I would like to thank the organizers of this conference for inviting me to share my reflection on the Pope's Encyclical Letter "Caritas in Veritate" "in Relation to the Ministry of Welcome to Seafarers".

When I received the invitation, I hesitated because I realized what an important and challenging task was entrusted to me. The encyclical letter of the Holy Father is already very rich in content, which can be discussed in forums and studied at universities over weeks, whereas saying something relevant on seafarer ministry requires practical experience of it, and I am not an AOS chaplain. However, to my consolation, the main theme of this AOS East and South East Asia Regional Conference is "Fan the Flame of Faith". This exhortation is taken from 2 Tm 1:6, where St. Paul says to his spiritual son, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." (NIV) And in 1 Tim 4:14, St. Paul says, "Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate", i.e. the grace resulting from the conferral of an ecclesiastical office. So the Holy Spirit is the one who will fan the flame of our faith, renewing us and your priestly vocation as chaplain for seafarers. And I hope and pray that by God's help, in particular, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Intellect and Wisdom, my reflection can be a humble contribution to the second regional meeting of the Apostleship of the Sea of East and Southeast Asia in these days.

My talk is divided into three parts. Firstly, I will make a summary of the encyclical letter. Secondly, I will outline the theological background behind it. Thirdly, I will offer some elementary advice for your consideration and discussion.

I. Summary of Caritas in Veritate

Why "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth", henceforth as CV)? "Caritas in Veritate" is an encyclical letter for "all people of good will" on "Integral Human Development in charity and truth." And its basic message is what we read at the beginning, "Charity in truth (…) is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love - caritas - is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth." (CV 1)

Christians are called to love their neighbors as themselves, and Christian love by definition is understood and ought to be practiced in the light of Truth, i.e. the truth that is revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures, in particular in the Person of Jesus Christ, God's Word incarnate. (cf. Jn 14:6) "Without truth", the Pope says, "charity degenerates into sentimentality. (...). It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions..." (CV 3) What the Holy Scriptures say on charity, the Church repeats and explains in its doctrine, that charity is a gift from God which all men are invited to receive gratuitously. The source of charity is God's Trinitarian Love. In the Holy Trinity, the happiness of each divine Person consists in making the other two Divine Persons happy. We are called to become instruments of this Divine Love by being at the service of our brothers and sisters, and we can only give what we have first received from God. This fundamental truth should free all men from self-interests and hunger of power, which disintegrate the human family.

Teaching "charity in truth" is a great challenge for the Church, especially in an epoch, where the globalization has come to a point that it is getting more and more out of control, as the process of globalization is no longer based on justice for all and cares not about the common good.

"The Church does not have technical solutions to offer. (…) She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish." (CV 9) This is the reason why the Holy Father has written the Encyclical Letter, as a relecture, a respelling of another encyclical "Populorum Progressio" ("On the Development of the Peoples", henceforth as PP) published in 1967 by Pope Paul VI. Holy Father Benedict reminded (CV 15) two basic truths that were prophetically written down in "Populorum Progressio". The first is that "the whole Church, in all her being and acting - when she proclaims (by means of preaching), when she celebrates (in liturgy), when she performs works of charity - is engaged in promoting integral human development." The second truth is that "authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension." (PP 14), including the eternal life of the person. This means that human development without the perspective of eternal life will be imprisoned in the material world and runs the risk of being reduced to the mere accumulation of material wealth.

In his encyclical, Pope Paul VI already denounces technocratic ideology, which wants to make people believe that the technical progress will solve all kinds of problems and therefore will make man happy on earth. The late Pope tells us in his encyclical that development is in fact a vocation, is a call from God which asks us for a free and responsible answer. Every one of us is called to be an active agent of a successful development, fighting against underdevelopment. Furthermore, Pope Paul VI says that human development must be "integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man." (PP 14) Charity occupies a central place in development: the more and more globalized society brings us closer to one another, but it does not make us become brothers and sisters. It is through Christ that we learn to become brothers and sisters to one another. Hence, it is urgent to respond courageously in order to eradicate injustice. This was the message of Pope Paul VI which Holy Father Benedict XVI intends to update and bring about in "Caritas in Veritate". Now, I would like to present thematically the message of our present Pope in his encyclical as regards the problems of human development today.

In "Caritas in Veritate", the Holy Father make a diagnosis of the current situation of the world, identifying a good number of new problems that have appeared after the publication of the encyclical of Pope Paul VI. It is true that since Pope Paul VI and after the Second Vatican Council development has been achieved, billions of people have been freed from misery, yet, massive and dramatic problems still remain, and they are triggering an unprecedented global crisis.

