries of earlier magisterial texts has proven to be a fruitful method for the development of modern Catholic social teaching. These celebrations have afforded the Church an opportunity to "look back" at the problems of the past and how the Church and the world responded, to "look around" at the circumstances of the day and the new challenges they present, and to "look to the future" by gazing beyond the present horizon with its "uncertainties and promises which appeal to our imagination and creativity." (6) Although the Church's teaching with respect to politics, the economy, and culture can be traced back to apostolic times, (7) the point of departure for the modern tradition of Catholic social teaching is Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum. (8) Published in 1891, Leo's encyclical responded to the growing popularity of socialism and its rise as a political force, even as he addressed the new problems that rapid industrialization and urbanization created and the effects these social movements had on the family. (9)

Rerum Novarum was of such significance that Pope Pius XI referred to it as "the Magna Charta on which all Christian activities in social matters are ultimately based" when commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the document with his own encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, in 1931. (10) The anniversary of Rerum Novarum was again celebrated in Pope John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magistra in 1961, (11) Pope Paul VI's apostolic letter Octogesima Adveniens in 1971, (12) and Pope John Paul II's encyclicals Laborem Exercens in 1981 (13) and Centesimus Annus in 1991. (14)

Published in 1967, Pope Paul VI's Populorum Progressio was plainly a product of its times with respect to the practical, state-oriented recommendations it set forth, a quality that, quite predictably, generated praise from some quarters and criticism from others. (15) He insisted that the duty of human solidarity demanded that wealthy countries place their excess wealth "at the service of poor nations," (16) and that free trade, in order to be fair, must be "subject to the demands of social justice." (17) Beyond the controversy, however, Populorum Progressio remains a text worthy of commemoration because of Pope Paul VI's call for "development ... which is not wealth that is self-centered and sought for its own sake," (18) because "[i]ncreased possession is not the ultimate goal of nations nor of individuals." (19) It remains a salient document in the Catholic social tradition because of Pope Paul VI's call for "development which is good and genuine," (20)--that is, development that is not restricted to economic growth alone, (21) but development that is integral in that it seeks "to promote the good of every man and of the whole man" (22) because "every life is a vocation." (23)

Pope John Paul II rightly praised Populorum Progressio for its originality in his encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (24) celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's letter. Pope Benedict wanted to commemorate Pope Paul's letter as well by publishing his own encyclical in 2007, forty years after Populorum Progressio. Publication of Pope Benedict's encyclical was delayed, however, first because of different points of view among the Pope's advisors concerning the particulars of the draft, and second because of the near total collapse of the world economy in the fall of 2008. After some revision in light of these events, the document was published on June 29, 2009. The final text is long and unevenly written, plainly showing the work of many hands. (25)

In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict is quite self-conscious that he is contributing to an established tradition of papal commentary on the economic, political, and cultural problems of the day. It is an ongoing tradition that looks to the "universal moral law [as] a sound basis for all cultural, religious and political dialogue" (26) even as it confronts "the new problems that are constantly emerging." (27) The Pope insists, however, that this tradition is "a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new." (28) The "coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus" of Catholic social teaching embodies a "dynamic faithfulness to a light received." (29) Thus, Caritas in Veritate is not simply a repetition of what Pope Paul VI said in Populorum Progressio, nor of Pope Leo XIII's teaching in Rerum Novarum. Instead, Pope Benedict recognizes that "[t]he significant new elements in the picture of the development of peoples today in many cases demand new solutions"--solutions that can "be found together, respecting the laws proper to each element and in the light of an integral vision of man." (30)

The Church's social teaching is indeed a corpus, a body of work, and Pope Benedict XVI and his collaborators, in preparing Caritas in Veritate, seemed intent on weaving virtually every major strand of that corpus into the letter. As such, it is a long and difficult text to read. This is unfortunate because what Pope Benedict has to say is deserving of reflection, not only by Catholics and other religious persons, but by economists, politicians, business...