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John Paul II's Global Village
| Article
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14282 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
6,803 Words |
| Author
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Jude P. Dougherty
Jude P. Dougherty is the dean of the Department of Philosophy
at the Catholic University of America. |
One could wish that John Paul II had been brought up in the tradition of the English essayist. His present effort will not be applauded for its literary merits or as a great encyclical, but it is nevertheless worthy of attention. Like many papal documents, it suffers from a too formal Latin style, is given to platitudes, and is marred by excessive obeisance to predecessors.
But these weaknesses signal another type of strength, the strength that comes from continuity with the past, John Paul II is at pains to show the conformity of his words with those of his predecessors, and not simply with his immediate predecessors but with the Apostles and Fathers and Doctors of the Church he serves. It is not by accident that the encyclical is written in Latin, for that language is symbolic both of the universality of the Church and of the respect that the Church has for the classical tradition. Its assumption is that the ancients, no less intelligent than we, have something to say across the ages about an unchanging human nature. To study the encyclical is not only to examine the text itself but its grounding in the social theory traditionally endorsed by the Church and in John Paul II's personal training and previous teaching as pope. The encyclical obviously raises questions about the role of episcopacy in the teaching of moral norms.
Because a papal encyclical is an attempt to reach the whole world, it is more general in tone than a document addressing a particular nation or region. As its prose demonstrates, it is difficult to address the whole of the human race at once. Nevertheless, certain principles come through. Like the first principle of the moral order, "Do good and avoid evil," it mandates no particular conclusion. John Paul II readily admits, "The Church does not have technical solutions to offer."
Like his predecessor Leo XIII, in his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), John Paul II addresses the so-called social question. Only this time the social question has a global dimension. In the nineteenth century, that term was used to designate the problems northern Europe faced in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, as masses of people migrated to urban centers only to be exploited as laborers. Low wages, inadequate housing, and the disintegration of family life led to problems never before encountered on such a massive scale.
Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto as a blueprint for redressing these social ills. But Catholic thinkers were not far behind, as the problems first encountered in England
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