Editing Pope Benedict XVI (section)

=== Teachings ===
{{See also|Theology of Pope Benedict&nbsp;XVI}}

As pope, one of Benedict's main roles was to teach about the Catholic faith and the solutions to the problems of discerning and living the faith,<ref>Beach, Kevin [http://www.catholicmissionleaflets.org/leafpope.htm "What is the role of the Pope?"] Catholic Mission Leaflets [https://web.archive.org/web/20111012035803/http://catholicmissionleaflets.org/leafpope.htm WebCitation archive]</ref> a role that he could play well as a former head of the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. {{Crossreference|(The main points of emphasis of his teachings are stated in more detail in [[Theology of Pope Benedict&nbsp;XVI]].)}}

==== "Friendship with Jesus Christ" ====
After his first [[homily]] as pope, Benedict referred to both Jesus Christ and John Paul{{nbsp}}II. Citing John Paul{{nbsp}}II's well-known words, "Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!", Benedict said:

{{blockquote
| Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? ... And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. No! Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. ... When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ&nbsp;– and you will find true life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050424_inizio-pontificato_en.html |title=Mass for the Inauguration of the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI&nbsp;– Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI |publisher=Vatican.va |date=24 April 2005 |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101130100/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050424_inizio-pontificato_en.html |archive-date=1 November 2011}}</ref>
}}

"Friendship with Jesus Christ" was a frequent theme of Benedict's preaching.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/B16CLERO.HTM |title=To the Clergy of Rome, with Response to Interventions by Roman Clergy |publisher=EWTN |date=13 May 2005 |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709184929/http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16clero.htm |archive-date=9 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/pope/words/conclave_homily.asp |title=For Electing the Supreme Pontiff |publisher=EWTN |date=18 April 2005 |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115103236/http://www.ewtn.com/pope/words/conclave_homily.asp |archive-date=15 November 2011}}</ref> He stressed that on this intimate friendship, "everything depends".<ref name="JON" /> He also said: "We are all called to open ourselves to this friendship with God ... speaking to Him as to a friend, the only One who can make the world both good and happy ... That is all we have to do is put ourselves at His disposal ... is an extremely important message. It is a message that helps to overcome what can be considered the great temptation of our time: the claim, that after the [[Big Bang]], God withdrew from history."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfjosma.htm|title=ST JOSEMARÍA|access-date=5 November 2005|archive-date=28 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128114335/http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfjosma.htm}}</ref> Thus, in his book ''Jesus of Nazareth'', his main purpose was "to help foster [in the reader] the growth of a living relationship" with Jesus Christ.<ref name="JON">{{cite news |author=Drummer, Alexander |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-19369?l=english |title=Benedict XVI's Book a Pastoral Work |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=15 April 2007 |access-date=24 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001064700/http://www.zenit.org/article-19369?l=english |archive-date=1 October 2012}}</ref> He took up this theme in his first encyclical ''[[Deus caritas est]]''. In his explanation and summary of the encyclical, he stated: "If friendship with God becomes for us something ever more important and decisive, then we will begin to love those whom God loves and who are in need of us. God wants us to be friends of His friends and we can be so, if we are interiorly close to them."<ref>{{cite news |author=Drummer, Alexander |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-15211?l=english |title=The Secret of Love, According to Benedict XVI&nbsp;– Pope Explains Encyclical to Readers of Italian Magazine |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=7 February 2006 |access-date=8 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811075615/http://www.zenit.org/article-15211?l=english |archive-date=11 August 2011}}</ref> Thus, he said that prayer is "urgently needed ... It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work."<ref>{{cite web |title=Practicing Catholic Social Teaching is Personal and Spiritual |date=21 December 2021 |url=https://capp-usa.org/2021/12/cst-personal-and-spiritual/ |publisher=Catholic Social Teaching in Action |access-date=31 December 2022}}</ref>

==== "Dictatorship of relativism" ====
Continuing what he said in the pre-conclave Mass about what he often referred to as the "central problem of our faith today",<ref>Ratzinger, Joseph ''[[Relativism: The Central Problem for Faith Today]]'' [[EWTN]] May 1996. Retrieved 8 October 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20111006175209/http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/ratzrela.htm WebCitation archive]</ref> on 6 June 2005, Benedict also said:
{{blockquote
| Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of education is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognising nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own ego.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050606_convegno-famiglia_en.html "Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the participants in the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome"] 6 June 2005
Retrieved 8 October 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20111007204950/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050606_convegno-famiglia_en.html WebCitation archive]</ref>
}}

