Introduction
In general, it can be said that every social encyclical has a strong ethical dimension. Since the time of Leo XIII more than one hundred years ago, the popes have published nearly fifteen social documents. I would like to draw our attention to the latest social encyclical of Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth) of 29 June 2009, dealing with integral human development in love and truth. If one were to express briefly what it is about, it should be mentioned that 250 years ago the Scottish philosopher, ethicist and sociologist, founder of modern political economy Adam Smith defended market economy, capitalism and profit orientation, but today, as a result of the collapse of many banks and the emergence of the economic crisis, we know with certainty that he was mistaken. In addition to profit, business also requires selflessness and a culture of self-giving. And Benedict XVI set out on this path, following the encyclical of Paul VI, Populorum progressio (On the Development of Peoples) from 1967.
Right at the beginning of the encyclical Caritas in veritate it is recalled that on the path of the development of the human person and of all humanity, a driving force is needed, and that force is “love in truth,” which springs from God. In it, the human person finds strength and courage for commitment in the field of justice and peace (cf. CV, art. 1). Love is full of truth; the human person can participate in it and share it. Only “the one who is imbued with genuine love is inventive in uncovering the causes of misery, in seeking the means to fight it and to defeat it decisively” (cf. PP, art. 75).
Truth enables people to move beyond subjective feelings, helps them rise above cultural and historical determinations and agree in judging values and the essence of things, thereby creating dialogue, that is, communication and community (cf. CV, art. 4). “Without truth, without trust and love for truth, there is no social conscience and no social responsibility, and social activity is absorbed by private interests and the logic of power with destructive consequences for society, all the more so for a society moving toward globalization in difficult circumstances, as is happening precisely at present” (CV, art. 5).
1 The Principle of Justice and the Common Good
Benedict XVI states that the “key” of love in truth lies in two fundamental social principles, which he characterizes as “criteria of moral action”: justice and the common good (cf. CV 6). He defines justice here as the first step of love, which therefore includes it within itself, while at the same time going beyond it through selflessness and mercy. Justice is thus proper to love. The common good is connected with the social life of people, with the good of individuals, families, groups that unite in social community (cf. CV, art. 7).
2 A Vocation to Development
We are all called to commitment to the common good. Pope Paul VI already urged work in favor of the common good in the encyclical Populorum progressio. The path of the development of the whole person and of all people is a demanding path that must be walked with all our heart and all our mind.
Every human person is called to develop, and therefore every life is a vocation. A vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible response (cf. CV, art. 17). “Freedom is to serve the moral liberation of the human person, his greater openness to true values, his full self-realization.” (Zlatňanský, 1992, p. 31)
And here is the other side of the same coin: integral human development cannot be brought about only by social structures, but also by (indeed, above all) personal responsibility: every human person is “the chief architect of his success or his failure” (cf. PP, art. 15, CV, art. 17), and situations of backwardness “are not the fruit of chance or historical necessity, but result from human responsibility” (CV 17). In these words one can read a fundamental rejection of passive expectation that the “state” or anyone “else” will solve social problems, as well as a rejection of indifference toward the poverty of others, including developing countries - attitudes that are fairly characteristic of contemporary culture. The fable of the ant and the cicada illustrates this aptly. (1)
3 Comprehensive Knowledge
Efforts toward development must be viewed comprehensively. From experience in the contemporary world we know that satisfying the material needs of the human person is not enough; it is necessary to focus on the whole person, which presupposes cooperation and fruitful mutual dialogue among representatives of several scientific disciplines. Comprehensive knowledge of the issue of human development is the first step toward solving it. Pope Benedict XVI points out that “if [knowledge] is to be wisdom, capable of orienting the human person in the light of first principles and his ultimate ends, it must be seasoned with the salt of love... Knowledge without love is sterile” (CV, art. 30).
For example, economic science, which believes that it will eliminate evil in the world by itself by linking happiness and salvation with material well-being and social action, is mistaken. History shows that satisfying only the material needs of the human person is not enough. “Economic, social and political development, if it is to be authentically human, needs room to be created for the principle of selflessness as an expression of fraternity” (CV, art. 34).
4 The World of Economics Needs to Be Civilized.
In the second part of the encyclical, Benedict XVI uncovers the causes of the present crisis. His effort is to examine objectively the “human dimension of the problems” (CV, art. 22). From this perspective it is now quite obvious that the mere overcoming of economic backwardness “does not solve the complex issue of development” (CV, art. 23), neither in poor (developing) nor in rich (economically developed) countries, as evidenced for example by phenomena of corruption and illegality, which deform not only the human but also the economic dimension of development, accompanied by irresponsibility in providing or receiving international aid.
5 Errors of Economics
The error in the economic sphere is thus to assume that through economic interventions we can solve social problems, excluding the role of political power from it. The power of the state in redistributing material goods is at present clearly constrained by the growing mobility of financial capital and of material and immaterial means of production (cf. CV, art. 24). Here it is appropriate to reconsider and appreciate the role, power and responsibility of the state (cf. CV, art. 41). The world of economics needs to be civilized. The economic sphere needs to be governed by ethical principles so that human relationships such as friendship, sociability, solidarity and reciprocity can be built within it. The traditional principles of social ethics: transparency, honesty and responsibility should in the economic sphere not only be observed, but also supplemented by the principle of selflessness and the logic of gift as an expression of fraternity (cf. CV, art. 36).
