Papal encyclicals have answers to global crisis

Those who have started their Lenten reflections may find a lot of insightful guidance from landmark encyclicals that remain relevant in these economically-challenging times as the wisdom of the Church’s teachings on social justice rings more urgently than ever.

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The social justice teachings — starting from the Rerum Novarum, an 1891encyclical by Pope Leo XIII which address issues of faith and morals, to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si in 2015 which critiques “immense technological development” amid lack of corresponding development in “human responsibility, values and conscience” — can be very compelling.

In between the two papal encyclicals, are the encyclical of Pope John Paul II called Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and of Pope Paul VI known as Populorum Progressio, both written after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, and which also offer a lot of insights on global issues and why there are wars and social unrest.

In Rerum Novarum (RN) that dwells on capital and labor, the Church assures the faithful: “Christian morality, when adequately and completely practiced, leads of itself to temporal prosperity, for it merits the blessing of that God who is the source of all blessings; it powerfully restrains the greed of possession and the thirst for pleasure. (RN 28)”

The encyclical Laudato Si of Pope Francis decries a “throwaway culture” in which non-biodegradable, toxic wastes make the earth “look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”