Pope’s Social Encyclical Delayed By Financial Crisis By Fr. Desmond de SousaCSsR, SAR NEWS
PANAJI, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- Pope Benedict XVI admitted that the publication of his long-awaited social encyclical – now expected in April – was delayed due to the difficulty in finding a credible response to the global financial crisis. The document was originally planned for 2007 or early 2008 to mark the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s landmark social encyclical, Populorum Progressio. But various factors, including the current economic crisis, have continued to push back the new encyclical’s release. “I have seen how difficult it is to speak with competence about a certain economic reality without which it cannot be credible,” the Pope observed. Nonetheless, he indicated the encyclical would denounce the ‘sin of human greed’, which was the fundamental mistake that caused the collapse of large American banks and triggered the global crisis. “The universal Church must denounce, but must also announce what can be done and what must be done,” asserted the Pope. “If, on the one hand, we do not proclaim macro-justice, the micro will not grow. But, on the other hand, if we don’t do the very humble work of micro-justice, then not even the macro will grow.” The financial situation had to be dealt with on two levels -- macro-economic and micro-economic. But it was not possible to fully perfect either of them because of the existence of original sin. Pope Benedict has suggested a close connection between original sin and the greed that has created the current economic crisis. “Maybe it is pessimism, but to me it seems like realism: as long as there is original sin we will never arrive at a radical and total correction (of the economic system).” St. Thomas Aquinas argues that all sin is the consequence of distorted desire. No human being willingly desires evil, but when we fail to understand the nature of desire then we become prey to rampant and destructive obsessions. Only if we understand the primal nature of desire as that which directs our lives towards God, can we order and enjoy our other desires for the good things in life. The fundamental challenge we face in all this is not directly mentioned in the list of the Seven Deadly Sins, but the lust for power and the violence associated with it may be the sin that fuels and drives all the rest. Yet Catholic social teaching offers a rich resource for condemning unjust social and economic structures and creating a more life-giving vision of society. “Justice comes about only if there are just persons, ..and good structures are not practicable if they are opposed by the selfishness of even competent people.” It is notable that the credit crunch has been created by a profession that is almost exclusively male. In the line-up of failed bankers, not a single woman’s name has appeared. Male greed has proven to be a murderous sin, destroying the livelihoods of millions, bringing down economies and social institutions and threatening starvation to the most vulnerable people on earth. Among the leading bankers that have brought the British economy to its knees there are no women. Could it be that the tendency to the sin of greed – highlighted by the Pope – is primarily a male trait? If so, our assumptions of similarity in men’s and women’s sins are flawed. The Pope’s personal theologian, Msgr. Wojciech Giertych, endorsed a theory by a 95-year-old Jesuit Father Roberto Busa that men and women sin differently. In this time of economic crisis, that might be a good place to start to construct a theology of masculine sins. One could argue that the Catholic hierarchy provides a potentially rich alternative to such constructs of masculinity. They are a community of men who have sacrificed the physical expression of their sexuality and wealth accumulation, in order to dedicate themselves to a life of service and love. This Catholic concept of masculinity can and does produce men of exceptional sensitivity and tenderness. However, the sex-abuse scandals suggest also a profoundly dysfunctional model of male sexuality operating in much of the Catholic priesthood.
