Brian R Corbin's Reflections on Religion and Life

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May 5, 2008 • 12:34 am 0

The Splendor of Charity: Cardinal Cordes

“Deus Caritas Est” Entrusted to Pastors
Cardinal Cordes Addresses Bishops of England, Wales

LEEDS, England, MAY 4, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Here is an excerpt of the April 7 address given by Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to the spring meeting of the bishops’ council of England and Wales.

The talk titled “‘Deus Caritas Est’: The Splendor of Charity” can be found in its entirety on the ZENIT Web page: www.zenit.org/article-22486?l=english .

* * *

The primary role of the pastors

There is no doubt that “Deus Caritas Est” directs itself to various groups in the Church. Nevertheless, the main burden of responsibility for its implementation in dioceses and parishes is placed squarely on the shoulders of the bishops. It is not only the pastoral realism of the Pope, but also theological reasons that make the ordained pastors the principal target group for the encyclical.

Ever since her foundation, a threefold mission has been entrusted to the Church: She must proclaim redemption through Christ; she must bear witness to this in her good deeds toward humanity; and she must celebrate the salvation offered through Christ in the liturgy.

“Martyria,” “Diakonia” and “Leitourgia” are therefore the three basic functions of the Church that express her deepest nature. In “Deus Caritas Est,” the Pope declares strongly: “The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the sacraments and the word” (No. 22).

Indeed, the three are inextricably linked. Good deeds as the expression of the evangelical love proclaimed in the word and celebrated in the sacraments, most especially the Eucharist, occupy a central place in the evangelizing mission of the Church. This connection may well warrant further reflection, given the declining numbers of indigenous Catholics in our pews. As numerous saints have shown us, most recently Mother Teresa, in the witness of love a seed of belief can be sown in the fallen away, non-Christians and even the most skeptical.

In terms of the mission of “diakonia,” Benedict speaks emphatically in the encyclical of the Bishop’s overriding responsibility. He reminds these of the rite of the sacrament of episcopal ordination, in which the bishop receives, through the imposition of hands, the full authority of the Spirit for the government of the Church. Prior to the act of consecration itself, the candidate must respond to a series of questions posed by the presiding bishop, which, as the Pope writes, “express the essential elements of his office and recall the duties of his future ministry.”

So the candidate is asked to pledge his special responsibility for individual services. He is called to promise “expressly to be, in the Lord’s name, welcoming and merciful to the poor and to all those in need of consolation and assistance.” Of course, this obligation incumbent on the bishop does not prevent him from seeking assistance from others in his charitable mission, but he cannot set aside his ultimate responsibility for this essential service, placing it simply on others’ shoulders.

Neither can those who practice the service of charity, either individually or institutionally, disregard the bishop’s burden of leadership and this ultimate responsibility that belongs to him.

Some Catholic aid agencies actively avoid acknowledging this fact and sometimes bishops themselves fail to exercise their legitimate and necessary oversight, leading to approaches that are predominantly political or economic to the neglect of revealing through love of neighbor the love of the God of Jesus Christ.

The importance that Pope Benedict attaches to this responsibility of the bishops may be further gauged by the gentle criticism he makes in “Deus Caritas Est” of the Code of Canon Law. The encyclical remarks that in the canons on the ministry of the bishop, the Code “does not expressly mention charity as a specific sector of episcopal activity” (No. 32), implying that it lacks precision on this point.

Indeed, we should remain surprised — as does the Pope — that Canon Law devotes many paragraphs to the bishop’s role in “martyria” and “leitourgia,” but nothing regarding “diakonia.” Clearly, “Deus Caritas Est” envisages a need for clarification in this important area.

The question of God

In speaking about the encyclical, it is not seldom that the administrative concern leads many [leaders] of charitable agencies to focus principally or even perhaps exclusively on the second part. Such a focus would be to grossly ignore the fundamental vision of the author.

It is not by accident that Pope Benedict, through this fantastic text about God as the source, lays down the foundation for the incontestable criteria of all charitable love. What is more: clearly, in the cultural context, he would like to establish the strongly felt love of neighbor as a way to bring contemporary man closer again to the love of God.

