Deus Caritas Est (Latin for "God is Love") is the first
encyclicalAn encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Christian church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from Latin encyclia meaning "general" or "encircling", which is also the origin...
written by
Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State...
, on the subject of Christian love, as expressed by its subtitle
De Christiano Amore. The encyclical reflects on the concepts of
erosEros is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Modern Greek word "erotas" means " love". The term erotic is derived from eros.-Eros in the Greco-Roman tradition:...
(possessive, often
sexIn biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
ual,
loveLove is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction...
),
agapeAgape is one of several Greek words translated into English as love. Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love...
(unconditional, self-sacrificing
loveLove is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction...
),
logos' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
(the word), and their relationship with the teachings of
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
.
The encyclical contains almost 16,000 words in 42 paragraphs. The first half is said to have been written by Benedict in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
, his mother tongue, in the summer of 2005; the second half is derived from uncompleted writings left by his predecessor,
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
. The document was signed by Pope Benedict on Christmas Day, 25 December 2005. Some reports attribute the delay to problems in translating the original German text into
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
; others to disputes within the
VaticanThe Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Roman Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
over the precise wording of the document.
The encyclical was
promulgatedPromulgation or enactment is the act of formally proclaiming or declaring a new statutory or administrative law as in effect after it receives final approval....
on January 25, 2006, in Latin and officially translated into seven other languages (
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
,
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
,
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
, and
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
). It is the first encyclical to be published since the Vatican decided to assert
copyrightCopyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain...
in the official writings of the
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
.
Title
The Latin title of an encyclical is taken from its first few words. This encyclical begins with a quotation from the
First Letter of St. JohnThe First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or "general" epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two epistles of John. This Epistle was written in Ephesus between the years 100-110...
, chapter 4, verse 16 (for example, the
VulgateThe Vulgate is an early 5th-century Latin version of the Bible, largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of old Latin translations...
) translated from the original
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
, "
ὁ θεòς ἀγάπη ἐστίν" (
ho theos agape estin). The
Douai BibleThe Douay-Rheims Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douai Bible and abbreviated as D-R, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English. The New Testament was published in one volume with extensive commentary and notes in 1582...
translates this into English as "God is charity", while in most contemporary English translations it reads "God is love" (since the word "charity" is derived from the Latin
caritas, or "love"). The Latin version of the First Letter of St. John uses the same formulation, "Deus caritas est", at the end of chapter 4, verse 8, translating the same phrase in Greek.
Summary
In this encyclical, Benedict reflects on the concepts of
eros,
agape, and
logos, and their relationship with the teachings of Jesus.
Eros and
agape are two of the various
Greek words for loveThere are several Greek words for love, as the Greek language distinguishes how the word Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agape, eros, philia, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words...
, each of which has a slightly different shade of meaning:
agapeAgape is one of several Greek words translated into English as love. Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love...
is descending, ablative love in which one gives of oneself to another;
erosEros is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Modern Greek word "erotas" means " love". The term erotic is derived from eros.-Eros in the Greco-Roman tradition:...
is ascending, possessive love which seeks to receive from another.
Logos' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
is often translated into English as "
wordA word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme , but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form A word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with...
", but can also mean thought, speech, reason, principle, standard, or logic, among other things. For example, the
prologuePrologue , or prolog, is a preface to the story, setting up the story, giving background information and other miscellaneous information...
of the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel of John , is the last of the four canonical gospels. This non synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth...
calls
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
the
Logos: the opening verse in the New American Bible (and other translations) reads: "In the beginning was the Word [
Logos], and the Word [
Logos] was with God, and the Word [
Logos] was God."
The document explains that
eros and
agape are both inherently good, but that
eros risks being downgraded to mere
sexIn biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
if it is not balanced by an element of spiritual Christianity. The opinion that
eros is inherently good follows a school of thought in the Catholic church known as the "
Caritas tradition", and contrasts with the view expressed, for example, by
Anders NygrenAnders Theodor Samuel Nygren was a Swedish, Lutheran theologian. He was professor of systematic theology at Lund University from 1924 and was elected Bishop of Lund in 1948...
, a Lutheran bishop, in his mid-20th century book
Eros and AgapeEros and Agape is the title of a two-volume treatise written by the Swedish Protestant theologian Anders Nygren, first published in Swedish in 1930-1936...
, that
agape is the only truly Christian kind of love, and that
eros is an expression of the individual's desires and turns us away from God. These two positions have been an ongoing cause for debate in both Catholic and Protestant
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
. The continuity of these two forms of love follows the traditional Catholic understanding, which is influenced by the philosophy of
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
,
AugustineAugustine of Hippo , Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin, was an Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian....
,
BonaventureBonaventure , born John of Fidanza , was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher, the eighth Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor. He was a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonized on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588...
and ancient Jewish tradition. The Nygren position was favoured by the
ReformedThe Reformed churches are a group of Christian Protestant denominations formally characterized by a similar Calvinist system of doctrine, historically related to the churches that first arose especially in the Swiss Reformation led by Huldrych Zwingli and soon afterward appeared in nations...
theologian
Karl BarthKarl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his training in the...
while the Caritas position was supported by the
liberalLiberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onwards...