1. Different forms of inequality
What to do in a moment of human history where the global wealth grows but poverty and inequality increase at the same time, both in rich countries and in poor countries? (cf. CV 25) In Taiwan, the one who has the highest salary earns 75 times more than the one who has the lowest salary. This is utterly unacceptable.

2. The power of money and job insecurity
At the time of Pope Paul VI, the states could still determine the priorities of their economy. But now, this is no longer true. Today, it is the financiers and the international investors who dictate their laws. Rich countries look for cheap places for production by means of externalization or "outsourcing of a product", i.e. producers moving their factories and companies to countries of which salaries are low and manpower is cheap. The job market is in full deregulation. Workers' and employees' rights are more and more endangered. The systems of social security become ever so fragile, whereas the work unions are weakened and the networks of solidarity are submerged. The mobility of labor may offer some positive aspects but it also weakens family ties of many workers. Long-term unemployment can undermine "the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering." (cf. CV 25)

3. Cultural leveling
Cultural exchanges increase, which is a good thing in itself, yet cultural exchanges can also cause leveling of cultures and "standardization" of cultures, which is manipulated and imposed by advertisement through the media, thus impoverishing genuine life-styles and behavior patterns of many people. (cf. CV 26)

4. Hunger
Hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims. What is missing is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs, and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility, nationally and internationally. (cf. CV 27)

5. Respect for life
Poverty still provokes high rates of infant mortality in many regions, but some parts of the world still experience problems related to abortion, euthanasia… Scientific research must be accompanied by moral evaluation, without which human development cannot be reached. (cf. CV 28)

6. Religious freedom
In some countries, religious freedom is violated, at times even denied by religious fanaticism or fundamentalism, whereas in other countries practical atheism is imposed and Christian faith and symbols are banished by a so-called "dictatorship of tolerance". (cf. CV 29)

40 years after the encyclical of Pope Paul VI "Populorum Progressio" was published, people in many regions are still living in misery and their misery is getting worse. And new forms of colonialism and dependence on old and new foreign powers have arisen. The principal new feature has been the explosion of worldwide interdependence, commonly known as globalization. Without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family. (cf. CV 33) After outlining the above-mentioned problems, the Holy Father goes on by pointing at some basic principles of the social doctrine of the Church that can change the rather alarming situation of the world.

7. Fraternity and economic development
Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society. Others look for their happiness and salvation in immanent forms of material prosperity and through social action. And they all want economic development to be completely detached from moral values and decisions, thus leaving behind them victims of all kinds. And only charity can turn our society into a fraternal community. In response to these problems, the Holy Father reminds that

- The market needs to make room for the principle of gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity in order to permit a stable development of the poor countries. (cf. CV 34)

- The market must also permit a space for fair trade (where producers receive the right price), and an economic system based on solidarity (where producers join together for a social good instead of pecuniary profit). (cf. CV 39)

- New models of business enterprise must be created of which the business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders, clients, workers, who all contribute to the life of the business. (cf. CV 40)

- Factories must not outsource their products to developing countries only to exploit the cheap manpower of there, but should also offer better formation to the local workers and contribute to the stable development of the country. (cf. CV 41)
With confidence, the Holy Father says no to the fatalistic view of globalization. Globalization is inevitable but it can and should certainly be understood as a socio-economic process, as a human reality that needs be controlled and regulated. (cf. CV 42) Then, the Holy Father draws the attention of the reader deeper to the political and moral aspects of the new challenges of globalization:

The development of people, rights and duties, environment
Solidarity is not optional. It is a duty but it is also wisdom. If people are not conscious of their duties, their rights will become arbitrary, a kind of license, changeable according to the opinion of the majority. The Holy Father reminds our basic duties:

- Sexuality must not be diverted from its intrinsic goal which is procreation. The low birth-rate in a country is not a good development. What is at stake is the vitality of the people. (cf. CV 44)

- The economy needs ethics. For example, banks that are proposing "ethical" accounts investment funds and micro-credits or banks that use parts of their profits for human and social cause should be encouraged. (cf. CV 45)

- Transparency must be required from international agencies and non-governmental organizations which claim to commit themselves for humanitarian work (cf. CV 47)

- The environment must be respected: the nature should be exploited with wisdom and in a way that is fair to all. (cf. CV 48)

- The Church has a responsibility towards creation. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction by protecting the nature on a global level. She has to defend natural conception and make sure that embryos are not sacrificed for scientific research. One cannot choose respecting natural environment without choosing human ecology. (cf. CV 51)

- The ultimate source of Truth and Love is God. We are not to create Truth and Love: they are given to us. Before the Holy Father comes to the conclusion, he reiterates the most characteristic element of Catholic social doctrine as human interdependence and solidarity.