In his preaching, hardly an occasion goes by that he does not attempt to reach his listeners through proclaiming this love for God, the Father of Jesus Christ. Just a few weeks ago on Palm Sunday, I was in St. Peter’s Square when the Pope made exactly this point in his homily. He spoke of how Jesus entered Jerusalem and cleansed the temple atrium, where the pagans gathered, of the animal vendors and moneychangers who had occupied the place of prayer with their own business.

From this episode, Pope Benedict draws a parallel with the atria of faith today where non-Christians look for an answer to the deepest longings of their hearts. “Is our faith pure and open enough,” he asks, “so that on this basis even the ‘pagans,’ the people who today are seeking and questioning, can glimpse the light of the one God, join in our prayer in the atria of faith, and through their questioning, perhaps, become worshipers themselves? Are we aware of how greed and idolatry affect even our own hearts and way of life?”

And then the Pope turns yet again to Jesus’ saving deeds, good works that infallibly point to God even when everything else seems hopeless. “Immediately after Jesus’ words about the house of prayer for all peoples, the evangelist [Matthew] continues in this way: ‘The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them.’

“To the selling of animals and the business of the moneychangers, Jesus opposes his own healing goodness. This is the true purification of the temple … Jesus comes with the gift of healing. He dedicates himself to those who because of their infirmity are driven to the extremes of their life and to the margin of society. Jesus shows God as he who loves, and his power as the power of love.”

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The Splendor of Charity
Cardinal Cordes on “Deus Caritas Est”

LEEDS, England, MAY 4, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- The text of the April 7 address given by Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to the spring meeting of the bishops’ council of England and Wales, can be found on the ZENIT Web page: www.zenit.org/article-22486?l=english .

The talk is titled “‘Deus Caritas Est’: The Splendor of Charity.”

Filed under: Caritas, Cor Unum, Social Doctrine

May 5, 2008 • 12:31 am 0

Pope: Trinity Reflected in Solidarity, Subsidiarity


Urges Social Sciences Academy to See Principles’ Link to God

VATICAN CITY, MAY 4, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Faith in the Trinity enlightens the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity proposed by Catholic social doctrine, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this Saturday when he addressed participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Their meeting is focused on “Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together.” It began Friday and continues through Tuesday.

“How can solidarity and subsidiarity work together in the pursuit of the common good in a way that not only respects human dignity, but allows it to flourish?” the Holy Father asked. “This is the heart of the matter which concerns you.”

And though certain elements can help to understand these concepts, he said, “the solidarity that binds the human family, and the subsidiary levels reinforcing it from within, must however always be placed within the horizon of the mysterious life of the Triune God, in whom we perceive an ineffable love shared by equal, though nonetheless distinct, Persons.”

He continued: “My friends, I invite you to allow this fundamental truth to permeate your reflections: not only in the sense that the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity are undoubtedly enriched by our belief in the Trinity, but particularly in the sense that these principles have the potential to place men and women on the path to discovering their definitive, supernatural destiny.

“The natural human inclination to live in community is confirmed and transformed by the ‘oneness of Spirit,’ which God has bestowed upon his adopted sons and daughters.

“Consequently, the responsibility of Christians to work for peace and justice, their irrevocable commitment to build up the common good, is inseparable from their mission to proclaim the gift of eternal life to which God has called every man and woman.”

Serving all people

Benedict XVI explained that with faith, it is possible to see that “the heavenly and earthly cities interpenetrate and are intrinsically ordered to one another, inasmuch as they both belong to God the Father.”

“At the same time,” he continued, “faith places into sharper focus the due autonomy of earthly affairs, insofar as they are ‘endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order.'”

The Pope affirmed to the pontifical academy that “you can be assured that your discussions will be of service to all people of good will, while simultaneously inspiring Christians to embrace more readily their obligation to enhance solidarity with and among their fellow citizens, and to act upon the principle of subsidiarity by promoting family life, voluntary associations, private initiative, and a public order that facilitates the healthy functioning of society’s most basic communities.”

