The Pope Rocks.

 

As the G-8 Summit convened in Italy, the Pope had a message and issued Caritas in Veritate “Love in truth” Encyclical letter.

Now I am not a catholic.  I grew up protestant.  But it is does not matter your current belief system to be impressed with the Pope’s CARITAS IN VERITAT.  It has a powerful message for all people at this point in time.  Here are some of the highlights.

First: Love

Caritas or Love is the extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. 

Second: Truth

Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present.

Third:  There must be truth in Charity

Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite.

Fourth: Our current opportunity:

The process of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large scale wealth on a world wide scale.

Fifth: But be careful:

Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.

Sixth:  We are all connected

Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of “all of us”, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society.  The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbors, the more effectively we love them.   And really do you really think that all human beings are not connected.  There is no us and them, just us.

 

Bottomline:

If the pope was running for office he would not be elected.  And that is why we have our division between church and state.  But until we effectively weave ethics and the good will of others into the world business model, and evolve beyond profit only as the key drivers, there will be no world wide prosperity, much less food for the hungry.  And folks there is no excuse for fellow human beings starving to death in this day and age. 

And the funny thing is that when the system adjusts its self to the common good, business will be better than ever....Keep rocking Pope.