CST and Papal Positions

Tony Annett's book Cathonomics explores how Catholic tradition can create a more just economy. The encyclicals published during the papacies of recent decades offer a view of economic activity in relation with the pursuit of the common good.

Better world

The rise of neo-liberal attitudes to economic development in recent decades has created a paradigm that threatens the priority of striving for the common good.

John Paul II incorrect as neo-liberal

John Paul II was concerned about some aspects of market ideology.

JPII concern about markets

Profit seeking, self interest and accumulation in the market were concerns of Pope Benedict.

Benedict's concern about profit seeking

Pope Francis identifies a technocratic paradigm that cannibalizes economic and political life.

Pope Francis identifies a technocratic paradigm

From 1978 to 2023, encyclical publications from the Vatican have presented the case for concern about the effect on the common good of the dominant economic policies of our time.

References

Annett, A. M. (2022). Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy. Georgetown University Press.

Papal Perspective on Life and Freedom

Popular opinion on political support of “culture of life” issues that frequently assumes John Paul II would have had a distinctly different emphasis than Pope Francis may be mistaken.

The "Angels Unaware" boat by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz 

David Albertson recently found himself rereading John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical, Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life), during the weeks between the leaking of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion and the shooting in Uvalde.

Pope Francis has drawn criticism for reasserting an integral ethic of life—linking the climate crisis to the dignity of the unborn, for instance—and for resisting the reduction of political responsibility to a single issue. Many of Francis’s detractors assume that John Paul II would have endorsed their current strategy: to trade support for Republican neoliberal economics in exchange for the appointment of pro-life justices, by anti-democratic means if necessary. (Albertson & Preziosi, 2022)

Albertson found the text of Evangelium vitae suggests something quite different. John Paul II offers a probing social analysis of the “culture of death,” in the course of which he articulates some critical principles for a future politics of life. To be sure, the encyclical focuses rightly and above all on abortion and euthanasia. But only an inattentive reader could imagine that those are the only evils John Paul II was worried about. The encyclical offers a structural understanding of contemporary threats to human life, of which abortion is the signal, but by no means sole, instance. Evangelium vitae has many themes.

An insight of the encyclical identifies that the root of the culture of death is an economic system backed by a legal regime. The economic system is the commodification of human life, which calculates its value exclusively in terms of efficient profit accumulation (i.e. neoliberal capitalism). (Albertson & Preziosi, 2022)

John Paul II asks Christians to examine how goods are distributed in our society and who exerts power within that distribution. For example, he examines what links together not only the recent increase in abortion and euthanasia, but also technological investments in artificial contraception, artificial reproduction, and prenatal eugenics.

 

The link, he concludes, is a certain approach to assessing the value of human life. If we read his analysis carefully, we can depict the main features of the ideology he describes: an excessive concern with “efficiency” (12), a reduction of human beings to disposable “biological material” (14), “the utilitarian motive of avoiding costs which bring no return” (15), and the lack of “fair production and distribution of resources” among countries (16). The goodness of life is reduced to “economic efficiency” and “inordinate consumerism” (23). Human dignity is replaced by “the criterion of efficiency, functionality and usefulness” (23). Human beings become commodities, “reduced to the level of a thing” among other things (34). (Albertson & Preziosi, 2022)

In the encyclical, John Paul II asserts that absolute freedom also includes freedom from the social bonds of truthfulness, or freedom to invent alternative facts.

 

Once freedom becomes so debased that it justifies “the destruction of others,” then “the person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim” (19). (Albertson & Preziosi, 2022)

According to John Paul II, the erosion of truth itself is the final result of valorizing personal liberty, rejecting solidarity, and excluding the weak, sick, and poor from moral obligation by the rich and powerful. “At that point, everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining,” he writes, and “social life ventures onto the shifting sands of complete relativism” (20). In this situation, the state becomes a “tyrant” and democracy creeps toward “totalitarianism.” Instead of providing a secure home in which all live together, the state guarantees “the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members” by taking the side of the most powerful partisans (20). (Albertson & Preziosi, 2022)

David Albertson expresses a theme of the encyclical that the culture of life—and with it, democracy and truth itself—can be sustained only when solidarity with “the weakest and most innocent” takes priority above all else, especially an idolatrous claim to absolute freedom.

References

Albertson, D., & Preziosi, D. (2022, July 13). American Idols. Commonweal Magazine. Retrieved July 18, 2022, from https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/american-idols 

Culture Wars between the Abortion Lines

The time since the overturning of the Roe v Wade decision by the Supreme Court of the United States has provided an opportunity for more subtle and nuanced opinions to surface in contrast to the polarized and single focus arguments of culture war politics.

Christopher White reports that theologians and Vatican officials told the National Catholic Reporter that the differences between American and Vatican responses to the high court's June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization reflect different approaches to how Catholic leaders navigate one of the thorniest policy matters in public life today.