Benedict said that "a dictatorship of relativism"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/wyd082105.htm |title=Coverage of World Youth Day exclusively by NCR Report #4: Do-it-yourself religion 'cannot ultimately help us,' pope tells youth | last=Allen | first=John L. Jr. |newspaper=National Catholic Reporter |date=21 August 2005 |access-date=2 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927165721/http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/wyd082105.htm |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref> was the core challenge facing the Church and humanity. At the root of this problem, he said, is [[Immanuel Kant]]'s "self-limitation of reason". This, he said, is contradictory to the modern acclamation of science whose excellence is based on the power of reason to know the truth. He said that this self-amputation of reason leads to pathologies of religion such as terrorism and pathologies of science such as [[ecological disaster]]s.<ref name="TT">{{cite book |title=Truth And Tolerance: Christian Belief And World Religions |last=Ratzinger |first=Joseph |year=2003 |publisher=Ignatius Press|isbn=1-58617-035-X }}</ref> Benedict traced the failed revolutions and violent ideologies of the 20th century to a conversion of partial points of view into absolute guides. He said "Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2005/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050820_vigil-wyd.html|title=Apostolic Journey to Cologne: Vigil with youth at Marienfeld area (August 20, 2005) &#124; Benedict XVI|website=vatican.va}}</ref>

==== Christianity as religion according to reason ====
In the discussion with [[secularism]] and [[rationalism]], one of Benedict's basic ideas can be found in his address on the "Crisis of Culture" in the West, a day before Pope John Paul{{nbsp}}II died, when he referred to Christianity as the "religion of the ''[[Logos]]''" (the Greek for "word", "reason", "meaning", or "intelligence"). He said:

{{blockquote
| From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the ''Logos'', as the religion according to reason ... It has always defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of God, proclaiming for them ... the same dignity. In this connection, [[the Enlightenment]] is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian faith. ... It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back to reason its own voice ... Today, this should be precisely [Christianity's] philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other than a 'sub-product,' on occasion even harmful of its development{{snd}}or whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal ... In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the ''Logos'', from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.<ref name="Zenit05">{{cite news |author=Drummer, Alexander |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-13705?l=english |title=Cardinal Ratzinger on Europe's Crisis of Culture (Part 4) |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=29 July 2005 |access-date=24 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001064719/http://www.zenit.org/article-13705?l=english |archive-date=1 October 2012}}</ref>
}}

Benedict also emphasised that "Only creative reason, which in the crucified God is manifested as love, can really show us the way."<ref name="Zenit05" />

==== Encyclicals ====
<!--Please note, encyclical dates are based on the date listed within the text, not the release date{|
|- align=left
!No. !! !! Title !! !! Translation !! !! Subject !! !! Date
|-
|1. || || ''[[Deus caritas est]]'' || || God is Love || || Christian love || || 25 December 2005
|}
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Benedict wrote three [[encyclical]]s: ''[[Deus caritas est]]'' (Latin for "God is Love"), ''[[Spe salvi]]'' ("Saved by Hope"), and ''[[Caritas in veritate]]'' ("Love in Truth").

In his first encyclical, ''Deus caritas est'', he said that a human being, created in the image of God who is love, can practise love: to give himself to God and others ([[agape]]) by receiving and experiencing God's love in contemplation. This life of love, according to him, is the life of the saints such as [[Teresa of Calcutta]] and the [[Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church|Blessed Virgin Mary]], and is the direction Christians take when they believe that God loves them in Jesus Christ.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html |title=Deus caritas est |publisher=Vatican.va |date=25 December 2005 |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008152102/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html |archive-date=8 October 2011}}</ref> The encyclical contains almost 16,000 words in 42 paragraphs. The first half is said to have been written by Benedict in German, his first language, in the summer of 2005; the second half is derived from uncompleted writings left by his predecessor, Pope John Paul{{nbsp}}II.<ref>Fisher, Ian [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/international/europe/26pope.html?pagewanted=all "Benedict's First Encyclical Shuns Strictures of Orthodoxy"] ''The New York Times'', 26 January 2006. Retrieved 5 October 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705164524/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/international/europe/26pope.html?pagewanted=all WebCitation archive]</ref> The document was signed by Benedict on Christmas Day, 25 December 2005.<ref>Thavis, John
[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060104001515/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0507411.htm "The pope needs a theologian? Former papal adviser reveals why"] Catholic News Service 30 December 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927012222/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0507411.htm WebCitation archive]</ref> The encyclical was promulgated a month later in Latin and was translated into English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. It is the first encyclical to be published since the Vatican decided to assert [[copyright]] in the official writings of the pope.<ref>McMahon, Barbara [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/23/catholicism.religion "Vatican invokes papal copyright"] ''[[The Guardian]]'' 22 January 2006. Retrieved 5 October 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110923141758/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/23/catholicism.religion WebCitation archive]</ref>

