Throughout Caritas in Veritate there is a strong message to help the poor. This is an age old belief held by many. It can be found throughout the Bible and is preached by Christians and members of differing faiths.
What was interesting and refreshing to hear in this new encyclical was how Pope Benedict XVI renewed this call for helping the poor. What has become the common theme presently is to provide aid to poor countries that gets funneled directly to the government. It is then left to the decisions of the governments of the poor countries to determine how to spend the aid. Unfortunately, too many governments of poor countries are corrupt and tyrannical, and they use the aid in inappropriate ways that does not help provide aid to the poor of their country.
Pope Benedict seemed to not only understand but acknowledge this in Caritas in Veritate by recommending that the people receiving the aid should have direct influence on how the aid is used. Those receiving the aid know better than their government where the aid is most needed and how to put it to the greatest use possible:
Social concern must never be an abstract attitude. Development programmes, if they are to be adapted to individual situations, need to be flexible; and the people who benefit from them ought to be directly involved in their planning and implementation. The criteria to be applied should aspire towards incremental development in a context of solidarity — with careful monitoring of results — inasmuch as there are no universally valid solutions. Much depends on the way programmes are managed in practice.
Furthermore, Pope Benedict carefully iterates in section 58 that the aid should be used to improve the lives and conditions of those that receive it. The aid should not come with strings attached that keep those who receive it locked into a state of dependence or exploitation with the donors. Instead the aid should liberate people from the state of poverty that they are currently in and provide them with opportunities to work and provide for themselves.
Too provide such aid Pope Benedict calls for us and for countries to look within and cut waste. Once that waste is cut, people and countries should be able provide more aid to those who need it. As we’re reminded in the Acton Institute video shown above, the solutions to poverty start with us.