Kim Daniels, co-director of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, and a member of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communications,  said the Vatican's response to the Dobbs decision "tracks Pope Francis’ approach throughout his pontificate."

the pope's approach includes "reinforcing that all human beings have an inviolable dignity, including unborn children; resisting ideological blinders by recognizing that issues of life and human dignity are all interconnected; and calling for solidarity with the vulnerable, including public policies that promote social and material support for women and children in need."

"Pope Francis’ approach," "offers a model for how Catholic and other pro-life leaders can rise to the challenge: by moving past politics as usual, witnessing to a consistent ethic of life, and making solidarity with women and children in need a defining priority." (White, 2022)

Therese Lysaught, a professor at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that U.S. bishops' conference statement in response to Dobbs reflected the way life issues were approached under Pope John Paul II, rather than Francis. She said that John Paul's 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae "advances a deeply polarized ideology of the 'culture of death' against which Catholics must fight by obeying the moral law or, better, changing the civil law."

"Although John Paul II wrote important social encyclicals, 'life' issues remained siloed from 'social' issues under his pontificate and were reduced to a few topics — almost exclusively abortion, euthanasia, and issues related to sexuality — framed almost entirely in the language of commandments, laws and absolutes," 

"Pope Francis' tone has been very different," 

"He has tried to redirect the church’s attention from an obsessive focus on law," she observed, and "has consistently shown how the distinction between 'life' issues and 'social' issues is a false distinction."(White, 2022)

Similarly, Lysaught said that under Francis, the church is seeking to be a "healing presence amidst the messy realities of the world" rather than engaging polarizing issues as part of a culture war.

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, Lysaught said, statements coming from Vatican officials "strike a tone of carefulness and prudence regarding the ambiguities and complexities of the issue" of abortion. She said they "reiterate Pope Francis’ clear and consistent statements on the morality of abortion while situating it within a broader spectrum of life issues, emphasizing the need for fundamental socioeconomic changes, and foregrounding the need for dialogue aimed at social healing."

Lysaught characterized the U.S. bishops' statement after the Dobbs decision as treating those wider commitments as an "afterthought … buried in one sentence in the penultimate paragraph."

"The [bishops'] statement triumphs the victory of one side of an ideologically polarized issue, continuing that polarization," she added, saying that after a decade of the Francis papacy, many U.S. church leaders have failed to embrace his vision.(White, 2022)

The attempt to “fight” an argument in the culture wars so often hides opportunities for positive co-operation on addressing the many social issues impacting women, prisoners, immigrants, elderly, and the economically disadvantaged.

References

White, C. (2022, July 12). Reading between the lines of Vatican response to Supreme Court overturning Roe. National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved July 12, 2022, from https://www.ncronline.org/news/reading-between-lines-vatican-response-supreme-court-overturning-roe 

Turn Laudato Si into action

The Encyclical of Pope Francis “Laudato Si” Care of Our Common Home lays the foundation for action to convert the people of earth to renew our care and concern for the planet. This article presents the some of the psychology of climate change communication. Some contributors share efforts to correct approaches that reinforce human sovereignty and the resulting environmental degradation. Change is proposed in a subjective, inductive, and experiential way without doing damage to the content of the encyclical. We seek common ground in care of the people and living creatures of the planet and our Christian responsibility to care for the poor.

Water challenges on the Eastern Shore

Consider the challenge that decades of climate change discussion hasn't turned into decisive action. For example, water is a fundamental human right but water scarcity around the world is causing severe problems. The questions that need to be asked when assessing environmental impact on people of economic development are important in our own province.

British author and carbon pricing expert, George Marshall, explains the psychology of climate change communication and describes the work he's done in Canada on this front - to bridge the political divides.

Common Ground?

He argues that once we understand what excites, threatens, and motivates us, we can rethink and re-imagine climate change, for it is not an impossible problem. Rather, it is one we can halt if we can make it our common purpose and common ground.

The “Things Not Seen Podcast” features some Franciscan wisdom for a planet in peril in a discussion with  Fr. Dan Horan, OFM, about his new book, “All God's Creatures: A Theology of Creation”

(Click on centre of slide)

The predominant “stewardship model” of creation is the result of an intentional effort to correct approaches that reinforce human sovereignty and the resulting environmental degradation.

Stewards of creation

However, as All God’s Creatures argues, the stewardship model actually does not offer a correction but rather reinscribes many of the very same pitfalls. After close analysis of the stewardship model, this book identifies scriptural, theological, and philosophical sources to support the adoption of a “community of creation” paradigm.

A "community of creation"

Father Richard Hogan writes that both Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas lived and taught in a culture which might be described as objective, deductive, and principled.

