Encyclical Letter Caritas In Veritate (Love in Truth) Published
On Wednesday of last week Pope Benedict XVI published his new Encyclical Letter, Caritas In Veritae (Love In Truth) on integral human development in charity and truth.
Globalisation is a key theme of Caritas In Veritate, which revisits the teachings on “integral human development” expounded by Pope Paul VI in his landmark 1967 Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, seeking to apply them to the contemporary world.
Pope Benedict’s first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) explored the centrality of the Christian call to love in the life and mission of the Church. The Pope’s new encyclical highlights the inseparable connection between love and truth. In Pope Benedict’s own words “without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.” Some of the key issues raised by Caritas in Veritate are:
· Love means the opting for engagement in the field of justice and peace.
· Christians need to be ready to proclaim this love in society.
· Truth is a necessary component of love because without truth the true meaning of love can be distorted, reducing it to an empty sentimentality.
· The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church derives from the dynamic of love given and received through our relationship with God and our neighbour on both the micro and macro-levels.
· Justice is inseparable from charity. Charity goes beyond justice, but never lacks justice.
· Promotion of the common good - of individuals, families, and groups in society - is a requirement of justice and charity.
· The chief challenge facing society today is that of globalization.
· In a globalised society our understanding of the common good must be extended to the relations between nations.
· We need to match the interdependence of nations with an ethical interaction of consciences and minds.
· We need to share goods and resources, not only technical progress.
· We need to ensure that, in the context of an ever more globalised labour market, measures taken by States to increase economic competitiveness do not militate against the fulfillment of their obligation to protect the poor and the most vulnerable (for example in pensions and child benefit payments).
· We need to recognise that while the mobility of labour can produce significant benefits, it can also give rise to “psychological instability”, resulting in “situations of human decline” as a consequence of the negative impact on areas such as family life.
· “The right to food, like the right to water, has an important place within the pursuit of other rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life.” This has significant implications for the relations between developed and developing nations, in areas such as agrarian reform and overseas development aid.
· The Church does not offer technical solutions or interfere in politics, but cannot renounce its mission of truth.
The full text of the Encyclical is available for download at www.catholicbishops.ie
On Wednesday of last week Pope Benedict XVI published his new Encyclical Letter, Caritas In Veritae (Love In Truth) on integral human development in charity and truth.
Globalisation is a key theme of Caritas In Veritate, which revisits the teachings on “integral human development” expounded by Pope Paul VI in his landmark 1967 Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, seeking to apply them to the contemporary world.
Pope Benedict’s first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) explored the centrality of the Christian call to love in the life and mission of the Church. The Pope’s new encyclical highlights the inseparable connection between love and truth. In Pope Benedict’s own words “without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.” Some of the key issues raised by Caritas in Veritate are:
· Love means the opting for engagement in the field of justice and peace.
· Christians need to be ready to proclaim this love in society.
· Truth is a necessary component of love because without truth the true meaning of love can be distorted, reducing it to an empty sentimentality.
· The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church derives from the dynamic of love given and received through our relationship with God and our neighbour on both the micro and macro-levels.
· Justice is inseparable from charity. Charity goes beyond justice, but never lacks justice.
· Promotion of the common good - of individuals, families, and groups in society - is a requirement of justice and charity.
· The chief challenge facing society today is that of globalization.
· In a globalised society our understanding of the common good must be extended to the relations between nations.
· We need to match the interdependence of nations with an ethical interaction of consciences and minds.
· We need to share goods and resources, not only technical progress.
· We need to ensure that, in the context of an ever more globalised labour market, measures taken by States to increase economic competitiveness do not militate against the fulfillment of their obligation to protect the poor and the most vulnerable (for example in pensions and child benefit payments).
· We need to recognise that while the mobility of labour can produce significant benefits, it can also give rise to “psychological instability”, resulting in “situations of human decline” as a consequence of the negative impact on areas such as family life.
· “The right to food, like the right to water, has an important place within the pursuit of other rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life.” This has significant implications for the relations between developed and developing nations, in areas such as agrarian reform and overseas development aid.
· The Church does not offer technical solutions or interfere in politics, but cannot renounce its mission of truth.
The full text of the Encyclical is available for download at www.catholicbishops.ie
Cemetery Mass at Foulkstown
Don’t forget the annual Mass at Foulkstown Cemetery will be celebrated at 7.30pm on Thursday, 30th July. We ask you to inform interested people who may not see this announcement.
We invite plot-owners to prepare their graves for the occasion and, if necessary, give some assistance to those in the locality who are unable to look after their family graves.
Counselling
Low cost counselling is available at St. Patrick’s Parish Centre. Contact Kate for further details 087 750 6815.
Latin Mass
The traditional Latin Mass (permitted by Pope Benedict XVI in his Motu Proprio of July 2007) is celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church at 5pm on Sundays.
