Fr. JC Maximilian

In this chapter of the encyclical the Holy Father starts to identify how the Church’s teaching on human development speaks to some of the most prevalent issues facing us today. He notes that Pope Paul VI’s understanding of human development set the goal of rescuing people from hunger, deprivation, disease, and illiteracy first and foremost, and that these are still concerns for human development today.

The Holy Father wants to make clear that there is nothing wrong with profit if it is used to 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. Profit becomes problematic when it is produced by improper means and it does not have the common good as its ultimate end. When profit becomes the end in itself, it starts to destroy wealth and create poverty. This is evidenced by the fact that the world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms, while the gap between the rich and poor is increasing. A major cause of this problem is the greed and corruption among those in leadership positions — both political and economic — in both the wealthy countries and in poor ones.

At the time in which Pope Paul VI wrote Populorum Progressio, we could already speak of social issues in global terms. However, in the past 40 years there has been an integration of nations and economies to an unprecedented level. 40 years ago, individual States still had a large degree of ability to determine the priorities for their economy and govern the instruments at their disposal. This is why Pope Paul VI assigned a central role to what he called “public authorities.” Today, however, individual States have to address the limitations to their own sovereignty with international trade and banking has placed on them. Economies are much more integrated together today, thus it is not realistic to look solely at the State’s public authorities for solutions. These public authorities need to re-evaluate their role and power in engaging the economic problems of today.

Whereas in the past, competition in the marketplace was often confined to within national boundaries, today the competition crosses the globe. In order to attach new industry countries too often relax the social networks that safeguarded the welfare of workers. In doing so, the focus becomes on profit as an end in itself, and not a means for fostering human development. The Holy Father reminds us, that in an authentic concern for human development, “the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity” (#25).

Another factor of importance to human development today is on the cultural plane. There is a much greater possibility of cultural interaction today. This can be a positive force in human development if two dangers, that the commercialization of cultural exchange can increase, are avoided. First there is the danger of “cultural eclecticism” where cultures are placed uncritically along side each other and viewed as being substantially equivalent and interchangeable. This leads to cultural relativism, which actually results in keeping the various cultural groups separated, since they are seen as being substantially the same. This actually closes down intercultural dialogue. The other danger is “cultural leveling” which loses sight of the profound significance of the culture of different nations. Both of these dangers separates culture from human nature, which reduces the human person.

The Pope notes another issue for our time is “food security.” Feeding the poor has been a central concern of the Church’s social justice ministry right from the beginning. Today the concern in not so much with there not being enough food to feed everyone, but rather inadequate structures to ensure that everyone receives adequate food and water. Food and access to water is an universal right of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination (#27).

One of the issues that struck me the most in this chapter is the Holy Father’s clear statement that we cannot detach respect for life from all other matters of social justice and human development. I have been in parishes where the “Social Concerns” committee refused to support any Respect Life initiative, and vice versa. The Holy Father points out in many nations, in an attempt to address poverty, there are government and non-governmental efforts to control population growth through contraception, sterilization and even forced abortion; sometimes without even informing the women concerned. “Openness to life is at the center of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good. . . . The acceptance of life strengthens moral fiber and makes people capable of mutual help. By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens” (#28).

A final concern connected to human develop noted in the encyclical is the denial of the right to religious freedom. Problems in this area includes religious fanaticism, violence against religious belief, and even religious indifference and practical atheism. We must keep in mind that God is the guarantor of man’s true happiness. When there are obstacles to people fulfilling their supernatural desires, there is a reduction of their humanity.

To address these concerns so to foster human development, the Holy Father states that there must be a commitment to foster the interaction of the different levels of human knowledge. Again, he emphasizes that Charity does not exclude knowledge. “Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile” (#30). Given the complexity of the phenomena before us, charity in truth requires that we know and understand, acknowledging and respecting the specific competence of every level of knowledge. This does not exclude charity, either. “Human knowledge is insufficient, and the conclusions of science cannot indicate by themselves the path towards integral human development” (#30). “Love is rich in intelligence, and intelligence is full of love” (#30).

In other words, moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in hand. A good example of this is the debate over the use of embryonic stem cells and cloning. Often the proponents of no or little restrictions in this type of research parade out potential promises of this research in curing diseases, without any reflections on the morality of the research. Often the mainstream media paints the Church as being against stem cell research, when in fact the Church has supported most research using stem cells, just not those studies that wish to destroy human embryos to obtain the stem cells; in other words destroys one human life in order to do research to help others. Too much science is done today with the rejection of metaphysics and rejection of theology as another form of knowledge. The Holy Father warns, “Without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family” (#33).