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Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
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                               VIS-Press releases

GOD IS LOVE: FIRST ENCYCLICAL OF BENEDICT XVI

VATICAN CITY, JAN 25, 2006 (VIS) - Given below is a summary of Benedict XVI's
first Encyclical, entitled "Deus caritas est" (God is love). Dated December 25,
Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, it considers the question of Christian
love.

The Encyclical is divided into two long parts. The first, entitled, "The Unity
of Love in Creation and in Salvation History," presents a theological-
philosophical reflection on "love" in its various dimensions - "eros,"
"philia," and "agape" - highlighting certain vital aspects of God's love for
man and the inherent links that such love has with human love. The second part,
entitled "The Practice of Love by the Church as a 'Community of Love',"
concerns the concrete implementation of the commandment to love others.

PART ONE

The term "love" - one of the most used, and abused, words in today's world -
has a vast field of meaning. In this multiplicity of meanings, however, the
archetype of love par excellence that emerges is that between man and woman,
which in ancient Greece was given the name of "eros." In the Bible, and above
all in the New Testament, the concept of "love" is rendered more profound, a
development expressed by the rejection of the word "eros" in favor of the term
"agape" to express oblate love.

This new view of love, an essential novelty of Christianity, has not
infrequently been considered in a completely negative sense as the refusal of
"eros" and of all things corporeal. Although there have been tendencies of this
nature, the meaning of this development is quite different. "Eros," placed in
the nature of man by his Creator, needs discipline, purification and maturity
in order not to lose its original dignity, and not be degraded to the level of
being pure "sex," becoming a mere commodity.

The Christian faith has always considered man as a being in whom spirit and
matter are mutually intertwined, drawing from this a new nobility. The
challenge of "eros" may be said to have been overcome when man's body and soul
are in perfect harmony. Then love truly becomes "ecstasy," but not ecstasy in
the sense of a passing moment of euphoria, but as a permanent departure from
the "I" closed within itself towards freedom in the giving of self and,
precisely in this way, towards the rediscovery of self, or rather, towards the
discovery of God. In this way, "eros" can raise the human being "in ecstasy"
towards the Divine.

Ultimately what is necessary is that "eros" and "agape" never be completely
separated from one another; indeed, the greater the extent to which the two -
though in different dimensions - find their right equilibrium, the more the
true nature of love is realized. Although initially "eros" is, above all,
desire, in approaching the other person it will ask ever fewer questions about
itself and seek ever more happiness in the other, it will give itself and
desire to "be there" for the other. Thus the one becomes part of the other and
the moment of "agape" is achieved.

In Jesus Christ, Who is the incarnate love of God, "eros-agape" achieves its
most radical form. In His death on the cross, Jesus, giving Himself to raise
and save mankind, expressed love in its most sublime form. Jesus ensured a
lasting presence for this act of giving through the institution of the
Eucharist, in which, under the species of bread and wine, He gives Himself as a
new manna uniting us to Him. By participating in the Eucharist, we too become
involved in the dynamics of His act of giving. We unite ourselves to Him, and
at the same time unite ourselves with everyone else to whom He gives Himself.
Thus we all become "a single body." In this way, love for God and love for
others are truly fused together. The dual commandment, thanks to this encounter
with the "agape" of God, is no longer just a requirement: love can be
"commanded," because first it was given.

PART TWO

Love for others rooted in the love of God, in addition to being the duty of
each individual faithful, is also the duty of the entire ecclesial community,
which in its charitable activities must reflect Trinitarian love. An awareness
of this duty has been of fundamental importance in the Church ever since her
beginnings; and very soon the need became clear for a certain degree of
organization as a basis for a more effective realization of those activities.

