CARITAS IN VERITATE
New Encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI
Published June 29, and available in English July 7, 2009.
"... Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. Every
responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from
charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the
entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40). It gives real substance to the personal
relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of
micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups)
but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones)..."
You can read the entire encyclical here, at this link from the Vatican's web site.
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Course Participants
Back to School
As
children, teens and adults everywhere prepare to go back to school,
STEP's new year of courses draw participants "back to school" as well.
August and October are the months with the highest enrollments for STEP
courses. We are scheduling 11 courses in August and 11 in October.
Watch for STEP e-mails for details about upcoming course offerings.
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Coming Soon-- New Courses
The Book of Revelation -
History of Christianity: 1000-1500 A.D.
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University of Notre Dame
Geddes Hall
Construction
on the new building for
the Institute for Church Life (ICL) and the Center for Social Concerns
(CSC) at the University of Notre Dame is almost complete. We will move into the new Geddes Hall, located in the space of the former
Center for Social Concerns building, in mid-August 2009. The new building
will contain a chapel space, coffee house, classrooms and plenty of
space. We hope next time you are on campus you can come visit the Institute for Church Life in
the new building.
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Notre Dame to make $5.5 million in contributions to local communities over next 10 years
by Dennis Brown
"The University of Notre Dame announced today that it plans to make
voluntary contributions totaling $5.5 million over the next 10 years to
the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka, the town of Roseland and to St.
Joseph County.
'From the Center for the Homeless and the Robinson Community
Learning Center to forthcoming initiatives such as Innovation Park and
the Eddy Street Commons, Notre Dame has a long history of lending its
intellectual, financial and service assistance to the community in
support of the common good,' said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.,
president of the University. 'During these trying economic times, with
our local governments facing extraordinary challenges, we hope that
this direct financial contribution will have a positive impact on the
local communities with which we have regular interaction.'"
To read the full article
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What's New at STEP?
STEP Celebrates 10 Years of Serving the Faithful
 by Tom Cummings, Director STEP
Ten
Years ago I began STEP in partnership with three dioceses (Winona, Erie
and Reno). We worked together on video conference and video taped
lecture material aimed at single day events we called "Institute
Days." We planned and executed four or five events a year over the
next three years. While that progressed Greg Doyle, STEP's Associate
Director, worked to build model e-learning courses that we thought
effective for adult learning. The pilots proved successful and with
the help of Jill Dunkel, STEP's Manager of Technical Services, STEP
launched its full service web site and 10 online courses in August of
2002. Since then we have added many courses, more staff (Kelly Culver
joined us in 2002 and Laura Hartz joined us in 2004) and many more
students. We worked closely with faculty members in Notre Dame's
Department of Theology to develop the highest quality courses designed
for adult learners. In addition, beginning in 2005, we created our
facilitator network. We now have over 40 facilitators participating in
STEP by providing wonderful leadership, guidance and instruction in our
courses.
Then
as now, our guiding principle has been to provide the highest quality
theological courses in the most accessible format possible. When
building our courses we try to remember the famous Anselmian quotation,
"faith seeking understanding." We want to continue to build courses
that enable you to deepen your journey of faith. We also want to
continue to deliver these courses with the most effective and
affordable technology.
Thank you for your devotion to Christ and the Church.
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The Church
STEP Facilitator Andrew Casad offers a few thoughts on the new encyclical.
There have been many waiting to read the newest encyclical, which complete the trifecta of encyclicals on the greatest theological virtues-- "faith, hope and love." Andrew Casad, a Pastoral Associate and STEP Facilitator, was one of those who read it immediately after it was available. He offers some thoughts on it below.
Pope Benedict XVI's most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate on integral human development
in charity in truth, argues that "Charity in truth...is the principal driving
force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity" (1). Although the document addresses a wide
ranging set of topics, I find the primary thrust to be epistemological, namely
that of defending the possibility of making truth-claims. In short, if we as Christians and others of
good will are to seek the development of peoples-materially, socially,
spiritually-then we must know with conviction what end it is toward which we're
developing. If the goal of development
is to build a better world, it must be known how to evaluate progress toward
this end, which metric to apply, to have a plan in place. Without such objective criteria 'progress'
becomes simply a synonym for 'the novel.'
What is the goal?
The goal, according to Pope Benedict, is as it has always
been for Christians, namely to be incorporated into a human family united by the
love of Christ. At this period in
history, however, the reality of globalization suggests a particular scope for
this overarching goal. "The risk of our
time is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched
by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly
human development" (9). As we have come
to experience ourselves as ever more interconnected with others throughout the
world "this shared sense of being close to one another must be transformed into
true communion" (53). At stake in this
is not only the development of persons but also the ability to make truth
claims. Thus "integral human development"
refers not only to development of each person integrally and international
development but also to the integrity with which truth is articulated as seen
in the witness our lives bear to such truth.
When we seek authentic human development in charity and truth "not only
do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help to give
credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in
the practical setting of social living" (2).
This relationship between truth and love is central to Pope Benedict's
understanding of the role of the Church in the modern, globalized world "where
there is a widespread tendency to relativize truth" and his consequent
invitation to us to practice charity in truth in order to "help people to
understand that adhering to the values of Christianity is not merely useful but
essential for building a good society" (4).
What are the building blocks?
In order to accomplish this goal of building a good society
Benedict invites us to look anew at the truth of Catholic social teaching. In his review of Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical
Populorum Progressio (8, 10-20),
Benedict sees justice, that is
giving our neighbor what is his due, as "the minimum measure" of and "the
primary way of charity" (6). "The more
we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours,
the more effectively we love them" (7).
But simply giving our neighbor his due-securing justice-is not the end
of charity. Only when we embrace the
objective basis for charity, to which "the Church's social doctrine can make a
specific contribution, since it is based on man's creation 'in the image of
God'" (45), will we recognize that solidarity
with all others calls us to even more than justice. If giving my neighbor his due is justice then
giving what is mine to those who become brothers and sisters under the
Fatherhood of the one God is charity in truth.
"God is the guarantor of man's true development, inasmuch as, having
created [man] in his image, he also establishes the transcendent dignity of men
and women and feeds their innate yearning to 'be more'" (29). The building blocks of the good society then
are justice, solidarity, and love for the dignity
of every human person. "Only if we
are aware of our calling, as individuals and as a community, to be part of
God's family and his sons and daughters, will we be able to generate a new
vision and muster new energy in the service of a truly integral humanism" (78).
Benedict concludes his circular letter on the hopeful note
that "development needs Christians with their arms raised toward God in prayer,
Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is
not produced by us, but given to us" (79).
In the person of Jesus Christ we have all been shown the perfection of
humanity and, therefore, the Church has a duty to hand on the fullness of
humanity we know to have been revealed in Christ. As Pope Benedict states, "'education'
refers...to the complete formation of the person...in order to educate, it is
necessary to know the nature of the human person" (61) which presupposes
knowing Christ who is the fulfillment of human nature. Christ himself has come into our midst and
first given us his superabundant gift that we might now be able to love in
truth as he has loved us.
To read Andrew's complete review
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