Both Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas lived and taught in a culture which might be described as objective, deductive, and principled. The modern world is primarily subjective, inductive, and experiential.  Objective means that something is real, i.e., it is true, regardless of whether or not I know it to be true. For example, if a blind man is outside, but cannot see the trees, the trees are still there. Even though he does not perceive them, the trees are truly there. The existence of the trees does not depend on whether the blind man perceives them or not.  Objective reality exists independent of one’s perception. The subjective view of reality claims that only that which I perceive to be real is actually real. Generally, the subjective view of reality is not applied to trees and physical objects. However, it is applied to non-physical realities, e.g., truths about the existence of God, truths about morality. The subjective view of reality is clearly captured by the phrase, “That may be true for you, but not for me!”  In other words, what is true depends on what I believe or accept, or better phrased, on what I perceive. In the medieval world, such a claim would be utter nonsense. In fact, to most medieval academics, the truths of the faith, both dogmatic and moral truths, were more real than physical objects. The medieval world was objective. We are subjective.

Through the use of a philosophical movement called phenomenology, John Paul II has been able (in particular with the Theology of the Body) to present the content of Christ’s Revelation in a subjective, inductive, and experiential way without doing damage to its content.

Medieval world	Modern world
objective	subjective
deductive	inductive
principled	experiential
Augustine and Plato; Aquinas and Aristotle	Phenomenology of John Paul II

Table 1 Compare ancient and modern presentation

Katherine Hayhoe, as part of the Global Weirding Series on YouTube, discusses the topic “The Bible doesn’t talk about climate change, right?” in which she looks at the problem from the point of view of Evangelical Christians and finds common ground in care of the people and living creatures of the planet and our Christian responsibility to care for the poor.

Bill McKibben discusses why decades of climate change discussion hasn't turned into decisive action.

Katharine Hayhoe outlines her "elevator pitch", on how climate is changing and why it matters. She advises don’t start with the science.

Start with the values. I care about X. For example “We don’t have a future without water”.

WATER – FOR ALL AND EVERYONE

The Water Connection

Water is a fundamental human right but water scarcity around the world is causing severe problems and human suffering that are likely to worsen in the future, warns Caritas Internationalis.

“All people have a right to safe drinking water…This is a problem that affects everyone and is a source of great suffering in our common home.” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

Laudato Si Chapter 6

Displaced by water that was not safe to drink

Caritas’ global 2-year campaign on migration “Share the Journey” promotes Pope Francis’ “culture of encounter”, aiming to build stronger communities. Caritas is mobilizing its organisations in over 160 countries to look at the causes of migration, bust myths about migrants and to bring migrants and communities closer together.

In Laudato Si, Pope Francis declares the questions that need to be asked when assessing environmental impact on people of economic development.

Questions in Economic development

185. In any discussion about a proposed venture, a number of questions need to be asked in order to discern whether or not it will contribute to genuine integral development. What will it accomplish? Why? Where? When? How? For whom? What are the risks? What are the costs? Who will pay those costs and how? In this discernment, some questions must have higher priority. For example, we know that water is a scarce and indispensable resource and a fundamental right which conditions the exercise of other human rights. This indisputable fact overrides any other assessment of environmental impact on a region.

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Aerial-Boat-Harbour2_NS-Government-credit.jpg

For 50 years the Boat Harbour NS residents witnessed the transformation of Boat Harbour from a once pristine tidal estuary, so frequented by the Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing that they referred to it as “the other room,” into a brown, frothy, toxic soup containing some of the world’s most dangerous chemicals: carcinogens such as dioxins and furans and heavy metals such as mercury, zinc, cadmium and chromium.

Action to address the climate change, water, and loss of biodiversity concerns expressed in “Laudato Si” needs to be focused on responding to the values of people that are threatened as the planet changes and people are displaced from their homes.

References

(2018, November 9). CBC Listen | Front Burner | Bridging the climate change divide - CBC.ca. Retrieved November 14, 2018, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/front-burner/episode/15629854

(2018, November 19). Franciscan wisdom for a planet in peril: Fr. Dan Horan, OFM .... Retrieved November 20, 2018, from http://www.thingsnotseenradio.com/shows/1833-horan
(n.d.). An Introduction to John Paul II's Theology of the Body - NFP Outreach. Retrieved November 13, 2018, from https://www.nfpoutreach.org/47

(2017, January 4). The Bible doesn't talk about climate change, right? - YouTube. Retrieved November 21, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpjL_otLq6Y
(2010, December 3). A life in writing: Bill McKibben | Books | The Guardian. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/dec/06/bill-mckibben-interview
(2018, March 21). Water – for all and everyone - Caritas Internationalis. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.caritas.org/2018/03/sharing-water/
(2015, May 24). Laudato si' (24 May 2015) - Vaticano. Retrieved November 21, 2018, from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
(2017, November 22). Dirty Dealing - Halifax Examiner. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house/dirty-dealing/