Love in Truth

Now slated for an autumn release, while on tour in the Ukraine the "Vice-Pope" Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB offered a word on B16's third encyclical, the long-expected social manifesto being prepared under the working title Caritas in Veritate ("Charity/Love in the Truth"):

In an interview with the APCOM news agency, the Vatican Secretary of State disclosed that the Pope's next encyclical will not be ready for publication before the fall. "The encyclical is still being written," he said.

Cardinal Bertone said that Pope Benedict is also working on the second part of his book Jesus of Nazareth. The Pope typically devotes a substantial portion of his summer vacation to writing projects.

In his encyclical, the cardinal said, Pope Benedict "does not want to repeat obvious truths of Catholic social teaching," but will apply Church teachings to contemporary problems. "I am thinking of globalization and other problems, like the food crisis and climate change," Cardinal Bertone said.

Given the weight and nuance of the subject matter, Benedict has called together a small working group to advise him on the encyclical's preparation and to edit the drafts.

First reported by Il Giornale's Andrea Tornielli last week, the committee includes the Pope's recently-named successor as archbishop of Munich and Freising Reinhard Marx (a specialist in Catholic social teaching), the top two officials of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace -- namely, Cardinal Renato Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi -- and Stefano Zamagni, a lay Italian economist.

Tornielli likewise notes the prior anticipated pub-date for the document, which came and went on 1 May.

PHOTO: L'Osservatore Romano

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