Monday, July 20, 2009

Two Great Articles on "Caritas in Veritate"

It is amazing to me that someone as brilliant as Pope Benedict XVI could produce an encyclical letter that was so incredibly uneven as Caritas in Veritate. This letter has managed to infuriate liberals and theological conservatives alike.

I finished the encyclical last night and found myself scratching my head at the inconsistencies, wondering if Benedict had relied more on a committee to construct this work than on his own thought.

I was going to write a piece on this and then found two great articles that summarize the problem quite well.

The first is by Catholic theologian George Weigel. Here's the link:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTgwOWY5MDkyNTIzNmQ0OTQ5NzAyMTJiNTU3MTAzN2M=

The second was sent to me by a parishioner. This is probably the most coherent critique of the encyclical and here is the link to it:

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/morals-markets-and-the-pope

It strikes me as a great pity that Benedict, whose first two encyclicals on faith and hope were outstanding, would close out the triad with a dissapointing effort.

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