Papal encyclical addresses meaning, value of love
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday issued his first encyclical, using the most important form of papal writing to expound upon the meaning of God’s love, erotic love among humans, and the relationship between the two.
Physical love, reduced to pure sex, becomes a debased commodity, “a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold,” the pope wrote; it must be enhanced by spiritual, selfless love for God and for one’s neighbor to achieve a higher and full meaning.
“Today, the term ‘love’ has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words,” the pope wrote in the 71-page document, titled “Deus Caritas Est,” or, God Is Love. He said he hoped to restore the idea of love to its “original splendor” and, in so doing, strengthen the Catholic faith.
Benedict’s choice of topic was puzzling to some observers, who expected the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who served for more than two decades as the church’s chief doctrinal watchdog, to address a more controversial or dogmatic issue in this much-anticipated document.
Instead, eight months into his papacy, Benedict opted for a very basic tenet in Christianity, that God is love, reflecting his desire to return to an emphasis on the fundamental values of the faith. An encyclical is always scrutinized closely for insight into a pope’s thoughts and plans, and the first such document is seen as a “charter” for a new papacy.
The first half of the treatise dealt with the relationship between eros, or physical love, and agape, or spiritual faith-infused love. The rest of the document is concerned with charity, the manifestation of love toward other people, especially the poor and disadvantaged.
Three senior prelates presented the document to reporters at a crowded news conference at the Vatican on Wednesday. Benedict had previously announced its general contents.
The pope’s encyclical “opposes the tendency today to forget God,” Monsignor Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican’s charities division, said at the news conference.
“It opposes the tendency of what can be called secularism.”
Cordes said earlier in the week that the pope’s choice of topic was “unexpected and even astonishing,” adding that universal prejudice holds that a priest talking about human love is “like a blind man talking about colors.” Benedict is able to counter that, Cordes said, by grounding his discussion firmly in Scripture and in the deep pastoral needs of the faithful.
The encyclical’s simple theme also fits with Benedict’s broader political agenda, advocating traditional values such as marriage between man and woman (and not same-sex couples) and the need for an activist church when it comes to moral issues.