On the eve before what no doubt will be a significant election for Americans, I think it would be appropriate to think once more about the binding nature of the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching and their immediate implications for political and economic realities. Pope Benedict XVI’s most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, would make for good meditation before heading out to vote tomorrow.
We often hear this notion of “prudential judgment” tossed around haphazardly, usually by those who search for an excuse to disregard some principle or implication of Catholic social doctrine. While very specific, concrete policy decisions like setting speed limits or requiring possession of specific resident documentation (e.g., state ID cards) are, indeed, underdetermined by Catholic social doctrine and are, therefore, up to prudential judgment, the bulk of what the Church teaches in social matters is binding on the faithful. But why should I, as a Catholic, care about what Pope Benedict XVI or, for that matter, what any pope or council has to say about political ideologies, human development, distributive justice, and economic life? The simple answer is, if you accept the doctrinal authority of the Church, then it follows that you will accept Catholic social teaching, for to reject a substantive part of the latter is to reject the former. The history of papal social teaching certainly confirms this.
In his 1912 encyclical, Singulari Quadam, Pope St. Pius X declared that the Church’s teaching authority extends beyond the exclusive domain of faith and into the domain of socio-economic affairs:
The social question and its associated controversies, such as the nature and duration of labor, the wages to be paid, and workingmen’s strikes, are not simply economic in character. Therefore they cannot be numbered among those which can be settled apart from ecclesiastical authority. (Singuarli Quadam, 3)
Pius X was not introducing anything startlingly new, for Pope Leo XIII had submitted the same principle in an encyclical in 1901:
For, it is the opinion of some, and the error is already very common, that the social question is merely an economic one, whereas in point of fact it is, above all, a moral and religious matter, and for that reason must be settled by the principles of morality and according to the dictates of religion.(Graves de Communi Re, 11)
The error that both Leo XIII and Pius X are correcting is one that is still made today in Catholic circles, namely, that the social teaching of the Church is in someway optional, non-binding, and/or merely prudential. Indeed, in many respects our inclinations and political proclivities, which often are merely products of our locale and social environment, are met by a powerful counterweight in Catholic social teaching. And rightly so. If, as the two aforementioned popes assert, our social life (i.e., family, political, and economic activity) is primarily religious and moral in nature, then the Church, by virtue of her authority in matters of faith and morals, is our touchstone for learning how to conduct that social life. Furthermore, we should not be surprised to find that, just as in the case of conversion in terms of faith, our political positions that may be derived from sources apart from the Church (be they libertarian, communist, or whatever) must themselves be converted in accordance with the demand of the Catholic faith. Put simply, if your political positions remain mostly intact after your conversion (or reversion) to Catholicism, then there may be something wrong! This is why the first section of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church describes the adoption of Catholic social teaching as a sort of second conversion.
Yet, we still encounter the stubbornly persistant opinion among Cathoilcs that the Church’s social doctrine is not binding–and if it is authoritative, then it is not as important or consequential as doctrines of faith. But this position is certianly not to be found in Catholic teaching. Indeed, it is simply a pernicious prejudice. Consider the bounds of the Church’s teaching authority. The Church instructs us to be stalwart in our belief that the Church is our authority in matters of faith and morals. The Second Vatican Council, for instance, affirms this:
The bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking. (Lumen Gentium, 25)
Accordingly, what Leo XIII and Pius X taught is reaffirmed by John Paul II in two of his encyclicals, namely Solicitudo Rei Socialis and Veritatis Splendor. He writes:
[The Church's social doctrine] therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral theology. (Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 41; cf. Veritatis Splendor 99)
And even Canon Law has codified this principle:
[T]he Church has the right always and everywhere to proclaim moral principles, even in respect of the social order, and to make judgments about any human matter in so far as this is required by fundamental human rights or the salvation of souls. (Code of Canon Law 747,2)
Thus, we rightly conclude that the Church’s social doctrine is binding on all Catholics, and that, accordingly, all Catholics ought to begin their political reflections not from antecendently determined political commitments but from the authoritative principles of the Catholic Church. Indeed, one’s conversion to the Catholic faith likely entails foregoing one’s political positions and not merely modifying one’s political position.
