A blessed beginning in his first Encyclical.
I am reminded of the comment of a chambermaid about John XXIII:
They made a mistake. They elected a Christian. That is not supposed to happen. First he has to be made a bishop, then he has to be made an archbishop, then he has to be made a cardinal, then he is elected pope. But nobody noticed that he is a Christian. Something went wrong.
From a Yahoo! AP article, Pope Encyclical Mandates Charity :
Pope Encyclical Mandates Charity By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday in his first encyclical that the Roman Catholic Church has no desire to govern states or set public policy, but can't remain silent when its charity is needed to ease suffering around the world.
In the long-awaited document "God is Love," Benedict explores the relationship between God's love for mankind and the church's works of charity, saying the two are intrinsically linked and the foundation of the Christian faith.
[…] He rejected the criticism of charity found in Marxist thought, which holds that charity is merely an excuse by the rich to keep the poor in their place when the rich should be working for a more just society.
While the Marxist model, in which the state tries to provide for every social need, did respond to the plight of the poor faster than even the church did during the Industrial Revolution, it was a failed experiment because it couldn't respond to every human need, he wrote.
Even in the most just societies, charity will always be necessary, he said.
"There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbor is indispensable," he said.
Benedict stressed that the state alone is responsible for creating that just society, not the church. "As a political task, this cannot be the church's immediate responsibility," he said.
However, he said the church wants to be involved in political life by helping "form consciences in political life and stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest."
He said the church was "duty-bound" to offer such a contribution, and that the lay faithful, who as citizens of the state, are duty-bound to carry it out through works of charity.
While stressing that the church has no direct political role, he did offer a prescription for what the state should do.
"We do not need a state which regulates and controls everything, but a state which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and [that combine] spontaneity with closeness to those in need," he wrote. [My correction, ellipses and emphasis]
