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Some commentators have latched on to Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate as a new 'third way' between socialism and capitalism. This is a remarkably bad idea.
Reflections on the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing can help us understand the major themes of Pope Benedicts's social encyclical, and explain why many critics of this radical document have missed the point.
Last week, Pope Benedict gave Kevin Rudd a copy of his new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Rudd gave the Pope a copy of the National Apology. I wonder what the radical Redfern priest Ted Kennedy would have made of this exchange of literary gifts.
The Pope's social encyclical comes at a time when Australian churches increasingly have to provide charity to those who have been failed by the state. For charity to constitute true giving, social organisations must also be prepared to commit politically.
This week's release of the new social encyclical Caritas in Veritate expands moral teaching to promote a concept of 'human ecology' that covers both human life and the environment. It would seem that Benedict is not a climate change sceptic.
The Pope's encyclical on social teaching is not a strident critique of capitalism, but it does confront abuses in the global economy. Benedict is critical of the free market ideology which extolled wealth creation but ignored the need for equity and social justice.
In his forthcoming response to the global financial crisis, Pope Benedict does not have to reinvent the wheel. Catholic social writings have long insisted that economics must be directed to serve the good of everyone, not just the rich.
There is tension in the churches between those focused on piety and those engaged with social justice. Benedict's document on globalisation will presumably stress that concern for social justice is essential to the Church's mission.
Pope Benedict's encyclical Spe Salvi assumes the fragmentation of hope in today's world will not be addressed simply by the secular world adding God to its limited hopes. Instead it involves the nurturing of a Christian imagination that overcomes the breach between divine and human.
The second encyclical from Benedict XVI is not what many expected. Benedict is drawing us to a deeper level of reflection, building a solid foundation. What he builds upon this foundation we are yet to see.
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