The cooperation of the human family
One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is not being loved. Refusing God's love will end up in tragic isolation, and this happens if man thinks he is self-sufficient. Man does not find happiness by isolating himself, but by entering in relationship with others and with God, by forming a single family where solidarity prevails over marginalization. The relationship between men (relationality) is an essential element in the Christian Revelation. In the light of the revealed mystery of the Holy Trinity, we understand that true openness to others does not mean loss of individual identity but profound interpenetration. And God wants the whole mankind to associate itself to this communion. This is why God must have His place in public life, so that the communion can become a reality. Henceforth, Christians should join their efforts with all people of good will, whether or not they are believers. Development is not only a matter of economy. It is also cultural and human. (cf. CV 54)

And it is in the name of Christian faith that the Holy Father advocates for greater access to education; that international tourism should not have a negative impact and pervert man; for a better coordination of international laws to regulate migration and for an improvement of working conditions of foreign workers. (cf. CV 62)

Lastly, meanwhile interdependence is developing irrevocably on a global level, Pope Benedict XVI, therefore, insists on the urgency for a reform of the United Nations, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance. It is urgent to have a true world political authority, which secures authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth. (cf. CV 67)

In his conclusion, the Holy Father says, without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, a Christian remembers Jesus saying, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5) and "I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20). It is there we find our new energy. Charity and Truth are both given to us by God. Opening oneself to God means opening oneself to one's brothers and sisters. God's love gives us courage to act and strength to persevere. (cf. CV 78)

II. The Theological Background of "Caritas in Veritate"

We have just heard, Charity and Truth are gifts from God. God is perfect Love and God is absolute Truth (cf. CV1). God finds His happiness and His beatitude in Himself. God lacks nothing. God would have been able to exist alone by Himself because He possesses the perfect beatitude or the perfect happiness in Himself. The perfect beatitude which God possesses, or the perfect happiness, comes from two reasons. First of all, it is because God knows Himself as a perfect Being. And the knowledge of this perfection is for Him the source of His beatitude. Secondly, it is because He can love Himself as the supreme good. And His Love for this supreme good, - that is Himself, - fills His being. Since God is infinite, His Love and His Knowledge are perfect. God does not need anybody or anything else. However, God as Love, - according to what St. John tells us in his letter, God finds pleasure to let His love overflow from Him and to share it with other creatures. This is why, as we know from the Holy Scriptures, God created the angels to live in His presence and created mankind to live on earth to cooperate with the God's creation plan, by organising the world in a way that is worthy of God. God may have been able to create a perfect world, civilized, accomplished, well-organized and structured, where everything would sound like a finished symphony. No. God preferred to have a rhythm in His plan. He wanted to give an orientation. He has created the world and put the world in movement. He has given a vocation to man and He has asked us to take over His creation plan and to accomplish it. In the book of Genesis, we read that God instituted family and gave the necessary riches to man for his work, and we see that organization was necessary right at the beginning of the creation, on a family, economical, political and social level. So it is God's desire that mankind becomes His associate to continue to procreate the world. This thesis has been taken up by the Second Vatican Council and formulated in a very clear way, in the document Gaudium et Spes, "Throughout the course of the centuries, men have labored to better the circumstances of their lives through a monumental amount of individual and collective effort. To believers, this point is settled: considered in itself, this human activity accords with God's will. For man, created to God's image, received a mandate to subject to himself the earth and all it contains, and to govern the world with justice and holiness; a mandate to relate himself and the totality of things to Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by the subjection of all things to man, the name of God would be wonderful in all the earth." ( GS 34)

So, all Christians have the twofold vocation to cooperate with God's action on the one hand, and on the other hand, to fight against sin and its escorts, i.e. all kinds of injustice. Sin cannot impede man to govern the world, though sin and its escorts continuously go against the organization of a just and fraternal society. Sin and its escorts arouse in man instincts of domination, egoism, cause situations of conflict, oppression, all kinds of inequality which CV mentions. And Christians cannot just give up and let things go like that. So it is God's Will that we as Christians should combat against sin and its escorts which impede the world to continue to develop according to God's plan. This combat against sin is the fundamental reason for Christian asceticism, our self-denial and mortification. And this combat takes place not only inside us, as an interior struggle. It is also an external struggle against all that and those that hinder God's plan. And St. Paul in his letters to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians describes Christians as combatants. Yes, we are Christ's soldiers. And we should not be afraid to let people know. I believe that you are here not only to talk about justice or injustice but also to find out how to promote justice and how to fight against injustice that still exists in the maritime world.