John Paul II in the encyclical Centesimus annus (1991) emphasized the above-mentioned principles as proper to civil society; Benedict XVI emphasizes the need for selflessness and gift also in the economic sphere: “In a time of globalization, economic activity cannot disregard gratuitousness, which sows and fosters solidarity and responsibility for justice and the common good among its different subjects and actors” (cf. CV, art. 38). He highlights enterprises whose main aim is mutual and social assistance and whose activity is not primarily oriented toward profit, but toward building shared paths of social inclusion, the development of the human person and his relationships, and aid to developing countries.
6 Economy of Communion
Here it is worth presenting in more detail the new understanding of economics introduced into the reality of life by the founder of the Focolare Movement, Chiara Lubich. The “economy of communion,” as she called it, aims first to help those who are in need, so that work may be found for them, their needs may be met, and no one remain destitute; therefore one third of a company’s profit is allocated to the needs of the poor. The second aim is the development of companies, because if they did not develop and were stagnant, they could not produce; and finally, the goal of the economy of communion is also to contribute not only to the socio-economic healing of society, but also to its spiritual and cultural renewal, to the formation of “new people.” A company’s investment in neglected areas and areas that urgently need it brings with it not only economic but also moral significance.
7 New Economic Culture
A new economic culture, a culture of giving, consists in people freely contributing by making their material goods, ideas, time, and professional expertise available. The contribution of enterprises governed by the economy of communion is also that these enterprises employ primarily people coming from difficult circumstances so that they may be reintegrated into society. At present there are such enterprises and even entire industrial parks in Brazil, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, the Philippines, as well as in Slovakia (Zappala, 1993, pp. 37-8). Despite the fact that these enterprises are scattered throughout the world, social responsibility toward employees, suppliers, consumers, and the natural environment is not lost; on the contrary, it is strengthened.
This is different in organizations that move their operations in order to secure greater profit, cheaper labor, and more favorable tax conditions. In doing so, the deep bond of responsibility toward the development of the territory and the people among whom they operate disappears, and damage is caused to the local community. “It is not permissible to relocate production solely in order to take advantage of exceptionally favorable conditions, or, in the worse case, for exploitation, without truly contributing to the emergence of a strong productive and social system in the local society, which is an indispensable factor of stable development” (cf. CV, art. 40).
8 Economy of Selflessness
The content of the third chapter is “Fraternity, Economic Development and Civil Society,” where Benedict XVI drew attention to the need to develop the economy and the market economy not only on the basis of the logic of commutative justice (exchange among equals) and distributive justice (redistribution), but also on the basis of the logic of gift, which is the foundation of the “economy of selflessness.”
Love in truth is here the force that can transform community into a fraternal community, “in which there are no barriers or boundaries” (CV, art. 34). It is true that this form of community is not only a moral need, but is also demanded by political and even economic globalization, since “without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot fulfill its economic function” (CV, art. 35). Indeed, “without gratuitousness justice cannot even be realized” (CV, art. 38). Therefore the market must make room for the activity of enterprises that pursue mutually different goals: profit, the public interest, and mutual solidary assistance, yet at the same time every type of enterprise should - though to different degrees - include all these goals within itself. Every “enterprise” (in the broadest sense of the word - that is, as the “use of financial resources”) must therefore be oriented not toward short-term profit, but toward its long-term sustainability; at the same time it must reliably serve the real economy, and also the appropriate strengthening of economic activities in developing countries (cf. CV, art. 40).
9 Ethics - Friendly to the Human Person
The fourth chapter, “The Development of Peoples, Rights and Duties, the Environment,” begins from a critical view of the subjectivist vision of human rights that is not tied either to any objective view or to any framework of duties. In this way rights become a manifestation of arbitrariness, and their enforcement on the basis only of the current consensus of the majority weakens the sense of the duty to respect them - whether these are imaginary “rights” of anyone to anything or basic human rights.
A concrete expression of such a vision is also interference in the right of parents to decide on the number of children, together with various models of reductive sex education, the consequence of which is, especially in Europe, a radical decline in the birth rate. Moreover, “small families impoverish social relations (...) and are unable to ensure effective forms of solidarity.” (CV, art. 44). Positive pro-family policy thus becomes an economic requirement as well (and not only in connection with the crisis of pension systems).
For this reason too, economics “needs ethics for its proper functioning, but not just any ethics, rather an ethics friendly to the human person” (CV, art. 45) - it depends very much on which ethical norms are being derived from what. Benedict XVI emphasizes ethics based on the inalienable dignity of the human person, which gives ethical norms a transcendent (and therefore inviolable) value. Otherwise there is a serious risk that ethics itself will become a tool in the hands of economic-financial interests. In this chapter the pope also discusses the ecological question.
10 Globalization Processes
The fifth chapter is titled Cooperation of the Human Family. In it, solidarity is reflected into concrete social consequences. The high level of interaction of humanity, which is a reality today, will be transformed into community only on the condition that the human person, nations and all humanity realize that we form one family.