Protestant theologian
Paul TillichPaul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was, along with his contemporaries Rudolf Bultmann , Karl Barth , and Reinhold Niebuhr , one of the four most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
.
The first half of the encyclical is more
philosophicalPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
, tracing the meaning of the Greek words for "love". In considering
eros, Benedict refers to a line from
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's
Eclogues, Book X, line 69, "Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori" ("Love conquers all, let us also yield to love"), and the opinion of
Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th- century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive German-language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and...
that Christianity has poisoned
eros, turning it into a
viceVice is a practice or a habit considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness and corruption...
. He refers to the conjugal love exhibited in the
Song of SongsSong of Songs is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:*Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants*The Song of Songs , a play directed by Eimuntas Nekrošius in 2005...
, and analyzes passages from the
First Letter of St. JohnThe First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or "general" epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two epistles of John. This Epistle was written in Ephesus between the years 100-110...
which inspired the title. The encyclical argues that
eros and
agape are not distinct kinds of love, but are separate halves of complete love, unified as both a giving and receiving.
The second half, based on a report prepared by the
Pontifical Council Cor UnumThe Pontifical Council Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development is a part of the Curia of the Catholic Church. It was established by Pope Paul VI on 15 July 1971 and is based in the Palazzo San Callisto, in Piazza San Callisto, Rome....
, is less
abstractAbstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to a ball retains only the information...
, considering the charitable activities of the Church as an expression of love which draws its power from contemplative union with God. The second half also refers to the Church's threefold responsibility: proclaiming the word of God (
kerygma-martyria), celebrating the
sacramentA sacrament, as defined in Hexam's Concise Dictionary of Religion is what Roman Catholics believe to be "a rite in which God is uniquely active." Augustine of Hippo defined a Christian sacrament as "a visible sign of an invisible reality." The Anglican Book of Common Prayer speaks of them as "an...
s (
leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of
charityIn Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving....
(
diakonia). The encyclical says that
social justiceSocial justice is a notion used to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution, policies aimed toward achieving that which developmental economists refer to as equality of opportunity and...
is the primary responsibility of politics and the laity; the church itself should inform the debate on social justice with reason guided by faith, but its main social activity should be directed towards charity. Charity workers should have a deep prayer life, and be uninfluenced by
partyPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
and
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
. Benedict rejects both Marxist arguments that the poor "do not need charity but justice", and the merger of church and state functions (
theocracyTheocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a higher sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In Common Greek, “theocracy” means a...
); rather, he encourages
cooperation between the church, the state, and other Christian charitable organizations.
Paragraph 39 appears to be inspired by
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
's
Divine Comedy, reflecting in particular the last
cantoThe canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, from the Latin canto, meaning "I sing," and has a corollary in the Sanskrit , or "chapter." Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Valmiki's The Ramayana ,...
of "Paradise", which ends before "the everlasting Light that is God himself, before that Light which at the same time is the love which moves the sun and the other stars". The three concluding paragraphs consider the example of the
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
s, ending with a prayer to the Virgin Mary. The text mentions the name of
Mother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu , was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata , India in 1950...
four times, the last as a "
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
" (despite the fact that she has not yet been canonised) in such company as
Francis of AssisiSaint Francis of Assisi was a Catholic deacon and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans....
,
Ignatius of LoyolaSaint Ignatius of Loyola , was a Spanish knight, who became a hermit and priest, founding the Society of Jesus and becoming its first Superior General. Ignatius and the Jesuits became major figures in the Counter-Reformation, where the Catholic Church worked to reform itself from within and...
,
John of GodSaint John of God was a Portuguese-born friar and saint, who has become one of Spain's leading religious figures....
, Camillus of Lellis,
Vincent de PaulVincent de Paul was a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor, who is venerated as a saint.-Life:De Paul was born in Landes, Gascony, France, to a peasant family. He had three brothers and two sisters....
,
Louise de MarillacSaint Louise de Marillac was the co-founder, with St. Vincent de Paul, of the Daughters of Charity. She is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.-Early life:...
,
Giuseppe B. CottolengoSaint Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo or Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo was the founder of the Little House of Divine Providence and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church....
,
John BoscoSaint John Bosco , born Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco, also called Don Bosco, was an Italian Catholic priest and educator, who put into practice the dogma of his religion, employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment...
, and
Luigi OrioneSaint Luigi Orione is an Italian saint.- Life :Luigi Giovanni Orione was born into a poor family at Pontecurone, in the Province of Alessandria, Piedmont on the Vigil of the feast day of the "Nativity of St. John the Baptist." He was named after Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and Saint John the Baptist...
.
Deus Caritas Est, like the encyclicals of many previous popes, including Pope John Paul II, uses the Royal we in the official Latin text (
"cupimus loqui de amore"). This is the text that appears promulgated in the Vatican's official gazette of record, "Acta Apostolicae Sedis". However, in accordance with a practice initiated in the pontificate of John Paul II, the unofficial versions prepared by the Vatican in 7 other languages use the singular (
"I wish to speak of love").
