Monday, October 13, 2014
Lk 14, 7-14 + CSDC and CV
Luke 14, 7-14 + CSDC and CV
CV 45a.
Striving to meet the deepest moral needs of the person also has important and
beneficial repercussions at the level of economics. The economy needs ethics
in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics
which is people-centred. Today we hear much talk of ethics in the world of
economy, finance and business. Research centres and seminars in business ethics
are on the rise; the system of ethical certification is spreading throughout
the developed world as part of the movement of ideas associated with the
responsibilities of business towards society. Banks are proposing “ethical”
accounts and investment funds. “Ethical financing” is being developed,
especially through micro-credit and, more generally, micro-finance. These
processes are praiseworthy and deserve much support.
CSDC 236a. An issue of particular social and cultural
significance today, because of its many and serious moral implications, is
human cloning. This term refers per se to the reproduction of a biological entity that is genetically
identical to the originating organism. In thought and experimental practice
it has taken on different meanings which in turn entail different procedures
from the point of view of the techniques employed as well as of the goals
sought. The term can be used to refer to the simple laboratory replication
of cells or of a portion of DNA. But specifically today it is used to refer to
the reproduction of individuals at the embryonic stage with methods that are
different from those of natural fertilization and in such a way that the new
beings are genetically identical to the individual from which they originate.
This type of cloning can have a reproductive purpose, that of producing
human embryos, or a so-called therapeutic purpose, tending to use such
embryos for scientific research or more specifically for the production of stem
cells.
7 He told a parable to those who had
been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at
table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been
invited by him, 9 and the host who invited both of you may approach you and
say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with
embarrassment to take the lowest place. 10 Rather, when you are invited, go and
take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My
friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your
companions at the table. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." 12 Then he said to the
host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite
your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in
case they may invite you back and you have repayment. 13 Rather, when you hold
a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14 blessed
indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be
repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
CSDC 137. The
proper exercise of personal freedom requires specific conditions of an
economic, social, juridic, political and cultural order that “are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of
blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as
the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral
law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts
neighbourly fellowship and rebels against divine truth”[259]. Removing
injustices promotes human freedom and dignity: nonetheless, “the first
thing to be done is to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the
individual and to the permanent need for inner conversion, if one is to achieve
the economic and social changes that will truly be at the service of man”[260].
Notes: [259] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1740.
[260] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis
Conscientia, 75: AAS 79 (1987), 587.
[Initials and
Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church; - SDC:
Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict
XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in
truth)]
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