CHURCH IN FOCUS: Caritas in Veritate -16 28 August 2011
In our Focus on the Church Programme we bring you the continuation of the Third Encyclical
of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, released on the 7th of July 2009. Pope
Benedict XVI in his encyclical tells us that even peace can run the risk of being
considered a technical product, merely the outcome of agreements between governments
or of initiatives aimed at ensuring effective economic aid. It is true that peace-building
requires the constant interplay of diplomatic contacts, economic, technological and
cultural exchanges, agreements on common projects, as well as joint strategies to
curb the threat of military conflict and to root out the underlying causes of terrorism.
Nevertheless, if such efforts are to have lasting effects, they must be based on values
rooted in the truth of human life. Beyond the economic links and the development,
the Pope insists on the need for social communications. Social communication is a
field of study that primarily explores the ways information can be perceived, transmitted
and understood, and the impact those ways will have on a society. Linked to technological
development is the increasingly pervasive presence of the means of social communications.
Pope Paul VI in his message for the World Communication Day said that Christians,
and particularly young people, must bear in mind that to use the communications media
wisely is, in the last analysis, a matter of personal responsibility, and that from
the choice they make, the holiness of their lives will depend, as also the integrity
of their faith and the riches of their culture. And the value of their contribution
to the general development of society is also at stake here. Yes, the Church must
instruct them and give them every help, but it cannot supply any substitute for their
personal consistent decision. Pope Paul VI in the decree on Social Communications
says that among the wonderful technological discoveries which men of talent, especially
in the present era, have made with God's help, the Church welcomes and promotes with
special interest those which have a most direct relation to men's minds and which
have uncovered new avenues of communicating most readily news, views and teachings
of every sort. The most important of these inventions are those media which, such
as the press, movies, radio, television and the like, can, of their very nature, reach
and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society,
and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication. The Church recognizes
that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since
they greatly contribute to men's entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread
and support of the Kingdom of God. The Church recognizes, too, that men can employ
these media contrary to the plan of the Creator and to their own loss. Pope Benedict
in his Encyclical says that technology is the making use and the knowledge of tools,
techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem
or serve some purpose. The word technology can either be applied generally or to specific
areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information
technology. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species'
ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use
of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. Recent
technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet,
have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely
on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes;
the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout
history, from clubs to nuclear weapons. Technology has affected society and its surroundings
in a number of ways. While it has brought in progress and development in economies,
it has brought negative effects enslaving persons and even causing large scale unemployment. It
is almost impossible today to imagine the life of the human family without technology
and technical progress. For better or for worse, they are so integral a part of life
today that it seems quite absurd to maintain that they are neutral — and hence unaffected
by any moral considerations concerning people. Often such views, stressing the strictly
technical nature of the media, effectively support their subordination to economic
interests intent on dominating the market and, not least, to attempts to impose cultural
models that serve ideological and political agendas. A Christian family is a communion
of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy
Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work
of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily
prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian
family has an evangelizing and missionary task. The relationships within the family
bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising above all from the
members' respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve
a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager
cooperation as parents in the children's upbringing." Given the media's fundamental
importance in engineering changes in attitude towards reality and the human person,
it is necessary for us to reflect carefully on their influence, especially in regard
to the ethical-cultural dimension of globalization and the development of peoples
in solidarity. Mirroring what is required for an ethical approach to globalization
and development, so too the meaning and purpose of the media must be sought within
an anthropological perspective. This means that they can have a civilizing effect
not only when, thanks to technological development, they increase the possibilities
of communicating information, but above all when they are geared towards a vision
of the person and the common good that reflects truly universal values. Just because
social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination
of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development
and democracy for all. To achieve goals of this kind, they need to focus on promoting
the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and
placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity.
In fact, human freedom is intrinsically linked with these higher values. The media
can make an important contribution towards the growth in communion of the human family
and the ethos of society when they are used to promote universal participation in
the common search for what is just. A particularly crucial battleground in today's
cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility
is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development
is radically called into question. In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental
question asserts itself force-fully: is man the product of his own labours or does
he depend on God? Scientific discoveries in this field and the possibilities of technological
intervention seem so advanced as to force a choice between two types of reasoning:
reason open to transcendence or reason closed within immanence. We are presented with
a clear either/ or. Yet the rationality of a self-centred use of technology proves
to be irrational because it implies a decisive rejection of meaning and value. It
is no coincidence that closing the door to transcendence brings one up short against
a difficulty: how could being emerge from nothing, how could intelligence be born
from chance? Faced with these dramatic questions, reason and faith can come to each
other's assistance. Only together will they save man. Entranced by an exclusive reliance
on technology, reason without faith is doomed to flounder in an illusion of its own
omnipotence. Faith without reason risks being cut off from everyday life. Fr
Eugene Lobo S.J.