POPULORUM PROGRESSIO FORTY YEARS ON
Speaking Notes of
Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
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25th September 2007
25th September 2007
We are here to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Populorum Progression. It would be interesting to know how many of us are here because of Populorum Progressio in another sense, because of what the Encyclical said to us forty years ago, because of the mobilisation of solidarity which emerged from the Encyclical and its aftermath and still leaves its traces today.
The diversity of the themes treated in the book we are here to launch and the lively participation here this evening are just examples of the legacy of Pope Paul’s insights. And this is just one of the many celebrations which will be taking place to commemorate this anniversary, an anniversary which is situation within that long list of documents and reflection which have emerged on the various anniversaries of Rerum Novarum.
Within that history of documents of the Church’s social teaching, Populorum Progressio was a ground-breaking document. It attempted to look at the new and changed landscape within which the social teaching and the social care of the Church would have to carry out its mission in a world and in a Church which were both undergoing change.
Celebrating the anniversary of Populorum Progressio certainly involves, as many of the articles in your book do, looking back at the document to see what its lacks were or what are the areas not addressed in the Encyclical.
That is legitimate, even though it is also risky to judge a document in the light of hindsight and the insights and events which have emerged over forty years. This is true especially since we are talking about one of the most extraordinary forty year periods in human history, a period of history which Populorum Progressio also helped to shape.
The originality of Populorum Progressio can only be evaluated in the context of the time in which it was written. It was the first social encyclical after the Vatican Council which saw a new way of looking at the relationship between the Church and the World. It was an Encyclical which brought the attention of all to the fact that the social question had become worldwide. Earlier social encyclicals had focussed particularly on the situation of workers and especially on the theme of peace. Populorum Progressio addressed the challenging question about the relations between peoples and nations in the immediate post colonial era. The hope that emerged as former colonies became independent perhaps blinded many about how difficult that path of independence was to be, due in many ways to the deficiencies of the systems of international solidarity at the time.
Populorum Progressio is a document then which is rooted in both Gaudium et Spes on the Church in the Modern World and the vision of Lumen Gentium which saw the Church as a sign of the unity in Jesus Christ of all humankind. Populorum Progressio was not just an analysis of the social situation. It was a reflection which came out of the Church’s self understanding.
Paul VI took up a very biblical notion of both justice and peace. The striking phrase “development is the new name for peace”, reflects the biblical notion that peace is more than the absence of war.
Populorum Progressio marked a further step in the commitment of the Church, in its own pastoral structures, to working together to forge a unity of humankind which was not just political or economic but based on a deep respect and indeed love for every human person in order to ensure that each could attain his or her God-given potential.
The Encyclical was published in the context of the establishment some months earlier The Pontifical Commission Iustitia et Pax, which had been requested in the final paragraph of Gaudium et Spes. It is remarkable to note the manner in which Paul VI systematically responded top the requests for reform and renewal set out in Vatican II.
It is interesting that at the time there had been a strong pressure on Paul VI to institute one new office at the Holy See which would have had within its competence both the mission of the laity and the Church’s work for justice and peace. It was Paul VI who stressed that while working for justice and peace is primarily the task of lay Christians, it is not exclusively so. That mission belongs to every member of the Church, whatever his or her task or position in the Church.
In characteristic Montini style, Pope Paul opted to establish two separate offices, the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Commission “Iustitia et Pax”, but united under one President. This was to be the case for over ten years, when both organisms became totally separate.
It is also characteristic of Pope Paul that, although he established the Pontifical Commission “Iustitia et Pax” as a study commission, he urged its first Secretary, Mons. Joe Gremillion, to reach out and to encourage the establishment of justice and peace commissions on national and even local level. Many of these national commissions were later to play a vital role in the development of their countries, especially at periods of political transition.
Populorum Progressio was published also at the same time as the inauguration of the World Day of Peace, which is celebrated each year on 1st January. Once again, the idea of the World Day of Peace was typical of Pope Paul VI. It is not to be known as the World Day of Prayer for Peace. Montini deliberately chose a day, the first day of the calendar year, which was not necessarily a religious feast, but certainly was a natural moment when people of all persuasions were looking both backwards and forwards reflecting on the possibility and the hope of a better future. He saw the World Day of Peace as an occasion on which the Church could address people of good will of all religious backgrounds using the message and the concepts of the Christian teaching in a dialogical manner.
