Resumo de Deus Caritas Est . God Is Charity

Deus Caritas Est
Abstract by : srjasfer
Deus Caritas Est (Latin:"God is Love", or
alternatively "God is Charity"1) is the first encyclical
written by Pope Benedict XVI. It was promulgated on 25 January
2006 in eight languages, English
French
German
Italian
Latin
Polish
Portuguese and Spanish.
The first half is said to have been written by Pope Benedict in German in the
summer of 2005, and the second half is derived from uncompleted writings left
by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. The document was signed by
Pope Benedict on Christmas Day, 25 December
2005. Some reports
attributed the delay to problems in translating the original German text into
Latin, others to disputes within the Vatican
over the precise wording of the document. Benedict's mastery of English and the
Romance languages, however, removes any doubt
that the nuances in the translations are his own.
The title of the encyclical is taken from
the First Letter of St. John (chapter 4, verse
16). In 42 paragraphs over 70 pages, the encyclical reflects on the concepts of
eros
(sexual love),
agape
(unconditional love), logos (the word), and their relationship with the
teachings of Jesus Christ. The document explains that eros
and agape is both inherently good, but that eros risks being
downgraded to mere sex
if it eros is inherently good contrasts with the view expressed by Anders Nygren,
a Lutheran
bishop, in his early 20th century book Eros and Agape,
that agape is the only truly Christian kind of love, and that eros
(an expression of the individual's desires) turns us away from God.
The first half of the encyclical is more
philosophical, tracing the meaning of the word "love". In considering
eros, it refers to a line from Virgil's Eclogues,
Book X, line 69, "Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori"
("Love conquers all, and we yield to love"), and the opinion of Friedrich Nietzsche that Christianity has
poisoned eros, turning it into a vice. It refers to the
conjugal love exhibited in the Song of Songs,
and analyses passages from the First Letter of St. John which inspired the
title. The second half, based on a report prepared by the Pontifical
Council Cor Unum, is more practical, considering the
charitable activities of the Church as an expression of love, and referring to
the Church's three-fold responsibility: proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria),
celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of
charity
(diakonia). A final paragraph is inspired by Dante
Alighieri's Divine Comedy (particularly the last canto of "Paradise",
which ends before "the everlasting Light that is God himself, before that
Light which at the same time is the love which moves the sun and the other
stars"), before concluding by considering the example of the saints, and ending with a
prayer to the Virgin Mary.
At an audience on 18 January
2006, Pope Benedict said
that it would discuss the concept of love "in its various dimensions"
from "the love between man and woman to the love that the Catholic Church
has for others in its expression of charity". The Vatican, through the
Pontifical Council Cor Unum, sponsored a conference in Rome to discuss the themes
of the encyclical on 23 January and 24 January
2006, involving Liliana
Cavani (director of films including The Night
Porter and Ripley's Game)
and James Wolfensohn (former head of the World Bank).

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