Pope on power of love

Last week I reported that the Pope was about to birth a new encyclical on love. Well it's out. I considered letting you have it in French and Spanish but thought that the English press had to catch up with it sooner or later. And they did. Today.

So what's it say? The juicy bits that everyone seems to be picking out are these.

I wish ... to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others ... In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. Love is free; it is not practised as a way of achieving other ends.
...
Today the term 'love' has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words ... We speak of love of country, love of one's profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love of neighbour and love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings however one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness.

Nowadays Christianity of the past is often criticised as having been opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros reduced to pure sex has become a commodity, a mere thing to be bought and sold.

So far so good. I warm to all of that. The whole thing about love being free and not a means to an end is really important. To me it's the insight that disallows much of what goes under the label of 'friendship evangelism' or even charitable evangelism. Love can be a tough discipline.

The positive assessment of married love and the rejection of manichaean tendencies is also welcome given the historical hospitality of the Church to quasi gnostic viewpoints which has been arguably largely responsible for the popular perception today of Christianity being anti matter [so to say].

Of course, just what else might be said along with the stuff about married love might well be a deal breaker.
Wait to see the detail eh?
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Pope surprises Catholics with warm words on power of love:
Filed in: Christian, Pope, encyclical, love, culture, Vatican