Horizontal and vertical

The Holy Father further noted that the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity are not simply “horizontal.”

“They both have an essentially vertical dimension,” he said. “[T]rue solidarity — though it begins with an acknowledgment of the equal worth of the other — comes to fulfillment only when I willingly place my life at the service of the other. Herein lies the ‘vertical’ dimension of solidarity: I am moved to make myself less than the other so as to minister to his or her needs.”

“Similarly, subsidiarity,” the Pontiff continued, “insofar as it encourages men and women to enter freely into life-giving relationships with those to whom they are most closely connected and upon whom they most immediately depend, and demands of higher authorities respect for these relationships — manifests a ‘vertical’ dimension pointing toward the Creator of the social order.”

“When those responsible for the public good attune themselves to the natural human desire for self-governance based on subsidiarity,” he added, “they leave space for individual responsibility and initiative, but most importantly, they leave space for love, which always remains ‘the most excellent way.”

“As you strive to articulate the ways in which men and women can best promote the common good, I encourage you to survey both the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ dimensions of solidarity and subsidiarity,” the Pope concluded. “In this way, you will be able to propose more effective ways of resolving the manifold problems besetting mankind at the threshold of the third millennium, while also bearing witness to the primacy of love, which transcends and fulfills justice as it draws mankind into the very life of God.”

********************************************
Papal Address to Social Sciences Academy
“The Heavenly and Earthly Cities Interpenetrate”

VATICAN CITY, MAY 4, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Here is the text of the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday to the participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The meeting is focused on “Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together.” It began Friday and continues through Tuesday.

* * *

Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to have this occasion to meet with you as you gather for the fourteenth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Over the last two decades, the Academy has offered a valuable contribution to the deepening and development of the Church’s social doctrine and its application in the areas of law, economics, politics and the various other social sciences. I thank Professor Margaret Archer for her kind words of greeting, and I express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your commitment to research, dialogue and teaching, so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may continue to shed light on the complex situations arising in a rapidly changing world.

In choosing the theme Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together, you have decided to examine the interrelationships between four fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 160-163). These key realities, which emerge from the living contact between the Gospel and concrete social circumstances, offer a framework for viewing and addressing the imperatives facing mankind at the dawn of the twenty-first century, such as reducing inequalities in the distribution of goods, expanding opportunities for education, fostering sustainable growth and development, and protecting the environment.

How can solidarity and subsidiarity work together in the pursuit of the common good in a way that not only respects human dignity, but allows it to flourish? This is the heart of the matter which concerns you. As your preliminary discussions have already revealed, a satisfactory answer can only surface after careful examination of the meaning of the terms (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Chapter 4). Human dignity is the intrinsic value of a person created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Christ. The totality of social conditions allowing persons to achieve their communal and individual fulfilment is known as the common good . Solidarity refers to the virtue enabling the human family to share fully the treasure of material and spiritual goods, and subsidiarity is the coordination of society’s activities in a way that supports the internal life of the local communities.

Yet definitions are only the beginning. What is more, these definitions are adequately grasped only when linked organically to one another and seen as mutually supportive of one another. We can initially sketch the interconnections between these four principles by placing the dignity of the person at the intersection of two axes: one horizontal, representing “solidarity” and “subsidiarity”, and one vertical, representing the “common good”. This creates a field upon which we can plot the various points of Catholic social teaching that give shape to the common good.

Though this graphic analogy gives us a rudimentary picture of how these fundamental principles imply one another and are necessarily interwoven, we know that the reality is much more complex. Indeed, the unfathomable depths of the human person and mankind’s marvellous capacity for spiritual communion – realities which are fully disclosed only through divine revelation – far exceed the capacity of schematic representation. The solidarity that binds the human family, and the subsidiary levels reinforcing it from within, must however always be placed within the horizon of the mysterious life of the Triune God (cf. Jn 5:26; 6:57), in whom we perceive an ineffable love shared by equal, though nonetheless distinct, persons (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q. 42).

