Father Raymond J.

de Souza

Acton University
Grand Rapids, 19 June 2015

www.cardus.ca/convivium
www.nationalpost.com
www.catholicregister.org

Catholic Social Teaching in the 21st Century

I. Religion Ends the Short Twentieth Century

i. Secularization Thesis
ii. The World Gets Religion in 1979
iii. 1917 Reversed: Atheistic communism defeated
iv. 1918 Reversed: Islam returns to geopolitics
v. Missing the Story

II. Religion and Violence

i. 1979 and Siege of Mecca (1978)
ii. Islamification and the Second Intifada in Palestine
iii. Jihadism and 9/11
iv. Religious wars in the 21st Century
v. The President as Preacher: Clinton on Islam
vi. The Preacher as Professor: Benedict XVI at Regensburg

III. Religious Liberty in the Secular West Benedicts September Speeches

i. JPII, Centesimus Annus #46
ii. Dictatorship of Relativism, 18 April 2005
iii. The September Speeches of Benedict XVI
(http://www.conviviummagazine.ca/article/4014/sea-to-sea )
1. Regensburg, 12 September 2006
2. Collge des Bernardins, 12 September 2008
3. Westminster Hall, 17 September 2010
4. Bundestag, 22 September 2011

IV. Charity and the Cry of the Poor

i. Deus Caritas Est 25
ii. The integrity of social doctrine in Paul VI (Caritas in veritate)
iii. Market economy vs. market society
iv. The financial sector, the real economy, work and the poor
v. Human ecology from John Paul II to Laudato Si
vi. Pope Francis and the technological future
As I travel around the world, I am often asked, Why cant we just keep religion out of foreign
policy? My answer is that we cant and we shouldnt. Religion is a large part of what motivates
people and shapes their views of justice and right behaviour. It must be taken into account. Nor
can we expect our leaders to make decisions in isolation from their religious beliefs. There is a
limit to how much the human mind can compartmentalize. In any case, why should world leaders
who are religious act and speak as if they are not? We must live with our beliefs and also with our
differences; it does no good to deny them.1

Albright comments on the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, when the Shah was exiled and the
Ayatollah Khomeini returned: [Americans] were caught off guard by the revolution in Iran for
the simple reason that we had never seen anything like it. As a political force, Islam was thought
to be waning, not rising. Everyone in the region was presumed to be preoccupied with the
practical problems of economics and modernization. A revolution in Iran based on a religious
backlash against American and the West? Who would support such a thing? ... We learned soon
enough that the Iranian uprising was not just a coup, a regime change, or even a civil war, but a
true political earthquake, like the revolutions of France or Russia.2

Bill Clinton on Islamist terror: How should we respond? We can try to kill and capture them, but
we cant get them all. We can try to persuade them to abandon violence, but if our arguments
have no basis in their own experience, we cant fully succeed. Our best chance is to work
cooperatively with those in the Muslim world who are trying to reach the same minds as the
radicals by preaching a more complete Islam, not a distorted, jagged shard.3

Centesimus Annus #46

Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct
conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the
advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the
"subjectivity" of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared
responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and sceptical relativism
are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life.
Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered
unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by
the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be
observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then
ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a
democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.

Deus Caritas Est #25

The Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word
of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry
of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church,
charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of
her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

1
Madeleine Albright and Bill Woodward. The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and
World Affairs. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006, p. 285.
2
Albright, p. 41.
3
William Clinton, Introduction in Albright, p. xii.