Benedict's second encyclical titled ''Spe Salvi'' ("Saved by Hope"), about the virtue of [[hope]], was released on 30 November 2007.<ref>{{cite web |author=Thavis, John |url=http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=26059 |title=People need God to have hope, pope in new encyclical |publisher=Catholic News Service |date=30 November 2007 |access-date=2 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011153026/http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=26059 |archive-date=11 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html|title=Spe salvi (November 30, 2007) &#124; Benedict XVI|website=vatican.va}}</ref>

His third encyclical titled ''Caritas in veritate'' ("Love in Truth" or "Charity in Truth"), was signed on 29 June 2009 (the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul) and released on 7 July 2009.<ref name="DonadoNYT">{{cite news|first=Rachel |last=Donadio |title=Pope Urges Forming New World Economic Order to Work for the 'Common Good' |work=The New York Times |date=7 July 2009 |access-date=7 July 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/world/europe/08pope.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223064347/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/world/europe/08pope.html |archive-date=23 December 2011}}</ref> In it, the Pope continued the Church's teachings on social justice. He condemned the prevalent economic system "where the pernicious effects of sin are evident", and called on people to rediscover ethics in business and economic relations.<ref name="DonadoNYT" />

At the time of his resignation, Benedict had completed a draft of a fourth encyclical entitled ''[[Lumen fidei]]'' ("The Light of Faith"),<ref>{{cite news | url = http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/enciclica-papa-el-papa-pope-lumen-fidei-26222/ | title = The light of faith: origin, history and horizon of the christianism | newspaper = [[La Stampa]] | location = Turin | first = Alessandro | last = Speciale | date = 4 July 2013 | access-date = 19 October 2013 | archive-date = 8 July 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130708110458/http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/enciclica-papa-el-papa-pope-lumen-fidei-26222 }}</ref> intended to accompany his first two encyclicals to complete a trilogy on the three [[theological virtues]] of [[faith in Christianity|faith]], [[hope (virtue)|hope]], and [[charity (virtue)|love]]. Benedict's successor, [[Pope Francis|Francis]], completed and published ''Lumen Fidei'' in June 2013, four months after Benedict's retirement and Francis's succession. Although the encyclical is officially the work of Francis, paragraph 7 of the encyclical explicitly expresses Francis's debt to Benedict: "These considerations on faith – in continuity with all that the Church's [[magisterium]] has pronounced on this theological virtue – are meant to supplement what Benedict{{nbsp}}XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_enciclica-lumen-fidei_en.html ''Lumen Fidei''], 7</ref>

==== Post-synodal apostolic exhortation ====
''[[Sacramentum caritatis]]'' (The Sacrament of Charity), signed 22 February 2007, was released in Latin, Italian, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Polish. It was made available in various languages on 13 March 2007 in Rome. The English edition of ''Libera Editrice Vaticana'' is 158 pages. This [[apostolic exhortation]] "seeks to take up the richness and variety of the reflections and proposals which emerged from the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops" which was held in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html|title=Sacramentum Caritatis: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church's Life and Mission (22 February 2007) &#124; Benedict XVI|website=vatican.va}}</ref>

==== ''Motu proprio'' on Tridentine Mass ====
{{Main|Summorum Pontificum}}

[[File:unchurch.jpg|thumb|right|upright|An altar set for the [[Traditional Latin Mass]]]]

On 7 July 2007, Benedict issued the ''[[motu proprio]] Summorum Pontificum'', declaring that upon "the request of the faithful", the celebration of [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] according to the [[1962 missal|Missal of 1962]] (of the [[Tridentine Mass]]), was to be more easily permitted. Stable groups who previously had to petition their bishop to have a Tridentine Mass may now merely request permission from their local priest.<ref name="Afica Latin">{{cite news |title=Pope Allows Worldwide Use of Old Latin Mass|publisher=Catholic Information Service for Africa|date=10 July 2007|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200707101009.html}}</ref> While ''Summorum Pontificum'' directs that pastors should provide the Tridentine Mass upon the requests of the faithful, it also allows for any qualified priest to offer private celebrations of the Tridentine Mass, to which the faithful may be admitted if they wish.<ref name="letter Motu">{{cite web|title=Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Bishops on the Occasion of the Publication of the Apostolic Letter ''Motu Proprio Data'' Summorum Pontificum, On the Use of the Roman Liturgy Prior to the Reform of 1970 |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi_en.html |author=Pope Benedict XVI |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010203101/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi_en.html |archive-date=10 October 2011}}</ref> For regularly scheduled public celebrations of the Tridentine Mass, the permission of the priest in charge of the church is required.<ref>Article 5 §4 of the motu proprio</ref>

