A lot of people have been commenting on the Pope’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.  I have yet to finish it (been busy lately) but I have gathered that, while bringing clarity by reminding the world of some very important basic principles, it seems to have left many confused as to what the Church expects us to do in the concrete (to be honest, I have always found this to be the case with regard to the Social Doctrine of the Church, but I can’t honestly say yet if that’s my fault or not).

This is the nature of ethics.  The more concrete you get, the more mixed up in contingent things you get, and the lesser the certitude that one can seek (see St. Thomas Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. 1, lect. 3).  And the higher you go up in the threefold grade of monastics, economics, and politics, the more difficult it is still, since one is ordering a whole lot of contingents.  Economics and Politics are just hard.

In light of this, I hope that some will find this video of a presentation given by Fr. Sebastian Walshe, O. Praem.  As I have mentioned before, Fr. Sebastian is author of The Primacy of the Common Good as the Root of Personal Dignity in the Doctrine of St. Thomas.

Fr. Sebastian’s gift is clarity.  This presentation was given before the publication of the encyclical, but I think it will be of great help for all those trying to understand it and other Church documents.

Check it out here.