It is a good question, and an honest question that many may wonder about, both inside and outside the Catholic orbit. I wince at the "social" qualifier," but Joe Carter, a Baptist, poses the questions well at the First Things blog:
If you had asked me as a young Baptist boy to explain the difference between Protestants and Catholics, I would have said that Catholics were the Christians who "have to do what the Pope tells them to do." Now I'm an old Baptist and realize how naive I was. (I'm more likely to agree with the Pope than some American Catholics I know.)
I'm still unclear, though, on where Catholics draw the line of demarcation between complete freedom of conscience and deference to magisterial authority. After all, if a Catholic can support abortion and still receive communion, what is off-limits?
Stephen M. Barr responds with a useful (to my layman's eye) explanation, and this caveat:
I do think that it would be better if Catholics were not so disposed to pick these documents apart like an English teacher grading a student paper. A little more obsequium would be nice, even as we recognize that not everything in these documents is of equal weight.
I wonder if Jody Bottum, who is diligently deconstructing and re-writing Caritas in Veritate in a series on posts, caught that monito.
I very much like the writings of Richard Gaillardetz on authority, but I'd welcome other amplifications. Of course any concession to different levels of authority opens the gate to the slippery slope to dreaded cafeteria Catholicism. But it's interesting to see many who would confer the status of near-infallibility on lesser papal statements they like now pick apart a major statement they don't like quite so much. So say we all, eh.
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That a social, or any other encyclical, is not binding in any on those of us who are not Roman Catholic goes without saying. It reminds me of an incident during the 1980s when the Bishops issued their statement on nuclear weapons and there was a brief moment of question as to whether Catholics in the military would follow the order to fire them. President Reagan was reported to have heard that, laughed and responded that it did not matter, there were more than enough Baptists to do it for them.
In the end it does not matter whom is speaking, be it Pope or Presbyter or L. Ron Hubbard from beyond the grave. It matters whom is listening.
The issue with the encyclical is that it is hopelessly European and it is doubtful that US Catholics will find much in it to take seriously enough to follow, especially as they must compete in the marketplace with us non-Catholics who will possess none of their limitations. Pope Benedict impresses me as a genuinely good and even holy man, but he is not always a wise man. Even so, he is infinitely better than his nineteenth century predecessors who had even less understanding of the world and whose writings now are comic relief for academics.
The neatest thing about religeon in general is that it operates on faith. Helping teach my grand children the ways of the church aren't and will continue not to be easy, hoever it's my faith in the church and the Holy Spirit that begs me to continue. Argue all you want about the churchs wisdom, in another 2 thousand years it will be the church not the parsers who survive. We are all free to go our own way and beleive as we wish just as Jesus was,there fore these desicions and how we choose to live out our lives are what we will be judged on.
When we talk about the Christian life whether we are Catholic or Protestant or somewhere in between, we talk about abundance of ife or freedom in Christ or personal application. we also talk about doctrine and about teaching and about tradition and a lot more. The Church, (that's all of now)in order to be the Church, (the Body of Christ)needs to say something consistent about what it believes so that it ay be identified as something other than just a bunch of different ideas (about faith, social issues etc)thrown together to muddle through the best we can. 1700 years ago, it came up with some basic statements of faith, we call them creeds.If you were in agreement with those creeds you were identified with the Church. If you didn't agree, then you were not in communion with the Church. Perhaps we are in need of a basic statement of belief for social, economic and environmental issues. We have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise we are in danger of losing our identity as the Body of Christ.
"Perhaps we are in need of a basic statement of belief for social, economic and environmental issues. We have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise we are in danger of losing our identity as the Body of Christ."
I know I'm too late to this thread but I couldn't let the above comment go by. Buy yourself a Catechism of the Catholic Church, for heaven's sake! For ten bucks you will have your basic statement of belief. You won't have to come up with it yourself because its based on 2,000 yrs of teaching given to us by Jesus who is God. Of course the encyclicals are not infallible teaching but they are our Holy Father's way of being a father to us in light of our current situations. I am personally delighted to be one of his children & listen to what my dad has to say. Since Jesus said, "Whoever hears you, hears me", I know I'm also listening to my Heavenly Father!
"Are social encyclicals binding? Not on me. I'm not a Catholic. And that applies to the majority of the people in the world."
Really Where did you take Basic Math?
"Even so, he is infinitely better than his nineteenth century predecessors who had even less understanding of the world and whose writings now are comic relief for academics."
And what passes for intellectualism in your Hayseed Clubhouses that often lack the most basic knowledge of world History and what the U.S Constitution "that Godlike document" actually says.
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