Stretched Out
Depending on your viewpoint it’s refreshing, or alarming, how certain Paul can be in his statements on complex issues. Take today’s Second Reading for example. Here he just baldly states that God ‘chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be blameless before him in love,’ and that has ‘made known the mystery of his will …. As a plan for the fullness of time’. Clearly, for him, God took great care with us humans, his creation. Two things are striking here: his reference to God’s pre-creation will and, for want of a better expression, his post temporal one. Again, for Paul human beings are not an after-thought in the mind of God. No! Even before creation’s foundation is set, way before any humans appear on the scene, God already has a plan for them – and a great one at that! This seemingly quirky creation, queerer and more chaotic than we can ever imagine, progresses according to a divine plan. Here we feel the power of faith at work. For only faith can work at this level. Science has nothing to say about pre-foundational creation, about the awesome void of our pre-pyrotechnic cosmos, about the deafening silence of its final destination readily dwarfing even the Big Bang’s birth cry. Yet here we have unscientific Paul opening our minds to realities that only faith can reveal, and stretching them to their limits, and then some. Are we ready for the strain of trying to comprehend God, small as a loving father yet enormous enough to encompass creation?
Fr. Tom Cahill SVD
St. John Vianney
An information night on the life of St. John Vianney (the Curé d’Ars) will take place in the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel on Monday, 13th July at 8pm. The Year For Priests (19th June 2009 - 19th June 2010) has been put under the patronage of St. John Vianney who is the patron saint of priests. The DVD and input presentation will show the life of this saintly man who, through his devotion to the Eucharist and confession, brought many to God.
Further Information from Joe Maher 087 652 7510 or Fr. Willie Purcell 087 628 6858
Questions people ask
I am puzzled by the words of Jesus that no one is lost except the one who has destined to be lost (John 17:12). Does this refer to Judas and does it mean that God predestined him to be lost?
This difficult text probably refers to Satan, a fallen angel, who became the evil spirit of perdition. The notion that God predestined any person to be lost is totally contrary to the mission of Jesus who showed so much concern for the salvation of all sinners that he shocked the pious people with the extent of his mercy. Scripture assures us that the Lord wants nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance. (1 Peter 3:9)
Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Pray for the Deceased
Recently Deceased: Baby Alfie Smith.
Month’s Mind: Owen McDonagh (Sun 10.30).
Anniversaries: Sr. Vianney Hickey (Sat 7.00), Pauline Kennedy (Sun 10.00), Jeremiah Doheny (Sun 11.00), Catherine Dowling (Sun 12.00), Teresa Delahunty (Sun 12.30), Patrick Morris (Fri 9.30), Bridget O’Leary, John Delaney, Nuala Bourke, Peg Horrigan, Christy & Brigid Murray.
Intentions Next Weekend: Jimmy Byrne (Sun 10.00), Mary Norris (Sun 12.00), Nicholas Comerford (Sun 12.30).
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
Loughboy Library
Blast off with books!: join the summer reading challenge for children and be part of the weekly draw for a €10 book token. Registration cards available from staff.
Story Time: for aged 8 and under every Friday at 12 noon, all welcome.
Mobile Phone Training: for over 55s recommencing on Tues Aug 18th at 11am, please book a place.
Exhibition: of oils, watercolours and acrylics on display until July 20th.
Free membership: for all except those in full-time employment, the best value in town!
I am puzzled by the words of Jesus that no one is lost except the one who has destined to be lost (John 17:12). Does this refer to Judas and does it mean that God predestined him to be lost?
This difficult text probably refers to Satan, a fallen angel, who became the evil spirit of perdition. The notion that God predestined any person to be lost is totally contrary to the mission of Jesus who showed so much concern for the salvation of all sinners that he shocked the pious people with the extent of his mercy. Scripture assures us that the Lord wants nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance. (1 Peter 3:9)
Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap
Pray for the Deceased
Recently Deceased: Baby Alfie Smith.
Month’s Mind: Owen McDonagh (Sun 10.30).
Anniversaries: Sr. Vianney Hickey (Sat 7.00), Pauline Kennedy (Sun 10.00), Jeremiah Doheny (Sun 11.00), Catherine Dowling (Sun 12.00), Teresa Delahunty (Sun 12.30), Patrick Morris (Fri 9.30), Bridget O’Leary, John Delaney, Nuala Bourke, Peg Horrigan, Christy & Brigid Murray.
Intentions Next Weekend: Jimmy Byrne (Sun 10.00), Mary Norris (Sun 12.00), Nicholas Comerford (Sun 12.30).
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
Loughboy Library
Blast off with books!: join the summer reading challenge for children and be part of the weekly draw for a €10 book token. Registration cards available from staff.
Story Time: for aged 8 and under every Friday at 12 noon, all welcome.
Mobile Phone Training: for over 55s recommencing on Tues Aug 18th at 11am, please book a place.
Exhibition: of oils, watercolours and acrylics on display until July 20th.
Free membership: for all except those in full-time employment, the best value in town!
Anniversaries and Newsletter
Please, please, please, DO NOT leave anniversaries or other items into our former house on Ormonde Road. It is no longer ours, we do not have access to it and we will not get anything left in there until the new owners drop them up to us which could be weeks. Items left to the Parish Office, the Priests’ Houses, St. Patrick’s or St. Fiacre’s Sacristies before Thursday will ensure publication. Thanks.
Links to Useful Websites
Catholic Bookshop: www.veritas.ie St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online and books: http://www.americancatholic.orgYou Tube Vatican: http://www.youtube.com/vatican
Diocese of Ossory: www.ossory.ie
Irish Church Information including Mass times in Irish Parishes: www.catholicireland.com
Marriage Preparation: www.gettingmarried.ie