At the global level, a world political authority is required, one that, through the consistent application of the principle of solidarity and the principle of subsidiarity, would be able to strive “for the realization of authentic integral development, inspired by the values of love in truth” (CV, art. 67). The current situation of global crisis and the threat of distortions in globalization processes point to this requirement as a necessity not only from the moral point of view, but also from the political and economic one. Otherwise, “international law, despite the great advances achieved in various fields, would be threatened by becoming conditioned by the balance of power among the strongest” (CV art. 67). For this purpose it is necessary to reform both the United Nations and the international financial and economic architecture so that - each within its own competence - they concretely fulfill the concept of the family of nations.
11 Technicism
In the last, sixth chapter, Benedict XVI addresses the relationship between technology and the development of peoples - that is, both the technical aspects of development and especially a certain “technicism,” which reduces development to a purely technical problem and perceives development only in the context of the use of technical means.
The temptation is not so much technique itself as the “fascination with technology,” which in fact endangers human freedom from within its own decisions: “Human freedom is truly itself only when it responds to the fascination of technology with decisions that are the fruit of moral responsibility.” (CV, art. 70). Reducing development only to the level of “technical” steps is, among other things, also the reason for their previous global failure. The media play a major role here.
Conclusion
At the conclusion of the encyclical Benedict XVI clearly states the historical experience of humanity that “without God, man does not know where he should go and is unable even to understand who he is.” (CV 78) Of himself, therefore, the human person cannot establish true humanism, which is necessary so that the human person remains himself and does not become a slave to the achievements of technology that he himself created. Humanism that excludes metaphysical matters is inhuman humanism.
Deepening personal spirituality and discovering the meaning of religiosity can significantly help ethics in business. In a brief and clear way we have looked into the encyclical Caritas in veritate. I am convinced that it can also be an inspiration and orientation for human and economic development. Ethics will play a decisive role in this development.
Authors: Mons. Prof. ThDr. JCDr. Anton FABIAN, PhD. UPJŠ Košice, Faculty of Arts, Department of Social Work Mgr. Martina Drobňáková, Lipany Theological Institute in Spišské Podhradie
List of Bibliographic References [1] BENEDIKT XVI. 2009. Caritas in veritate. Trnava : SSV, 2009. [2] PAVOL XVI. Populorum progressio. In: www.kbs.sk/dokumety pápežov. [3] ZAPPALA, R. 1993. Komunismus, kapitalismus, společenství. Praha: Nové Město, 1993. [4] ZLATŇANSKÝ, J. 1992. Mravnosť a sloboda. In: Svedectvo viery 2 : Ľudská a kresťanská mravnosť. Trnava : Dobrá kniha, 1992.
(1) Classical version: The ant works all the long hot summer. It builds a house and creates supplies for winter. The cicada says to herself how stupid the ant is, in such nice weather and he is still just toiling away. The cicada laughs, dances and enjoys herself. Then winter comes, the ant hides in the warmth of the house and enjoys the supplies, while the cicada shivers from the cold and soon dies without food. Current version: The ant works all the long hot summer. It builds a house and creates supplies for winter. The cicada says to herself how stupid the ant is, in such nice weather and the ant is still just toiling away. The cicadas laugh, dance and enjoy themselves. Soon winter comes, the ant takes shelter in the warmth of the house and enjoys the supplies. The cicadas, shivering from the cold and starving, organize a press conference in which they ask where the ant got the right to be warm and well fed, while others, less fortunate, die of hypothermia and hunger. Television broadcasts everything live, showing the shivering cicadas and footage of the ant enjoying delicacies of all kinds in the warmth of a cozy home. Television viewers are outraged by the fact that in such a rich country some are left to suffer like poor cicadas, while others live in luxury. They urge the government to increase the ant's taxes; after all, it must pay its fair share. On the basis of public opinion research, a law on economic justice and at the same time an anti-discrimination law with retroactive effect is passed. Taxes are raised, the ant is fined for not employing cicadas, and the tax office seizes its house because it has no money to pay taxes or fines. The ant emigrates to Liechtenstein. Television prepares another report, this time about the fat cicadas, whose supplies are just running out, despite the fact that spring is still nowhere in sight. The former ant's house, now a social shelter for cicadas, is deteriorating amid the permanent indifference of the cicadas and the government. The government is criticized for insufficient social support, and a special commission is created at a cost of ten million euros. Meanwhile, some cicadas die of modern civilization diseases (obesity, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis C and others), and the press emphasizes even more strongly the need to care about social inequality and especially about cicadas.
The lecture was delivered at the international scientific conference Applied Ethics in Social Work and Other Helping Professions, which took place on 20-21 October 2010, in Piešťany, and was published in the proceedings from this conference: MÁTEL, A. – SCHAVEL, M. – MÜHLPACHR, P. – ROMAN, T. 2010. Applied Ethics in Social Work and Other Helping Professions. Proceedings of the international scientific conference. Bratislava : VŠZaSP sv. Alžbety. 413 p. ISBN 978-80-89271-89-4.