These preliminary considerations lead us directly into Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. Benedict XVI ties the Church’s social teaching to the truth of faith, at once extinguishing the notion that social doctrine is merely an annex to Catholic doctrine:
For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce. Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: it is a service to the truth which sets us free. Open to the truth, from whichever branch of knowledge it comes, the Church’s social doctrine receives it, assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found, and mediates it within the constantly changing life-patterns of the society of peoples and nations. (Caritas in Veritate 9)
In fact, Benedict XVI ventures to describe social doctrine as the “social Magisterium of the Popes” (ibid., 12), making explicit both the authoritativeness of the doctrine and its place among the faith and morality of Catholicism. This is a very unconventional way of describing Catholic social teaching, underscoring its connection to the authentic teaching authority of the Church. Moreover, Benedict XVI dispels the myth that there are differences and discontinuity in the papal social encyclical tradition. One such myth is that the teachings of Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI were in some way socialist in spirit, unlike the social teachings of their predecessors and successors. Another is that John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus marked a break in papal social teaching in favor of free market economics. Benedict XVI puts to rest any such hermeneutic of discontinuity:
In this sense, clarity is not served by certain abstract subdivisions of the Church’s social doctrine, which apply categories to Papal social teaching that are extraneous to it. It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new. It is one thing to draw attention to the particular characteristics of one Encyclical or another, of the teaching of one Pope or another, but quite another to lose sight of the coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus. (ibid., 12)
Perhaps even more forcefully, Benedict XVI declares that Catholic social teaching issues from, and is essential to, the evangelical mission of the Church itself received directly from Jesus Christ:
Testimony to Christ’s charity, through works of justice, peace and development, is part and parcel of evangelization, because Jesus Christ, who loves us, is concerned with the whole person. These important teachings form the basis for the missionary aspect of the Church’s social doctrine, which is an essential element of evangelization. The Church’s social doctrine proclaims and bears witness to faith. It is an instrument and an indispensable setting for formation in faith. (ibid., 15)
We see now why a social encyclical bears the title “Love in Truth.” The synergy of truth and charity is the heart of the encyclical, which is why the Introduction is its most important section. In the Introduction, Benedict XVI tells us that Truth is communicated through charity, and truth is made compelling and authentic in the social exercise of charity. Truth, in other words, is made credible within the context of socially practiced love for one another (ibid., 2). Our social life ought to shine forth the evidential quality of the truth of the Gospel.
The Church proclaims the Truth – the Word made flesh, and one aspect of this Truth is how human beings are to live together as “one human family” in its social, political, and economic dimensions (ibid., 7). Caritas, Benedict XVI tells us, is nothing other than God’s “grace,” and the primary instrument of God’s grace is the Church. Moreover, as the entire Introduction of the encyclical proclaims, charity extends into every dimension of human life, including the economic, political, and cultural spheres. By identity, then, grace–the province of the Church–is involved in human social life. Furthermore, the Church’s teaching and guidance is not only the primary guide with respect to the life of faith, but also with respect to social life in its multifarious dimensions:
“Caritas in veritate” is the principle around which the Church’s social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action.(ibid, 6)
There is no strict separation, therefore, between faith and political or economic life. Why? Because grace extends to every corner and crevice of humanity’s affairs. Grace is the “principle driving force behind the authentic development of eveyr person and all humanity” (ibid., 1). This is why the Church’s teaching is requisite for the conduction of genuine social projects, which typically bear political and economic forms. We dismiss, neglect, or minimize the Church’s social teaching, especially that of the papal encyclical tradition, at our and the world’s peril.
More forcefully than any of his predecessors has Pope Benedict XVI insists on the authoritative message of the Church for social, political, and economic life. And so we have a further, perhaps more persuasive, answer to our initial question as to the reasons a Catholic would care about this encyclical and Catholic social teaching. Catholic social teaching proceeds from the heart of the Church–from caritas. A Catholic is called to be a witness to the truth and love of God Father in Jesus Christ through his/her social life. Benedict XVI, invoking and expanding the teachings of his predecessors, has forged for us a way to love our neighbor in truth today.
Something to remember while voting.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 1st, 2010 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Excellent post from The American Catholic! http://the-american-catholic.com/