Why should we restore God's creation plan? It is not only in order that we can live comfortably in a peaceful society, undisturbed. No. We should restore God's creation plan by fighting against sin and by loving and serving our brothers because by doing so we find the living Christ in us, and ultimately we find our vocation as Christian, for it is our vocation to give the Lord's redemptive love to our brothers. This is what we call "apostolate", which is not the same as social work. And the apostolate of chaplains for seafarers is to give the Lord's redemptive love to seafarers.

III. Elementary advice

Three steps are necessary for a Christian to accomplish an apostolate. 1. A prayer life that is apostolic life. 2. An apostolic life that is prayer life. 3. A prayer life and an apostolic life that are bound to each other, intertwined.

1. A prayer life that is apostolic life
We all know that prayer is powerful if it comes from our heart. Through prayer we remain in contact with God and His Will. St. Theresa of Lisieux prayed for missionaries without leaving her Carmel and consequently has become the second patron saint for foreign mission. So we can go all over the world and conquer the world in our prayer. We may not meet every single seafarer individually, but we can visit them one by one in our prayer or according to their belonging groups, their activities and countries. The one who prays enters as first in direct contact with the world. Consequently, he/she exercises directly influence on the object of his/her prayer intention, alongside with the intermediate agents that will have an influence on the object as well. For example, by praying for the seafarers or their employers, by presenting them to the Lord, you will have a great influence on them in the Lord.

2. An apostolic life that is prayer life
Every often, we make a dichotomy of contemplation and action, dividing them in two distinct and separate activities. One may spend a lot of time for prayer before starting his apostolic work, but one forgets that it is also necessary to pray during the apostolic activities he is involved in. When we work as Christ's apostles, we also need to pray to the Lord in order that He can guide us, help us to discern and to decide while we are working. The simplest prayer that allows us to pray during any apostolic activities is the "we-us" prayer, i.e. saying "we-us" to the Lord all the time, remembering His Presence no matter what we are doing, where we are. Otherwise, over time, we may end up by doing a lot for the Lord, yet not necessarily doing what the Lord wants us to do for Him. And as the result of this, we gradually become spiritually and physically exhausted, vulnerable to the smallest temptation or difficulty. And our apostolate turns into a human activity, instead of the fulfillment of a Christian vocation.

3. A prayer life and an apostolic life that are bound to each other, intertwined
Prayer life and apostolic life should remain one and balance each other; our interior life and active life should call for each other, support each other, fuse with each other and complete each other. And in this point, we must make an effort, no matter what our ministry is, so that our apostolic activity continuously remains an overflowing flood from our prayer life, in the sense that the more I pray, the more God's Love in me for my brothers becomes active, and that the more I commit myself to my ministry, the more stronger is my desire to see God coming to my help in my ministry for my brothers, as God appears to me the only one who can deliver my brothers from their distress. My union with God leads me to my serving my brothers for Him, coordinates the different actions of my ministry and unifies them into efficacy, but there must be a balance between "the God of my seafarer ministry" and "the seafarer ministry of my God". And we must be vigilant, not to yield to the temptation of activism, neglecting the God of our ministry without knowing it. When God is neglected, our interior source will dry up to our detriment.

To those who read his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate", the Holy Father has shown the path to an integral human development. It is a path covered with thorns and briars, like any path that leads to love, truth and justice. In order to obtain joy and peace increasingly in the seafarer ministry, the chaplain must be equipped with an extractor that is able to extract exquisite juice from all the vegetables and fruits in this world which are often contaminated by personal and collective sin. And the extractor is holiness. Holiness comes and grows where God's divine life is allowed to enter, to develop and to take care of the whole being of a person in all the aspects of his life. If a priest lets himself be invaded by the divine life he receives and dispenses through the sacraments, - God's gift of which St. Paul speaks in his second letter to Timothy 1:4-6, - the chaplain will be able to conquer souls despite the turbulent waves and wind, the frequent moments of solitude and helplessness he encounters in his ministry.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, holiness is to possess God and to allow oneself be possessed by God, becoming like Mary, Star of the Sea and Patron of the AOS. Let me conclude my reflection with a few strophes from this beautiful prayer from the 9th century, Ave Maris Stella:

Hail, O Star of the ocean,
God's own Mother blest,
ever sinless Virgin,
gate of heav'nly rest.

Break the sinners' fetters,
make our blindness day,
Chase all evils from us,
for all blessings pray.

May God bless you all.

Keep our life all spotless,
make our way secure
till we find in Jesus,
joy for evermore.

Praise to God the Father,
honor to the Son,
in the Holy Spirit,
be the glory one. Amen.