Some key passages
- Opening passage. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”. We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. (§1)
- Reasons for the encyclical. In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.... I wanted here—at the beginning of my Pontificate—to clarify some essential facts concerning the love which God mysteriously and gratuitously offers to man, together with the intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love. (§1)
- Fulfillment of the true nature of love. Eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized... On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift... Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God... Only in the way of contemplation will he be able to take upon himself the needs of others and make them his own. (§7)
- "The love which God lavishes upon us." The one God...loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—-but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape... This is not only because it is bestowed in a completely gratuitous manner, without any previous merit, but also because it is love which forgives... [I]n Jesus Christ, it is God himself who goes in search of the “stray sheep”, a suffering and lost humanity... His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ (cf. Jn 19:37), we can understand the starting-point of this Encyclical Letter: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move. (§9-10, 12, italics added)
- Transition to Part Two. Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first. No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others. Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God. (§18)
- Summary on justice and charity, and the Church's role. The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply... The Church's charitable organizations, on the other hand, constitute an opus proprium, a task agreeable to her, in which she does not cooperate collaterally, but acts as a subject with direct responsibility, doing what corresponds to her nature. (§28-29, italics added)
- Urgent need. Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed...In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service...It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work... A personal relationship with God and an abandonment to his will can prevent man from being demeaned and save him from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism...Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the “goodness and loving kindness of God” (Tit 3:4). Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of historical events, they remain unshakably certain that God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible. (§36-38, italics added)
- Charity and evangelization. Charity, furthermore, cannot be used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays considered proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix 'πρός' and the verb 'έρχομαι' . Historically in the New Testament, the word proselyte denoted a person who...
...But this does not mean that charitable activity must somehow leave God and Christ aside. For it is always concerned with the whole man. Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God. (§31)
- Summary of reflections on love. "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor 13:3). This hymn must be the Magna Carta
Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum , is an English legal charter, originally issued in the year 1215. It was written in Latin and is known by its Latin name...
of all ecclesial service; it sums up all the reflections on love which I have offered throughout this Encyclical Letter. Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ. (§34)
- Invitation of the Encyclical. Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical." (§39)
- Conclusion of the Encyclical. The saints are the true bearers of light within history, for they are men and women of faith, hope and love...Outstanding among the saints is Mary, Mother of the Lord and mirror of all holiness....“My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1:46). In these words she expresses her whole programme of life: not setting herself at the centre, but leaving space for God, who is encountered both in prayer and in service of neighbour—only then does goodness enter the world...The testimonials of gratitude, offered to her from every continent and culture, are a recognition of that pure love which is not self- seeking but simply benevolent. At the same time, the devotion of the faithful shows an infallible intuition of how such love is possible: it becomes so as a result of the most intimate union with God, through which the soul is totally pervaded by him—a condition which enables those who have drunk from the fountain of God's love to become in their turn a fountain from which “flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38). Mary, Virgin and Mother, shows us what love is and whence it draws its origin and its constantly renewed power. (§40-42, italics added)
Other events
At an audience on 18 January 2006, Pope Benedict said that
Deus Caritas Est would discuss the concept of love "in its various dimensions, from the love between man and woman to the love that the Catholic Church has for others in its expression of charity". The Vatican, through the Pontifical Council
Cor Unum, sponsored a conference in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
to discuss the themes of the encyclical on 23 January and 24 January 2006, involving
Liliana CavaniLiliana Cavani is an Italian director and screenwriter, best known for her 1974 feature film Il portiere di notte which launched actress Charlotte Rampling to international stardom...
(director of films including
The Night PorterThe Night Porter is a controversial 1974 film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.- Synopsis :...
and
Ripley's GameRipley's Game is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, the third in her "Ripliad" series.-Plot summary:In the third Ripley novel, Tom Ripley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He lives in Villeperce, France, with his French wife, Heloise...
) and
James WolfensohnJames David Wolfensohn KBE, AO was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.-Early life:Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia on 5 December 1933, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from England during the Great Depression.
He was educated at Sydney Boys High School, studied...
(former head of the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to poorer countries for capital programs, tied to neoliberal market restructurings...
).
The encyclical was published on the
feastThe calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as that saint's feast day...
of the Conversion of
Saint PaulPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
and on the last day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Pope Benedict led an ecumenical prayer service at the
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the WallsThe Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls or St Paul-without-the-Walls is one of four churches considered to be the great ancient basilicas of Rome. As well as St Paul's, the Roman Catholic church counts among the four papal basilicas or major basilicas of Rome: the basilicas of St. John...
, a traditional site for such celebrations, on the evening after the encyclical was published. Presiding at
vespersVespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours. The word comes from the Greek εσπερινός and the Latin vesper, meaning "evening." The term is also in limited use in some Protestant...
, he said in his
homilyA homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a homily is usually given during Mass at the end of the Liturgy of the Word...
: "God is love. On this solid rock the entire faith of the church is based."
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