The Good News

Back on the twenty-sixth of March, on our parish blog, The People of St. Mary Magdalene, we marked the fortieth anniversary of Papa Montini's landmark encyclical with a post entitled Populorum Progresso turns 40. Pope Paul VI was easily the most prophetic pope of the last century and, as is the case with prophets, he paid a dear price. His two most prophetic proclamations were Populorum Progresso and Humane Vitae.

It was noted in the post back in March that Pope Benedict XVI made mention of Populorum Progresso in his homily for the Feast of Epiphany, acknowledging its upcoming anniversary. I learned this afternoon from my dear friend Rocco over at Whispers, via the (London) Times online, that the Holy Father's next encyclical, which he worked on during his vacation in in Northern Italy in July, "will be a modern reflection on one of Papa Montini's landmark texts: his 1967 treatise on 'the development of peoples' Populorum Progressio."

While I am overjoyed that globalizing capitalism will be morally scrutinized in light of the Gospel, Populorum Progressio remains a very "modern" document in its own right, that is why we can revere it as prophetic. Today as much as ever "The hungry nations of the world cry out to the peoples blessed with abundance. And the Church, cut to the quick by this cry, asks each and every man to hear his brother's plea and answer it lovingly" (PP par. 3). According to the Times' Richard Owen, the Holy Father's second encyclical "will focus on humanity’s social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system 'regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination', Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday." This just a week after the twenty-eighth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's death!