Thus, within the fundamental structure of the Church, the "deaconry" emerged as
a service of love towards others, a love exercised collectively and in an
ordered fashion: a concrete service, but at the same time a spiritual one. With
the progressive growth of the Church, the practice of charity was confirmed as
being one of her essential aspects. The Church's intimate nature is thus
expressed in a triple duty: announcing the Word of God ("kerygma- martyria"),
celebrating the Sacraments ("leiturgia"), and the service of charity
("diakonia"). These duties are inherent to one another and cannot be separated.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, a fundamental objection was raised against
the Church's charitable activity. Such activity, it was said, runs counter to
justice and ends up by preserving the status quo. By carrying out individual
acts of charity, the reasoning went, the Church favors the preservation of the
existing unjust system, making it in some way bearable and thus hindering
rebellion and potential transformation to a better world.

In this way, Marxism sought to indicate in world revolution, and in the
preparations for such revolution, a panacea for social ills; a dream that has
since been shattered. Pontifical Magisterium - beginning with Leo XIII's
Encyclical "Rerum novarum" (1891), and later with John Paul II's three social
Encyclicals: "Laborem exercens" (1981), "Sollicitudo rei socialis" (1987), and
"Centesimus annus" (1991) - has considered the social question with growing
attention and, in facing ever new problems, has developed a highly complex
social doctrine, proposing guidelines that are valid well beyond the confines
of the Church.

The creation of a just order in society and the State is the primary duty of
politics, and therefore cannot be the immediate task of the Church. Catholic
social doctrine does not want to give the Church power over the State, but
simply to purify and illuminate reason, offering its own contribution to the
formation of consciences so that the true requirements of justice may be
perceived, recognized and put into effect. Nonetheless, there is no State
legislation, however just it may be, that can make the service of love
superfluous. The State that wishes to provide for everything becomes a
bureaucratic machine, incapable of ensuring that essential contribution of
which suffering man - all mankind - has need: loving personal dedication.
Whoever wants to dispose of love, seeks to dispose of man.

In our own time, one positive collateral effect of globalization appears in the
fact that concern for others, overcoming the confines of national communities,
tends to broaden the horizons of the whole world. Structures of State and
humanitarian associations both support, in various ways, the solidarity
expressed by civil society; thus, many charitable and philanthropic
organizations have come into being. In the Catholic Church too, as in other
ecclesial communities, new forms of charitable activity have arisen. It is to
be hoped that fruitful collaboration may be established between these various
elements. Of course, it is important that the Church's charitable work does not
lose its own identity, lost against the background of widespread organized
charity of which it is simply another alternative. Rather it must maintain all
the splendor of the essence of Christian and ecclesial charity. Therefore:

Christian charitable activity, apart from its professional competence, must be
based on the experience of a personal encounter with Christ, Whose love touched
believers' hearts, generating within them love for others.

Christian charitable activity must be independent of parties and ideologies.
The program of Christians - the program of the Good Samaritan, the program of
Jesus - is a "heart that sees." This heart sees where there is need of love and
acts accordingly.

Christian charitable activity, furthermore, must not be a function of that
which today is called proselytism. Love is gratuitous, it is not exercised in
order to achieve other goals. However, this does not mean that charitable
activity must, so to say, leave God and Christ on one side. Christians know
when the time is right to speak of God, and when it is right to be silent and
let love alone speak. St. Paul's hymn of charity must be the "Magna Charta" for
the entire ecclesial service, protecting it from the risk of degrading into
mere activism.

In this context, and faced with the impending secularism that also risks
conditioning many Christians committed to charitable work, we must reaffirm the
importance of prayer. Living contact with Christ ensures that the immensity of
need coupled with the limits of individual activity do not, on the one hand,
push charity workers into ideologies that seek to do now that which God,
apparently, does not manage to do or, on the other, serve as a temptation to
surrender to inertia and resignation. Those who pray do not waste their time,
although a situation may seem to call only for action, nor do they seek to
change and correct God's plan. Rather they aim - following the example of Mary
and the saints - to draw from God the light and the strength of love that
defeats all the darkness and selfishness present in the world.

To read the full text of the Encyclical, click here
ENC/DEUS CARITAS EST/... VIS 060125 (1620)

SUMMARY

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