FINDING ANSWERS
Those who have started their Lenten reflections may find a lot of insightful guidance from landmark encyclicals that remain relevant in these economically-challenging times as the wisdom of the Church’s teachings on social justice rings more urgently than ever.
The social justice teachings – starting from the Rerum Novarum, an 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII which address issues of faith and morals, to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si in 2015 which critiques “immense technological development” amid lack of corresponding development in “human responsibility, values and conscience” – can be very compelling.
In between the two papal encyclicals, are the encyclical of Pope John Paul II called Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and of Pope Paul VI known as Populorum Progressio, both written after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, and which also offer a lot of insights on global issues and why there are wars and social unrest.
In Rerum Novarum (RN) that dwells on capital and labor, the Church assures the faithful: “Christian morality, when adequately and completely practiced, leads of itself to temporal prosperity, for it merits the blessing of that God who is the source of all blessings; it powerfully restrains the greed of possession and the thirst for pleasure. (RN 28)”
The encyclical Laudato Si of Pope Francis decries a “throwaway culture” in which non-biodegradable, toxic wastes make the earth “look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
“It is hard for us to accept that the way natural ecosystems work is exemplary: plants synthesize nutrients which feed herbivores; these in turn become food for carnivores, which produce significant quantities of organic waste which give rise to new generations of plants. But our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. We have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them,” Pope Francis said.
He also lamented how climate change and environmental degradation affect the poorest people. “For example, the depletion of fishing reserves especially hurts small fishing communities without the means to replace those resources; water pollution particularly affects the poor who cannot buy bottled water; and rises in the sea level mainly affect impoverished coastal populations who have nowhere else to go.”
The encyclicals Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (SRS) in 1987 and Populorum Progressio (PP) in 1967 remain relevant today in the 21st century amid challenges on the global economy, particularly the adverse effects of the international trade war caused by tariffs on goods, as well as the defunding of much needed foreign aid, particularly USAID.
“The hungry nations of the world cry out to the peoples blessed with abundance. And the Church, cut to the quick by this cry, asks each and every man to hear his brother's plea and answer it lovingly (PP3),” implored Pope Paul VI.
“No one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life,” PP (23) stressed. It also pointed out: “Genuine progress does not consist in wealth sought for personal comfort or for its own sake; rather it consists in an economic order designed for the welfare of the human person, where the daily bread that each man receives reflects the glow of brotherly love and the helping hand of God (PP 86).”
In paying tribute to the PP encyclical with its appeal to conscience, Pope John Paul II said: “Though it be with sorrow, it must be said that just as one may sin through selfishness and the desire for excessive profit and power, one may also be found wanting with regard to the urgent needs of multitudes of human beings submerged in conditions of underdevelopment, through fear, indecision and, basically, through cowardice (SRS 47).”
SRS calls on everyone to “reflect and actively commit themselves to promoting the true development of peoples,” even going beyond religion in asking everyone to take responsibility for the integral development of all.
“One would hope that also men and women without an explicit faith would be convinced that the obstacles to integral development are not only economic but rest on more profound attitudes which human beings can make into absolute values,” SRS (39) reads. “Thus one would hope that all those who, to some degree or other, are responsible for ensuring a ‘more human life’ for their fellow human beings, whether or not they are inspired by a religious faith, will become fully aware of the urgent need to change the spiritual attitudes which define each individual's relationship with self, with neighbor, with even the remotest human communities, and with nature itself.”
The encyclicals focus on the need for people to go beyond aspiring for personal salvation, and be also concerned for the welfare and development of other human beings. Indeed, solutions to many of the problems the world is now experiencing would be found in the teachings of the Church. ([email protected])