INES TABUSSO
00giovedì 26 gennaio 2006 22:51
THE ECONOMIST
Europe
The pope's first encyclical
Whatever love means
Jan 26th 2006
From The Economist print edition
What this week's encyclical says about the pope's theology and beliefs
AN OLD story tells of a bishop who is asked for his opinion about sin. He reflects for a while and says that, in general, he is against it. This week may be remembered as the moment when Pope Benedict XVI offered his views on erotic love and, contrary to expectations, said he was broadly in favour of it.
Love—whether sexual, spiritual or something in between—was the topic of the German pontiff's first encylical since being elected, at the age of 78, last April. While denouncing the modern world's reduction of eros to “pure sex... a commodity, a mere thing to be bought and sold”, he says erotic love could be “purified” to fulfil man's highest calling.
Predictably, the 72 pages of finely crafted argument made mention of the Song of Songs, the most openly erotic section in the Hebrew scriptures. With its sensual imagery—“your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine”—that book has often been quoted by clerics wanting to defend their faith against charges of killjoy puritanism.
But what was the songster really talking about? Since that steamy stuff was written, many a commentator has argued that the poem should be seen mainly as a metaphor for a more spiritual kind of love. The truth, suggests the pope, lies in between: those sensual images were part of a love song, perhaps composed for a wedding, but within the text there is a shift from a greedy, insecure sort of love to a self-sacrificing kind. Anyway, while the pope's reflections on the erotic grabbed most headlines, his final section—about love as a social value—was perhaps more significant.
What the pontiff makes clear is that he is still waging an ideological war (begun some 20 years ago, when he was a cardinal and doctrinal watchdog) against any theology that equates the kingdom of heaven with specific political ideas, such as socialism. “Christian charitable activity must be independent of all parties and ideologies,” the pope insists—before rejecting the Marxist idea that charity reinforces an unjust world. These days, his target is not only Marxism but the involvement of Catholic charities in government-funded welfare projects, to the point where the church and worldly politics almost blur. Religious charities and governments may co-operate, but their roles are different, he says.
Does that make the pope a “compassionate conservative”, in the mould of George Bush? “No, it's the compassionate conservatives who are borrowing ideas from him,” insists Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute, an American Catholic think-tank.