In an accompanying letter, the Pope outlined his position concerning questions about the new guidelines.<ref name="letter Motu" /> As there were fears that the move would entail a reversal of the Second Vatican Council,<ref name="Jason">{{cite news|title=Criticism over return of Latin Mass |author=Burke, Jason |url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/09/stories/2007070955601600.htm |date=9 July 2007 |access-date=4 October 2011 |location=Chennai, India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108194155/http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/09/stories/2007070955601600.htm |work=The Hindu |archive-date=8 November 2012 }}</ref> Benedict emphasised that the Tridentine Mass would not detract from the council and that the [[Mass of Paul VI]] would still be the norm and priests were not permitted to refuse to say the Mass in that form. He pointed out that the use of Tridentine Mass "was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted."<ref name="letter Motu" /> The letter also decried "deformations of the [[liturgy]] ... because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal" as the Second Vatican Council was wrongly seen "as authorising or even requiring creativity", mentioning his own experience.<ref name="letter Motu" />

The Pope considered that allowing the Tridentine Mass to those who request it was a means to prevent or heal [[schism]], stating that, on occasions in history, "not enough was done by the Church's leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity" and that this "imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to enable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew."<ref name="letter Motu" /> Cardinal [[Darío Castrillón Hoyos]], the president of the [[Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei|Pontifical Commission established to facilitate full ecclesial communion of those associated with that Society]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/ced_documents/rc_con_cfaith_20090930_ecclesia-dei_en.html |title=Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=14 June 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911163000/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/ced_documents/rc_con_cfaith_20090930_ecclesia-dei_en.html |archive-date=11 September 2011 }}</ref> stated that the decree "opened the door for their return". Bishop [[Bernard Fellay]], superior general of the SSPX, expressed "deep gratitude to the Sovereign Pontiff for this great spiritual benefit".<ref name="Afica Latin" />

In July 2021, Pope Francis issued the [[Ecclesiastical letter#Letters of the popes in modern times|apostolic letter]] titled ''[[Traditionis custodes]]'', which substantially reversed the decision of Benedict{{nbsp}}XVI in ''Summorum Pontificum'' and imposed new and broad restrictions on the use of the [[Traditional Latin Mass]]. The decision was controversial and widely criticized by conservative and [[traditionalist Catholics]] as lacking in charity and an attack on those attached to the liturgical patrimony of the Church.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Pope Francis renews restrictions on old Latin Mass, reversing Benedict XVI|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-latin-mass/2021/07/16/5fe7238e-e638-11eb-88c5-4fd6382c47cb_story.html|access-date=19 July 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Horowitz|first=Jason|date=16 July 2021|title=Pope Francis Restricts Use of Old Latin Mass, in a Blow to Conservatives|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/world/europe/pope-francis-old-latin-mass.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/world/europe/pope-francis-old-latin-mass.html |archive-date=28 December 2021 |url-access=limited|access-date=19 July 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==== Unicity and salvific universality of the Catholic Church ====
Near the end of June 2007, the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] issued a document approved by Benedict{{nbsp}}XVI "because some contemporary theological interpretations of [[Vatican II]]'s ecumenical intent had been 'erroneous or ambiguous' and had prompted confusion and doubt." The document has been seen as restating "key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, ''Dominus Iesus''."<ref name="Winfield">{{cite news |last=Winfield |first=Nicole |date=10 July 2007 |title=Pope: Other Christians not true churches |newspaper=USA Today |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-10-1587290358_x.htm |url-status=live |access-date=18 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091114133425/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-10-1587290358_x.htm |archive-date=14 November 2009}}</ref>

==== Consumerism ====
Benedict condemned excessive [[consumerism]], especially among youth. He stated in December 2007 that "[A]dolescents, youths and even children are easy victims of the corruption of love, deceived by unscrupulous adults who, lying to themselves and to them, draw them into the dead-end streets of consumerism."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/11217/children-in-consumerist-societies-risk-losing-hope-says-pope-benedict
|title=Children in consumerist societies "risk losing hope," says Pope Benedict
|agency=Catholic News Agency
|date=10 December 2007 |access-date=4 October 2011 |url-status=live
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729011949/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/children_in_consumerist_societies_risk_losing_hope_says_pope_benedict/
|archive-date=29 July 2013
}}</ref> In June 2009, he blamed outsourcing for the greater availability of consumer goods which lead to the downsizing of [[social security]] systems.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html |title=''Caritas in veritate'' Encyclical Letter of 29 June 2009 |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902070515/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html |archive-date=2 September 2011 }}</ref>