In another much quoted phrase: Paul VI speaks of authentic development: “[authentic development] must foster the development of each person and of the whole person.” To illustrate what that means, he quoted the French Dominican Father L.J. Lebret: “We cannot allow economics to be separated from human realities, nor development from the civilization in which it takes place. What counts for us is the person—each individual person, each human group, and humanity as a whole.” (15)
Interestingly, Paul VI quoted a number of individual authors in his Encyclical. This was not surprising as Pope Paul was a man who read widely. He had a particular priest who regularly bought for or proposed to him newly published books on a wide range of theological, social or cultural themes so that he could keep up to date in his reading.
The notion of development in Populorum Progressio was centred on the person, but on the person taken within the communities in which he or she lives and in terms of humanity as a whole.
Catholic Social Teaching is anthropocentric. This is clearly the anthropology of Vatican II which Pope John Paul II constantly recalled.
This does not mean however that, as some say, Catholic Social Teaching places the human person in a position which permits him or her to disregard nature and the rest of creation. A vital teaching of Centesimus Annus is its criticism of the way in which: “Humans think that they can make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without restraint to their will, as though [nature] did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given purpose which humankind can indeed develop but must not betray.”
The uniqueness of the human person is to be found in the ability to make rational decisions about the use of the world’s resources, in a responsible or irresponsible way. Catholic social teaching underlines the fact that humans must respect the “prior God-given purpose” which belongs to other elements in creation.
The book looks very much at the economic dimensions of international development and of models of economic international collaboration. I find it striking – and this would be one of my criticisms, not just of this book, but of much of the discussion on international development – that there is very little reflection on the reality of work. It is strange that the Millennium Development Goals did not set targets around access to decent work as a principal manner in which people can as real subjects develop the capacity to themselves taking care of their own development and that of their families.
Authentic development must be concerned about the development of the person in his or her integrity; that means not just their economic development. Catholic Social Teaching is an organic whole; it must be looked at in its integrity and it is dangerous to go cherry picking around one or other its dimensions. It would be wrong to separate social teaching from the Church’s teaching on the human person, male and female; it would be wrong to limit social teaching to the merely social, political or economic. The fostering of the family is essential if we are aim at a type of development that is truly rooted in the deepest reality of what it is to be a human person.
In his recent encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict has brought us right back to the most radical foundations of Catholic Social Teaching.
In one paragraph which provoke much surprise, Pope Benedict notes “that the just ordering of society and the State is a primary responsibility of politics” and adds later that “the Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible”. Some have seen this as somehow the recipe for retreat of the Church from commenting on the public arena. I look on this as a remarkably strong emphasis on the importance of politics and on the real purpose of politics. Politics is an essential dimension of the construction of society. We need around the world a new revival of politics. Around the world we need a new generation of politicians inspired by ideals, but also capable of taking the risks involved in transmitting those ideals into the “possible”, though the optimum use of resources and talents to foster the good of all.
Deus Caritas Est reminds us that it is God who has loved us first and that our loved-filled response to others… must never be separated from our experience of God’s love. The old theological adage that actio segue esse is at play here. Our love for others must always find its deepest motivation in the reality that God has revealed his love for humanity in the person of Jesus.
For me, poverty is the inability to realize God=given potential; fighting poverty is enabling people to realise their potential to the full. It is not enough that people be enabled to survive, they must be enabled to flourish.
Such an understanding of fighting poverty requires that we approach people in a new way, which recognises all their potential, all their longing, the depths of the personal being
The distinctiveness of the service rendered by the Church to society around the world is that is rooted in the vision of the dignity of all revealed by Christ: – We are dealing with human beings, and human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. Those who work for the Church’s charitable organizations must be distinguished by the fact that they do not merely meet the needs of the moment, but they dedicate themselves to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity”. This is authentic development of persons in their integrity.
In serving others, the Catholic will also be aware that he or she is witnessing to the love of God which responds to the deepest needs of human being. Again I quote Deus Caritas Est Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God. Those who practise charity in the Church’s name will never seek to impose the Church’s faith upon others. They realize that a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love.
We need therefore to attend to the fostering of a spirituality for social activism – those who serve others are called in the Catholic tradition to a sharing of their very selves: Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ.
Pope Benedict stresses clearly the need in the face of activism and growing secularisation we must stress the role of prayer. It is interesting to see throughout history – take for example the founders of the Irish religious orders involved in education and health care – that in addition to being very practical and courageous women and men they were also in most cases also mystics,. They were people the depths of whose understanding of the needs of others was rooted in an inner sensitivity which drew from their prayer life. The same can be said also for many in our time, like Archbishop Oscar Romero, who have been in the forefront of Christian social action.
I hope that many will be inspired by the witness of the International Jesuit for Development to work for models of authentic development in our times which will be the fruit of an authentic spirituality of love for every individual person and for human persons in their integrity.
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