My friends, I invite you to allow this fundamental truth to permeate your reflections: not only in the sense that the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity are undoubtedly enriched by our belief in the Trinity, but particularly in the sense that these principles have the potential to place men and women on the path to discovering their definitive, supernatural destiny. The natural human inclination to live in community is confirmed and transformed by the “oneness of Spirit” which God has bestowed upon his adopted sons and daughters (cf. Eph 4:3; 1 Pet 3:8). Consequently, the responsibility of Christians to work for peace and justice, their irrevocable commitment to build up the common good, is inseparable from their mission to proclaim the gift of eternal life to which God has called every man and woman. In this regard, the tranquillitas ordinis of which Saint Augustine speaks refers to “ all things”: that is to say both “civil peace”, which is a “concord among citizens”, and the “peace of the heavenly city”, which is the “perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God” ( De Civitate Dei, XIX, 13).

The eyes of faith permit us to see that the heavenly and earthly cities interpenetrate and are intrinsically ordered to one another, inasmuch as they both belong to God the Father, who is “above all and through all and in all” ( Eph 4:6). At the same time, faith places into sharper focus the due autonomy of earthly affairs, insofar as they are “endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order” ( Gaudium et Spes, 36). Hence, you can be assured that your discussions will be of service to all people of good will, while simultaneously inspiring Christians to embrace more readily their obligation to enhance solidarity with and among their fellow citizens, and to act upon the principle of subsidiarity by promoting family life, voluntary associations, private initiative, and a public order that facilitates the healthy functioning of society’s most basic communities (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 187).

When we examine the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in the light of the Gospel, we realize that they are not simply “horizontal”: they both have an essentially vertical dimension. Jesus commands us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us (cf. Lk 6:31); to love our neighbour as ourselves (cf. Mat 22:35). These laws are inscribed by the Creator in man’s very nature (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). Jesus teaches that this love calls us to lay down our lives for the good of others (cf. Jn 15:12-13). In this sense, true solidarity – though it begins with an acknowledgment of the equal worth of the other – comes to fulfilment only when I willingly place my life at the service of the other (cf. Eph 6:21). Herein lies the “vertical” dimension of solidarity: I am moved to make myself less than the other so as to minister to his or her needs (cf. Jn 13:14-15), just as Jesus “humbled himself” so as to give men and women a share in his divine life with the Father and the Spirit (cf. Phil 2:8; Mat 23:12).

Similarly, subsidiarity – insofar as it encourages men and women to enter freely into life-giving relationships with those to whom they are most closely connected and upon whom they most immediately depend, and demands of higher authorities respect for these relationships – manifests a “vertical” dimension pointing towards the Creator of the social order (cf. Rom 12:16, 18). A society that honours the principle of subsidiarity liberates people from a sense of despondency and hopelessness, granting them the freedom to engage with one another in the spheres of commerce, politics and culture (cf. Quadragesimo Anno, 80). When those responsible for the public good attune themselves to the natural human desire for self-governance based on subsidiarity, they leave space for individual responsibility and initiative, but most importantly, they leave space for love (cf. Rom 13:8; Deus Caritas Est, 28), which always remains “the most excellent way” (cf. 1 Cor 12:31).

In revealing the Father’s love, Jesus has taught us not only how to live as brothers and sisters here on earth; he has shown us that he himself is the way to perfect communion with one another and with God in the world to come, since it is through him that “we have access in one Spirit to the Father” (cf. Eph 2:18). As you strive to articulate the ways in which men and women can best promote the common good, I encourage you to survey both the “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of solidarity and subsidiarity. In this way, you will be able to propose more effective ways of resolving the manifold problems besetting mankind at the threshold of the third millennium, while also bearing witness to the primacy of love, which transcends and fulfils justice as it draws mankind into the very life of God (cf. Message for the 2004 World Day of Peace ).

With these sentiments, I assure you of my prayers, and I cordially extend my Apostolic Blessing to you and your loved ones as a pledge of peace and joy in the Risen Lord.

Filed under: Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

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