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February
6, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 3Oakland,
CA
Pope’s
first encyclical focuses
on meaning, practice of love
VATICAN CITY
-- Pope Benedict XVI issued the first encyclical of his papacy, Jan. 25,
dedicating Roman Catholicism’s highest form of writing to a reflection
on love and charity that called for a “purification” of erotic
love between men and women.
The encyclical, titled “Deus Caritas Est” or “God Is
Love,” also called on Catholic charities around the world to reaffirm
their ties with church hierarchy. He urged charities not to allow secular
influences to blur their religious identity.
Benedict cited a “problem of language” that has led history
to divide love into two distinct concepts based on the Greek words “eros,”
or erotic love, and “agape,” spiritual love. These distinctions,
Benedict said, distort the meaning of erotic love, reducing sexual attraction
to a form of “intoxication” that transforms sex into a “debasement
of the human body.”
“Evidently, eros needs to be disciplined and purified if it is to
provide not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle
of our existence,” he wrote. “Eros, reduced to pure sex, has
become a commodity, a pure `thing’ to be bought and sold.”
A pope’s first encyclical is usually scrutinized for indications
of what direction his papacy will take. Benedict, the former Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, was elected pope last April.
Benedict’s document did not make any explicit policy changes but
reflected long-standing church teaching on sexual morality that has troubled
many liberal Catholics for decades.
He reaffirmed, for example, Catholic teaching that says sex is only acceptable
between married couples, asserting that purification of love can only
take place in “monogamous marriage.”
“Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon
of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa,”
he wrote.
In anticipation of the encyclical’s release, Benedict took the unusual
step of making his intentions clear during multiple public appearances.
For example, addressing the Vatican’s department for charity on
Jan. 23, Benedict said the Church needed to return to the theme of love,
which had become “consumed and abused.”
The encyclical was published in two parts. The first focused on definitions
of love while the second addressed the role of Catholic charities in the
world.
According to reports in Italian news media, Benedict’s predecessor,
Pope John Paul II, initiated the section on charity. The effort to blend
the two sections resulted in a month-long delay of the document’s
publication.
Addressing the theme of charity, Benedict restated the Church’s
recognition of the right of separation between state and church. Catholic
charities working in various parts of the world, he said, should not become
too closely involved in local politics.
“Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and
ideologies,” Benedict said, warning that Marxist arguments in favor
of class struggle should not influence the church’s charitable works.
“For this reason, it is very important that the church’s charitable
activity maintains all of its splendor and does not become just another
form of social assistance,” he wrote.
Pope Benedict signs his first encyclical at the Vatican, Jan. 25. Archbishop Leonardo Sandri is at the right.
RNS PHOTO/REUTERS/Osservatore Romano
